People travel to new places for many different reasons. One of the most common reasons is to see a new place, culture, or way of life. For a total outsider with only a short amount of time, museums offer a glimpse into these ways of life through specially designed education, cultural insights, and entertainment.
People come to museums to learn about the world. The educational experience in a museum is quite different than that of reading or studying. In a museum, learning experiences are direct and thrilling. Reading books about primitive history might seem boring, but seeing the huge skeleton of a terrifying dinosaur in person is a thrilling experience. Reading history books about the Nanjing Massacre are horrifying, sad, and yet abstract, but a trip to the Memorial Museum in Nanjing is an experience that has moved many students to tears. Museums can make otherwise distant and mundane educational experiences come to life.
The museums of a place tell an outsider much about what the people of that place value culturally. A trip to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art would tell the visitor that Americans are interested in art from all over the world, but by comparing the size of the European Art collection with that of the Asian Art collection, one might conclude that Americans feel a strong cultural affinity with European Art. Similarly, a tourist to a place like San Francisco, where there is a large museum devoted solely to Asian Art, might conclude that people from San Francisco have a stronger affinity to Asian culture.
Meanwhile, many people who travel simply want to relax and be entertained, and museums also provide an excellent venue for leisure. Even most nominally educational museums provide exciting attractions like movie theaters and special cultural performances such as dances, gourmet dinners, lectures, and musical performances from jazz to rock and roll. Many museums in the United States hold special nights once a week where young people can drink and socialize. Museums are not only spaces for education and culture, but have also become important entertainment and social venues.
