American Museum of Natural History

Reviews 4

GI

Giovanni Scalisi

Un long moment pénible. Il y a tant de beaux musées à New-York (MET par exemple), mais celui là est à fuir. Il représente ce qui fait fuir les enfants des musées et les dégouttent pour un sacré temps des musées (chers parents, pensez-y avant dy emmener vos enfants). On a limpression quil y a un décalage de 30 ans entre ce musée et ce qui se fait ailleurs partout en mieux. Les murs sont décrépis, mal éclairés, des vitrines dignes dune bijouterie soviétique. Les collections sont usées et surtout, et cest là le plus grave, aucune cohérence dans les galeries, vous pourrez admirer dans laile réservée au Japon, un magnifique diorama du Caire avec... UN TAPIS VOLANT, oui oui ! Je nai hélas pas pu observer cette même audace sur une ville du nord de lIrlande avec des dragons. Si après tout dans un musée on peut faire imaginer que les tapis volants aient pu exister pourquoi pas les dragons non plus ? Je pourrais également vous parler de collections entièrement non datées : - "Ah, tiens cest quelle époque ?" - "Je ne sais pas, on devrait demander au génie." Il y a un sérieux manque de rigueur dans la cohérence, de contextualisation des informations offertes, qui auraient pu être moins gênantes si le musée compensait par un sérieuse offre pédagogique musclée et ludique. Et ce, même dans les expositions qui semblent être nouvelles... Peut-être que les animaux empaillés raviront vos enfants, mais à 24€ la place amenez-les au zoo.

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A

A Private User

I went to the American Museum of Natural History and Hayden Planetarium (now folded into something called the Rose Center for Earth and Space) for the first time in decades. I was not impressed. In my view the changes that have taken place are not for the better. To begin with there are exorbitant charges for special exhibits of dubious value. We bought a pass for everything, but that was of limited use since you have to tell them the specific time you want to go in advance, even for less-than-crowded walk-through exhibits. For me the sense of mystery and wonder is gone. That could be my age, or more likely the way things have been redone. Other things haven’t been updated so you find interesting gemstones with obsolete place names like “West Germany” and “Zaire.” There is a lot of build-up for the space show in the planetarium. You get on line, then take an elevator to a room where you wait around until the relatively brief show starts. I remember walking with awe through dark halls of star walls to get there as classical music played until you entered the room with the old projector. Then the show was about astronomy; now it is generically about everything and nothing. The digital screen over the rotunda offers great possibilities but the show, purporting to be a "Journey to the Stars" was pretty mediocre. There’s another section that is supposed to deal with with the origin of the universe narrated by someone obviously reading a script they don’t understand. It is a large spaceship-like circle that is also digitally projected, but it only lasts a few minutes and is largely wasted. Then you stroll down a walkway with small indications and nonworking screens that are supposed to be indicative of all the eons since the origin of the universe. It is less than awesome. Incomprehensively there is nothing about astronauts and human space travel except for a few incidental photos on a hallway wall. The Rose Center is a total waste of space. The real trouble is we’ve seen all this before done better on science, nature, and space shows on television every week. Given that, the museum ought to offer something special, but regrettably it doesn’t. It somehow manages to make the wondrous routine. If you’re planning a trip to New York City you can skip this. You won’t have missed much.

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MI

Michael Markowski

COMPLAINT: A few days ago, I bought my girlfriend and I SuperSaver tickets to the American Museum of Natural History. Weve been talking about visiting the Hayden Planetarium for months now and I thought this would be a great chance for us to finally go see the show. We both live in NYC so weve been to this museum a few times now but have never been to the Rose Center/Planatarium. When we got to the museum this afternoon, we were told that the planetarium was shut down indefinitely due to an "accident" that had occurred a few days ago. We later found out that the ROOF had partially COLLAPSED! I asked who we could talk to about getting a voucher for when it reopened (since its not included in the general admission) and the woman at the front desk told us to go visit a supervisor. We were disappointed but decided to hang out anyway and see the remaining special exhibits that are included in the SuperSaver package. I mean, what were we going to do? Just go home? As the museum was closing, I asked to speak to a supervisor who might be able to give us a voucher so we could come back when the planetarium reopened. He very directly told me that the SuperSaver package was only equivalent to "two special exhibits" and that since we had already spent our time there and seen the other exhibits, we didnt qualify for a voucher. Only TWO exhibits? According the AMNH website where I bought the tickets, the SuperSaver admission package provides "Admission to the Museum PLUS Rose Center for Earth and Space PLUS all special exhibits, IMAX or 3D films, AND the Hayden Planetarium Space Show." Nowhere online during the ticket-buying process does it mention a "two exhibit" equivalence nor was this explained to us when we entered the museum and were told that the planetarium was closed. If we would have just missed our planetarium showing, then yeah, thatd be on us. But since the roof collapsing was not part of our birthday plans, why are we ineligible for a voucher? Does the museum customer service really care this little about the happiness of its patrons? How difficult would this have been? If it wasnt a big deal to us, I wouldnt have asked. But it was a big deal and now its a bigger deal. Im very disappointed.

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TO

Tomo Takebe

One of the best natural history museums in America and huge, but with rough edges. Whether youre interested in animals, rocks, anthropology, history, dinosaurs, or culture the AMNH offers something for everyone in great quantities. Suggested admission is $22 as of 2017 but you can donate less for general admission. The AMNHs top attractions are its dinosaurs, hominids, and animal diorama collections. There are world famous and historical famous fossils on display starting with Lucy, the australopithecus. The vast collection of the animal dioramas span many years of diorama techniques and presentation / art style. The meteoroid collection is pretty significant, too. Where AMNH falls short is some of its human history exhibits. The African collection has not been updated in decades and is full of colonial haught and generalizations, often using "Africa" to describe every culture in the whole continent as one and using declarative, present-tense language even though the expeditions detailed in the exhibits are limited to small parts of Africa. They may be keeping it un-updated as historical examples of imperialist interpretations, but thats a bit subtle without any hints of self-criticism. The broken lights and unkept paint in much of the human history sections show that they just dont care, though, compared to the animal exhibits that have been revised and kept well. The culture and art collections are interesting, however, with a significant collection of central and south American artifacts. The AMNH offers much to see, but it loses out to Carnegie Museum of Natural History in presentation quality for individual exhibit and as a whole. Most rooms have no curated paths that offer the best perspective and narrative, and youd have to back-track many times to see all the exhibits. It doesnt match the spirit of public good and humanism of the National Museum of Natural History (the Smithsonian). However its still a must-see and offers many artifacts that arent available anywhere else.

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