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Why Does The Museum Experience Still Feel Tepid?
The only parts of many a museum that work well are their collections, ticket purchase and paper maps. Few museums or their exhibits are either greatly enlightening or much fun. Even diligent museums fail to provide more than a perfunctory explanation of their most important exhibits. And then there are tech vendors pushing expensive and difficult to adopt virtual reality or augmented reality that are limited for content or extensive engagement. No wonder museums rank lower on tourist appeal. Ironically, many a museum now probably belongs in a museum!
Tried getting your kids excited about going to a museum? They are looking for entertainment and if you are lucky, you might find it the one or two displays in a museum … if that museum has lots of money. Or perhaps you were looking for a deep dive and to understand an exhibit in detail. Then you have to either pay for a tour or rent a ratty device. How many people touched that device before you … that day? How many thousands of ears has the headset been on before you? Want to do the research yourself? The museum won’t help you with that. They just like to provide a “one size fits all” boilerplate explanation and God help you if you want more. Museums are super serious and will never tell you anything fun or pop culture about their exhibits. A much younger tour guide might.
