Museum experiences
For several weeks now, I have been reflecting on my year in Toronto. My experiences on campus have been undeniably wonderful, but I am still unsure on my feelings for Canada’s largest city. One thing I am sure of, though, is that the cultural opportunities available in such a large city are hard to pass up.
It may not be the most attractive building, but the Royal Ontario Museum offers world-class exhibits. A student membership might have been the best investment I made all year! Living only a block away, I easily took in exhibits one by one, which allowed me to really focus on the themes and content of each.
Of course, the medieval exhibits were the main draw for me, but recently I visited specifically to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. The much-anticipated exhibit of the “greatest archeological finds of the century” was quite incredible. The exhibit began with displays of Jewish and Roman artifacts from Sephorris, Jerusalem, and Qumran (the last being the the site near which the 900-odd scrolls were found in 1947), which nicely established the context of the origin and discovery of the scrolls. 12 fragments of scrolls, 4 of which were making their first ever appearance, were displayed with translations of their texts and descriptions of their historical significance. They were a mix of biblical passages, commentaries, laws, apocryphal texts, and poetry. The exhibit ended with a video on their conservation, and a section on their historical importance for the faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
I really appreciated the attempt of the exhibit to show how the ancient scrolls were relevant to people today. Their appeal for some may lie simply in their age and antiquarian interest. But to deepen the experience for visitors, I think it is important for exhibits to stress the relevancy to the present day. In this case, many of these scrolls are the oldest examples of biblical writings and offer important details of the lives of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim patriarchs. The exhibit also interestingly noted their potential impact on interfaith dialogue between the three faith traditions.
So, all in all, a great exhibit!
While in another part of the museum, I watched a tourist speed quickly through an exhibit, bopping away to his iPod tunes, taking incredibly quick (and surely poor) photos of artifacts through the glass, not even pausing to look directly at them, or to read their descriptions. I was amused, but a little saddened. What kind of museum experience was he really getting? That made me consider again how important relevancy is in an exhibit!
It may not be the most attractive building, but the Royal Ontario Museum offers world-class exhibits. A student membership might have been the best investment I made all year! Living only a block away, I easily took in exhibits one by one, which allowed me to really focus on the themes and content of each.
Of course, the medieval exhibits were the main draw for me, but recently I visited specifically to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. The much-anticipated exhibit of the “greatest archeological finds of the century” was quite incredible. The exhibit began with displays of Jewish and Roman artifacts from Sephorris, Jerusalem, and Qumran (the last being the the site near which the 900-odd scrolls were found in 1947), which nicely established the context of the origin and discovery of the scrolls. 12 fragments of scrolls, 4 of which were making their first ever appearance, were displayed with translations of their texts and descriptions of their historical significance. They were a mix of biblical passages, commentaries, laws, apocryphal texts, and poetry. The exhibit ended with a video on their conservation, and a section on their historical importance for the faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
I really appreciated the attempt of the exhibit to show how the ancient scrolls were relevant to people today. Their appeal for some may lie simply in their age and antiquarian interest. But to deepen the experience for visitors, I think it is important for exhibits to stress the relevancy to the present day. In this case, many of these scrolls are the oldest examples of biblical writings and offer important details of the lives of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim patriarchs. The exhibit also interestingly noted their potential impact on interfaith dialogue between the three faith traditions.
So, all in all, a great exhibit!
While in another part of the museum, I watched a tourist speed quickly through an exhibit, bopping away to his iPod tunes, taking incredibly quick (and surely poor) photos of artifacts through the glass, not even pausing to look directly at them, or to read their descriptions. I was amused, but a little saddened. What kind of museum experience was he really getting? That made me consider again how important relevancy is in an exhibit!
