Hi all,

Personally, I think this is a great article and museums should pay attention to
it. Museums started out as collections of "stuff" and as ways for important
people or governments to show off their stuff. Now there are museums that don't
have collections and I argue that they shouldn't be labled as "museums" in the
first place.

Which has more impact: an interactive exhibit on spaceflight without artifacts
or seeing a collection of Apollo capsules and artifacts? As a kid, I could
stare at the rockets at the Air and Space museum for hours. An interactive
would hold my attention for a few minutes.

An interactive or a pannel of text really only holds your attention for as long
as it takes to do the activity or read the text. But an object captures your
imagination. What was it like sitting in that capsule or plane? How did it feel
to wear that piece of clothing? What kind of person sat in that chair? What was
the person thinking as they posed for that painting? As you learn more about
the time period the object is from or get more life experiences, you can come
back to the object and get new impressions from it over and over. And some
things are just so cool, you'll never get tired of looking at them. (If I could
have taken home the big bronze triceretops that used to be in front of the
Smithsonian's Natural History museum, I would have.) How many of us can say
that about a text pannel or an interactive? ("OOoh, that description of that
Greek vase was sheer poetry. I want to get a copy and hang it on my wall." Not
likely.)

Frederick Waidacher wrote a brilliant article about artifacts and museums and
for the life of me I can't remember what it was called or where it was
published. Can anyone help me out here? (Sorry for being vague. He's published
a ton of articles.)

Deb

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