What was your greatest museum experience?

Mine was not in a University Museum, so I suppose this post doesn't really fit into the rubric I've created, but memorable experiences are an important part of all realms of museums. In any case, I'll show you mine hoping you'll show me yours...

I am in love with Abraham Lincoln. I'm not so sure what it is about the man that makes me throw my worship at him, but I can't help it and I love learning about him (which is a bit odd for someone who keeps trying to convince everyone he is a German scholar - and of course a museums guy). I did my undergrad in Iowa, which, though not particularly close, is in driving distance of Chicago and Springfield. As anyone who has lived in Northeastern Iowa can attest, there's simply not much going on, and any chance to escape the state I found, I took.

On each roadtrip of mine to Chicago, I would force my driving partners to stop and visit the Lincoln sites "on the way" (though let's face it - it was out of the way). At the end of the Lincoln museum, there is a case of artifacts he owned in life including a shaving mirror, which as I remember it was tilted to reflect at the height he would have stood in front of it. There is a sign next to the case asking people not to jump, but guess who did anyway...

Seeing myself framed in the mirror - if only for a brief second was thrilling. To use an item that your hero has used creates a connection that no amount of prose or programming can create.

Rather than continue, I want you to tell me what you think. What was your greatest museum experience? How about in a University Museum? How important are objects to creating an experience? Can a museum exist without?

Museum of the Week, Week of October 23

Tufts University Art Gallery
http://artgallery.tufts.edu/ 


Tufts University, located in Medford, MA maintains a relatively small art gallery with a relatively small collection. It has a few big name items in its collection including works by Warhol, Frankenthaler, and J. Singer Sargent. It's hard to say though, when any of the most famous works in their collection have been on display, or whether any exhibition of their works are planned. A large portion of their collection is spread throughout the campus, and a useful interactive map displays the locations on  campus where one can find other works from the collection. The map only has pictures of a handful of those items though, and there's no way to reverse search for the location of a work by searching its name.

Its exhibitions, though, change relatively often, and it displays a rich variety of work. Aside from exhibitions from guest artists, the gallery also displays MFA student thesis works, which ensures an even greater variety and a little bit of fresh blood.


Its location is not so great...It's relegated to the corner of a much larger arts center and there is a single sign on campus pointing in its direction. It does have a dedicated parking lot...sort of. There are four parking spaces reserved for the gallery in a larger parking lot, but on my last two visits, Tufts vehicles or construction equipment took up two.


Almost all attendants are students, and as a result they have relatively little knowledge of the works on exhibition. Seemingly to compensate, they provide a large amount of supplemental materials such as cell phone tours, gallery guides, and slightly longer than necessary exhibition text. 


It is certainly worth a visit, though - the gallery's website does not do it justice (in fact I'd go so far as to say its website is just bad). With its range of exhibitions and frequency (about two exhibitions each semester), it's certainly worth a stop if you're in the area, but don't go too far out of your way.

Have you ever visited? Do you have any good experiences? Do you agree/disagree?

Ancient Lives

In 1896 Oxford University starting bringing home ancient Greek papyri from Egypt. But the sheer quantity of the bits of writing that made it home meant that even after a century, only 2% of it had been surveyed. To finally help expedite the process, Oxford University partnered with the Zooniverse Project to get ordinary people, just typical websurfers, to transcribe the vast collection of writings.

The way it works is anyone who has the inkling to contribute, need only sign on to Ancient Lives and begin examining scanned copies of original documents in Ancient Greek writing. The site even provides handy examples for anyone having trouble visualizing what a written Greek character might look like. Then, when you have successfully transcribed everything legible, it is saved and sent off into the ether for review by a "real" scholar.

Enlisting the help of visitors and webjunkies to further research - even if only in a superficial way, is by no means a new story. Web 2.0 has opened up not only the ability for a more in-depth interaction with the public, but also the expectation that an institution - especially an educational one - interact as actively as possible with constituents and people who have never and may never set foot through the door or donate a dime.

Projects like this, though, go a step further and bring ordinary people into as close of contact as possible with the past that the University would otherwise attempt to promote in-house or in a static presentation. By presenting materials in this fashion, the University will likely not get across an educational message that it wants, but it will create a new sort of experience for the public - one that helps broaden the scope of its scholarship.

As it is, one learns relatively little about what they are exactly doing, unless he or she goes digging into the website.  The purpose, too, why it's important to sit and try to discern centuries-old scribbles on papyrus need to be expanded on more overtly.

What do you think? How far do you think this site goes in creating an experience? What could they do better? What place do you think "crowd-sourcing" has in scholarship? Responses typed in Ancient Greek get extra brownie points.

References:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018848/Oxford-University-appeals-help-transcribing-200-000-ancient-Greek-letters.html

Beginnings

I am BY NO MEANS an expert on anything; museums are a passion and a side project for me.

I AM someone who will seemingly never leave school, someone who occasionally has the time to sit down at his computer, peruse the internet, and present what he finds, and someone who has taken much interest in museums and collections hidden away on college campuses.

I can't promise what I have to say will always be profound, or that it won't simply be a regurgitation of something I heard or read. But I will try to bring any unfortunate readers into the world hidden in these institutions within institutions. Hopefully, I will occasionally open people up to issues, ideas, or collections with which they weren't yet acquainted.

So if you have the time join me as I question whether Edmond de Goncourt would have made the assertion that, "A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world" if he had been able to foresee people like me having the ability to blog.