SHAPE 2017 TateExchange Book FINAL Draft - Flipbook - Page 29
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Why I Don’t Visit Museums
Mel Griffiths
Imagine the scenario: you’re on holiday or spending time with friends or
family and are looking for something to do. Someone then says, “I know, let’s
go to a museum”. Great idea, a chance to see something interesting, to learn
something, to be shocked or amazed, the possibilities are endless. Not for
me though. Personally, with very few exceptions, I would give the museum a
swerve in favour of just about anything else. I’ve even been known to sit in a
café and people watch whilst others in my party visit a museum!
For me, going around a museum is a very passive experience if there is
nothing on display which can be handled. I’m not very good at being read
to for long periods of time and I often find my mind wandering to other
things, particularly when there are other people around me having different
conversations. I’m just too nosy! When I was a child, my father used to take
time to meticulously describe everything we saw, which was fantastic of
him, but without anything to refer to that I could relate to, it was difficult to
maintain an enthusiastic and interested face! Having never had good sight,
it is difficult to listen to descriptions and relate to things that I have seen, so
often descriptions hold very little relevance for me.
I even struggle sometimes at those museums where there is an audio
commentary to listen to whilst walking around, if there is nothing that I
can directly experience myself. Don’t get me wrong, audio description is
a wonderful addition and should only be applauded, but it’s still a passive
experience. Sometimes I feel, however, that having a nice quiet place to sit
and listen to it would be preferable to traipsing round an exhibition and
standing in front of things that might as well be in another room.
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