Toronto - Royal Ontario Museum

http://www.rom.on.ca/en

The Royal Ontario Museum was in the CityPass, and I'm glad it was because it was a pretty good museum.

For the main collections I remember dinosaurs, minerals, and some items that I thought were Egyptian but could have been Nubian. Exhibitions were spacious and well lit, which I thought helped give a better sense of things.

So I would say that the permanent collections are worthwhile, but part of keeping a museum a vibrant place is that there are temporary exhibits that change and give a reason for return. When I went, it was an exhibit on portraits, and one of the things they had set up was postcards and drawing materials, and you could draw your own portrait and submit it. Several were already on the walls.

That activity drew people in. There were people busily working while I was there, and many submissions in the depository for them, which was clear so you could see, as well as those that were already on display. That has always struck me as a way to invite the public to connect to art, not just as a viewer but as an artist.

Currently there is an exhibit using the photography of a local artist to explore every corner of the museum, but as part of exploring the city. That also seems like it will work well for fostering connection. This is important. It is good to be able to appreciate objects in a museum, but if that helps us appreciate what we find out of the museum, if we learn to see better, then it becomes something more.

I cannot comment on the Crystal, which now forms the main entrance, because it was still under construction when I was there, and it was actually kind of a joke on whether they would ever finish. However, it looks like it only took them another year, plus some time to work out the leak issues.