Question….Museums…stuffy
boring places or wonderful institutions of visual learning? For me
they are the latter but I guess that depends on the museum and perhaps the
person. Take Plymouth and Exeter museum
for example where my daughter Zoe and I recently visited both. I thought they were the antithesis of each
other in terms of visual and intellectual stimulation, flow, exhibits and
general pleasure to be in vibe.
Plymouth,
although the outside is quite architecturally impressive being of neo-classical
design and the foyer looked ok but inside…yawn, yawn, yawn. The actual displays are a little tired and
boring with very little to visually stimulate.
However there is lots of interaction for little ones which is a plus for
parents with bored children but not much for adults to keep you in there for
more than 5 minutes and you may find yourself fleeing said place to save from
museum narcolepsy! This museum refers to
the stuffy boring variety I think.
Exeter
on the other hand is wonderful. It’s recently
been refurbished and modernised, sympathetically I may add and looks great both
inside and out in its gorgeous gothic splendour (so it should really as it cost
24 million!). They added some contemporary
elements to join the old with the new and restoration of this Victorian wonder
is spot on. They have even painted the
foyer and hallways a vibrant pink and it looks fab against the stonework.
This
colour combination really works…see nature made it first so it must be ok!
The
exhibits are really engaging and there is such variety. There were a few stand out exhibits but one piece
my daughter and I loved was working on the premise of bottled memories and each
bottle had a different memory from the artist engraved on the front, like the
smell of freshly mown grass or her mother’s perfume. It was really evocative and such a lovely
idea.
We
really could have spent most of the day roaming around the rooms looking and
oohing and ahhing. There were of course
some silly bits but well it’s a museum and obligatory and for the kids I think…..like a whole elephant,
polar bear and a tiger…dead of course…now that would be fun and stimulating if
there was a live tiger roaming around the place, get the customers moving along
nicely! The bit that’s great is it’s
free. Not much free in this world that’s
really worth a look at. Well that’s not
true actually as nature is free and almost always worth a look at, perhaps it’s
more a case of not much in this world that costs money that’s worth a look at!
24 million on exeter museum! OMG!! I had to read that three times to actually believe it!!
ReplyDeleteMust now check out plymouth (I havent been!)especially if as you say it's good for kids!
Thanks for the tips!!
Hello...Yes I know 24 Million is a lot of money for a bit of culture but as entry is free I guess we benefit from it vicariously! Both museums are good for kids actually so no harm in checking out both.....sure Smidge and boy will enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThanks for comments