#museumweek2015

Getting my pose on during #MuseumWeek #poseMW at the ROM*

The dates of March 23rd to 29th, 2015 marked a week of a global twitter trend celebrating museums worldwide through #MuseumWeek. Me & 24 other active tweeters were invited out to the Royal Ontario Museum on the last day for a tweet-up with the theme of #poseMW (pose Museum Week). On that day I did share a quickie blog post about my experience but wanted to expand a little bit more after the dust settled & my thoughts were collected.

I didn’t realize how big & busy the day would be until we started posting on twitter & sharing our experience with the world. People from all across the globe were liking & commenting on our photos as we pretty well goofed around & got creative with all the exhibits we could. The more creative we got, the more interaction we received. Just out of the excitement of the day (& maybe the coffee kicking in) it didn’t take long until we were sleeping alongside Mummies, curling up with Angels, talking to sculptures, & meditating with statues. 

Still my favourite & most popular photo of the day has to be the dinosaur chase scene. I have to give a big shout out to boyreporter who took the brunt of one of my “blunt moments” to get that shot. He first took a series of photos cutting off the head of the dinosaur & so I accused him of taking photos like my Grandmother. Just to clarify, I love my Grandmother to pieces but her skill to chop off heads in photos has become an ongoing joke in my family. Thank goodness for me boyreporter can take a joke too & ended up taking a really fun photo as we hopped from one foot to another “running” away from the skeleton of a dinosaur. 

Adding to our enjoyment, the current exhibit just so happened to be contemporary artist, Douglas Coupland. It all seemed a little too fitting to be presented with thoughts through art that questioned the very thing about sharing our own little worlds through larger media & social streams instead of just being social with each other. It definitely jarred a few of us to see the irony in it all. Even still, I debate with the last image whether or not I do miss my “pre-internet” brain. If it weren’t for the internet, I wouldn’t have been invited to join this cool opportunity after all!

The Douglas Coupland exhibit is still running at The ROM until April 26, 2015. Museum Week has ended but there are some really cool stats & images from each days’ theme to view at MuseumWeek2015.org. Looking forward to next year!

-Cory U

P.S. Honourable mentions to dinosaur runners & Mummy sleepers jaarlos, oxKatty, francescadvst, AmaniTOSA & fashion_savage for being alongside with me in these images.

The picture on top was taken in 1900 during the construction of the gigantic but graceful “Janlet wing” (architect Charles-Emile Janlet), in which our Bernissart iguanodons still are today. Look at those elegant original staircases! If you’re a fan of museum architecture, why not follow #architectureMW during this #MuseumWeek?

March 23-29 is #MuseumWeek2015 56 Canadian institutions, including the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, are participating in this interactive worldwide event!