Ahh, so nice to see some cultural arrogance ... "we have a collection, so
we're a REAL museum, and children's museums don't have collections, so
they're just playlands."

Yes, there are some out there that are just playlands.  But there's also a
lot that do some incredible educational things as well.  I've also seen
museums with impressive collections that don't do anything educational at
all, beyond putting their artifacts in cases, and labeling them with such
educational information as accession number, donor, and manufacturer.

So what's worse?

Sure, the standard definition of a museum is based on collection, but I
think we as a profession should perhaps re-address that.  A museum, first
and foremost, should be an educational institution.  You can have all the
pretty artifacts you want, but if there's no educational interpretation of
those objects, then you just have a curio cabinet that no one can fully
explain or understand.

And as much as people in this field love to put down children's museums and
science centers, look at the numbers.  Where are people going?  Attendence
at children's museums and science centers is rising and rising.  I think the
public is voting with their feet and dollars.  There's an awful lot of
"museums" out there with nice collections, but because their interpretation
is non-existent or very poor, they are largely becoming irrelevant.  People
often come to museums to learn.  And the public often seems not to care if
the institution they walk into has a collection or not.  They want to learn!

So instead of this argument and sniping, shouldn't we turn our attention to
utilizing our collections for the public's education?  Shouldn't we focus on
why or why not the public comes to our institutions?  Regardless if we work
in the art, natural history, or history museum field, or the fast-growing
segment of science centers, technology centers, and children's museums, WE
ARE ALL DOING THE SAME THING.  We are trying to appeal to the public, and
trying to educate them as well.

So let's try to work together, instead of getting all snooty and "my museum
is more important than yours."  Times are changing; we can either react to
these changes by adapting and evolving our institutions, or we can be
stubborn and try to keep it "business as usual."

That's my two cents.

Christopher J. Dawson
Curator of Urban and Industrial History
Crawford Museum of Transportation and Industry Design Task Force
Western Reserve Historical Society
10825 East Boulevard
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
216-721-5722 x247
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