tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12696907.post4763839839623713849..comments2023-04-30T03:53:28.405-07:00Comments on Critical Reflections by Saul Carliner: Wish Lists for My Home Towns—Museums for Montreal (Hometown 4)Saul Carlinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01513103628489253928noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12696907.post-71491463800265061742010-09-22T08:14:06.002-07:002010-09-22T08:14:06.002-07:00I like this description of boutique museums. In Ot...I like this description of boutique museums. In Ottawa we have some big museums and I confess I get overwhelmed by these warehouses of artifacts. As a consumer, I find the artifact approach really only excites me if I have already read widely in an area to give myself stories to animate what I am looking at. I suspect that boutique museums are more exciting because they attract people who already have that back story as part of their culture or niche interest.<br /><br />For instance, a short film about the logging industry at the CMC was utterly incomprehensible to my girlfriend but I could animate it based on research I'd done for a novel. Similarly, the air museum had lots of aircraft but it became more interesting when I could describe stories behind the planes and how they were used.<br /><br />Given all the great oral traditions in our past, I am a little confused why museums focus on plaques and abstractions instead of telling stories. In an air museum, planes exist on a historical continuum of problem solving within an arms race... and yet that is not how they are presented.dwpricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09200276833717221674noreply@blogger.com