Your attention is called to the link below to "Object Lessons" - an analysis comparing and contrasting the new City Museum of Washington with the new Air & Space Museum annex at Dulles airport. Among many interesting comments in his extensive essay on the subject, author Blake Gopnik states: "Likewise, there's no point to starting a museum if you don't have fascinating stuff to put in it."

Happy reading!

Wesley

"Object Lessons"

> Your attention is called to the link below
> to "Object Lessons" - an analysis
> comparing and contrasting the new City
> Museum of Washington with the new Air &
> Space Museum annex at Dulles airport. Among
> many interesting comments in his extensive
> essay on the subject, author Blake Gopnik
> states: "Likewise, there's no point to
> starting a museum if you don't have
> fascinating stuff to put in it."

> Happy reading!

> Wesley
This article should be mandatory reading for board member, curator, officer, etc. of any railroad museum. I am going to print off copies for the board members of my museum, I recommend everyone do the same.

ka4gbbill@aol.com

> This article should be mandatory reading for
> board member, curator, officer, etc. of any
> railroad museum.

It is indeed a useful warning about the danger of going so deep into providing context and interpretation that you lose sight of the central idea that contact with cool stuff is the essence of a museum.

On the other hand, this is not an excuse to lapse back into the attitude of "show it and they will come." It's been proven too many times that a row of "big stuff" on a track, without context and without interpretation, does not a satisfied visitor make--foamers excluded of course.

There has to be a happy medium--more emphasis on explaining what railroads do and why they were important to people's daily lives than we have traditionally done, but not to the point where we lose the ability to put people next to massive cool stuff.

eledbetter@rypn.org

Hello All

I read this article with much interest and could not help but draw some caparisons between the Steamtown museum (as opposed to the Steamtown site as a whole) compared to places like the Railroad Museum of PA.

The Steamtown museum was always long on high-tech gadgetry but short on full size railroad equipment (1 caboose displayed upon opening in '95, I think 5 pieces displayed inside now) when in contrast the Railroad museum has oodles of full size equipment but tends more towards more basic (but effective) exhibits

When I've visited the Railroad Museum of PA I've always gotten the "whoa" factor, even after a half dozen visits in recent years.

The Steamtown museum on the other hand doesn't give any more "oomph" than reading a textbook. Poor captioning, poorer layout, oft-broken interactive exhibits and so on... Interesting reading though, once... Fortunately Steamtown has a superb interpretive program and operating department, which makes up for the mediocre museum.

Just my observations about two museum facilities in and of themselves, not attempting to get into any of the larger issues here.


bing@epix.net

> This article should be mandatory reading

I believe itÂ’s important to benchmark against other local attractions, rather than against other like-kind museums, so I found the Washington article intriguing. Local comparisons are especially good for looking at admission price and attendance trends, so the articleÂ’s subjects are a little too new for the type of review I prefer.

The Chicago market has also expanded with a several new museums. Nine major museums receive funding from the Chicago Park District, with a tenth, the Museum of Modern Art, soon to be added. Major expansions at existing museums have changed the competitive picture. Once an also-ran, the Shedd Aquarium now has the largest attendance of any Chicago institution. Overall, the nine Chicago museums saw a 12% attendance drop since 2000. but the Shedd is up substantially. Note, falling attendance hasnÂ’t been just a post 9/11 effect, as 2001 attendance was already down across the board.

As a result of lower visitation and cuts in government funds, local museum ticket prices are rapidly rising. The Field Museum will increase its admission 25% to $10, a price that doesnÂ’t include special exhibits, which often add another $10. This spring the Art Institute went up 20% to $12 and the Shedd now costs $23. Parking near these venues costs about $12 per day, also up about 20%. For the most part, adult ticket prices are going up, but childrenÂ’s tickets are unchanged.

Chicago’s new Peggy Nortebart Nature Museum struggles in part because it is one of that “new generation” of museums described in the article that want to go a different path. The only local museum to do well without the traditional artifacts and exhibits is the Chicago Children’s Museum, that targets the under 7-year old crowd. Another local Children’s Museum in DuPage County can’t even seem to please that audience—it barely draws enough support to pay off its construction debts.

The new generation museums are entering a crowded market where entrenched competitors have learned what sells. That doesnÂ’t mean we canÂ’t learn some new tricks, but it may mean that the old guard may have some advantages not recognized by the experts that gave the City Museum of Washington its awards. Like the Aerospace Museum, the success of the Aquarium shows that 1) well planned capital investments can result in huge admissions gains and 2) if you have a hot new product, you can price it accordingly. ThatÂ’s not a bad combination.



fred_ash@bankone.com

> Your attention is called to the link below
> to "Object Lessons" - an analysis
> comparing and contrasting the new City
> Museum of Washington with the new Air &
> Space Museum annex at Dulles airport. Among
> many interesting comments in his extensive
> essay on the subject, author Blake Gopnik
> states: "Likewise, there's no point to
> starting a museum if you don't have
> fascinating stuff to put in it."

> Happy reading!

> Wesley

Good article, except I think ever new or would bet museum thinks it has fascinating stuff. The trick would be to take a skeptical look at your (intended) collection without being viewed as a wet blanket by your cohorts.



superheater62@yahoo.com

Another interesting new Washington, DC museum is the International Spy Museum. It is run by a private foundation and charges about $14 admission in a city where free museums are standard. Yet you need to buy tickets well in advance and deal with SRO crowds inside. There are a lot of great gadgets on display but one room has bench seating and a film running with ex-CIA agents telling how they finally got Soviet agents like Ames and Hanson. The last exhibit is a sobering reminder of what the lack of intelligence meant to us on September 11. This museum really works because you can be very interested and intense or just looking to pass a few hours and still come away satisfied.

tstuy@nospam-eldcps.org