Museums . . . FTW or WTF!!

by bookindian

How many people have had the opportunity to stand on the roof of Carracol Tower. . . at the Southwest Museum in Eagle Rock CA . . . after climbing the interior spiral staircase . . . ??

. . . this post will be about museums . . . again.

“I’ve been associated with several museums for at least 20 years – as a docent, as an employee, a consultant, and as a lecturer.” . . . h-m-m-m . . . said that in the other post . . . . those museums being:

the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland OH;

. . . the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, Los Angeles CA;

. . . the Southwest Museum,

and the Autry National Center, Los Angeles CA.

So what am I getting at?

. . . what good is all the information and stuff if we can’t access it, or it gets buried in, or has to compete with a lot of similar content?

“There’s only a finite amount of space to store all the crap that’s been accumulating in museums over the years, and if people can’t see it or don’t even know that it exists, what good is it?“

“Publish the GPS coordinates for your museum . . . people have GPS in their vehicles . . . ” . . . yeh, said that before, as well . . .

Here are some coordinates for the Eastern California Museum . . . they will get you close enough to the actual location (close enough for a J-DAM) . . . you will be able to see the structure.

36.80202/-118.20372 (lat/long), intersection of Grant and Center Streets, Independence CA 93526. I used the esri ArcGIS app for the coordinates.

And I said “. . .get a museum BLOG . . . Link the blog to Twitter, etc.”

The first response is “. . . the County or NPS doesn’t allow . . . ”

. . . w-e-l-l . . . if you remember . . . MAMA didn’t allow a lot of stuff but it “got done” anyway . . . check out the L.A. County Museum of Art . . . their blog . . . Yes, I said “BLOG” . . . here . . . It’s a beaut!! . . . almost as good as, if not better than . . . visiting.

LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

So the more crap you hang on the walls or jam into cases . . . without comprehensive context . . . What does it mean??

. . . let’s cite an example: what did Norman Clyde do that contributed to society . . . ??

He climbed fucking mountains . . . in boots with hob-nails embedded in the soles . . . or rubber soled canvas shoes when he needed more “grip-shun” . . . as said by an acquaintance of mine . . . he carried books and a cast iron frypan . . . Did he write books? . . .

He signed pieces of paper with his name and the date . . . and left them in tins on the crest of mountains . . . And if he was so great, are you, as a “supporter” of Norman Clyde, willing to put $20.00 in the donation box?

Why not exhibit cameras and photographs by Andrew A. Forbes who documented the florescence of agriculture, mining and industry in Owens Valley beginning in 1902 and ending in 1916?

Photographic content (history and process) has more relevance today . . . most people have “smartphone (camera included)” or a point-and-shoot digital camera . . . not everyone wants or needs to “conquer” a mountain . . . and how many people have been there before you? The same could be said of photographs, but you didn’t need to “train” to get a photo . . . And you won’t be stuck in traffic on the trail to “Whitney” . . . or shitting in a pit toilet or along side the trail.

Explain the reasons for the sale of land in Owens Valley in the early 1900′s . . . like people not being familiar with agricultural techniques – sort of like going to Alaska and the Klondike to “strike-it-rich” without knowing what the fuck you’re doing, and not just “L.A. stole the water!!“

So much regional history is passed over in favor of seemingly “significant” events without first examining the circumstances leading to specific undertakings . . . ranchers and farmers diverting water from the streams and the Owens River to water crops and livestock (beginning in the late 1860′s) . . . cutting of the pine forests for lumber used in the mines, charcoal for the smelters . . . no one talks about “cause”, only “effect”.

Local or small regional museums need to define their mission . . . think beyond the region, bleeding hearts are not your audience . . .

All photos are from Google . . .