Another week another museum closure. Another week another book shop closes. Another week in the gradual erosion of our cultural assets. This must stop.
What happened in the wake of the collapse of our industrial base? Industrial museums. Open air museums began to celebrate a past that had gone forever. The problem now is that museums are closing as part of a general cultural contraction.
It seems that the only place where there is an expansion in museums is China where the ecomuseum concept is buoyant. What is an ecomuseum?
"An Ecomuseum is a dynamic way in which communities preserve, interpret, and manage their heritage for a sustainable development." Trento declaration 2004
Now is the time for 'The Ecomuseum of the Late Twentieth Century' in the UK.
Does anyone know of a High Street where a book shop still exists, perhaps next to a record/music shop, next to a butchers, next to a publicly run museum, next to a post office? Need I go on. That is prime real estate for an ecomuseum. The Museum of Unreason will happily engage the inhabitants to let them know they are now all museum curators of their own ecomuseum and as such they must:
1. Go to a shop to buy things - buying on line is forbidden
2. Shopping must be done on foot, a bicycle is allowed, in line roller blades are not.
3. Supermarket shopping is banned (make sure your grandchildren are able to ask the question, "What was a Walmart?")
4. Buy music in vinyl if you they are over 40, under 40 cds are allowed
5. Read one book a month, a book is something made of paper that you turn pages of text to see what happens next
6. Send letters and receive post delivered by the Royal Mail (or if in USA send and receive mail delivered by the Postal Service)
7. Go to a phone box to make a call if you need to contact somebody when outside your house
8. Know the first name of your grocer, baker, butcher etc.
The High Street museum can then concentrate on what it does best - animatronic dinosaurs and tenuous links to Jane Austen TV adaptations.
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