The two museums I decided to compare and contrast are two aviation museums. One is the Alaska Aviation Museum that I actually visited in the past and had a fun time exploring and learning over there. The other is the Norwegian Aviation Museum (also known as the Norsk Luftarts Museum). The reason why I decided to use two aviation museums was because I was very curious about how similar and/or different they were from each other due to being the same genre of museum study. Plus, I have a small interest in planes and other air vehicles especially during World War Two.
One of the things that I’ve noticed that the Norwegian Aviation Museum had was that their mission statement wasn’t there or at least I couldn’t find it. I was pretty frustrated trying to find it and it was a bit harder since their website was all in Norwegian. I used Google Translate to help me but I didn’t get that far. They did however have a whole page of their exhibits and programs. Along with that, they explain that their museum is one of three museums that focuses on aircraft and aviation history which made me realize that they have a pretty big collection and community dedicated to aviation and military history. As much as I wanted to find more information, the language barrier was very hard for me navigate. (I just realized that they actually have an English translation option and I didn’t noticed it until I finished looking through.)
For the Alaska Aviation Museum, they have a mission statement which is this: “To preserve, display, educate, and honor Alaska’s aviation heritage.” And I think their mission statement is very true due to the fact that they have a whole page for schools to sign up for field trips and even host parties such as birthdays over there. Their website gives a straightforward expression that they really want to share aviation history to the public, no matter what age. Along with that, their exhibit page note only shows a whole collection of their artifacts but that they have a link to their YouTube page of a series of their artifacts. Their education program seems very welcoming and almost informal than the Norwegian Aviation Museum.
Even though the Norwegian Aviation Museum and the Alaska Aviation Museum are a bit different with how they approach their study focus and their program structure; they do have some similarities like they have their board of trustees, their list of staff, the history of how their museum was formed, etc. Overall, I really enjoyed looking at both of the museums and even though some of it was a challenge; it was very interesting to learn.
Alaska Aviation Museum – Visit Alaska (2016)
Question: What museum from the circumpolar north do you want to visit and why? Have you been there before or not?
A specific museum doesn’t come to mind, however I would like to visit more local Alaskan museums from out of the way communities, since they tend to be more personalized and include information that is readily available outside of those communities. They also serve as a way to get to know the local anthropologists outside of larger conferences