I admit it’s going to be challenging for the National Coal Mining Museum for England and the National Slate Museum in Llanberis but, with a little imagination, I think most museums are well placed to follow the lead, the dazzlingly obvious path out of the doldrums, set by the Natural History Museum’s Sexual Nature exhibition.
Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust already boasts of its boring lathe and massive tilt hammer, and the potential for the Cumberland Pencil Museum, which displays a 7.9 metre pencil (and must therefore presumably have the most lead in its pencil in the world), and Leicester’s National Space Centre with its 42m tower, are obvious.
The National Trust, following its new policy that all its properties should look slightly slobbered on by labradors rather than box fresh from the white gloves of the conservation department, is already a long way down the road, with judicious scatterings of night shirts and silky negligees starting to appear on the four posters. Inviting visitors to fling back the covers and come in for a romp is the obvious next step.
Coventry Transport Museum is already bang on the button getting King George VI’s Daimler out of store for temporary display – probably too much to hope that it has a slightly stuttering exhaust – but if hiring Colin Firth to lounge around in a wet shirt is beyond the budget, it should surely be possible to bring in a Helen Bonham Carter lookalike to drape herself over the bonnet.
Whichever display approach is chosen, it is essential to place warning notices in the largest typeface you can find, both in the galleries and on the website, possibly noting that medically trained staff are on hand in case any visitor should be shocked into collapse.
This is where the Natural History Museum has been too timid in its one-liner: “This exhibition contains frank information and imagery about sex” – though it’s certainly a smart touch if you then go on to offer family discounts and free admission to children “aged three and under”.
Sex. You know it makes sense.
Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust already boasts of its boring lathe and massive tilt hammer, and the potential for the Cumberland Pencil Museum, which displays a 7.9 metre pencil (and must therefore presumably have the most lead in its pencil in the world), and Leicester’s National Space Centre with its 42m tower, are obvious.
The National Trust, following its new policy that all its properties should look slightly slobbered on by labradors rather than box fresh from the white gloves of the conservation department, is already a long way down the road, with judicious scatterings of night shirts and silky negligees starting to appear on the four posters. Inviting visitors to fling back the covers and come in for a romp is the obvious next step.
Coventry Transport Museum is already bang on the button getting King George VI’s Daimler out of store for temporary display – probably too much to hope that it has a slightly stuttering exhaust – but if hiring Colin Firth to lounge around in a wet shirt is beyond the budget, it should surely be possible to bring in a Helen Bonham Carter lookalike to drape herself over the bonnet.
Whichever display approach is chosen, it is essential to place warning notices in the largest typeface you can find, both in the galleries and on the website, possibly noting that medically trained staff are on hand in case any visitor should be shocked into collapse.
This is where the Natural History Museum has been too timid in its one-liner: “This exhibition contains frank information and imagery about sex” – though it’s certainly a smart touch if you then go on to offer family discounts and free admission to children “aged three and under”.
Sex. You know it makes sense.
