Re: "Inside the Hidden Kingdom" - the Royal Ontario Museum

[Darryl Jones <dinoguy@sympatico.ca>]

At 11:57 AM 1/20/2003, Danvarner@aol.com wrote:
>        I've noticed that cohabitation of fine arts and natural history in a
> museum can be a dicey thing. One or the other seems to lose.  DV

I really wish they would just give up and head the direction that most 
major cities have, with separate Natural History and Civilization 
museums.  The ROM has phenomenal articles in their collections that nobody 
ever gets to see, unless they are researching that topic.  I don't even 
mean just dinosaurs (although there are a wack of them in the collections 
that have never seen the light of display).

The reason people don't go back to the ROM is that it is so static.  "Very 
little changes [people think], so why would I go back".

and then:

Stephan Pickering wrote-
> It is the task of the curators to ensure the "interactive" displays link 
> the mind and the imagination. Alas, ROM has failed miserably. Even 
> Dinosaur National Monument could have captured some of the energy: with 
> paleontologists doing actual excavations from the matrix, visitors
> could have seen emerging animals.

To which Nick Gardner replied:
>When did it become their task to have to create displays like 
that >because the kiddos have no imagination to see a charging 
tyrannosaur >without actually having to see it?  Besides, HP Pickering, how 
would >you enjoy it if you had half-a-dozen people watching you work 
on >something serious like that?  When it's lowered to such a level, it 
sort of >degrades it to a circus... just my opinion, mind you.

Sadly, I have to agree with both.  I have taken classes to the ROM recently 
and it infuriates me when the children (10 and 11) stand in front of the 
artifact/dinosaur/painting and watch the TV that is there describing 
it!!!!  They don't even look at the item itself!!!!  They are used to being 
entertained, have no imagination (sweeping generalization, I know, but I am 
making a point), and don't want to think about what they are 
seeing.  Unless you care to begin with, most museums are just a bunch of 
mouldy dead things.  We have to teach an appreciation.  To do that, we need 
to get kids to care.  Sadly, this often means a deal with the devil by 
letting in some more interactive, moving, cool robotics (gack).  One on 
one, I was generally able to impress the significance on them, but I know 
what I am looking at.  Seeing it with their parents (who often thought it 
was boring) left little wonder in them.


Darryl Jones  <dinoguy@sympatico.ca>

For information on tyrannosaurids and
cool activities and information for kids,
visit my webpage at:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/dinoguy/