Re: Museum rated best in Canada (News, Nov. 21)
Some decades back, before the Royal Ontario Museum’s architect got the green light to “transform” the building, I made a last visit.
The shock inspired a question or two: “What happened to all my favourite exhibits?”
A doorkeeper replied: “Oh, That. The Board stuffed them into crates. The artifacts are safer in boxes than where people can actually see them.”
What happened to the space upstairs? “Oh, right. Did you see the huge expanded Member’s Lounge? Impressive, no?”
Asked about the philosophy behind the new look, he described it as “pay lots more, get far less.”
Here? Why was the Royal B.C. Museum recognized with another Traveller’s Choice award?
Among other things, we still have a museum, one not pretending it’s housed in a building relocated from another planet.
Call it old-fashioned, but our museum still offers several floors of exhibits for all to see.
If a building is designated a museum I doubt that travellers desire an opportunity to wander about inside an over-sized psychotropic-inspired drug store offering miniscule displays.
E. Random, Victoria West
