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Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by JacobSeated on Thursday September 22, 2022 @03:21AM (#32935700)
Honestly, I have always considered museums extremely boring and uninteresting, since childhood, a feeling that somewhat persists to this day. Some of them are even extremely depressing places.

What I would like, however, is free visits to Starbucks. Perhaps that makes me a simple guy, but I just love a good cup of coffee if I am feeling a bit down. It jabs me right back to reality and rationality usually.

Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by dale_glass on Thursday September 22, 2022 @03:40AM (#32935854)
Many are, sure, the trick is to find something that appeals to you. Here's a few I recommend:

https://www.micropia.nl -- A museum of microscopic life. With actual living exhibits and a bunch of microscopes you can play with. They have a lab on site to maintain the exhibition. How cool is that?

https://www.teylersmuseum.nl/en -- Loads of old fashioned, steampunk-looking gadgets. Leyden jars, old microscopes in brass, that kind of thing.

https://www.hnf.de/start.html -- Heinz Nixdorf Museum, the largest computing museum. You get to play with a working phone exchange and a whole bunch of other stuff.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/cutty-sark -- Cool ship, and you can also have lunch under it, because the whole thing is suspended over people's heads. There's a huge and very nice park nearby too.

https://frammuseum.no/ -- Ship that was used in Arctic and Antarctic exploration

https://norskfolkemuseum.no/ -- Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. Close to the one above.

https://15kop.ru/en -- Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines. Probably not the best time to travel to Moscow, but maybe when things quiet down.

Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by EliRivers on Thursday September 22, 2022 @03:56AM (#32935975)
Museums (like education!) are wasted on the young, in my experience. When young, a museum was just a lot of unconnected items; that is, I just didn't know enough about the world and the history of it for anything in the museum to connect to anything I already knew. None of it meant anything to me and being there was thus dull.

Now, almost any museum is interesting; the displays and exhibits will connect to things I already know about, places I have been, history I have already learned, cultures I've experienced, and something in my accumulated wisdom will make a new connection and fit better.

Eventually it reaches the point where things that should sound like parodies, like a museum of drainage, becomes genuinely interesting.

Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by dale_glass on Thursday September 22, 2022 @04:06AM (#32936062)
Children need museums that cater to them. Dragging a 6 year old into a building full of weird paintings or sculptures is a waste of time and only annoys the kid.

There are plenty museums full of cool stuff that's either interesting them, or can be played with, or are outdoors and can be handled as just a pleasant walk through a cool looking place.

Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by oboes on Thursday September 22, 2022 @08:20AM (#32937851)
There actually used to be a very interesting science museum in Brussels called Scientastic [1].

The museum was aimed at children and the exhibit consisted of many practical "magic tricks" illustrating some piece of science or technology. Things such as electromagnets, refraction effects, color theory, optical illusions, simple mechanical devices, simple chemistry experiments, etc. For example I remember first learning about the brachistochrone curve at this museum, even though I was too young at the time to know or care about its name. Or that you could use red cabbage juice as a natural pH indicator.

Unfortunately the museum never got much funding or interest from the government, and at some point the museum was destroyed (possibly illegally) to make room for a shopping mall.

[1] https://www.scientastic.com/EN/IntroE.htm

Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by bodge5000 on Thursday September 22, 2022 @06:01AM (#32936818)
I remember going to the National Space Centre (there might be multiple in the UK, the one I remember was shaped like a giant white beehive) a lot as a kid. In fact, it seems to my memory that up until the age of ~14 every kids birthday was hosted there, and we never seemed to get bored of it.

Looking back on it, I find it funny that out of all the amazing things there (a full sized rocket, some kind of capsule you could actually sit in and play with the controls on), the thing that continually fascinated me the most was a little audio visualiser with a microphone, so when you spoke into it the line would deform.

Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by defaultwizard on Thursday September 22, 2022 @04:36AM (#32936243)
I think the science museum (also in London) is the perfect kind of museum for children. There's so many weird things that will interest the children in there.
Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by ben_w on Thursday September 22, 2022 @05:36AM (#32936650)
Absolutely; or at least, I have fond memories of it from the early 90s when I was a kid myself.
Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by fnord123 on Thursday September 22, 2022 @04:49AM (#32936343)
>What I would like, however, is free visits to *Starbucks*. Perhaps that makes me a simple guy, but I just love a *good cup of coffee*

What do these have to do with one another?

Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by _dain_ on Thursday September 22, 2022 @05:18AM (#32936537)
The elite don't want you to know this, but you can visit Starbucks for free
Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by afiori on Thursday September 22, 2022 @06:14AM (#32936897)
Except if you look homeless, they will call the police in that case.
Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by makeitdouble on Thursday September 22, 2022 @06:04AM (#32936838)
Museums are like any other venues, you have to choose things that appeal to you. There's anything from exotic life forms to experience centered modern art, science experiment expositions, ancient musical instruments...

As long as you have any interests there should be museums relating to those.

Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by lm28469 on Thursday September 22, 2022 @08:55AM (#32938176)
This is probably the saddest thing I read in 2022
Re:Museums on prescription: Brussels tests cultural visits t... by faeriechangling on Thursday September 22, 2022 @11:53AM (#32940693)
Both are used in anxiety treatment, but coffee is a bit of an unfortunate purchase for somebody with clinical anxiety.