April 10, 2008
Newseum Opens Tomorrow
Just like its subject — the news — the Newseum, which opens tomorrow, includes far more information than the average museum-goer can handle. It would take days (there are 24 hours of documentary footage alone) to see everything on display in the 250,000-square-foot museum, and with a $20 admission charge, a visit to the Newseum should be a full-day’s outing. Opening day, however, is free of charge, so you might want to head down even for just a long lunch hour to check out the new site tomorrow.
The architecture is one of the most notable features of the museum: the modern face of the building celebrates the First Amendment with a 74-foot high marble engraving of the words that guarantee the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition, while the rest of the front is glass so passersby can see inside.
The most interesting exhibits focus on international reporting — the Time Warner News Gallery features a map of the world showing which countries have free press and which countries limit it, and the violent side of the profession is examined, with chilling objects on display from journalists who lost their lives or were injured in pursuit of a story.
Also in the Newseum is a journalists memorial, a wall with the names of deceased reporters, photographers, editors and broadcasters who were either targeted for writing controversial stories, worked in war-torn countries, or who simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The wall is more than a list of the names of the fallen — last week, the remains of four photographers whose helicopter was shot down during the Vietnam War were interred in the floor under the wall.
Interactive features include a newsroom in which visitors can be photojournalist, editor, reporter or anchor and produce a report, and an “ethics table” in which teams compete against each other to answer ethical questions about journalism.
Also worthy of note are the galleries dedicated to media coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall (a section of the wall is on display) and the September 11 terrorist attacks. These two exhibits drive home how inseparable the media is from our lives, and the whole museum chronicles the important events that have occurred over the past centuries, from the Revolutionary War to the Virginia Tech shooting. With such an emphasis on tracking daily events, it will be interesting to see how the Newseum adapts to changing media and keeps on top of current events.
The Newseum is also touting their food options: Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant The Source and the food court (wittily named the “Food Section”) go beyond typical museum fare, but both are pretty pricey for lunch. The Food Section looks to be competing with the neighboring National Gallery of Art, since it also features a gelato bar.
The Newseum is located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave., NW and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. $20 admission, except opening day tomorrow, which is free.
Images courtesy the Newseum
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i have to find a way to get out of work tomorrow afternoon and check this out!
me too
and i challenge all other former journalism students at the ethics table!!!
i agree . . . although i may do better by calling out sick. i've worked as a photojournalist (and can't wait to get back to it), and i can tell i'll be there for a long time looking at everything.
maybe i'll wait a little bit before going so i won't have to deal with crowds. what's that? tourist season is coming up? damn, looks like i won't get there till next year. ::sigh::
I have off tomorrow and am planning to swing by. It'll be good to let friends and visitors know if the $20 fee will be worth it.
I love the news but I hate the media. So I hope the exhibits and the museum as a whole are fairly free of sponsorship.
So I guess I'll go tomorrow while I can save my $20 and make the better half incredibly jealous.
Thank goodness tomorrow is pay day.
Wow! A whole sawbuck in exchange for a pack of sweet-smelling lies? I only charge $10 and the first few are free:
"You look so slim in that outfit! I'm so jealous!"
"No, I wouldn't say those jeans make your ass look huge!"
"You're too good for him!"
"Extended warranty? How can you lose?"
"The upcoming presidential election will change everything!"
Seriously, how long is that $20 fee going to stand? Are there going to be kids picking this over the Spy Museum...or even the (free) Natural History museum?
So what architect designed this building? Frank Lloyd Wrong? It looks like the thalidomide offspring of the Air and Space Museum and the World Bank, only whored up a little. I always knew those two buildings were first cousins. Love the little white cement jersey barrier planters on the curb. They must get a lot of bomb threats from people with 20/20 vision.
Are there going to be kids picking this over the Spy Museum...or even the (free) Natural History museum?
Probably their teachers. Depends on how the group rate system will work at the Newseum. How much did it used to cost to go back when it was in Rosslyn?
Jeez! $20 admission?!?!? I've really been spoiled by all the other free museums.
Back when it was in Rosslyn it was free.
Because it was in Rosslyn.
Oh no, why are there ugly planters around the building? There are enough ugly barricades marring Pennsylvania Avenue, we don't need any more blocky planters or jersey barriers in this town.
before you pay your $20, take a quick read of slate's "down with the newseum" --- it's pretty right on :
http://www.slate.com/id/2183936/
A little preview:
"Avoid the gilded disaster that is the Newseum. Avoid paying the $20 they charge for admission. I want the Freedom Forum to sell off their monument valley installation and use the proceeds to actually support journalism. Like endowing a newspaper, for instance."
And instead of paying your $20 admission fee to the Newseum, you could use that money to truly support and honor the craft of journalism: buy a subscription to a newspaper!
Newspapers are such a quaint 19th century delivery device. What news I don't get from podcasts I glean off restaurant placeholders and reading the entrails of birds.
But, the Newseum has a gelato bar. :-)
I went to the Newseum a couple weeks ago for one of their "friends and family" open houses. It is exactly like the media is nowadays....a total sensory overload.
That being said, there are some interesting and informative displays at the Newseum, and if you are willing to spend some time there, you can certainly get your $20 worth (even though I agree this is too steep a price). I don't think I need to go back, however. Many of the videos and exhibits are kind of cheesy, but there is plenty to see if you are truly interested in the evolution of "news" and the media. It is certainly high-tech, and they are banking on the "wow" factor to keep bringing people in. Also, some of the displays will get changed out daily (such as the wall of daily newspaper front-pages from around the world), and others that are very current-events based.
It is much more of a museum than the Spy "museum" or the new Crime and Punishment "museum" (better known as the altar to John Walsh). Still, get a discount if you can find a way, but I don't think spending $20 one time to see the Newseum is more of a waste of money than some of the other stuff people do around DC.
Also, sorry this post was so long.
Friends I've talked to who got in on the media preview pretty much agreed with Slate. It's pretty nice, but nowhere near worth $20 to see. Give it a year. Either that $20 admission fee will drop to something more reasonable, or the place will close.
I'm with HCE. I don't see people lining up to pay $20 a year from now. How long did the DC City Museum last charging $10 a pop? With all the free crap in DC, those prices don't work, particularly during a recession.
Considering the joint looks like a Lego commode tipped on its side, they should just sell it to the Association of Santiary Engineers and turn it into the Poo-seum. Loaded with interactive exhibits about Septic Tanks Through the Ages and virtual sewer tours, the kids will be begging their parents to take them. They'd make a killing in the cafeteria selling mudslides, chili, and yule logs.
I think we finally have a home for our beloved sewage trebuchet.
the thing is, this building, unlike the failed city museum, was purpose built to be what it is. if it does close, it's not a tidy conversion to an office cube farm. because i don't want to see an empty shell downtown, i really hope it succeeds. i really think that the $20 admission fee can't last long. not even a couple months, i'd wager.
The death of the City Museum resulted from both the godawful location and the fact that tourists from all around the US don't really care about the history of DC, except as it relates to the Federal Government, monuments, memorials, big protests on the Mall, and that sort of thing. It was the kind of project that should have been located much closer to a Metro stop, and started as a more modest enterprise focused primarily on DC and Metro area schoolchildren. If the goal was to attract tourists, given the low level of ambient interest in the content it needed to be free.
I seriously wonder sometimes if anyone really thought the City Museum was going to work . . . all I can figure is that they assumed that they'd make up their inevitable operating shortfall with venue rental fees.
Also, it may not have been purpose-built as a modern museum, but the old Beaux-Arts Carnegie Library is hardly an ideal structure to be converted into "an office cube farm," either. As far as I can tell, its still housing the DC Historical Society and their Kiplinger Library as well as offices and programs of something called the National Music Center.
nate: you're right, the carnegie library building can't be converted into an office building either, but i guess i just wanted to focus on the newseum building. maybe, someday, they could turn the carnegie back into a library...
The problem with turning the Carnegie back into a library is that it would end up like MLK Library: a de facto homeless shelter with gloryhole toilet stalls where you can look at porn at the Internet terminals all day.
Come to think of it, that's not such a bad idea.
Jeez! $20 admission?!?!? I've really been spoiled by all the other free museums.
Indeed, but the flip side is that because we regularly get to enjoy lots great, free museums I don't really mind paying for one occasionally. Although there seems to be an awful lot of people swilling Newseum Haterade.