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if i keep up my current eating habits i won’t be able to fit into women’s clothes for much longer…
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Monthly Archives: May 2011
b & w
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i have a MASSIVE assignment due tomorrow (and another on friday, but let’s not think about that for now), but my brain is all mixed up like this picture.
i know what i think, but sometimes getting it out on paper is hard…
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wood
could have posted this entire website.
handmade furniture by bbdw in new york.
another reason to move to new york, methinks…
notions
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it’s my birthday soon, so i’m currently on the look out for potential things that my boyfriend can get for me.
any of these would be wonderful…
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all items by merchant and mills
new york
painting
museums
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i’m quite passionate about musuems and art and heritage and the like, so i thought i’d post a (heavily edited) response to a question i had to answer about museum going. you can tell it’s from a uni assignment because i used capital letters…
anyway: feel free to scan past it if you want!
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When thinking about my museum visiting habits, I realised the Immigration Museum is one of only a couple of non-art museums that I have been to in the past few months. I quickly nipped in to the Melbourne Museum earlier in the year, but really: that is about it. This is not necessarily reflective of my interests, perhaps more indicative of my lifestyle and wallet.
I work in the CBD, and sometimes pop in to the NGV or the State Library after work. If in the city shopping, I will often visit Craft Victoria or a smaller gallery for inspiration. Whilst the central location of these galleries plays a role, so does budget; special exhibitions aside, the NGV (my most frequented gallery) is free all year round. The Melbourne Museum is not.
And neither are several other large museums in the city and inner suburbs: Old Melbourne Gaol, Scienceworks and the Immigration Museum, for example. I consider myself an avid museum-goer, but even I am influenced by entrance fees. I have absolutely no problem paying to visit a museum – and will happily do so – but I do view these funded visits as ‘excursions’: I will make a day (or afternoon) of it. However, I don’t think this is the best way to visit museums.
I will frequently pop in to the NGV for an hour or less, just to view one exhibition. No dreaded ‘museum fatigue’: I see what I want to see, and then leave. And my pleasant experience means that I will return again soon, and do the same with a different exhibit. No aimlessly wandering around with tired feet because I paid $28 for the privilege and want to get my money’s worth. This what I think museums should encourage people to do: fit short, regular visits into their lives, instead of a once a year ‘blockbuster’ outing.
As a child, I remember being dragged around museums and galleries (what felt like) most weekends. Whilst this is what perhaps sparked my interest in this field, it also created many memories of queues, and tired feet, and long car rides, and looking at ‘boring things’. This was how school trips were run, too: I grew up an hour outside of Melbourne, so trips to the city museums inevitably involved long bus rides, then being told to ‘HAVE FUN BUT DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING’ for hours on end.
And I feel that this is the image that many people have of museums. Too many people view going to the museum as a day-long activity, where you have to look at everything on display. But these are probably the same people who don’t visit museums, or – perhaps worse – only go because they feel like they have to. And in many ways, I don’t blame them.
I understand that some exhibitions need to have entrance fees, and that budgets are tight (and – given consistent government cuts – becoming tighter). And it goes without saying that more people would visit museums if they were free. But the quality of the visit needs to be considered too.
I enjoy my short repeated visits to exhibits a lot more than the less frequent, drawn out ones. If the Melbourne Museum was free, I am sure that I would go there (nearly) as often as I do the NGV. And I do feel that others would do the same, especially if the museum encouraged the public to view visiting like going to cinema or the football; a habitual outing that doesn’t take all day. Perhaps this idea is indicative of our fast society – or my apparently short attention span – but surely more people through the door is what any museum wants. And all the better if these people leave happy, and without tired feet.
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image from the vce (ie. high school) top arts exhibition currently on at the ngv at fed square. amazing stuff: these kids are awesome.
yesterday
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this blog has become a welcome distraction of late.
there have been plenty of times when i haven’t felt like posting, but i always have.
it has became a kind of therapy – at times a burden, but mostly a comfort – to force myself to do this every (week) day, even on days like today when i really have other things on my mind.
it’s almost like ‘if i can do this, i can do anything’.
or something.
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rugging up
arrows
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file under: completely unnecessary things that i love and would buy if i was rich and lived in a bright minimalist apartment in new york.
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kidding
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trying to kid my bank account in to thinking it can afford any of these…
‘but these accessories are timeless!’ i say.
‘pay the electricity bill, anne’ it says.
boo.
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all from the garbstore
