This discussion took an interesting turn this morning with postings from Amy Marshall and Kyra Schuster about their experiences with visitors who did not respect the universal law that says "thou shalt not touch the museum artifacts". Amy mentions a visit to an airplane museum where "the museum had placed a metal staircase beside the plane - the idea being that the public could go up the staircase and look into the cockpit", but to her horror, "The kids...were GETTING IN AND OUT OF THE PLANE AND WERE STANDING ON THE WINGS!" (her capitals). She says that the parents "should KNOW better". She concludes that "it's amazing what people don't know about museums and collections and handling. I've also heard people plainly state: 'If it isn't in a case or roped off, its MEANT to be touched'". Kyra Schuster was visiting an art gallery, "wandering slowly" through the galleries as she puts it, when two women came in "making quite the entrance and talking rather loudly". One of these "loud" women grabbed a sculpture and hugged it, proclaiming her undying love for it, at which point Kyra "stared at her in horror, and asked her politely to remove her hands from the sculpture." Kyra claims that her faith in (presumably the sanctity and professionalism of) the gallery was restored later when she saw a man touching a canvas and "a guar d yelled across the room 'NO TOUCHING!!!' - boy did that guy jump back." What these two stories illustrate to me is not that some museum visitors are ignorant or stupid or rude or loud as the writers clearly felt at the time, but that many, many people who visit museums are not fluent in the culture that exists in museums - a culture that often insists tha t visitors are not "loud", do not "touch", and (best/worst of all ) assumes that a ll people who enter these places automatically know the rules of behaviour expected therein. I think the authors of these two postings expect us, as museum workers or people with more than a passing interest in museums, to empathise with their feelings at seeing such uncultured museum-visitor behaviour, and to nod in knowing agreement - "yes, isn't it terrible". Well I do not empathise with their feelings - as a museum worker I confess to being somewhat embarassed and exasperated by them. While I certainly do not believe that "anything goes" in terms of visitor behaviour in museums (I could get into trouble for that!), I think it is downrig ht arrogant to assume that all those people who do bother to visit will know to behave in a manner that we think is acceptable. Entering a museum for the first time is for some people about as alien an experience as that of others entering a strange culture as a visitor/refugee/immigrant. The host culture (and the museum) must help newcomers/visitors orientate themselves, try to encourage behaviour that is deemed acceptable in that culture, etc., not yell at them or make fun of them and their lack of understanding of the language and mores of the culture. Sometimes the behaviours or beliefs brought by newcomers to a culture actually become adopted as "normal" by the host culture. I offer a museum example from New Zealand whereby museum staff and visitors place fresh green foliage on or next to Maori artworks and treasures in galleries & storerooms. This practice began when the exhibition Te Maori returned to NZ from a tour of the US in 1984-5 (it may well have occurred in the US host museums as well, I'm not sure) at which time Maori people began visiting (and working in) museums in numbers previously unheard of. Obviously the practice raised some concern among (European) curators and conservators. It is now standard behaviour in NZ museums as Maori beliefs and practices regarding the care of taonga (treasures) have become as much a part of NZ museology as anything taught in Museum Studies courses. Likewise the touching of taonga - from a Maori perspective it would be absolutel y unnatural to NOT touch a carved ancestor figure in a museum - I have seen young children planting kisses and hongis (touching of noses in greeting) on their own ancestor figures in museums. Terribly dangerous behaviour according to the textbook from Organic Conservation 101, but completely normal and acceptable behaviour according to the culture of the people from whom the artifacts originated and who maintain spiritual guardianship of them. A rambling post I know - sorry - but the issue is a vital one (although not a new one) and the cultural arrogance that came through in the two postings referred to above really got my goat (to use a rather bizarre expression!) Please tell me if I'm out of line...again... Greg McManus Gisborne Museum & Arts Centre Te Whare Taonga o Te Tairawhiti NEW ZEALAND [log in to unmask],nz