Our first topic of conversation to share with others on this public blog:
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I have a great attraction to museums (as you can tell from the postings below). I really appreciate the creativity and expertise of those folks who design great museums and exhibits. By great exhibits, I mean those that clearly open our eyes to new understandings -- and engage us in ways that are fun, memorable and instructive.
I have especially enjoyed certain museums. How about you? Have you visited a museum that you would highly recommend to us? What do you personally find special about that museum -- and why? If it is a natural history museum with dinosaur displays, all the better! But it can also be a museum about anything that you really are interested in.
And what makes for a great museum in your view? What advice would you give to museum curators and exhibit designers for attracting folks to come and for providing them with a solid learning experience?
I'm looking forward to your comments!
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21 comments:
A museum that comes to mind for me is the Museum of Flight in Tukwila. Almost every weekend in 5th grade I would go with my dad and we would spend two or three hours there, making sure to get a good look at everything before we left.
It's an important place to me for nostalgic reasons, but it's also home to amazing displays. The entire World War I/II sections are fantastic, with gutted replicas of many of the fighters used, accompanied by large engines sitting infront of them that you can trigger to make sounds a working version of the airplane's engine would make. I don't know if it's still there, but I remember the 'space' section being particularly interesting, aswell; with a replica of the lunar module from the Apollo 11 mission.
In my opinion, a great museum has captivating, visually-stimulating displays that accompany the presented info. Especially for children, nothing entices young learners like a sense of realism coupled with what they're learning.
Hi, I am Robert Alberg, and back in August 2007 I was in Rapid City, South Dakota and I visited the Museum of Geology at the School of Mines and Technology and they have dinosaur skeleton, fossils, and minerals and rocks on display.
I grew up visiting the Museum of Natural History in Denver, now known as the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. One of my favorite exhibits (aside from the dinosaur displays) had always been the diaramas of wildlife and their habitats. I revisited the Museum last summer and the improvements were vast, amazing and very 21st century! I think many museums could take tips on improving their experience from their example---it's visually exciting and interactive.
I grew up visiting the Museum of Natural History in Denver, now known as the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. One of my favorite exhibits (aside from the dinosaur displays) had always been the diaramas of wildlife and their habitats. I revisited the Museum last summer and the improvements were vast, amazing and very 21st century! I think many museums could take tips on improving their experience from their example---it's visually exciting and interactive.
As disturbing as it sounds, anything violent usually draws a crowd. The Chicago Field Museum, for example, has the Tsavo Man Eating lions on display. These types of displays, ones that are somewhat out of the ordinary, are exciting, and bring people to museums where their knowledge is expanded.
Hey my name is Kelly. A few months ago I was visiting my boyfriend who is in the Navy and he took me to an aircraft carrier (USS Yorktown) and a submarine (USS Clamagore) at Patriot's Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Charleston, SC. Tourists can walk through both of these vessels and experience all parts of them. Both have been transformed into Naval museums. They have many old artifacts from different wars, old to new planes, memorials, and a Medal of Honor Museum as well. There are a ton of interactive exhibits; I got to sit in the cockpit of an old Wildcat. I love military history so naturally this was the best museum I have ever been to because it was on an acutal carrier and sub!
When I was in Chicago a couple of summers ago, I went to the Museum of Science and Industry. The rest of my party was agog over the Harry Potter exhibit (the same one showing at Pac Sci now, I think, made its debut at MSI?), but I paid my extra pennies to see the exhibit about U-505, the only German U-boat from WWII in the US. It was an amazing exhibit - the building it's in was built around the sub after it was on display outside for 50 years, showing an amazing feat of engineering and architecture in its own right.
In addition to being able to tour the inside of the sub, the room around it was also filled with exhibits, memorabilia, and photographs of the U-505, the American ship that captured her, and the naval aspects of the war.
That's my favorite thing about museums -- being able to get up close and personal with history. I'm not a huge fan of art museums, but a good history or science museum will have me giggling like a kid in a candy store.
I haven't been to a museum of natural history before, but when I was growing up in California, I visited the California Science Center many times. The first time I went with my school, we watched an IMAX movie about sea creatures and I can remember reaching out so that fish would swim through my hands. When my cousins took me and my sisters there, I was always amazed at the High Wire Bicycle all the way up on the 3rd floor but I was never allowed to try it (it seemed too scary to me anyways). My favorite part was making my own slime that I got to take home.
Hands-on exhibits are what made me remember the Science Center the most rather than art museums where you aren't allowed to touch anything!
Hi, I'm Kayleigh.
I don't have a lot of experience with museums, however I can definitely say I've been to an amazing museum, and a so-so museum.
Firstly, the bigger the better. If you feel like you've entered another world, then it definitely adds to the museum experience. I'll also never forget going to the Asian Art Museum. If you're attending a museum you are already interested in, your level of engagement will be much higher. So I believe that helps as well. Maybe it becomes an element of diversity in a museum that successfully wins any visitor over.
Also, really cool architecture never hurts the eyeballs.
All of my museum experience is either very recent (since I moved to Seattle two years ago) or very old (when I still lived in Texas fourteen years ago). Between these times, I lived in Oklahoma. It's not that there aren't museums there, as there are several, but the ones I went to were quite forgettable (I've been to an art museum, a war museum, and likely something else there, and I can't even recall the names or what I looked at) or else were not something I bothered attending (i.e. Cowboy Hall of Fame).
The science center in Oklahoma City has gotten prohibitively expensive, but I did go on a school field trip when it first put in the Omnidome and I got to see the Ring of Fire there. I was terrified of heights and was convinced I'd die on the stairs, but the experience of having all that explosive lava and rock flying at you was a blast!
In Texas, the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum was a blast. I went through there multiple times as a kid, it and the wax museum. There was a section in the wax museum dedicated to horror characters and real-life killers which I had to be carried through because I was too scared -- fun!
I have to echo Nick, though, that part of the appeal of a museum is getting to see something really off-the-wall. Violent, scary, disturbing, or just weird, it's important to grab attention and keep it to make for a memorable experience and encourage another visit.
And exhibits! I love exhibits. Knowing that the museum will always be there often causes it to get passed up in favor of another activity, but time-limited exhibits are great. It's a chance to see something you may not get to see again.
My favorite museum is the Pacific Science Center, I have really fond memories of going their as a child and being enthralled by the dinosaur exhibit. If you haven't had a chance already to check it out, it's a very big display with all sorts of cool models of dinosaurs with tons of neat information on them.
One of the other things about the PSC that I really like is all of the water structures out in the main courtyard, It's nice to get a chance to get outside and experiment with the exhibits instead of just observing.
Since I have only lived in Seattle for four months, I haven't had the chance yet to really explore all the museums in the city. However, back in Minnesota, I really enjoyed the Minneapolis Institute of Art. As a fledgling artist, I have an affinity with all kinds of work, especially paintings from hundreds of years ago. Being able to see such ancient art always leaves me in awe.
Overall, I think that whether a museum is 'good' or 'bad' is relative. Obviously, having a personal interest in the subject helps to make a visit engaging and interesting. Nevertheless, I really enjoy museums that offer interactive exhibits, such as the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul.
I have been a lifelong museum lover. I enjoy museums of all types, for example art, science, and history. I also include places like aquariums, zoos, and historical sites in the same category as museums. I have been going to museums of all sorts as long as I can remember, and I definitely have a few favorites.
My all time favorite has to be the National Museum of Natural History in New York. I would go there often as a child, and it definitely inspired my love of both history and science. The dinosaur exhibits are the best I've seen, the Egypt wing is a must-see, and the geology area and planetarium are also super interesting. The dioramas of extinct animals and other scenes are so lifelike, it looks as if they may be alive in there and just posing!
Another in that category is the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. I would go here on class trips in school, and it was fascinating to see how they explained things that we take for granted every day. It inspired me to go home and take apart our telephone and wall clock to piece them back together again. Other awesome exhibits there: the enormous walk-through human heart and the pneumatic tube system. So cool!
I think a great museum is made up of exhibits that draw you in visually, and then back it up with solid information. I think it is a bonus if the layout flows really well to strengthen your understanding of the abundance of information available.
I have two favorite museums. The first is one from my childhood in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The public museum was small but packed with eye candy. My favorite parts were the taxidermed mammals room in their large scale dioramas. Even as a child in the 1970's there was a sense of the exhibits being dated but it added to the charm. There was also a cool part called "gaslight villaige" where a wing of the museum was constructed to resemble the city in the turn of the 19th century.
On the dinosaur tip, the Museum of Natural History in NYC is my fave. The T-Rex and Giant Sloth stand out in my mind. I was in the Dublin Nat. Hist. museum 2 months ago and saw Giant Elk skeletons. Impressive! I think it's important to have a nice flow to the layout of a museum where the exhibits complement each other and things don't seem out of place or don't correspond well with each other. Looking forward to going to the Burke!
I had to think about it to realize I haven't been to many museums! I do love the Pacific Science Center with its interactive exhibits. I think what makes a museum great is one with hands-on exhibits that allows for room to discover. I've always wanted to visit a natural history museum, so I hope to expand my horizons.
Wow, so many museums so little time. My favorite museums are the Smithsonians. Especially the Natural History and the American History ones. I grew on the East Coast and lived in Baltimore, D.C., and Alexandria so going to them was free and easy. We would spend days and days walking around and learning different things. I love art museums so the Boston Museum of Art along with the National Gallery in D.C., I guess the SAM is up there too, are by far my favorite. I love Salvador Dali and have been to his museum in St.Petersburg, Fl and I went to see a rotating show of his in Hartford, CT. In the National Gallery on a wall going down the third flight of stairs is Salvador Dali's rendition of "The Last Supper". That is an incredibly famous painting and to see up close and personal is chilling.
The only suggestion I would have to Museum curators would be to make some designated adult days, family days, school field trip days. I always feel like I happen to be admiring the art or fossils when ten screaming kids are doing laps around me and the fine art. It would be nice to have open access days for everyone and then special desihnated days and times for others.
Hey this is Brad Bjorkman. I don't frequent museums often but I have been to a few over the past couple years. One that I enjoyed was actually right here in Seattle, The Burke Museum of Natural History. I visited that museum a few years back while in high school with my AP US History class. I remember there was a particular display on the West Point Archaeological Site which is in the Magnolia District. To be honest, I don't remember a whole lot about the display, but it's pretty cool to know that there are archaeological sites right here in downtown Seattle!
I just recently visited the Seattle Art Museum to attend the Picaso exhibit and I must say that was the most fantastic thing I have ever done. I loved the way everything was laid out. They gave us this telephone looking thing so we could have a person inform us about each painting and give us some background. It was very interesting and very well laid out. Must I say he lived a very interesting life and his love life was quite interesting as well. Another museum I visited a few days ago was the EMP in Seattle and that was just amazing. I love how you can interact and learn different instruments it is a very hands on museum and I liked that aspect of it. Not only that the building is just the coolest architectural piece I have ever seen. I think those museums did a very good job in making it a great experience for visitors.
Though I've visited many many many museums all around the country (my parents would only take us on educational vacations), my very favorite museum is the Burke Museum. I love that I find it just as interesting now as when I visited in fourth grade and did a project on WA History. I like that the Burke Museum has such a wide variety of displays, and I especially like the exhibits on Native American art. I also love art museum building that are contemporary to the art inside- it's like you get double the experience. :)
I really like museums that have interactive activities. I find that I retain the information a lot more when I have something fun to associate it with.
I absolutely love the pacific science center. I didn't grow up in the area, but I had been there as a kid, so when I moved up here I had some faint memories of the place. Its just a great museum to me though, it's iconic, it's interactive, and it's got really cool displays. Museums are really important places to get nontraditional learning, and exploratory learning. The best museum exhibits are ones where people can use displays and real interactions to learn.
I also love the art museums in Seattle. The Frye is one of my absolute favorites, and SAM has some really fantastic stuff.
I only remember going to one museum in my life. That museum was called the Royal BC Museum which is located in Victoria, Canada. I visited this museum during my Senior Trip in High school. I spent most of the time goofing off with my friends, which I now regret doing. Who new I would be taking a Geology class. I do remember watching a very interesting film in Imax at the museum, the film was on Dinosaurs, egyptians and mummies, and under water creatures.
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