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Duchess's avatar

I am both sick to my stomach and chilled to the bone.

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Dani Richards's avatar

I don't know if this is a good place for this observation or not, but it fits in with the degradation of things and constant change: this weekend I visited some Smithsonian museums. I had not been since before COVID, and some exhibits which had previously closed down for renovation had reopened. I have been visiting the Smithsonian museums since 1967 or so, and I have a very good memory of the way they used to be, and how they have changed over the years.

The new style of museum exhibit is horrible, in my opinion. Overstimulating and do not lead to quiet observation and soaking in of information to come away truly informed, as opposed to entertained. I don't know when or where the decision was made (at some point) to go in this direction, but honestly it makes me very sad.

Even one of the new exhibits, African Voices (in Natural History) is so disjointed and there is no continuity apparent as one wanders through -- the dates and regions are all mish-mashed together, with no cohesiveness. If the point is that Africa is a diverse continent -- maybe that's the point. But it was impossible to make any sense of the organization. I overheard many other visitors mumbling much the same thing.

What used to be a place to learn about the world is now a place to become confused and unable to find meaning. I'm thinking, since I just read the second transcript, this is by design.

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