MUSEUM DAY LIVE. WORTH IT?

This Saturday Opens The Door To A Free Museum Day Live. Will You Go?

Of all the free things in the world, Museum Day Live looks like a steal.

Two free tickets await you upon registering with Smithsonian Magazine. Name, email, the usual.

Aside from balking at joining yet another list that may or may not flood your in box with junk mail you never registered for, a museum day is still a bargain no matter what you call it.

But you need to arrive in the correct state of mind. How do you achieve a proper museum attitude?

What to expect on Museum Day Live?

First, find a museum that interests you from this group listed on oregonlive.com:

Oregon

Portland Art Museum
Oregon Historical Society
Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center
Blue Sky Gallery
World Forestry Center
Rice NW Museum of Rocks and Minerals
Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum
Philip Foster Farm
Columbia Gorge Discovery Center
Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Hallie Ford Museum of Art

Washington

Seattle Art Museum
Maryhill Museum of Art
Museum of History and Industry
Clark County Historical Museum
Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum
Tacoma Art Museum
The Museum of Flight
Northwest African American Museum

Why don’t you see OMSI on the list? Yep, I don’t know either, but it’s a good visit.

You’ll get two tickets for one museum once you register. The main idea is banking an experience you never expected, like a plot twist in a movie.

Since this blog is BoomerPDX, not BoomerSEA, or BoomerTAC, we’ll stick to Oregon.

If the oregonlive.com article is any indicator, there won’t be crowds in your way no matter which museum you choose. Zero comments on the story tell the tale, but I could be wrong.

If you do like museums on free days, but don’t want to sign in on the Smithsonian deal, here’s another list without the risk.

A run through freemuseumday.org will feed your museum hunger.

As long as we’re talking about free, click this link to find which local museums have free months during the year.

On top of free admittance this weekend, the Portland Art Museum has special deals all the time. And a free period.

Free Days

The Museum offers free general admission on the fourth Friday of every month from 5-8 p.m. The Museum also offers free admission and special family programming several times a year.

The Portland Art Museum is a Bank of America Museums on Us partner. Visit the Museum on the first full weekend of each month and show your Bank of America or Merrill Lynch credit or debit card for complimentary general admission.

Okay, maybe museums creep you out and even a free Museum Day Live isn’t enough to shake the feeling that museums display cultural plunder in every exhibit.

Fair enough, but you’re wrong.

Not to say museums don’t display cultural plunder, but consider this: Are you shocked that any organized group in the modern world would think it a good idea to destroy artifacts older than 2000 years?

It happens in Syria. The bad guys even torture and kill museum people for withholding the locations of more artifacts to destroy.

And you get a free day.

Let’s ask who gives a damn about museums. Who gives a damn about museums?

The responses to my interview question, “Why do you go to museums” brought responses including, “I’ve always gone to museums.”

“To learn and explore and discover new things.”

“To walk into history without a time machine.”

“To feel the power of the craft and time it takes to create anything.”

Pretty good answers if I do say so.

Before you start with names like elitist, one percenters, rich people, and geniuses only go to museums, Museum Day Live is free.

If no one cares about museums in your circle of friends, be different and go.

If no one shows interest in what interests you, find new friends.

If you have to go alone, do it.

I’ll promise you this: you’ll leave whatever museum you visit with a better feeling, a better attitude, about the museum role in society.

Do they plunder? Or do they collect objects? ISIS isn’t at the British Museum hammering the Elgin Marbles that Greece wants returned.

Syria isn’t calling for all nations to return their Syrian collections for destruction.

And you don’t have to go to Syria, or London, or Athens, or even New York for your museum experience.

You’ll come out feeling smarter, feeling enriched. You may come out feeling ashamed for ragging on museums at elite institutions, because now you feel the same draw.

For my Museum Day Live advice, go to the Oregon Historical Society. It’s as close to the Smithsonian as you’ll find in Oregon.

Besides, with a mission statement like this, OHS is a must see.

Explore Oregon’s past to enrich our present and inspire our future.

It’s free, it’s local, no GMO, no steroids, all organic. What’s stopping you?

The only thing you have to fear is losing your fear. Let it go, brothers and sisters, let it go.