This was my first trip back to the British Museum since they'd done their major renovation: filling in the central hollow square and turning it into a reception/special exhibit/shop/cafe space - something like what the masterplan envisions for the inner courtyards, I think. I liked it. The Xian warriors exhibit was due to open two days after I was there and the hype was enormous. One neat new idea was stations like these in the galleries. Manned by volunteers, they gave visitor a chance to directly experience artifacts similar to those exhibited in the gallery.
Can you believe a conservator is actually almost encouraging artifact handling? But, with the right artifact choices, it's an idea worth considering.
The BM had its collecting philosophy prominently displayed in its Egyptian gallery:
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“Let me reward your patience by unlocking some of the cases and putting their contents in your hands. At once you realize that these treasures, recently so remote, so dead it seemed, come again to life. How useful would be a museum where people could touch things, as they now see them.”
- Stewart Culin (Former Director and Curator of the Penn Museum)
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