The director of Liberal Studies at NYU who is, I think,
Polish, recently visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum and
left with a very negative impression. She thought it
entombed the holocaust and made it into another tourist
attraction (she feels the same way about what's been done
at Auschwitz). She was particularly appalled that children
were given stickers and other souvenirs and that they were given
paper and pencils to draw their reactions to the exhibits, as
if it was just another tourist spot in D.C.
 
I dunno. I thought she was being a bit picky but, still, I do
see her point. I haven't been to the Memorial yet but since
I had the designer for a teacher I pretty much know the place
inch by inch, as well as other "historical" projects his firm
is working on (Martin Luther King Memorial, Motown Museum,
Newseum, The Museum of Golf etc.) and I came away from the
class with the feeling that what we're getting is designer
history. But, then again, I'm still upset about what was
done to my hometown museum (Cheney Cowles in Spokane, WA)
where the old, frankly indadequate, displays were replaced
with lots of flash and, to me, no heart.
 
Grumpy in New York
Robbin Murphy
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