The AAM Facebook feed just congratulated Hancock Shaker Village on receiving a $1 million grant from the Kresge Foundation. Read the original article. There are some really, really interesting things going on in there amidst all the business-speak. “[The grant] recognizes the living history museum’s …
[Amanda’s note: This is the first of what we hope to be many posts by other members of the Tufts Museum Studies community. If you are a member of our community, and are interested in contributing your thoughts, please let us know! If you need …
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has a neat project up on its website: This Place Matters.
“This Place Matters” is a simple Google Map on which any visitor to the site can pin a flag, marking a place that matters to them.
The NTHP says “It could be your favorite local diner or a treasured neighborhood movie palace. How about the school you walked to as a kid; or even your corner grocery store? It could be a project you’ve taken on yourself, or one being championed by a local preservation society, Main Street organization or other community group.”
At its most zoomed out, the map is a riot of colored flags – most of the eastern seaboard is barely visible. Zoom in and there are all sorts of empty spaces. Click on a flag to read about a spot, who submitted it, and why it matters to them. The NTHP hopes to use this map as a tool to encourage preservation – to identify spots in need of saving and to spark a group consciousness and conversation about why historic preservation is important. It might have been an even more powerful experience if there were a way for multiple people to comment on one flag – to react and converse with each other about places that matter to them. It doesn’t appear that Google allows that sort of thing, however.
There are some really wonderful places on the map, but there’s a lot more that needs adding! So, Tufts museum community – what places matter to you?
With the advent of the internet age, we all have a LOT more tools in our hands to begin to learn about specific organizations – and particularly specific museums. Whether you’re doing some research into a museum you’d like to work for, trying to get …
First things first: if you’re not reading Museum 2.0, you should be. Next, check out Nina Simon’s recent post, Six Museum-Related Blogs You Might Not Know About That Are Really Good. One of the blogs is local – Thinking about Exhibits is written by Ed …
Namco Museum Megamix is a new compilation of classic video and arcade games. All well and good – companies try to re-release and cash in on their older products in the name of nostalgia all the time. (King’s Quest, anyone?)
Namco is calling this release a “museum.” Maybe they’re trying to give Super Pac-Man a veneer of high culture. Maybe they just wanted to be alliterative.
Maybe they’re doing a very interesting, very creative, very groundbreaking thing and expanding the definition of a museum far beyond what I personally have ever seen before.
What do you think? Is this a museum?