A short behind the scenes look at some of our internal Dumbarton House debates about how far to take the idea of visitor engagement:
Email to staff from Bridgitte Rodguez, our Visitor Services Associate:
Email to staff from Bridgitte Rodguez, our Visitor Services Associate:
"Hopefully we will never see a picture like this from our Museum: http://www.museumspotting.net/ " [visit site before reading on]
Response from our museum curator, Scott Scholz:
"Thank you Bridgitte, yet another reason to NOT allow free roaming of our museum. Just imagine someone lying down on out rope bed, with the ropes not tied and suing DH because of injuries sustained when the mattress caves in…or, someone sits on a chair with a weak leg and ends up breaking the chair. Shall I continue?"
Rebuttal from me, our educator-turned-executive director, Karen Daly:
"....but could we imagine an interior space where visitors could roam freely? Where they could lie down in a rope bed or try on the clothes in the linen press, or sit at the secretary and write a letter with a quill pen? Where they could take pictures of themselves playing a "real" part in the past? (Sure...not cozied up on the 18th century bed that George Washington himself slept in, perhaps, but maybe a repro....or a late 19th century revival piece....)"
Postscript: one of my favorite personal pictures from the December blizzard in Washington is included here. I loved being able to be a part of the bread line at the FDR Memorial (without having to touch the actual sculpture, of course!).
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It seems though that the most engaging museum experiences are the ones where you can interact and engage with the Museum. Clearly the visitors in the MuseumSpotting blog were breaking the rules, but they continue to visit museums- maybe just to break the rules- but in some instance they must be getting something out of it. And if they have done nothing by their attempt- it certainly has made an impact on us and given us some interesting insight to consider for our own museum and how we view things.
ReplyDeleteI think it does show that you really need to prepare to ensure the safety of the collection. While museums should be engaging the public, we are also entrusted by the public to protect cultural and heritage artifacts. This website shows that many people don't understand our respect that. If you have no one in the first floor, you really need high plexi barriers that no one can get through. I've seen many things stolen or damaged right under the eye of a docent- think of what would happen when these visitors are left alone in the room.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, anonymous. In our meetings with other historic sites that permit self-guided touring, they reported no more thefts or damage during self-guided hours than during docent guided programs. Most reported no damages or thefts at all.
ReplyDeleteSeeing "many things stolen or damaged right under the eye of a docent" is indeed worrisome--I'd like to hear more about those experiences, to see if we can learn from them--ways to better protect our collection here at DH, for example.