THIS MORNING, THE British Museum in London was taking part in a Q&A called #AskACurator on twitter, so that staff of museums could answer any questions that people had.
Their trouble began when they answered this question from the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences in Sydney.
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The British Museum wrote:
Curators write the labels based on their specialist knowledge and they are edited by our Interpretation department… We aim to be understandable by 16-year-olds. Sometimes Asian names can be confusing, so we have to be careful about using too many.
People were pretty unhappy with the British Museum’s response.
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The museum then gave an example of the types of names that they are concerned that people won’t be able to understand.
However, some insisted that’s exactly the type of thing people enjoy learning:
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One woman pointed out that we learn Greek and Roman variations of names very easily, so there’s no big issue.
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The only way people have a chance to get used to them is if they’re exposed to them.
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Some were unhappy with the insinuation that 16-year-old teenagers would not be interested in learning variations of names.
The museum later issued an apology.
People still weren’t completely satisfied.
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