Re: Museums

From
Date
Hm-m-m. I think we're talking past one another. I'm not saying, don't
engage with the media. Far from it. Most major museums are consulted
regularly by the media. Lots of people around here and at other museums
typically field a couple of media-related calls a week, sometimes more.
However, we're not consulted because we're members of the entertainment or
tourist industries. Rather, we're consulted because we're not and many
media people feel (rightly or wrongly) that because we are disinterested
parties we will give more objective and informed answers to particular
types of questions. For example, I wouldn't ask Stephen Spielberg a
technical question about dinosaurs as animals (as opposed to dinosaurs as
movies). If Museums move strongly towards becoming parts of the
entertainment/tourist industries - as some apparently would advocate - I
fear there will be a price to pay and that that price will be paid in the
currency of our credibility and our science. Major museum's aren't like
circuses, or theme parks, or movies, or T.V. right now. They're...museums.
We won't be able to successfully compete with these sorts of activities
because we won't be able to do what they do as well as they do it and still
retain our identities as Museums. Perhaps the real question is the one
Neale (almost?) posed earlier. If the Victorian ideal of a museum as an
quasi-educational institution is dead (and I'm not sure I entirely agree
with that), what is an appropriate role for a major natural history museum
in the late 20th century? I'm not sure I buy in to the museum-as-cinema or
museum-as-tourist trap, or even the museum-as-football team paradigms.


Norm MacLeod




>Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 06:34:54 -0800 (PST)
>Reply-To: N.Monks@nhm.ac.uk
>Originator: paleonet@ucmp1.berkeley.edu
>Sender: paleonet@ucmp1.berkeley.edu
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>From: N.Monks@nhm.ac.uk (Neale Monks)
>To: Multiple recipients of list <paleonet@ucmp1.berkeley.edu>
>Subject: Re: Museums
>X-Comment: PaleoNet Mailing List
>
>Norm,
>
>The point must be not whether what we become involved with is "right" or
>"wrong" but whether we avoid contact with mass-media simply because they
>*are* mass media.
>
>The bottom line is that entertainment and education are so closely
>inter-twined that many, maybe most, people avoid any sort of learning that
>cannot be stimulating and entertaining. Those of us with nice, liberal arts
>type educations may decry this, but it is a reality. And, best of all, most
>people are quite happy to pay for entertainment; but not for education.
>Just consider the comparative sums individuals (not governments) spend on
>movies, sports and hobbies; with that spent on schools and colleges.
>
>If the public can learn *why* Jurassic Park is unlikely, or why Dr Moreau
>would have failed, then perhaps we can do something to improve the TV
>culture?
>
>Panem et circenses! Bread and circuses!
>
>Neale.
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>From  Neale Monks' Macintosh PowerBook, at...
>
>Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD
>Internet: N.Monks@nhm.ac.uk, Telephone: 0171-938-9007
>
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Norman MacLeod
Micropalaeontological Research
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (E-mail)

Address: Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
         Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 0171-938-9006
Dept. FAX: 0171-938-9277
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