the museum : a fountain of knowledge or a holistic escape for the soul?

With 21 centuries of modern life under our belts we have more than enough stories to tell. There are many ways that we as humanity have chosen to continue these narratives, one of the most prominent being the museums, these shrines to those who have lived before us attract millions of us year upon year. Yet what is it that draws us to such spaces no matter which city won earth we happen to be visiting? What do we gain from a building filled with glass cases locking away a number of artefacts spanning from every era of history? The buildings themselves are part of what draws us inside their walls. “In essence, what works of design and architecture talk to us about is the kind of life would most appropriately unfold within and around them. They tell us of certain moods that they seek to encourage and sustain in their inhabitants. While keeping us warm and safe and helping us in mechanical ways, they simultaneously hold out an invitation for us to be specific sorts of people. They speak visions of happiness.” (De Botton)

What invitation is it that museums send out into the world? No matter what kind of museum it is, it is most likely offering some form of increased knowledge on either a wide range of topics or more niche subject areas. Yet they also have the ability to evoke feelings in each and every one of us : we relate to the most surprising of things discovered when inside the walls of a museum. They play on our imagination, forcing us to wonder and fantasise of the stories and paths that led the objects and artefacts to end up right there in front of us at that particular moment in time. The museum forges connections between the past and the present through connecting it's visitors with the object placed in front of them. “We will of course, run a risk if we spend extended periods of time analysing the meanings that emanate from practical objects… To inoculate ourselves against this derision and to gain confidence in cultivating a contrary, more meditative attitude towards objects, we might profitably pay a visit to a museum of modern art. In white washed galleries housing collections of twentieth century abstract sculpture, we are offered a rare perspective on how exactly three dimensional masses can assumed convey meaning - a perspective that may in turn enable us to regard our fittings and houses in a new way.”  

 If museums allow us to see our own spaces and in turn the world around us, how does it affect the way we see ourselves?  Does the museum reflect who we are as a person, encompassing our interests and our knowledge or does it reflect the person we wish to be, someone who is cultured and knowledgeable about the world around them? In a way it is both of these simultaneously, we undergo an evolution in ourselves as we wander through exhibit after exhibit, contemplating the stories that have built up history and defining how the world came to be as it is today. It is almost as if we go to escape our own lives in the “quietude of art contemplation.” These exhibitions offer us a distraction by providing us with the space to focus on the collection of worries in our mind. Yet where does the exhibition end and real life begin? If you think about it, much of life is an exhibition of some kind. “Exhibition making is an innate activity : everyones home is an exhibit in some way, and people display objects to inform themselves and others about their lives and needs. Much of daily life is one form of public display or another, we present to the world who we think we might be through our clothes, appearance, belongings and spaces. Even the places we go and the things we see say something about us as a person. By being someone who goes to visit a specific exhibition at a specific museum, we are saying something to the world about who we are as a person. The museum becomes a piece of our own personal narratives, the stories of the artefacts housed within it's walls woven into the stories of the lives they touch. Their legacy lives on in us, they may be relics of the past but their narratives are ongoing through us. Museums are places of discovery and inspiration, we create memories and attachments to the things we see and take them with us, moving forwards, ever so slightly changed by the experience. A young child visiting an exhibition on mechanics and engineering may be inspired to one day invent something that might revolutionise the way we live. An adult may visit an art exhibit and be transported back to their youth, reminded of  the days when their imagination ran wild, left with a sense of nostalgia for more simple days. The truth is, museums are so much more than buildings containing dusty glass cases of objects from a past life. They are a breeding ground for the future artists and designers, doctors and scientists, inventors and revolutionaries. They are the foundations of a new world full of possibility, waiting to be built up by the people who pass through. Museums shape and reflects who we are, they allow us to believe anything is possible, to be inspired by. Those who lived before us and encourage us to go out and discover just what we might be capable of.