Immediately upon opening the website you know exactly where you are. Across the main banner is the name of the museum in large font and completely in capital letters: GUGGENHEIM. Since there are other Guggenheim museums around the world, the name of the city the museum is located in is also on the front. But just incase you were looking for a Guggenheim located in another country, you are in luck. This is because there are links to all of the other museums on the front page.
Also on the main page is a scrolling banner that outlines some of the exhibits currently on display at the museum. Further down there is another list with clickable links to current special exhibits, as well as those that are coming soon, along with some important museum related news and events. Last, but certainly not the least, is a long line of tabs integrated into the main banner, as well as at the bottom of the page. Some of these tabs allow you to scroll over them with your mouse, and it will open up sub categories to allow you to insure that you navigate to the exact page you wish to view; even if you need that page in another language!
Each of the clickable tabs will navigate you to another page with more specific information. Some of the more interesting tabs are the 'visit us' tab, which contains all of the information pertaining to the museum location, hours of operation, how to buy tickets, menus for the restaurant, and even a map of the museum. There is also a tab for the ' calendar & events', 'about us', 'membership', as well as tabs for the 'exhibitions', and 'collections', which have pictures, articles and much much more. Under the 'connect' section there is a vast supply of ways to experience, or enhance the museum experience. Social networking sites such as facebook, myspace, and twitter have been integrated, as well as links to pictures, videos, audio tours, podcasts, media feeds, and even a website to make and send your own electronic greeting cards. If there is a way to keep you interested in the museum, it will be located here.
The mission statement for not only the New York Guggenheim museum, but for the entire Guggenheim Foundation is: "to promote the understanding and appreciation of art, architecture, and other manifestations of visual culture, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, and to collect, conserve, and study the art of our time." I feel that the website helps to achieve these goals in many ways. For starters, the amount of the digitized information available is pretty substantial and widely available to the public in many different forms of media.
I believe that the website is extremely effective. All of the information is laid out in a format that is easy to access, and the search feature is phenomenal. You can search by artist, title, date, artwork type, and even movement type. There appears to be something for everyone, whether you are an occasional web surfer or a technological-pro, information and enjoyment can be found by the boatloads at the Guggenheim-Ney York website.
The website can be view at the following link:
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Fossilized Remains of the Connor Museum
The museum exhibit I chose to review is located in the Conner Museum at Washington State University. This exhibit did not have a visible title but focused primarily on a dinosaur named Prosaurulophus maximus; also known as the ‘duck billed‘ dinosaur. The objectives of the exhibit were not entirely clear, but I believed they were centered around providing the public with some basic information about this dinosaur and others in the same family: Hadrosaurus. These dinosaurs lived approximately 75 million years ago during the Cretaceous period and were most likely vegetarians. They probably ate conifers and other swamp grasses judging by their broad and flat teeth, which caused them to wear very quickly. Luckily, these dinosaurs were able to grow their teeth back quickly and almost always had others waiting to replace the damaged or missing ones. These dinosaurs also had rough skin, much like that of a football.
This exhibit was pretty large in retrospect to some of the other exhibits in the museum, and most likely required a substantial amount of work to complete. Unlike most of the other exhibits that consisted of taxidermied animals, this exhibit housed faux fossilized remains that spanned the entire width of the room. The centerpiece of the exhibit was a painted plaster cast of an actually fossilized ‘duck billed’ dinosaur. It was as long as the room was wide and as tall as the ceiling was high. With dimensions like this, is was not housed in an actual glass case like many of the other exhibits. It was instead left out in the open for patrons to witness, almost unshrouded completely. The only material suggesting museumgoers not to touch, were some very short wooden poles; loosely tied together with rope. There was also some archeological tools scattered around the base of the plaster-dino to simulate an actual dig. These tools consisted of a small pic hammer, handheld broom, and some other odds and ins. Finally there was a small poster, and an even smaller sheet of paper on stands for patrons to read from. The poster contained all of the data regarding the exhibit, along with an actually picture of a fossilized skin sample from one of these creatures, as well as a computer generated image of what the dinosaur might have looked like in its heyday. And the small piece of paper was just s written thank you to all those that helped create the exhibit.
The exhibit was initially very appealing to me and is one of those setups that catches your eye from the beginning and reels you in. The sheer size of the exhibit quite literally could not be contained by the traditional practices of the Connor Museum, but for some reason it just worked. The openness of the exhibit gives you the feeling of being on a dig and provides just as much of the ’wow’ factor as if it were an actual fossil. The plaster provides great detail of what the real skeleton would have looked like, even showing the broken ribs that the animal had at the time of it’s fossilization. However, when you look at the rest of the exhibit in detail, it is actually kind of disappointing. For one there is no title to give a quick description or let you know what the exhibit is about. There is some information displayed on a poster mounted to a stand, but really some more information about the dinosaur would have been great. I can think of a few things off the top of my head: where it was originally excavated, who excavated it/ discovered it, what type of material it was fossilized in, or really anything else that tells the story or helps paint a mental picture of the dinosaur or its discovery. Some of the information contained on the poster is actually kind of hard to follow and slightly confusing. The poster stated that the skin of this dinosaur is like that of a football or a baseball. In my mind, theses are two completely different textures. A baseball has a feel of soft smooth leather, and the football of a harder more bumpy and textured material.
I really did like this exhibit and I have always been fascinated by dinosaurs, or any other creature that is extinct for that matter. I like how the display was setup and felt that it really conveyed the feelings of an archeological dig. There were very few things I would have changed, and really I would not have changed the exhibit at all, but rather just enhance it. I actually wish that there were more exhibits of ancient or extinct creatures in the Connor Museum and displays containing animals which one can see out on a Sunday drive.
This exhibit was pretty large in retrospect to some of the other exhibits in the museum, and most likely required a substantial amount of work to complete. Unlike most of the other exhibits that consisted of taxidermied animals, this exhibit housed faux fossilized remains that spanned the entire width of the room. The centerpiece of the exhibit was a painted plaster cast of an actually fossilized ‘duck billed’ dinosaur. It was as long as the room was wide and as tall as the ceiling was high. With dimensions like this, is was not housed in an actual glass case like many of the other exhibits. It was instead left out in the open for patrons to witness, almost unshrouded completely. The only material suggesting museumgoers not to touch, were some very short wooden poles; loosely tied together with rope. There was also some archeological tools scattered around the base of the plaster-dino to simulate an actual dig. These tools consisted of a small pic hammer, handheld broom, and some other odds and ins. Finally there was a small poster, and an even smaller sheet of paper on stands for patrons to read from. The poster contained all of the data regarding the exhibit, along with an actually picture of a fossilized skin sample from one of these creatures, as well as a computer generated image of what the dinosaur might have looked like in its heyday. And the small piece of paper was just s written thank you to all those that helped create the exhibit.
The exhibit was initially very appealing to me and is one of those setups that catches your eye from the beginning and reels you in. The sheer size of the exhibit quite literally could not be contained by the traditional practices of the Connor Museum, but for some reason it just worked. The openness of the exhibit gives you the feeling of being on a dig and provides just as much of the ’wow’ factor as if it were an actual fossil. The plaster provides great detail of what the real skeleton would have looked like, even showing the broken ribs that the animal had at the time of it’s fossilization. However, when you look at the rest of the exhibit in detail, it is actually kind of disappointing. For one there is no title to give a quick description or let you know what the exhibit is about. There is some information displayed on a poster mounted to a stand, but really some more information about the dinosaur would have been great. I can think of a few things off the top of my head: where it was originally excavated, who excavated it/ discovered it, what type of material it was fossilized in, or really anything else that tells the story or helps paint a mental picture of the dinosaur or its discovery. Some of the information contained on the poster is actually kind of hard to follow and slightly confusing. The poster stated that the skin of this dinosaur is like that of a football or a baseball. In my mind, theses are two completely different textures. A baseball has a feel of soft smooth leather, and the football of a harder more bumpy and textured material.
I really did like this exhibit and I have always been fascinated by dinosaurs, or any other creature that is extinct for that matter. I like how the display was setup and felt that it really conveyed the feelings of an archeological dig. There were very few things I would have changed, and really I would not have changed the exhibit at all, but rather just enhance it. I actually wish that there were more exhibits of ancient or extinct creatures in the Connor Museum and displays containing animals which one can see out on a Sunday drive.
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