Is a Museum...

I have just stumbled upon a really interesting project:  #isamuseum.  Sam Durant began the project at the Getty.  The website tells us that Sam Durant, the 2013 Getty Artists Program invitee, is a multimedia artist whose work explores the relationships between politics and culture.  Sam placed specific questions throughout the Getty for visitors to contemplate and answer and has expanded to social media.  "Is a museum a school?"  "Is a museum political?"  "Is a museum truthful?"  "Is a museum fun?"  "Is a museum for everyone?"  With these questions, both the visitor and staff members are asked to think about what museums are and/or what they should/could be.  It is really insightful to scan through the answers that people have left.  There is one answer that is bothering me, however.  The first answer that I read in the "Is a museum fun" question stated:  "Museums put their visitors in touch with the deeper questions of life and humanity.  An atmosphere of levity means the museum is failing at some level."  So if a visitor has fun the museum has failed?  I agree that a museum or exhibit dealing with the holocaust or 9/11 or something like that should not necessarily be "fun" but I want my museum, the Western Heritage Museum, to be fun.  We will be taking down Crime Lab Detective soon.  I would hope that kids and families had fun while they were trying to solve the crime.  They were still learning.  In fact, sometimes if you're having fun you don't even know you're learning!  I want people to have fun.  There's a kind of extreme, I think.  If a visitor has fun, they will want to come back.  At the same time, at the museums or exhibits where you don't have fun, like a holocaust museum, you are touched emotionally and while you may not want to experience that sadness again in person you never forget that experience and you'll think fondly of the museum.  I also think some topics are able to touch people and use levity at the same time.  In any case, it's hard to explain but ultimately I think a museum should be fun.




To read more about this website or to answer the questions yourself please visit the website:  http://isamuseum.org