By SARA KINCAID Bismarck Tribune | Posted: Friday, December 4, 2009 2:00 am

“Planning continues on the idea of a children’s museum in Mandan.

The founding board for the North Dakota Children’s Museum met Thursday evening in Mandan. It was the board’s second meeting. A children’s museum has interactive exhibits for children.

“It’s not sterile, where you can’t touch anything,” said Sara Hills, one of the co-founders of the museum.

Hills is spearheading the children’s museum effort with Wendy Anderson-Berg. Hills is a kindergarten teacher in Mandan Public Schools and Anderson-Berg works for Bismarck Parks and Recreation.”

“Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race” amazing website from the at the Holocaust Museum

Exhibition Narrative from the Holocaust Museum website:

“From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany’s government led by Adolf Hitler promoted a nationalism that combined territorial expansion with claims of biological superiority—an “Aryan master race”—and virulent antisemitism. Driven by a racist ideology legitimized by German scientists, the Nazis attempted to eliminate all of Europe’s Jews, ultimately killing six million in the Holocaust. Many others also became victims of persecution and murder in the Nazis’ campaign to cleanse German society of individuals viewed as threats to the “health” of the nation.”

From New York Times article

by Ken Johnson

“Tim Burton’s career is the ultimate revenge of the art nerd. Mr. Burton, the self-professed alienated child of a dysfunctional family in Burbank, Calif., who funneled his loneliness, pain and grief into drawing cartoons, has found fame, fortune and a beautiful companion (Helena Bonham Carter) by telling cinematic tales of sensitive misfits triumphing over, or succumbing to, a world of repressive mediocrity.”

I love having the time to think about things like, “what is the best Art exhibition I have ever seen?” My answer would be:

High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture

At the time the New York Times wrote a scathing article about the exhibition and Robert Hughes wrote an article for Time Magazine.  Kirk Varnedoe understood that the power of being a curator is going beyond interperting the works of Art and using the using the works to make a statement, which in 1990 was a new idea.

This exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, went beyond exhibiting the works of Art, it created a new vocabulary for looking at Modern Art.

Excellent exhibition catalog, out of print High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture by Kirk Varnedoe

Medan Merdeka Barat 12
Jakarta 10110, Indonesia
www.museumnasional.org

5 of 5 Stars

Posted: December 1, 2009

Category: History Museum

Museum Generation: Museum 1.0

Admission Price: 750 Rupiah

Size: approximately 150,000  sq. ft. of exhibits

Wheelchair Accessible: Yes

My Review:

To be honest wasn’t expecting much and was blown away!  Great Museum!  The Museum is in two parts the original building and the new expansion.  The collection is wonderful and the interpretative signage is very well written.  All of the things I look for; great collection, a mix of techniques for different learning styles, easy to navigate and the collection serves as a tool for learning about the culture.

P.S. I am always a sucker for old wooden exhibit cases

Summary

• Great collection
• Great Interpretation of collection
• Way finding could be better
• Exhibit lighting could be better
• A great surprise!

I love news articles like this, it gives you an insiders view of the museum world – Mark Walhimer

By T.J. Greaney
From the Columbia Tribune

Link to Article

“A former executive director of the YouZeum, Gwen Robbins, is suing the interactive science center, claiming breach of contract and defamation. In a petition filed this month in Boone County Circuit Court, Robbins claims the former chairman of the YouZeum board of directors, Glenn McElroy, violated the terms of Robbins’ termination agreement by saying she was forced to step down in October 2008 because of an inability to raise adequate funds.

Part of Robbins’ severance agreement stipulated neither side would make public comments about the termination other than to say Robbins had met with the board of directors and both sides agreed “a change in direction” was needed because of “difficult economic times,” according to the lawsuit.”

In a Nov. 6, 2008, Tribune article, McElroy was quoted as saying the termination stemmed from Robbins’ inability to attract large-money private donors. McElroy repeated the assertion in a radio interview.

Robbins, now doing volunteer work at Children’s House Montessori school, has been unable to find employment since her termination in October 2008. She claims the statements about her success at raising funds for the YouZeum are false, although no specific fundraising figures are listed in her petition.

“It has hurt her reputation as a fundraiser,” said Michael Byrne, attorney for Robbins. “She has been a very successful fundraiser throughout her career, and it is our contention that the statements made have made it more difficult to get a new job.”

The suit also alleges the YouZeum has not compensated Robbins for 173 hours of vacation pay valued at more than $6,000. At the time of her departure, Robbins’ salary was $72,600 a year, including a $10,000 raise she received in July 2007, the lawsuit says.

McElroy did not reply to a phone call yesterday.

The YouZeum opened in May 2008 at 608 Cherry St. after years of false starts and delays. It has endured multiple setbacks during the past year. Dan Fowler, hired in April as director of development to restart the museum’s fundraising effort, stepped down sometime this summer for unknown reasons.

Fowler’s departure came after the resignation in June of Kathryn Ward, assistant executive director, who had run most of the day-to-day operations. At its opening, the YouZeum had five full-time employees; now it has only two and has significantly cut its hours of operation.

The $8.5 million museum is housed in a former federal building, which it occupies at virtually no cost. The YouZeum received $750,000 in federal funding, $250,000 in state tax credits and $350,000 in local public funds.

At its opening, the museum’s projected viability relied heavily on a steady stream of visitors passing through the turnstiles. Leaders projected 60,000 visitors a year would tour the center. But even in the first few months after the ribbon-cutting, the YouZeum was able to attract only 1,500 or so per month.

McElroy and the YouZeum Inc. are listed as defendants in the suit.

Byrne said Robbins, 42, regretted the public nature of the suit but felt she had no other option.

“She hoped that this could have been resolved without the filing of a suit through the YouZeum making an apology and correcting the record in regards to her fundraising, but that has not occurred,” he said. “We felt there was no other option but to file suit.””

From the Star-Telegram

“These and many other jaw-dropping interactive experiences await when the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History opens its doors Friday, marking the start of a new era in the museum’s history.

What began in 1945 as the Fort Worth Children’s Museum has evolved into a dazzling 166,000-square-foot, $80 million state-of-the-art complex that will thrill children and enable adults to find their inner child.”

By Janet Fullwood
Contra Costa Times Correspondent

“The upcoming Olympic Heritage Celebration is timed to cash in on public enthusiasm for the 2010 Winter Olympics, opening Feb. 12 in Vancouver, British Columbia. And it’s more than just a nostalgia bash. The underlying goal is to raise funds and support for a ski museum to be built at a yet-to-be-determined North Shore location.

The proposed facility, which will incorporate the Auburn Ski Club collection now on display in a deteriorating Donner Summit museum, will take a broad look at the history of skiing in the west, says Linda Williams, project manager for the Olympic Museum Foundation.”

From the Daily Press

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.

The renovation is scheduled to open Saturday after several delays prevented it from opening as expected on Memorial Day weekend.

The Virginian-Pilot reported Sunday that a coastal Sahara desert habitat will be one of the new things to see. Scorpions, cobras and hedgehogs will be on display.

A Red Sea aquarium and Flores Island exhibit will also be on display–along with the much-awaited Komodo dragons.

By Michelle Krupa, The Times-Picayune

“Spearheaded by a pair of Mayor Ray Nagin’s close allies, the Center for Entertainment and the Creative Industry, dubbed CECI, would reinvent the Municipal Auditorium, still shuttered since Hurricane Katrina, as a structure that combines traditional stages with digital production facilities, a merchandise distribution center, a culinary school, a jazz museum and offices for nonprofit and commercial start-ups in entertainment-related fields.”