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Title: Holocaust museum changes rules to draw younger visitors
Source:
North Jersey.com
URL Source: http://www.northjersey.com/arts-and ... -selfie-age-1.1107989?page=all
Published: Oct 13, 2014
Author: MENACHEM WECKER/The Washington Post
Post Date: 2014-10-13 15:02:37 by X-15
Keywords: Holocaust
Views: 89
Comments: 3
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, as staff members and visitors are wont to repeat, is unlike other museums. The Washington, D.C., memorial to Holocaust victims, with its sobering galleries and artifacts, inspires the sort of quiet contemplation associated more with houses of worship than museums. Even the architecture — particularly the atrium's steel-ribbed ceiling — suggests visitors have passed through a portal to a different world. But a year after celebrating its 20th anniversary, as survivors age and an era without eyewitnesses looms, the museum has been forced to evolve. Last month, it rolled out a mobile app designed to complement a museum visit, effectively reversing a ban on smartphone use in its permanent collection. Museum officials say they will announce a reversal of the ban on photography in the permanent exhibition later this fall. The ban has been in place since the museum opened in 1993. The changes, staff members say, are an effort to reach young people. The museum will face challenges balancing young visitors' digital appetites with preservation of the galleries' distinct, meditative aura, in part forged by the very policies that are being reversed, the officials say. "One of our challenges in general is engaging young people," said Michael Abramowitz, director of the museum's National Institute for Holocaust Education. The museum can't buck the reality that young people are increasingly experiencing the world on their mobile devices, Abramowitz added. "I think what will be important is to try to maintain the kind of decorum and respect in these places," he said. When the museum does allow photographs, it will align itself with institutions like the Smithsonian, the Newseum and the Phillips Collection, which permit photography broadly — typically without flash or tripods, and sometimes excluding works or exhibitions on loan, for which the lender sets the policy. Photography is also permitted at Holocaust museums in Atlanta, the Detroit area and Los Angeles; the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Mo.; the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio; and the National September 11 Memorial Museum in Manhattan. But other Holocaust museums, including those in Houston, Florida and Illinois, do not permit photography. A 10-minute walk from the 9/11 memorial, the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust has prohibited photography in its galleries for at least the 8 1/2 years that Betsy Aldredge, director of media relations, has worked there. But that might change soon. "It's definitely something that we are interested in exploring if we can find a way that makes sense given the sensitivities of our collection and that protects artifacts," she said. And some people take photographs despite museum policy, something that both Aldredge and Abramowitz have observed. One such visitor to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Juan David Romero, an intern at the New Republic, said he was profoundly affected by the otherworldly smell of a collection of 4,000 victims' shoes. "It's the smell of all the things they went through, all the people that wore those shoes, the places they walked or didn't walk, the steps they took or didn't take," he said. A photo of the shoes, which Romero uploaded on Instagram, drew "likes" from several followers, one of whom echoed his caption, "Pretty sad." But taking and uploading that photo violated the museum's policy, which is posted on its website and on signs at each entrance. Staff members remind visitors about the rule when they enter the elevator. Romero knew when he took the picture that photography was not permitted in some areas. "I think the policy should be rethought," he said. "I feel it's a part of history, and people who are not able to come to the exhibit should be able to have access to it." Sree Sreenivasan, chief digital officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which recently launched its own app, agrees. "We are all in this kind of a battle for attention," he said. "We are all trying to make sure what we are doing has the highest impact and the most reach, but we have to do it with a certain amount of care and understanding." Museums play multiple roles in people's lives, and they can provide "a place for serenity, for spirituality, for calm in an otherwise crazy city" and an educational experience that viewers can supplement with mobile technology, Sreenivasan said. As mobile phones have become ubiquitous, museums need to adjust to what their visitors are telling them, Sreenivasan said. "The instinct that people have is that they want to share," he said. "But we can still hold the line so that you aren't having dance parties inside the library." Poster Comment: 
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#1. To: X-15 (#0)
Many awake young people see the 'hoax for what it is and have no reason to go to this monument to fraud. Keep your shekels in your pockets, kids. “The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
Ya wanna brainwash a people, ya gotta get in their heads when they're very young.
+1. The high school my daughter attends has pretty much banned the use of the j-word because the kids there use it as a way to describe something that sucks.
#2. To: X-15 (#0)
#3. To: Lod (#1)
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