History Museum Takes Interactive, Social Approach

History museums offer a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural or historical importance, making them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. For some, history museums are an exciting look at the past with lessons for the future. To others, they are just boring old places full of old stuff. In Denver, the new History Colorado Center opens this weekend in an attempt to change perceptions of the state history museum experience with highly experiential exhibits that put visitors in the stories and make history fun.

Visitors can take a virtual soar off a historic ski jump, “yearbook” themselves in a 1920s hairdo for a small town high school, become a miner who must set the dynamite correctly to explode, and play a trading game swapping goods at a historic trading fort.

Live performances, hands-on projects, lectures and more will also serve to continually keep spaces alive.”The point to all this is that we want to put you in the center of the story – with all the pathos and humor and even the ridiculousness,” said chief operating officer Kathryn Hill to the Victoria Advocate.

The new History Colorado Center looks to be much more than a museum too. As a source of civic connection and a place for statewide interactive dialogue, the Center will bring educational programming to Colorado communities in new ways that promise to increase awareness, heighten interest and broaden participation with History Colorado. Once the transformation is complete, History Colorado will reach people of all ages and backgrounds, in all parts of the state.

The $110 million History Colorado Center opens to the public on Saturday, April 28, 2012.




[Flickr photo by an untrained eye]

Creation Museum: Where People and Dinosaurs Meet

First of all, I love Kentucky. I really do. I was born there. I have family still there, but here’s a museum that I’m just not too sure about and it happens to be near where my relatives live. Already there’s controversy and I almost hesitate to bring it up, but here it goes, The Creation Museum opens tomorrow just south of Cincinnati. The Web site’s heading says, “Prepare to Believe.” This is an opposite look at natural history than the one depicted in my La Brea Tar Pits post.

The museum is not just a rinky-dink operation either. This is a mega-bucks attraction, as in $27 million, to highlight how the Bible is word for word true. For example, according to the word for word translation of the Bible all animals were created on the 5th and 6th day, dinosaurs included. That means that humans and dinosaurs really did live at the same time. The Creation Museum shows just what that looked like. Just think what this means for Walt Disney Productions.

To help visitors prepare to believe and connect dots between then and now, Old Testament favorites like Noah’s Ark are depicted in life-like form. If you ever wondered how the animals got off the ark this might help you out. The museum also has all the bells and whistles of visitor interaction as part of the walk-through displays. The photo is of the main exhibit hall where a 40-foot tall aninimatronic sauropod dinosaur is grouped with several others.

In Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky scientists are busy with protests since the fear is that kids, like my 5-year old son who would be enamored with this place, might have their scientific lens destroyed. For the creators of the museum, one of them a former Universal Studios director, it seems to me, that is part of the point. One of the things I appreciate about this place is that the museum says upfront what it is. The main theme is “The Bible is True from Genesis to Revelation.” This isn’t a bait and switch operation. You may not believe what you see, but you won’t be surprised by it either.

New World of Coca-Cola Museum Opens Today

Once in a while one story leads to another. I was writing a post about Winter, the guy who is traveling around the world visiting Starbucks, when I headed to the Coca-Cola museum Web site. It turns out there is a grand opening today in Atlanta, Georgia. The Coca-Cola museum has a new look. It’s now called The New World of Coca-Cola Museum. Through Memorial Day (Monday) the celebration is taking place at the Pemberton Place green space.

Since the doors opened today at 2:00 visitors have been milling about looking at memorabilia, the traveling art exhibit of Andy Warhol’s paintings, the the bottling line and going to the 4-D theater.

I went to the old museum several years ago. My favorite part was the drink rooms where you can sample Coke products from around the world. There are 70 different flavors to try, but according to the Coke Web Site there are a lot more than that. One soft drink, for example is Cheers. I found out about it at the Virtual Vendor. If you click on the beverage type, then click on one of the brands that comes up, you can find out what the soda is called, what it tastes like and which country it is sold in. If you happen to be drinking a soda right now, maybe it’s a spin off from Coke.

I.M. Pei’s Genius Created a New Art Museum in Luxembourg

Years ago I flew into Luxembourg to begin a summer train travel/backpacking trip through Europe. Back then it was possible to get cheap stand-by flights to Luxembourg from New York City. Fresh out of college with a BA in sociology, cheap was the only way to go to Europe. We stayed in Clervaux for the night before heading out to Amsterdam and points beyond. I remember Luxembourg as being lovely and worth a longer stay if we weren’t hell-bent on seeing as many places as our Eurorail Pass would take us in two months.

I’ve just come across a reason to head back there. The Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM) just opened July 2006. The museum designed by architect I.M. Pei is an architectural masterpiece. It’s interesting to read the museum’s website just to learn about the concepts (PDF file) behind the building. I have to warn you. The website feels like a visit into a modern abstract painting. It’s worth the trip, but be prepared for some fishing. I’m starting you off with the links page. The art collection is an eclectic mix of works by modern artists from around the world. You can access this by going to the link “collection.”

An aspect of this museum that appeals to me is “Be the Artist’s Guest” which incorporates artists’ paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs into areas that are not just traditional exhibit spaces. The café, reception areas and auditorium have the artists’ works as a way to engage the viewer. I think the artists whose works are featured in this manner may be part of the changing exhibits, but I’m not sure.