I have to say, I probably didn’t learn as much as I should have from the James River exhibit at Maymont. I was a little too busy making faces at the animals and playing with the toy-like learning tools. Although, maybe that was the point of the whole thing. I’ve heard some people comment that the exhibit was entirely aimed towards kids and that that was unacceptable, but I disagree. When I go to a museum, I’m not there to be lectured at or to read dry signs in heavy scientific script. Exhibits such as the one at the Maymont Nature center are meant to engage and entertain their audience, as well as subtly inform them about the surrounding world. Coming from a city filled with free museums, I can testify to the fact that the most successful and memorable ones were also the most “kid-friendly”; museums that allowed everyone, not just kids or adults, to get engaged, turn some gears and press some buttons with pretty lights.
Everyone wants the chance to act like a kid every once and a while, and a good museum exhibit does just that. The one at Maymont allowed me to blub at fish, while also taking note of the fact that such surprisingly large species inhabited the James. It gave me the chance to turn a cool waterwheel as fast as I could, while informing me about the different forms of pollution. Most of all, it gave me a chance to learn in a way that wasn’t a lecture or intelligent discussion, which was a wonderful break from day-to-day classes. Museums would be the epitome of ineffectiveness if they gave up the sense of wonder that they lend to their subject matter. The Nature Center exhibit did not surrender to high-minded lecturing, and I was able to fully engage with the subject matter…plus the snapping turtle looked like a dinosaur, which is always a plus.