AIBU to think the Natural History Museum are taking the piss?

[JemimaCuddleFuck]

Right now, watching the Horizon documentary on how they moved the blue whale skeleton into the main hall of the NHM and my face is like this

WTAF? The money they must have burned through to move the skeleton. There's the chief guy in charge who had to fly out to California to go whale watching so he could personally witness the dynamics of the whale's movements. Same guy then had to fly to Ireland to have a ganders at the beach where the blue whale washed up.

Then there's the specially designed and custom made contraption used to move the skeleton's head about 20 foot across a room.

And currently watching several curators gingerly using cotton buds to dust a bone that looks about 12 feet in length.

I'm thinking that if this was taking place in the private sector you'd be given half a day to get the whole thing moved, dusted and set up again. And certainly no whale watching trips in the process.

Cross posted with nerdgasm

And far more succinctly and articulately too, ShelaghTurner!

It's ok, I've calmed down after a glass of Tesco's cheapest wine as that's all I can afford on my museum salary.

Don't get upset nerdgasm, there are far more comments supporting the museums than the 2 or 3 posters who - as was put so well up thread - know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Yes very true, it's lovely to see so much appreciation for museums on this thread!

I just get frustrated with the perception that museums are rolling in endless amounts of cash since we have so many valuable objects in our care, when in fact that couldn't be further from the truth. Pretty much every day I'll hold something in my hands which is worth more than I could ever make in a lifetime! But as Shelagh said, nobody in this job does it for the money.

I never knew how passionate I was about my job until I saw this thread and felt the uncontainable urge to defend my profession! So, OP, I suppose I should thank you for helping to affirm that I am definitely in the right career!

Glad to see other curators on this thread :) I am an ex-curator admittedly! The pay was absolutely shite - it's partly why I left as I couldn't live on the salary - but god I miss my job.

I've been advising a former colleague on a project that I kicked off during my time there and it's days like today I feel it the most. My office job pays better and is more stable, and offers me career progression and development, and training, and comes with a long term contract... but my soul will always be in archaeology!

Hi Lockheart I've gone the other way, went from a well-paid but soulless private sector job to a curatorial job in a national museum. It is SO hard sometimes and I definitely miss the money I used to have! Right now I wouldn't go back for the world, but I don't blame you one bit for choosing job security! And it sounds like you're keeping your hand in museum work anyway, so you never know... maybe you'll go back to it some day! (Or end up on a Board of Trustees?!)

I wasn't that enthralled about Dippy being replaced until I saw that documentary. I was enthralled by it. I thought it was a great idea to do it and explain why they made the change. Little did I realise that people would see it as a waste of money and that the actual skeleton of the largest animal ever to have lived on earth could be shoved on a forklift and hoisted into the ceiling of a Victorian listed building in half a day . And my kids can stare at the stuffed bird collection at the nhm for ages. They go to the science museum and bounce from one interactive activity to another. I know what fascinates them more.

Kids don't care about dippy they will spend one minute looking at bones before they lose interest.

That may be the case with your kids. My nieces and nephews absolutely love that kind of thing and after going to the NHM for the first time asked if they could go back again the next week.

Not every kid needs to be constantly running around and pressing buttons on 'interactive' exhibits all the time. I didn't actually like interactive museums at all when I was a child because the interactive stuff was nowhere as interesting as a skeleton or a peat-bog man.

They are just following the Horizon formula-
Introduce topic (usu in UK)
Send relevant expert to California (can substitute with other USA location, but usually West Coast)
Introduce moment of peril and uncertainty
Send someone to another country who buys BBC programmes
Reveal solution to moment of peril.

I imagine it is the BBC licence payer and the countries they sell the programme to who are paying for the travel.