Am I an Endangered Species?
From a great article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Thomas H. Benton makes the observation:
The business culture that dominates today's museums has no room for the eccentricities of introverted curatorsYikes, I'm doomed! My favorite part:
Public-relations specialists "attempted to bring out the scruffy old scientists from their hidden redoubts. Their elbow patches were confiscated. Corporate culture had arrived."They can have my elbow patches when the pry them from my cold, dead fingers.
Hat tip: Steve
Labels: Museum
posted by Doug Taron @ 08:14
9 Comments:
Good article. One of my favorite things to do was take the kid I was in the Big Brother program with to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. The line in the article about "you were only supposed to whisper" reminded of seeing the Gary Larson exhibit in one of the halls at the LA NHM. It was great, because even though it was probably ok to laugh out loud, everyone was trying to silence themselves while laughing because of where they were.
Somehow we must convince the powers that be that butterflies love elbow patches.
cedrorum- 1. Why am I not surprised that you were a Big Brother and 2. Why am I not surprised that you liked the Gary Larson exhibit.
lem- The butterflies rarely see me in a tweed jacket. Perfect for the office, totally impractical for the field.
pishposh to this nonsense
It was eccentric scientists and their no spectacle museums that got me interested in science.
The 'let's make a museum a video game' approach is nauseating.
If this economy gets any worse I'll be beyond "endangered!"
Hey Doug,
(Curator). The origin of the word from late middle English denotes an ecclesiastical Pastor
( Heaven forbid!!)
I like you just the way you are!
Spo- "The 'let's make a museum a video game' approach is nauseating."
Your preaching to the choir on that one. I couldn't agree more.
Dave- **sigh** Too true.
Roy- I had no idea that's how the words curator and curate are related. It makes sense, a lot of early collectors were clergymen, especially in Britain.
pablo- Thanks.
I wouldn't worry too much Doug, you are only an "endangered species" on some peoples lists, not people like me who appreciate your work. So please keep the patches a while longer. :)
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