[meteorite-list] No Meteorites on display!!!!

[Peter Davidson]

Good Morning everyone on the List

I would like to thank Mike Antonelli for his e-mail drawing attention to the situation at The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. The lack of a meteorite display there highlights one of the problems many museums have around the World in deciding what to exhibit and what not.

Can I first say that I have no particular insight into the museum's policies for exhibition, nor do I personally know any of the curators. However I know many, many curators from other museums around the World and I can draw on this knowledge to get a feel for the problems the Carnegie has.

The notion that museums are somehow divorced from the everyday World and that curators exist in tax-payer funded ivory towers trying to devise as many ways as we can possibly think of to avoid putting our collection on display to the public is one that bears no resemblance to reality. Museums around the World are under increasing pressure from their funding bodies, whether that be National Governments, local governments or town councils, to cut costs and to justify their dwindling expenditure by housing exhibitions that have some kind of "WOW" factor. These blockbuster exhibitions may indeed, as Steve Dunklee rightly points out, have little to do with Natural History. But it is likely to attract big sponsorship and media attention and this may have a trickle down benefit to the museum through increased visitor numbers and heightened awareness. This inevitably leads to hard decisions about the best (or most profitable) use of the limited space museums have. If a museum director has to choose between a high profile Andy Warhol exhibition that will attract major corporate sponsorship and generate a good deal of media interest or a much more worthy display of objects from the museum's own collections that will bring in no income and little media attention, then I am afraid that in today's world Warhol wins!

Other factors to consider here are that a museum's policies are largely decided by the Director (or equivalent - the Head Honcho in any case) who may not have any interest in meteorites, whether they have a good collection or not. Perhaps there is no dedicated meteorite curator to look after and promote the collection. This can be a serious problem for any collection. After all, I myself am a mineralogist who happens to have an interest in meteorites and have been active in promoting the collection whenever I can. Had I not had this interest, the collection would indeed be stored away and might never see the light of day. As it is we will have meteorites in our new galleries (not enough in my view) but this is something!

There are other ways to promote the collection other than by display. Taking the collection into the community is a vital role museums can and do play. This can be done by organising temporary or touring exhibitions, by school visits or talks and lectures to people of all ages and experiences. 

I agree with MikeG to some extent in that private collectors have a very important role in complementing the work that museums do. Most collectors I know have an enthusiasm, dedication and depth of knowledge in their particular field that museums often lack. Clearly co-operation and mutual appreciation is better than conflict and constant criticism. 

Please believe me when I tell you that as curators, we are trying to do our very best under difficult circumstances. Museums are often viewed by governments as an easy target for funding cuts - expensive white elephants is a phrase that often crops up - so the axe is often wielded here quickest and deepest than in other areas. Collectors and others should use every method available to highlight this problem and contributing to online blogs, forums, Twitter and Facebook are very useful weapons - use them. 

Thanks for listening

Peter Davidson
Curator of Minerals
 
Department of Natural Sciences
National Museums Collection Centre
242 West Granton Road
Edinburgh  EH5 1JA
Scotland
Tel: 00 44 131 247 4283
E-mail: p.davidson at nms.ac.uk

New exhibition A Passion for Glass, National Museum of Scotland, Fri 20 May - Sun 11 September. Free entry. www.nms.ac.uk/glass

National Museums Scotland, Scottish Charity, No. SC 011130
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