What a bizarre word! I guess it's infotainment with a twist of scholarship? I also suspect it's what the Powerhouse Museum's Education & Visitor Services Department is fairly heavily into! Most of our programs, whether directed at schools or the general public, combine education, entertainment and exhibitions (the three 'e's instead of the three 'r's). I think you would find this is fairly SOP for Australian museums - Sydney's Historic Houses Trust do some marvellous and very theatrical programs. Our holiday programs are usually exhibition related - the current October fortnight celebrates the Festival of the Dreaming in Sydney. Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander dance and music performances are associated with the new exhibition Ngaramang Bayumi (music and dance) and demonstrations of batik making by artists from the Utopia community of Central Australia compliment an exhibition of their work, Hot Wax, also on display. The kids' workshop allows young artists to try their hand at making their own batik squares to take home. During Term 4, alongside regular packages and other schools' programs, we run special events such as Storytime for infants schools - relating to exhibitions on Transport, Circus, Festival of the Dreaming and the Chinese exhibitions, Evolution & Revolution and Lions of Retreat Street - and the Chinese Cultural Days - three in November are already booked out - which combine circus, folk dancing, workshops, Chinese Opera make-up sessions with visits to the two exhibitions and the near-by Chinese Garden. In our experience, this blend seems to work for our visitors. Although it may not give you a great deal of info on this precise topic, it might be worth your while to look at The Manual of Museum Management Barry Lord & Gail Dexter Lord. London. The Stationary Office 1997 for some insights into how it can fit together. Heleanor Feltham [log in to unmask] ---------- From: daemon To: MUSEUM-L Subject: edutainment Date: Tuesday, 30 September 1997 10:48AM Hi everybody, I am a student in the Masters of Museology at the University of Montreal and I am doing a project on edutainment in museums: Is this the way to the futuree. I would really appreciate your input on this topic. Also if anyone knows of sources-- articles, books-- which discuss edutainment, I would really appreciate if you could let me about them. Thank you very much Danielle Dugas [log in to unmask]