Science: Museums should not be boring, they have many activities and show where we are going – Diario de Xalapa

Entering a museum is often seen as a boring activity; We remember that we took school once, and therefore, we associate it with education and compulsory; however, Going to a museum is a leisure activity, like going to the cinema or the theater.

Azminda Roman Nieto, coordinator of the educational services area at the Xalapa Museum of Anthropology (MAX) and a founding member of the University Museum Observatory, notes that It is necessary to abandon the notion that museums are untouchable places made only for observation, and start Suggest them as meeting points where those attending can discover themselves.

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“Museums are areas of contact where as you enter you can have a dialogue between the past and the present, we can see how humanity has been conceived from another perspective, how we have seen ourselves as human beings; it is also a dialogue with art. Museums show us how we are, who we are and where we are going as human beings. There is our social value. “, also refers to Professor of the Faculty of UV Anthropology and member of the Mexican Association of Translators of Heritage in Mexico.

interest from home

Azminda Román points out that the notion that the museum is a cultural space belonging to the educational and educational level has weighed a lot over the years. This has caused, first of all, no interest in their presence in the homes.

“Families tend to have other interests or concerns, and then they think least of all is to give the tools to future generations so that they can be made up and given an idea of ​​the world.”, Indicates.

From a young age – adds the academic – they do not teach us to visit the museum, to train as a public servant, “And not only to go to a museum, but also any heritage site: an exhibition, an archaeological site, a historical monument, etc., we prefer other activities, so change must come from both sides: from the museum and from families.”

He points out that despite the fact that museums are spaces of extraordinary educational value, they also have a significant social impact.And “Because they are noble spaces that allow harboring any gaze and allow us to say what was ineffable at the time; in other words, museums are spaces that have an economic, political, cultural and social status. They can retain all possible forms, because they expose us to the world.”

change appearance

At the time, adds Azmenda Roman, museums were spreading this idea a lot “It is a cultured thing to attend these places, and museums have made a tremendous effort to remove this perspective that museums are boring, because it has been said that they were cathedrals of knowledge and that their great temples are nothing more than seeing and highlighting the aesthetic part, but suddenly the museum professionals said”Well, no, these paradigms, these ideas and concepts have to be changed, and we have to focus on the audience.”.

Indicates that museums belong to the public And now we’re working so that from the first time someone goes, they get their attention so they want to come back.

“On a personal level, I also had the idea that museums would teach us, they would show us the official part and that we had to show people everything the groups were telling us; but along the way, I realized that those of us who work in the museum always do an outside exercise, that is, to show collections and information, so that the public may attend; but we seldom stop to see exactly what the visitors are telling us.”

As part of her work at Max, the archaeologist coordinates the activity of Coates del Max (which takes place on Sundays, but is currently suspended due to the pandemic), where girls and boys are given the experience of learning about the museum’s collections and carrying out craft activities.

“I was very surprised by the Cots del Max because so much of our work was fueled by the voices of these girls and boys who visited us and made us think about things we didn’t consider, they made us look at the set of things that we didn’t ask ourselves”, he is referring to.

This experience helped him reinforce the idea that the museum goes beyond the collection or exhibit on display, but the confluence of the collection, the visitor, and the specialist museum.

“Since 2019, there has been a debate about what a museum actually is, and defining it as such, and we have agreed that yes, today a museum researches, preserves, protects, shows, yes it enjoys, but in a certain way I envision it as this bio-organic entity The dynamic, which is in a state of constant transformation, is in constant flux, and whose gaze is directed specifically at people”, referring to Roman Nieto.

It shows that, focusing on the visitor, there is currently a tendency to create advisory museums, that is, the view of the public is taken into account for the establishment of exhibitions and activities, “It strives for communities to exist as an integral part of where museums go.”

Our history and our future

At the University Museum Observatory, Azmenda Nieto, He and his other colleagues are responsible for creating statistics to find out what museums are in the entity, what kind, and where they go.

It indicates that according to the record established up to 2019, Veracruz has 69 museums, mostly dedicated to regional history; Orizaba is the municipality with the most museums, with 20 places; Xalapa and Veracruz follow, each with nine museums.

“Museums are also seen as spaces of memory, and sometimes it seems that we have little memory; we forget everything that happened, and therefore it is important to visit heritage sites, be they museums, archaeological sites or galleries, because they will teach us the quality of our life, that is, the collective well-being of understanding ourselves Far from this economy. And the political process we are immersed in. The quality of life makes us human.”Refers to the academic.

Roman Neto points out that unfortunately when we visit a museum, we come across history, with what happened many years ago and there we began to realize our passage through the earth, and realize that many things that happen today can be obtained, She may not have stopped, but we would have faced better, if we had this contemplation of the museums.

“Through museums, what is required is to question our work; a visit to a museum will bring to mind the past and reflect that some things have already happened, for example, that we have already gone through epidemics, and we will be aware that we as humankind are constantly changing; by looking at history we can know How the world was conceived before, how they lived and then we will find very similar things that help us in our present and our future”Roman Nieto explains.

Finally, the archaeologist invites you to listen to the talk “Important experiences in the museum between the real and the face to face”, which will be held on September 21 at 5:00 p.m. as part of the afternoon activities at UV Science. The link to enjoy the conversation is https://sabadosenlaciencia.webex.com/meet/tardesdeciencia or will be streamed on Facebook at SabadosenlaCienciaXal