Justin Erik Halldór Smith speaks out against the infantilization of the natural history museum:
It has often struck me that no greater misfortune can befall a natural history museum than for it to come into enough money for renovations. These typically take the form of interactive screens displaying ‘fun facts’ directed at eight-year-olds, and they require the removal of anything that reeks of the past, which is to say also the removal of the very idea of natural history, in favor of some eternally present, unceasingly entertaining, Chuck E. Cheese-like arcade.
(Hat tip to Xavier Marquez.)
The Adler Planetarium in Chicago during my youth was filled with understated displays of ancient brass astronomical instruments, large and very clear backlit photographic plates and a dome show scored with Debussy and Bach.
But now, Chuck E. Cheese is a perfect analog.