2020/2021
It could be said “Curiosity as a value in itself” was the idea at the beginning of the Renaissance and Europe’s slow emergence from the Dark Ages. This Cortes Island Museum theme wanted to revitalize this concept: let’s see what happens when interest in the world is wide-flung, and studies are allowed to be general and learning remains unbiased. True adventures can only be had by random wanderings through the Universe and unprejudiced curiosity in everything.
Numerous versions of these old-fashioned spaces eventually evolved into modern museums.
This exhibit, filled with a great variety of items, from mysterious natural history specimens to strange human artifacts was curated by Christian Gronau – geologist, blogger, our museum member and curator of many museum exhibits.
Modelled loosely on the fabled cabinets, boxes, rooms and chambers of the Renaissance, this exhibition is an invitation to reawaken the unreserved and almost childlike interest and curiosity of age when Europeans shook off the shadows of the Dark Ages and awoke to the fascination of the external world. When people of intellect and time to spare went (for better and for worse) in search of adventure, discovery and illumination, to all the corners of the Earth. They came back with stories full of wonder and brought back specimens full of mystery and promise. Their curiosity changed forever the ways in which humans look upon the world.
Check our Facebook Album with photographs by Richard Trueman.
