Saturday, June 20, 2009
Now that’s a museum
The New Acropolis Museum in Athens. Not to be confused with the proposed Boston Museum. …
At first, I didn’t like the design of the Boston Museum, but it’s grown on me. I still don’t think, though, the museum has clarified its proposed mission. The flying Bobby Orr exhibit looks like something out of a glorified truck-stop museum. The new museum, if it’s ever built, needs to be much more serious, tapping into the region’s rich history (not just the city’s history) and dispensing with the heavy ‘innovation’ jargon that confuses and even confines its mission. (Absolutely nothing wrong with a strong emphasis on the innovations of Alexander Graham Bell and other New Englanders. But there’s an overemphasis on ‘innovation.’) Ideally, the new museum would incorporate some of the artifacts at the new Commonwealth Museum, especially its copy of the Declaration of Independence. The Commonwealth Museum is on the right track, figuratively, of what a new museum could showcase, but it’s off the beaten path, literally, out on Columbia Point. Why are so many of Boston’s museums located away from the core downtown? … Of course I can see major turf wars breaking out, in typical Boston fashion, if there was ever a major push for a more centralized museum of history. The Secretary of State, Massachusetts Historical Society, Harvard, Museum of Fine Arts, the new museum board and others all have interests to protect. A collaborative effort is possible – but unlikely.
The New Acropolis Museum in Athens. Not to be confused with the proposed Boston Museum. …
At first, I didn’t like the design of the Boston Museum, but it’s grown on me. I still don’t think, though, the museum has clarified its proposed mission. The flying Bobby Orr exhibit looks like something out of a glorified truck-stop museum. The new museum, if it’s ever built, needs to be much more serious, tapping into the region’s rich history (not just the city’s history) and dispensing with the heavy ‘innovation’ jargon that confuses and even confines its mission. (Absolutely nothing wrong with a strong emphasis on the innovations of Alexander Graham Bell and other New Englanders. But there’s an overemphasis on ‘innovation.’) Ideally, the new museum would incorporate some of the artifacts at the new Commonwealth Museum, especially its copy of the Declaration of Independence. The Commonwealth Museum is on the right track, figuratively, of what a new museum could showcase, but it’s off the beaten path, literally, out on Columbia Point. Why are so many of Boston’s museums located away from the core downtown? … Of course I can see major turf wars breaking out, in typical Boston fashion, if there was ever a major push for a more centralized museum of history. The Secretary of State, Massachusetts Historical Society, Harvard, Museum of Fine Arts, the new museum board and others all have interests to protect. A collaborative effort is possible – but unlikely.
