Museum Exhibit Musings -- I remember ...

Sorry, it’s been a while since I posted. I was on vacation for some of the time. But a big part of the reason is that I had a few blog ideas put together and then, horrors, my memory stick crashed and I lost the past 6 weeks of stuff saved on it. Fortunately, most things were backed up elsewhere but my Blog musings were not.

This weekend I had a fun, informal tour of Red Deer (thanks, Rod) and it started me thinking about historic buildings. Historic buildings need to be part of this exhibit. In many ways, they are the most concrete, visual reminder of the time period. But how to include them in the exhibit?

I have the thought to list, with photographs, many of the buildings built during this time period and in the year or so before the exhibit goes up, ask people to say what they like and what they remember about the building. The idea would be to ask everyone from children to “experts”. Which is your favourite building? Why? What do you like about the building? What’s your favourite memory about this building? Which building would you stand in front of a bull dozer to protect?

If possible, I would want to record some of these so they could be listened to during the exhibit. Others could be captured in writing. And then during the exhibit visitors would be asked to add to this. I think (hope?) some responses would be personal (I remember going there as a child and they had the best candy in Lethbridge); others might be aesthetic; and others would be based on historical relevance.

Then, in the exhibit, combine these memories, feelings and recollections with a small amount of historical data on the building and some of the description (usually from the newspaper) of the opening of the building all with really good photographs. What do you think? Would you enjoy an area of the exhibit designed and developed this way? And if you already have a favourite building, let me know!