Mar 24th
Inspiration is
a seed planted in good earth.
When it’s real, it blooms.
Carelessly planted?
superficiality
suffocates the seed.
Today my Museum studies class toured the Royal Armories Museum. It is a pretty amazing place. They give demonstrations using real weapons, showing technique for using them and giving reasons for why they were created, and demonstrations about the people from times past that would have used the weapons. I saw a fencing demonstration and a demonstration of the life of Jack Ketch, a famous executioner in the 1860s. The project while looking through the museum was to determine whether it is better to have a museum focusing on education or on entertainment. We will be giving presentations on our opinions next week (similar to the presentation/debate that we gave 2 weeks ago on contextual versus aesthetic). Overall, I cannot see why a museum should not be able to do both. The Royal Armories offered plenty to learn from and plenty do: for kids as well as adults. People could touch chain armor, see how far they could pull a bow to shoot an arrow, play checkers (can't really see how that fits in with everything, but it was still fun!), not to mention the demonstrations which easily qualify as both educational and entertaining, especially as the actors were cracking jokes and knocking each other over!
I head off to Edinburgh, Scotland tomorrow morning. The bus leaves at 8:30 and we'll arive at 3:30. I am very excited, but I still need to begin packing (it's already 11PM!). Where has the day gone? =) I'll be back late Sunday, so I won't be posting for a few days.
Suit of armor.
Wish our museums had similar demonstrations! Usually a person walks around and quietly reads the informational plaques in front of each exhibit. So much more could be learned from seeing, hearing, and experiencing how those things of the past were used! You are right---both educational and entertaining!
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