Here’s our weekly round-up of our favorite things that were said about museums this week: the good, the bad, and the really quite strange! First, to start things out on a light-hearted note, read about the adventures of Cashew, an 18lb tortoise who made national …
by columnist Cira Brown I am currently enrolled in the Exhibition Planning class at Tufts, and I love it! I feel so lucky to be given the opportunity to curate our own exhibition as a class, which I’ve been told is quite rare for museum …
by columnist Madeline Karp
Working for a children’s museum, I am all about supporting the hopes and dreams of young children. Kids tell me them all the time.
I hear dreams of being an astronaut, a firefighter, a doctor, a professional athlete. I hear dreams about being able to read chapter books or tying shoes without help, and dreams of one day being tall enough to ride the museum’s carousel without an adult. I hear it all.
Some of them are silly, some of them are sincere, and some of them are downright outlandish. The thing is, I think it’s so important to support kids’ dreams, rather than quash them no matter what. So what if you can’t grow up to be a Tooth Fairy? It’s about having aspirations, goals to work for and finding ways to make seemingly impossible things come true.
So it really hit home for me when I heard what the Denver Museum of Nature and Science did for one little dreamer.
Eli Navant, 9, dreams of being a paleontologist and museum curator – so much so that when a position for a chief curator opened at the Denver Museum last November, he decided to apply. With the help of his third grade teacher and his parents, he sent in a handwritten cover letter and set of references that included Robert Bakker, an expert paleontologist whom Eli met briefly at one of the museum’s in-house mini-dig programs.
It would have been easy for the curatorial staff to ignore this little boy’s dream, but instead, they made him an honorary “Curator for the Day.” Clearly the museum’s exhibits and programming had made a lasting impression on this little boy, and that was something to be rewarded and shared.
This story is inspiring – both for children and museum professionals.
Kids: You can do anything you set your mind to. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
Museum Professionals: You can connect with your audience in new and innovative ways. You can support a child’s dream, and make the museum a place of welcome and community, sometimes in unexpected ways.
To see the heartwarming CBS Evening News segment on Eli and the Denver Museum, click here. (Apologies for the ad beforehand.)
I’ve had a lot of kids ask me how to get a job like mine at the Please Touch Museum. I used to tell them they had to wait until they were 18 to apply. But now I think I may just tell them to pick up an application at the admissions desk. Because why not? Let’s support their dreams.
Here’s our weekly round-up of our favorite things that were said about museums this week: the good, the bad, and the really quite strange! The big story remains the lawsuit against the Met over voluntary admission fees. Here’s the LA Time’s account for this week. …
by columnist Catherine Sigmond. New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum wants your photos for a new crowd-sourced exhibit on the Space Shuttle Enterprise. The museum is creating a special exhibition entitled Space Shuttle Enterprise: A Pioneer to fill its halls after the real …
by columnist Madeline Karp
I will never forget my first flower show. I had made it through my very first winter in Boston and was terribly, terribly depressed. Even though it was technically springtime, there were no leaves on the trees, a foot of snow on the ground, sweaters filling my closet and two pairs of socks on my feet.
My friend Gretchen, an avid gardener and my constant on-call plant doctor, decided that I needed to be with flowers. Well…probably we had to go for a graduate class, but she decided that really we were going because I needed to be around flowers.
And did I ever.
So when the Please Touch Museum offered me the opportunity to spend a day at the Philadelphia Flower Show promoting our upcoming Storybook Ball among other programs for kids and parents, it took every ounce of my energy not to scream with joy. I love flower shows. They’re like botanical gardens, but edgier. Like conservatories, but trendier. Like museums, but full of flowers.
I think as museum professionals, we should encourage our visitors, exhibit designers, educators and administrative personnel to attend flower shows, comic cons and design expos. Think I’m crazy? Let me explain.
Like a museum, the Philadelphia Flower Show has a mission.
Hosted by the Philadelphia Horticultural Society, the Flower show and all related programs aim to “motivate people to improve the quality of life and create a sense of community through horticulture.”
Don’t museums do the same? Don’t we all want to motivate people to improve the quality of their lives with art, history, and natural sciences? Don’t we all want to create community?
Like a museum, the Philadelphia Flower Show requires careful curation.
There are exhibits on the Flower Show floor. For-profit companies, local landscapers and international volunteers and local enthusiasts demonstrate ways to incorporate garden ornaments, stick unusual plants in to your garden, or use an unconventional space as a garden.
While every exhibit must relate to the show’s theme, it’s also important to vary the exhibition content. If every exhibit were about Harry Potter, umbrellas and the Beatles, the show would get boring very quickly.. If every demonstration included prohibitively expensive plants and tools, a good portion of your audience would be lost and excluded.
Like a museum, the PFS educates its visitors about specific content.
A huge part of the Flower Show is the Hamilton Horticourt, a space for amateur gardeners to share tips, and compete in a flower competition. As an avid plant murderess, I want – nay, need – someone to teach me how to garden. I want someone to show me her work and say, “you can do this too.” I need someone to tell me “don’t water a cactus” and “do water an African violet, but only from the bottom.”
A visitor told me in passing, “I’m so glad they chose England this year. It’s so much more accessible. I feel like I can take home some of these ideas and really put them to good use in my own garden.”
As a museum educator, this is exactly what I want people to do with our content.
Like a museum, the PFS exposes its visitors to new and foreign cultures.
Each year the Flower Show has a theme. Last year’s theme “Islands of Aloha” featured Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. This year’s theme “Brilliant!” focused on the United Kingdom, specifically England. While PHS has only just released a teaser for next year’s show, “ARTiculture” is looking like it’s going to celebrate famous artists through flowers. Fingers crossed we’re in for some re-interpretations of Monet’s garden.
Many people will never get a chance to travel to see Sherwood Forest, Mauna Kea, or Tuscany. The Flower Show is a rare opportunity to get a real and dynamic taste of another place. As a museum, isn’t it also our job to expose visitors to new and different places? Different time periods? Artistic styles? Scientific theories? Political ideologies?
So if the Flower Show is so like a museum…
Why shouldn’t we incorporate some of their design, curation, education and cultural ideas into our own institutions? The thing is, no one tells a flower show what to do. In fact, breaking rules are encouraged, because it’s all about creative design and innovation. The more creative you are, the more flower power you have. It’s all about having fun and learning something new.
What do you think? What can museums learn from conventions and expos?
Did you attend the Philadelphia Flower Show? How about the Boston Show? Tell me about your experience in the comments!