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4. Location, Location...

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Intro Chapter 4: Location, Location...

Intro Chapter 4: Location, Location...

To attract as many visitors as possible, a Museum should be located in a major tourist city. It should be easy to reach by public transport. It should be large enough for the Museum's needs. Most important of all: it should be affordable as well as sustainable in the long term. As you can read in this chapter, the locations of very few Deaf Museums meet these criteria. In some cases: with disastrous results. 

Mainstream Museums have been experimenting with other, more flexible solutions that may be relevant for Deaf Museums, too: a pop-up museum in a shop or a library, a Mobile Museum in a bus, and even a Museum in a Box.

Another option is a virtual Museum on the internet instead of a physical exhibition. 

In this chapter, you will find some more information about these options.

4.1. Location

4.1. Location

Location is probably the biggest challenge for Deaf Museum, and maybe for all Museums. Location is about a place on the map: do many people go here? Can people find it? Is it easy to reach by public transport? 

But it is also about the building, both the outside and the inside. The building: is it an important landmark? Is it easy to recognize as a Museum? And for the inside: How many rooms, how large or how small? Is there room for a cafeteria, a Museum shop? Are the building and all rooms accessible to people with mobility problems? And of course the finances: how much does it cost to rent or buy the rooms? What are all the additional costs: maintenance, heating, lighting, insurance? 

In this chapter, we'll describe some alternative solutions that mainstream Museums have found to solve the location problem. Alternatives that can be used instead of a 'brick and mortar' physical Museum or as an addition to a physical  Museum.
We'll also look at the locations of the Deaf Museums in our survey and their costs, size and sustainability. 

4.2. A Pop-up Museum

4.2. A Pop-up Museum

A Pop-Up museum is not really a Museum because it is not permanent, see the definition of Museum in Chapter 2. It is a temporary exhibition that is set up in an empty shop, restaurant,  church or some other unused building.

The objective is to attract new visitors: people who are just walking by and decide to have a look.

A pop-up Museum can also be set up at a conference or festival, maybe just for 1 or 2 days. See "How to make a Pop-Up Museum",  below.

ruskinmuseum

"The Ruskin Pop-Up Museum was based in an empty shop in the neighbourhood of Walkley, a stone’s throw away from St George’s Museum (1875-1890), the original home of the Ruskin Collection of the Guild of St George. The free pop-up museum was rooted in Ruskin’s belief in engaging people with arts, crafts, nature, heritage and each other for greater happiness and wellbeing."

Source:  How to create a pop-up museum


Further Reading:

4.3. A Mobile Museum

4.3. A Mobile Museum

If a Pop-Up Museum goes from one place to the other, it becomes a Mobile or Travelling Museum. The idea behind a Mobile Museum is that the Museum brings its exhibition to the people, instead of the people travelling to see the exhibition.

Some Mobile Museums are set up inside a bus or trailer, making it very mobile.

Structures Culture Moveable Museum 


  Further Reading:

4.4. A Museum in a Box

4.4. A Museum in a Box

A smaller alternative to a Mobile Museum is a Museum in a Box: a box with museum artefacts that can be used by schools, libraries and other organisations to set up a temporary exhibition.

The box can be any size, with any number of objects. A website can provide additional information, games and activities, making the Museum  in a Box a hybrid museum. 

Museuminabox

source: http://www.mottodistribution.com/shop/duchamp-museum-in-a-box-de-ou-par-marcel-duchamp.html


Further Reading:

4.5. A Hybrid Museum

4.5. A Hybrid Museum

A hybrid Museum is a Museum that is partly physical - a Museum in a permanent or temporary physical location - in combination with a virtual Museum on a website. 

The advantage: the physical Museum can be small, temporary and/or mobile. Additional information such as videos, photos, interactive activities, and games can be on a website. Visitors may see the virtual information on an interactive display, or on their own mobile phones. The Museum can use QR codes next to exhibits that send the visitor to the information on a website. 

Augmented Reality can be used as well: visitors wear a VR headset to see additional information that is streamed from a website. 

VR

The Roald Dahl Museum uses Augmented Reality to give sign language users access to information in sign language (starting at 1:42)


Further Reading:

4.6. A Virtual Museum

4.6. A Virtual Museum

Museums started out by adding online information and exhibits to their 'physical' exhibitions, then they made 'virtual' tours of their physical exhibitions. And now, some museums  exist on the internet only. There is no physical building at all. 

The main challenge for a virtual museum is how to design the online presence  in a way that is different from just another website or an online PowerPoint Presentation or YouTube video.

There are online platforms to create three dimensional spaces for a virtual museum or exhibition. Some museums use this to recreate their real physical presence in virtual space and offer virtual tours. Others create the museum or exhibition of their dreams - online only.

For some examples, see: https://blog.britishmuseum.org/how-to-explore-the-british-museum-from-home/ 

image 2022 05 12 162910672

But how can  you avoid that people get lost in a virtual Museum? How can you make sure that the online exhibition is accessible to all - even to people with limited computer skills? And to  people with disabilities?

Some visitors may actually prefer an online PowerPoint presentation - with its focus on the exhibits, instead of on the design of the virtual space. 


Further Reading:

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