ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Well said Joe!  Last time we were at AMNH it was incredibly crowded so we found ourselves in obscure corners of the museum, including an area with about 15 glass cases with birds and small mammals stuffed and mounted in orderly rows.  If you put them in a gallery in Chelsea, visitors would be lining up to see it.  Beautiful and mysterious.  I think David Harvey and his exhibition development and design crew at AMNH are on an incredible roll, I don't recall anything like it in the museum world, from Diamond to the current Whale exhibition, their past 20 or more temporary exhibitions are never less than excellent. 

Art museums are more of a mixed bag for me.  In some cases I find them explicitly non-communicative, with opacity as a core value (if you don't get it,  you don't really belong here anyhow.)  But I grew up in the Met like you did at AMNH and always go to art museums first when I travel. There is nothing like a great art museum exhibition to open your eyes and reset how you see the world. 

I teach in the graduate program in Museum Studies at NYU, and have been teaching for long enough to see trends in how young people entering the field see their futures.  Their semester project is to create a museum from scratch, using various things we have learned through the year about mission, funding, org structure, etc.  When I first started 7 years ago, virtual museums were central to their thinking;  then it was "social" and event driven museums with Bklyn Museum's First Friday as the touchstone.  This year it is museums without buildings, pop up museums, which I think is really thought provoking.  Buildings are a *lot* of overhead and for non-collecting institutions, their value may not be worth their cost.  So if I were to speculate about the future of science centers, they would have less emphasis on the location and more on the service delivery.

eric

 
On May 8, 2013, at 2:01 PM, Joe Ruggiero <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> Believe me, I love both natural history museums and art museums. They are wonderful places. I spent my youth going to the American Museum of Natural History. Visiting it with my father is one of my strongest childhood memories, and has shaped who I am today as much as any other other collected experiences. I continued going all through the time I lived in NY. Even living in AZ now, I have managed to take my son there three times, the first when he was just four.
> 
> Interactive play has it's place, but to suggest that a natural history museum is not a purveyor of curiosity hasn't turned the corner in a dark hallway and been confronted by a pack of timber wolfs hunting its prey or felt the weight of 100' long blue whale hanging over their head.  I guess my point  - poorly made - is that you just can't see all the wonderful things in most natural history museums in your everyday life. Not too many T-rex's out there on the street (though we do have one here here in Tucson!). The awful -  the awe inspiring objects that line their halls, deserve their place.
> 
> To be honest, the move in recent years (maybe the last 20) to make Natural History Museums more like the current crop of today's science centers of is a step backwards. Most natural history museums do what they do very well. The same can not be said for most science centers. I love those dusty displays under glass. There is beauty and curiosity in everyone of them.
> 
> 
> Joe R.
> 
> On 5/8/2013 10:36 AM, Carlyn S Buckler wrote:
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
>> *****************************************************************************
>> 
>> 
>>  As someone who works in a Natural History Museum and Nature Center, don't we all talk about the "everyday"? Helping the public to understand and appreciate the beauty and importance of the Natural World around us?  And although the "Idea" blog post does make some good points, the old adage of Natural History Museums as being dusty places with things under glass is, for the most part, gone.  Yes  - we have collections and do research; but we use technology,  tons of interactive; heck, we have an interactive Glacier in our museum, Gorge Walks at our Nature Center, Fossil trips, pit digs, music and science camps…
>> 
>> To claim that science centers are the unique purveyors of curiosity and interactive play is short sighted, to say the least.  Earth science/natural history museums, nature centers, zoos and aquaria  - this idea of evoking curiosity and play with the natural world around us, and gaining an understanding and appreciation for the beauty and majesty or our world – and it's history – is an integral  part of our mission.  To be sure, we would never get anyone through the door without it.
>> 
>> Come see our Glacier – Go see Sue – the Hall of Man – walk up and look one of John Gurche's hominids in the eye at the Smithsonian and tell me you aren't awe-struck with wonder and amazement, and completely curious about that nature of these things.
>> 
>> Carlyn S. Buckler, Ph.D.
>> Paleontological Research Institution
>> Ithaca, NY
> 
> ***********************************************************************
> For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
> 
> Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
> 
> The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
> http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.
> 
> To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
> message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
> [log in to unmask]


-- 
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:
 
This message is intended solely for the addressee(s) in the first instance 
and may contain confidential information.  Please do not forward this email 
without the consent of the sender.

***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]