Up and Down
I’ve grown to really enjoy museums in the last few years. As a kid, I visited a place in Bakersfield called “Pioneer Village” which was a weird mélange of natural history and historic site—a complex of buildings and a structure filled with dioramas. When I became a teenager, the “art” museum was my favorite—you had to go to Los Angeles to find those. Now, I’ll stop into any place that claims to offer an interesting viewing experience.
During this last trip, we stopped at several places that made me think heavily about the path one takes through a museum space. Usually, I’ve thought of these places as somewhat “random access” because I seldom march in a line, even when a trail is clearly marked. But after visiting the Henry Ford Estate where the only option was a guided tour, my opinion began to change. My preference now favors a semi-structured theatrical approach. After visiting the Mohammed Ali Center where a visitor is guided along uniquely loose pathway towards an overwhelmingly affirmative message, conventional sites such as the Country Music Museum and Hall of Fame in Nashville seem positively lame. At the most basic level, the paths of the Country Music Museum and the Ali Center are similar—a visitor ascends to the top of the building and works their way down. But in practice, the journey to the top couldn’t be more different.
