Essay
Object Lessons
One Museum Soars, One Plods. Both Want to Open Minds, but the Former Knows Eyes Come First.

By Blake Gopnik

An article comparing the new City Museum of Washington and the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center and speculating that the reason Hazy is a success but the City Museum has low visitation is "Wondrous stuff to look at -- or a puzzling lack of such, at the City Museum." Article author says "museums are, first and foremost, about fascinating objects." and "Realizing that people learn from objects, and that museums have always made that learning possible, curators have come to imagine that the learning is the ultimate goal. Objects are thought of as handy tools for getting there. In art museums as well as museums of history and science, flat-footed pedagogy is taking the place of Wunderkammer wonder."

Just wondering what the list would think of this article, which can be found at: 


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45679-2004Aug6.html

(free registration is required to access the Washington Post website or you can use http://www.bugmenot.com/ )

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