This past weekend I went to the Ohio Renaissance Festival with a few of my friends back home. As I waited in the pouring rain for my friends to arrive, I was reminded at how Dawne said that this was a kind of museum. I had never thought about it before but it’s true! The instant you walk in you are transported back to Elizabethan England and all of its glory. The queen herself even makes a few appearances.
When I think of museums I usually think of an enclosed building with glass over documents and trying to resist the urge to touch things. In this museum there is no glass, and the exhibits come out and talk to you, in some cases they may even flirt with you! The best part, especially for my friends, is dressing up, so they essentially become part of the exhibits. This is basically a museum with no boundaries, there is no 'DO NOT TOUCH' sign and the only thing to watch out for is the mud. Come to think of it this is the most fun I have ever had at a museum.
So what if we took the energy and excitement of the Renaissance Festival, and other open air museums and brought them inside. Instead of having a bunch stuff under glass and behind 'DO NOT TOUCH' signs, what if we invited our patrons in to be immersed in the period and smell the smoke from the blacksmith's house or feel the heart pounding excitement of the joust.
I realize I'm not breaking any new ground here, but how would our museums look if our guests were completely swept up by the subject of our exhibits, even to the point where they wanted to dress up and take part in it? What would happen if everyone fell in love with the time period from just one visit to your museum?
I agree there is an energy and excitement to having an outdoor, immersive experience like the one at the Renaissance Festival. My problem calling it a museum is the lack of authenticity of the experience. I'm concerned people who have little knowledge of history are going to accept the festival as an accurate portrait of the period.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Victoria, though I think the Renaissance Festival does have some authentic qualities. You touched on a couple of them, like the craft demonstrations and the live full-armor jousts. It is, and has to be, heavily whitewashed. But, even whitewashed history can get people interested in learning more about actual history. A good example of that is the movie 300. The events depicted only have a passing resemblance to what really happened at Thermopylae, but it got me interested in learning more about the actual battle and eventually, ancient Greece in general.
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