Hello all! Sorry for the delay, and thanks again to everyone who participated. Here are the results, and a pretty basic analysis of what we can extrapolate from them.
I trust museums to be accurate, but I don't trust them to be up-to-date or comprehensive.
I will go to a children's museum whether or not I have actual children with me, and in fact I prefer them. Children's museums in my experience have an exponentially better grasp of the concept of museums as educational tools. More "adult" museums tend to be much for focused on the look-at-pretty-things-and-read-some-signs aspect.
I would also add that I have no interest in going to a museum by myself - the shared experience is a very critical part for me. When I'm alone, I can get a lot more education and enjoyment out of things like books and the internet.
The Kohl's Childrens Museum focuses more on mimicking "real world" experiences for children: exhibits include a fake grocery store and house that they can pretend to build.
The Exploratorium has hands-on science exhibits for the most part.
When I responded that I went to children's museums, I was mostly talking about the Franklin Institute: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Institute ...which I guess isn't strictly a children's museum, at least according to wikipedia, but a ton of their exhibits are geared toward kids.
My parents bought a membership when I was little and I begged to go there ALL THE TIME. It was pretty much my favorite place in the world for a while.
We also went to a lot of art museums because my dad was an artist.
So, uh, what I'm trying to say here is that Museums make me feel warm and fuzzy inside for reasons not listed in your poll. They've got this really strong nostalgia-pull, like cuddling with a favorite old stuffed animal.
While I enjoy museums as a social experience, there are certain types of museums I really love to go to alone. Art museums and zoos/aquariums are up there because I can really take my time moving through them, and no one will be bothered when I stop to sketch one statue or animal for 45 minutes :) Science/natural history museums are more fun with someone else, because the learning is shared. Often I can share additional knowledge about something with the person I am with (especially if it's natural history related) and I also love to learn more than is just on the signs from my company.
I agree with Ben regarding children's museums. The hands-on elements often only seem in children's areas are an wonderful educational tool and are waaaaay more fun than reading signs. Good interpreters are also so valuable!
The trust issue is an interesting one, and it's why I wanted to discuss it. Trusting a museum to have correct information is all well and good, and as you said, not as important when it comes to an art museum as a science or cultural museum.
For art museums, though, there's the trust that they're preserving the right things, and presenting you with works that actually matter. Aesthetics aside, we're asking art museums both to create and in turn preserve importance in modern and contemporary works, and even in historical works. Spending millions of dollars on that DaVinci instead of the other one, is almost an unbelievable task to have given them.
With art museums especially, we're asking them to preserve something that is primarily aesthetic, and we're asking them to do it while the movements happen. I think there's a lot of trust involved in that.
I agree with Ian - there are certain times when certain museums should be avoided. I can think of one time I was visiting an aquarium during high field trip season. The constant screaming of ill behaved children in echo-y enclosed hallways ruined the whole trip for me...and I LOVE aquariums!
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I will go to a children's museum whether or not I have actual children with me, and in fact I prefer them. Children's museums in my experience have an exponentially better grasp of the concept of museums as educational tools. More "adult" museums tend to be much for focused on the look-at-pretty-things-and-read-some-signs aspect.
I would also add that I have no interest in going to a museum by myself - the shared experience is a very critical part for me. When I'm alone, I can get a lot more education and enjoyment out of things like books and the internet.
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With children's museums, I wonder which type you're talking about:
http://www.kohlchildrensmuseum.org/exhibits
http://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/index.html
The Kohl's Childrens Museum focuses more on mimicking "real world" experiences for children: exhibits include a fake grocery store and house that they can pretend to build.
The Exploratorium has hands-on science exhibits for the most part.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Institute
...which I guess isn't strictly a children's museum, at least according to wikipedia, but a ton of their exhibits are geared toward kids.
My parents bought a membership when I was little and I begged to go there ALL THE TIME. It was pretty much my favorite place in the world for a while.
We also went to a lot of art museums because my dad was an artist.
So, uh, what I'm trying to say here is that Museums make me feel warm and fuzzy inside for reasons not listed in your poll. They've got this really strong nostalgia-pull, like cuddling with a favorite old stuffed animal.
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I agree with Ben regarding children's museums. The hands-on elements often only seem in children's areas are an wonderful educational tool and are waaaaay more fun than reading signs. Good interpreters are also so valuable!
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For art museums, though, there's the trust that they're preserving the right things, and presenting you with works that actually matter. Aesthetics aside, we're asking art museums both to create and in turn preserve importance in modern and contemporary works, and even in historical works. Spending millions of dollars on that DaVinci instead of the other one, is almost an unbelievable task to have given them.
With art museums especially, we're asking them to preserve something that is primarily aesthetic, and we're asking them to do it while the movements happen. I think there's a lot of trust involved in that.
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