Well said, Ellen!

We get a little tired of being called "Disneyland North" by some of our
"colleagues" elsewhere.

Grotesque though the synthetic term might be, "edutainment" really does seem to
summarize the mix of entertainment v. education visitors want from us, if some
recent (and VERY small-scale) research we've done is any indication. In doing
market research for a proposed sound and light show in our Grand Hall, to be
based on West Coast Native material, we asked visitors to indicate the relative
balance they wanted between education and entertainment. the data distribution
gave us quite a nice bell curve, with very little difference between English
and French language respondents. What was interesting was that the demographics
for the two groups varied significantly in several dimensions, as did their
responses to other questions. Tentative conclusion? By far, the largest
proportion of our visitors seem to prefer a mix of equal parts of education and
entertainment.

I'd be interested in related findings from elsewhere.

Harry Needham
Canadian Museum of Civilization