Making Museums Popular

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 896, 5 October 1956, Page 19

Making Museums Popular

"Vf USEUMS are reaching out more and more into the community," said V. F. Fisher, president of the New Zealand Art Galleries and Museums’ Association, commenting on Museum Week, which will be observed from October 6 to 14. Suggested by Unesco, Museum Week is part of a plan sponsored in 42 countries by the International Council of Museums for creating more interest in museum displays and research. In New Zealand there will be special exhibitions, demonstrations of scientific equipment, lectures and film screenings. Some museums will open in the evenings to enable working people to attend. Mr, Fisher, who is ethnologist at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, was scheduled to give a talk on Museum Week in a broadcast from all YA and YZ stations on September 30, at 8.45 p.m. "Museums have a. large following among young people," Mr. Fisher told The Listener. "When children visit a

museum a sense of wonder is aroused and we see plenty of evidence that they return in their own time to examine exhibits with more appreciation and to seek further information from the staff. Last year,’ he said, "40,000 children visited one museum, and throughout the Dominion more than 100,000 children paid visits, But the extension service reaches more children again-with its display cases used in classrooms for instructional purposes." Mr, Fisher added that museums were becoming an increasing force in adult education, too, but the public had not yet realised what a vast amount of research was being carried out behind the scenes. Museum activities were expanding all the time. "With the development of the country and its primary industries it is desirable that an agricultural museum should be established," he said. "A technological museum may also be necessary as manufacturing develops.