Toronto Royal Ontario Museum | ?m | ?s | Daniel Libeskind

Urban Shocker said:
Went back for another look at the Minerals again today - such pretty colours and shapes.
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Yes, and the very sparkly Scott collection was great; if I had a gajillion dollars that's what I would spend it on, except I'd wear it...all at the same time!

The ROM was quite empty when I went last Friday, a deserved day of rest I suppose after the zoo of the last few weeks in December. I was sad to see most of the galleries in the Crystal empty of people but it did give me a chance to conclude that there was a failure of imagination in those who designed the displays; they don't live up to the Crystal's potential, or its demands. They were created for a standard box gallery and not for a space of such soaring angles. They should have paid as much attention to the space around the exhibits as to the exhibits themselves. I don't know if anyone else here has visited "The Gulbenkian" in Lisbon, but it's one of the most beautiful museums I've ever seen. In it the "negative" space is as important as the things that space contains. I keep rethinking the ROM every time I visit it, so bear with me; this is not an easy building to love and maybe that's why I love it.
 
I don't think the design is the largest contributing factor regarding whether the ROM is busy or not
 
Agreed, Benc7, the sparkly stuff is gorgeous, and nicely displayed - right down to the trembly effect with the little butterfly brooches.

As for the new display system, and the philosophy behind it, well it's applied consistently throughout the Museum. The renovated galleries in the heritage wings and the Crystal galleries display their wares based on the same approach - emphasis on the objects as artworks, avoidance of dioramas and didactic "interpretations", minimal labelling, quite a bit of touch-screen background information ( in the Dinosaur, Canadian Indian, and Minerals galleries in particular - though I'm hoping for much more elsewhere; I think the AGO should consider this approach, though they do have those little wall-mounted audio-visual thingies ... ). And the ROM's heritage galleries don't appear to rely on wall-mounted displays any more than the Crystal does - freestanding glass cases, with space to move around, seems to be the order of the day everywhere in the building.

The AGO now shuts up shop three hours earlier on Fridays - less than two months after the grand reopening; the gift shop and the cafe in the basement close earlier too. The place was fairly quiet on the couple of Friday nights that I went ... but I'm surprised that they've cut back so soon. Still, they do very well on free-admission Wednesday nights, which appear to have become a mass ritual for twentysomethings. The ROM, which closes at 5:30 on nights when the AGO is open until 8:30, is open until 9:30 on Fridays, and the Gardiner across the street stays open until 9 that night, so that may compensate for some visitors. The AGO is closed on Mondays, whereas the ROM opens seven days a week.

Weekends tend to be much busier. Last Saturday afternoon I visited the AGO and it was jam-packed. I then went up to the ROM, which was also very busy ... though less so.
 
I was at the ROM last weekend and it was pretty busy.
Weekends for the most part are always busy it's just the weekdays that aren't.
 
ROM Sleepovers

Spent the last 24 hours within the confines of the Crystal and the Court (not to mention the Eaton Theatre for all-young-girl High School Musical karaoke!!!). All in all... it was actually a lot of fun.

A highly recommended way to see the ROM on a budget for outer GTA types (met one father from the shores of Lake Erie as we did sherpa duty and he was enjoying himself.) Non-members price is $75pp, and as long as you don't mind 'car camping' with your closest 200 friends, sleeping on the floor of Currelly (sp?) court is no worse than a midsummer provincial park weekend. Saving the hotel cost, plus the fact you can stay in the ROM all day on Saturday if you should so choose, makes it actually not a bad deal.

Highlights: orientation movie was 'Night at the Museum' (natch), which might actually be a highlight of the Ben Stiller oeuvre... and hitting the dino gallery afterward with a bunch of 4-5 year olds with saucer eyes and a hope/fear that 'Rexy' would start moving was hilarious.

The young Assistant Curator who took a shine to our girls (12 and 9 year old daughters and a friend each) and spent a solid 30-40 minutes bringing the dino gallery to life.

MIDNIGHT KARAOKE!!!! (kill me now.)

All in all, we had a very good time. Anyone with younger kids should think about giving it a try.
 
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You can see the original way into the Museum, before the 1933 addition opened and the Rotunda became the entrance for 70 years.
 
Yes, terracotta at its finest. Perhaps the big buff building was shocking to some, in 1914, in a city of red brick. The east wing, constructed during the Depression and a labour-intensive make work project, was faced with two types of Ontario limestone, oodles of hand carved detailing, and marble quarried near Bancroft for the inside Rotunda and stairs.
 
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