Displaying Dinosaurs at The Natural History Museum,London

Dinosaur reconstructions have been exhibited in public for over a hundred years. During that time, scientific and public understanding of these extinct animals has changed considerably. Changes in perception have influenced and been influenced by the three-dimensional reconstructions mounted in museums and galleries, and these in turn have been influenced by the availability and use of mounting materials and techniques. The dinosaur exhibition in The Natural History Museum (NHM) in London contains examples of original, altered, and new dinosaur reconstructions that are described here—two, Gallimimus and Massospondylus, in detail. The final form of any reconstructed dinosaur is often influenced by factors beyond the control of the conservation, preparation, and mounting workers involved.     

集自然历史、世界文化于一身的皇家安大略博物馆

皇家安大略博物馆融合自然历史和世界文化于一身,藏品超过1250万件,大量开展国际范围的研究。2017年参观人数超过130万人次。该馆设有27个永久的世界文化和自然历史展厅、2个儿童动手实践探索展厅和4个用于临时展览的展区。该馆收集了两只鲸鱼的骨架,将其中一只鲸鱼的心脏做塑化处理后在主展厅展出,将在加拿大各地和其他国家和地区进行巡回展出。     

The Denver Community Museum

Abstract This essay recounts the story of the Denver Community Museum, a pop‐up institution which operated for almost a year in downtown Denver, Colorado. This temporary museum was designed to be short‐lived. It prompted experiments with audience participation and questioned past versus present, fact versus fiction, and the museum “voice.” This article gives an overview of the space and its operations. Using personal accounts, the article explores the value of participation for the museum’s audience, as well as for the institution itself. These narratives are used as a springboard for a larger discussion of museum practice and creating opportunities for personal connection within the museum.     

Collecting participatory art at the Denver Art Museum

Participatory art is a contemporary movement requiring viewers to take an active part in the artwork, by means ranging from interaction with materials to creative contribution. Artistic developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, such as political and social engagement, led to the rise of participatory practices. Concurrently, museums have reacted to falling attendance and cultural shifts by seeking to create more engaging experiences for visitors. At the Denver Art Museum, this has led to an increased interest in displaying and collecting participatory art. Through case studies of works in the collection of the Denver Art Museum, Walking in Venus Blue Cave (2001) by Ernesto Neto and ¿Being Home? (2009) by Rupprecht Matthies, this paper explores the conservation of participatory artworks in museum collections, including their maintenance on display, long-term preservation of their interactive nature, and the possibility of involving communities in conservation actions and decision-making.     

Finding the Natural Interface: Graduate and Public Education at One University Natural History Museum

University natural history museums are much like their public museum counterparts, yet they differ in some important ways including how they are funded and staffed and how they serve their parent institutions. These circumstances provide some unique opportunities for university‐based natural history museums but they also present challenges, especially for their public education goals. While there are surely a variety of creative solutions for resolving these dilemmas, this article explores how the graduate program at the University of Colorado Museum may be seen as an example serving as an interface between diverse facets of the Museum and its several audiences and constituencies. The usefulness of the program as a model and as a means of training and nurturing future museum professionals is discussed.     

The Topical Museum of Natural History: A Walking Paper

Abstract As museums enter a new century, they are challenged to demonstrate their relevance to society. Increasingly, institutions have recognized that in order to thrive, they must ensure that mission‐related activities—exhibits and programs, collections and research—are meaningful to the public they rely on for support. Numerous deeply‐ingrained habits of practice and of thought have prevented object‐based exhibits from responding effectively to visitor interests. For museums to be truly relevant to their audiences, this paper argues for a fundamental shift in how they think about and organize exhibits. Exhibits need to become more topical and issue‐oriented, rather than generalized and systematic. Furthermore, a successful topical exhibit program needs to operate on two separate, yet integrated, levels: long‐term exhibits providing context on broadly relevant, interdisciplinary themes shorter‐term exhibits on specific, current issues embedded within the longterm exhibits, linking that broad content to visitors' lives Beyond the crucial role of increasing the museum's relevance to its audience, such an exhibits program would have numerous ancillary benefits, including more evenly distributed costs, greater creativity, lessened job burnout, and new funding opportunities. Though specifically addressing natural history museums, aspects of this paper should be relevant to museums of all kinds.     

The Natural History Museum: Taking on a Learning Agenda

Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the University of Pittsburgh are engaged in a research and practice partnership to bring new learning sciences findings and theories into contact with the design and deployment of innovative natural history learning experiences. In this article, we describe four strands of work: 1) connecting people to nature; 2) engaging people of all ages in complex and current scientific debates of regional consequence; 3) partnerships to build a strong regional learning ecology for nature and science; and 4) iterative professional development to support staff as they work with new definitions of learning and engagement in the museum.     

匈牙利自然历史博物馆的历史、设施和活动

匈牙利自然历史博物馆是世界上最早的自然历史博物馆之一,具有独特的传统并在社会中发挥着决定性的文化作用。馆内收藏有丰富的植物学、动物学、人类学、古生物学和地质学的藏品、原生型标本以及藏书,为世界各地研究人员的研究活动提供收藏品和设施。该馆每年举办的展览吸引观众约30万人次,组织近500场教育活动,受众达到了44000人。该馆意识到博物馆当前所面临的挑战与机遇,积极应对诸如气候变化、生物多样性危机、新发传染病、生物入侵等全球性问题,在探索与相关政府部门以及其他科学组织和机构合作方式过程中发挥主导作用。