How objects are presented or displayed in a gallery or a museum is an important part of what makes a gallery or museum a success or a failure, regardless of what that museum is about, or how important the collection is. Many museums concentrate on the visually appealing, and spend thousands of pounds on artistic displays, creative lighting and creating space around which an object can sit.

However, while an object might look good, and as a visitor you may come to greatly appreciate the wonder of ancient technology or the creativity of a past civilisation, do you leave with any more understanding of the true meaning of what you have seen?

So here are a series of questions to think about:

1. What is your favourite museum or gallery?
2. Which museum of gallery do you think of most fondly form your childhood?
3. Do you generally prefer galleries or museums?
4. Which artefact do you love the most from Vindolanda?
5. Which aspect of the site would you like to learn more about?

This is your chance to share your favourite gallery or museum experiences.

Andy

Wow, this is harder than I'd have guessed. So many, for so many reasons.

1. Fave museum/gallery: Westminster Abbey or the Tower of London. I think it's because they're still functional; in some way still serving the purposes that made them famous. The weight of the history, ambling past the tombs of kings & queens in the Abbey; the countless tales in the various chambers & buildings of the Tower. It's a sense of place, which helps give that sense of meaning.

2. Fondest memory: Skipping for now (grew up in Orlando; the oldest thing is 30 years old :).

3. Galleries/museums: Museums. Artifacts crafted & used by people have more appeal for me than paintings & artwork. I find good lighting to be a biggie. I think of Durham Cathedral's "Treasures of Cuthbert" for the "wow" factor, and the ability to examine artifacts from all sides.

4. Fave at Vindolanda: A small terra cotta votive lamp that showed up a year ago. Rumor has it that a highly esteemed volunteer found that in '04. Was half an inch away from obliterating it with a spade. Good stuff, that!

5. What to learn more: The conservation process. It's amazing the science that goes into preserving these items. That video of the tablets is FABULOUS. Something that showed the process for wood, leather, cloth, what-have-you, would hold my interest.

Here goes-

1- I don't have a favorite museum/gallery. I've grown up in Southwest Florida which does not have too much culture. Just sun and sand! Katie enjoys visiting the British Museum and the New York Met.
2- Katie went often to the local county museum when she was growing up and liked seeing the Seminole Indians and their crafts and eating the cooking. Me, again, not much of the culture thing.
3-I prefer museums to see what people have crafted and the expert explanations as to why. Katie concurs on preferring the museum.
4-Katie likes the tablets, especially those written by or on behalf of the women.
I like the stone sculpture and pottery displays.
5-Katie says she would like to learn more about the Vindolanda area and the people living there post Roman period. I would like to understand better what the area was like before the Romans arrived in force and how the interactions affected the natives.

Matt & Katie

Already doing a little rethink... I guess the Abbey & Tower aren't really museums; more sites of historical importance that happen to have museum-quality artifacts in droves.

I think my fave true museum just might be at Durham Cathedral. The display of St. Cuthbert's treasures, etc., is done really well. It's small & well-focused, the displays can be seen from various sides, the lighting is low & dramatic, the information is thorough & not overwhelming. And it's not packed to the gills with visitors! I think that pound-for-pound, I got the most out of the experience there.

- Harry

An interesting area for discussion, I think.
Let me see...

1) Art gallery would be the Lady Lever in Port Sunlight, Wirral. Its an interesting mix of art and ceramics collected and displayed in one place - and its free to get in! I particularly like the pre-raphaelite paintings.
Museum - the tiny town mueseum in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Eire. It is tiny but full of all kinds of things of histroical interest.

2) As a Liverpool lass we used to visit Liverpool Museum regularly with family and school. I loved the Egyptian stuff - especially the mummified hand! I've bee to the newly redeveloped 'World Museum' and it is much more hands on now.

3) I like gallereies and museums for different reasons. The museums give you an insight into the workings of different civilisations, etc. whereas galleries give a visual record which may or may not be accurate.

4) I love the hairpiece in the Vindolanda Museum - I've seen similar things still worn today in certain seedy nightclubs, but lets not go there!

5) I would like to know more about the pre-Roman occupation of the site and surrounding area.

Sue M

sheesh and the starter for 10 question is ??

1. What is your favourite museum or gallery?
Hard one because they all have merits, I must admit to being exceptionally fond of the BM, but the Tower Armouries takes some beating as well. It is all a matter of context really, what do I want to see/study at the time. For example in Roman artifacts and information, Vindolanda museum outstrips many of the provincial museums, but doesn't fare too well on say Wessex Culture...for me, as I said context.

2. Which museum of gallery do you think of most fondly form your childhood
ahh this has to be the BM, I grew up in the East\ End of London and was taken there many times by my parents

3. Do you generally prefer galleries or museums?
As a rule museums, but I have a soft spot for the Laing in Newcastle. I am a sucker for the Pre-Raphaelite school

4. Which artefact do you love the most from Vindolanda?
ouch in the extreme.......so much to choose from..I really cannot answer this.

5. Which aspect of the site would you like to learn more about?
I am most interested (perhaps) in how Vindolanda was viewed by the indiginous natives - was it co-operation and trade or was it conflict and tribute, this is perhaps observable in the sequences of abandonment, destruction and rebuilding, What happens for example when the units march north or south leaving a slighted fort behind...do the natives get revenge by trashing the place or is the power and prestige of of Rome and the Romanitas sufficient to prevent this

you did ask :D

Great questions but difficult to answer. Here is my attempt:

1. What is your favourite museum or gallery?
I think this has to be Metropolitan Museum in New York. It has such a great location, fantastic displays and a wide range of exhibits I never get bored going there.

2. Which museum of gallery do you think of most fondly form your childhood?
I do not remember going to any museum or gallery as a child. I suppose I must have been taken to some but none have left any impression at all.

3. Do you generally prefer galleries or museums?
I don't have a preference. I love both equally.

4. Which artefact do you love the most from Vindolanda?
Very difficult question this as there are so many interesting artefacts which I find fascinating. From a personal point of view I would have to say Harry's votive lamp as I was digging next to him when he found it.

5. Which aspect of the site would you like to learn more about?
Everything. I love information and delving deeper into anything.

1. What is your favourite museum or gallery? A private museum owned by Martin Green on his farm on Cranborne Chase, Dorset. The museums exhibits span the millenia from before the dinosaurs, through the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and on through Roman, medieval, civil war and right through to modern times. Martin is a self taught archaeologist and most of the exhibits have been collected by him from the local area. The farm has many sites from many periods within its boundaries.

2. Which museum of gallery do you think of most fondly form your childhood? Walsall Art Gallery was my favourite haunt as a teenager, containing, amongst other things, a sketch by Van Gogh and sculptures by Jacob Epstien.
The collection is now in a purpose built gallery which has become internationally renowned.

3. Do you generally prefer galleries or museums? Museums

4. Which artefact do you love the most from Vindolanda? Difficult to choose but the everyday items such as the shoes and the letters intrigue me most, because of their preservation against all the odds.

5. Which aspect of the site would you like to learn more about? The supply chains, of the equipment and foodstuffs etc and the people who supported the occupying forces. Also the pre-Roman occupants of the area.

Hard to answer those questions were! As Yoda would have said.

Bryan
:) :P :unsure: