Millennium Gate Museum

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/10.1525/tph.2010.32.2.102.pdf

        Mike Bunn decided he was going to visit a museum in Georgia that is housed in the Millennium Monument in Atlanta and wrote a review about his visit.  The monument is said to sort of resemble the Arc de Triomphe in some ways.  The museum inside this monument opened in 2008; and “its mission is to ‘preserve and interpret Georgia history, architecture, culture and philanthropic heritage as well as highlight Georgia’s historical and aesthetic relevance to the United States and to the World’.”This mission is related to the National Monuments Foundation, they built the monument.  The foundation wants to build monuments that last and uplift the communities.  The foundation also wants to create national and historic landmarks, and cultural centers.  Looking at this, it’s like the museum has two mission statements to up hold.

            To get into the museum is thirteen dollars and once inside the collections are wide varieties.  The largest part is dedicated to traveling exhibits, and the writer said it was impressionist art but did not go on to say more about it.  The historical permanent exhibits showcase monumental things that happened in America with an attempt to relate it to Georgia.  Bunn said there is a curiosity cabinet of things from the Colonial days, the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812.  The interesting exhibit was of mock up of a home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Lyman Hall.

            A visitor can walk through the museum and not understand the story trying to be told because the museum is set up in a weird way.  It is the attempt to fulfill two mission statements that is hurting the Millennium Gate Museum from Bunn’s perspective.  If the museum would just portray Georgia's history and not try to bring in all of America's history with it, the museum might actually make sense to people.