Royal Ontario Museum - a cheap price for a gem of a museum
Written: Dec 16 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great location, exhibits are regularly changed or updated, most popular exhibits are always there, free admission during certain times, cool gift shops
Cons: None
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| caurieanne's Full Review: Toronto |
I have visited the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto six times in the past two years and have yet to tire from it. Every time I visit this magnificent museum the mission of its founders — to inspire wonder and build understanding of human cultures and the natural world — is renewed in me as I explore its diverse galleries, touch its interactive displays, and become a child again excited to discover things I never knew existed.
The ROM (as it is affectionately known) was founded in 1912 as part of the University of Toronto. In the 1960s it was separated from the university and became an entity of the provincial government. Today, its beautiful 800,000 square foot facility attracts nearly a million visitors a year and has an impressive collection of 4,900,000 science specimens, 1,100,000 art and archaeology artifacts, and over 40 permanent galleries. These galleries include:
* Dinosaurs
* T. T. Tsui Galleries of Chinese Art
* Bat Cave (not real bats, don't worry!)
* S. R. Perren Gem and Gold Room (my favorite!!!!!)
* Ancient Egypt and Nubia
* Samuel European Galleries
While I love all of the ROM’s permanent collections (especially the rock, mineral, and gem collection featuring some the most incredible jewels I have ever seen), I also love the fact that the ROM is an ever-changing and evolving museum. Every time I visit the ROM it has my old favorites, but plenty of new exhibits too. It is not one of those museums that you can visit once and come back ten years later and nothing has changed except the entrance fee.
At the ROM curators acquire 67,000 news items a year and are always putting them on display. For example, when I visited the ROM in November I enjoyed the Audubon’s Wilderness Palette exhibit, featuring 100 hand-colored life-size engravings of Canadian birds created by John James Audubon. When I returned to the ROM this month, that display was gone, but there was a new exhibit featuring hundreds of Canadian birds that had been taxidermied. There was also a live Samba drum concert going on in the museum's lobby which provided an interesting background music to this display.
During my last visit I also discovered a part of the museum I had never seen before, the Hands-on Biodiversity area. This large space is an interactive gallery teeming with hundreds of plant and animal specimens that you can actually touch (if you want to that is). There were even living displays, like a huge bee’s nest, that thankfully, I did not have the opportunity to touch. This area was full of kids and there were also plenty of staff members around to answer questions and make sure nobody ran off with the stuffed sea gull or beaver skin.
If you are from Toronto you most likely have already visited the ROM numerous times, but if you will be visiting Toronto be sure to put it on your “to do” list. I am not from Toronto, or even Canada for that matter, but every time I visit the wonderful city of Toronto I stop in and check out the ROM. Even if it’s just for an hour, the ROM is worth the stop.
One thing my fiancé and I love to do is go to the museum on a Friday night for an hour, visit our favorite exhibits, see a few new ones, and then go out for dinner. The museum (centrally located at 100 Queen's Park) is free to the public on Friday nights and is free for its last hour of operation each night. Normal prices are $10 for adults and $5 for students and kids over four. So, it is definitely a plus to try to visit during one of the free sessions. Even during these free times, the museum is large enough so you have plenty of space to see things at your own speed and without feeling crowded.
If it is your first time visiting the ROM, though, I suggest you do not go to a free session because you will want plenty of time to see everything without feeling rushed by the clock. There is a lot to see and I promise you won’t be disappointed.
p.s. For people like me who love museum shops, the ROM has four (two on the main level, a children’s one in the basement, and a dinosaur one near the dinosaur exhibit). They are all really good and have reasonably priced things you won’t find elsewhere in the city. There is also a restaurant in the museum and plenty of bathrooms.
As always, thanks for reading and rating.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
caurieanne
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Location: Upstate New York
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 26 members
About Me:
I am a native upstate New Yorker and freelance writer who currently lives in Rochester.
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