Experiencing Culture

Vienna has been lovely these past four days! I'll be the first to admit, I had a lot of reservations leading up to the start of this study away experience. I was nervous about money, and transportation, and people, but all of those things have washed away and now I'm just excited to experience more history and culture.


Speaking of culture, today I visited the Weltmuseum Wien (Vienna World Museum). This museum is a brand new addition to Vienna's Museum Quarter, completed and opened in 2017. This museum includes items from all over the world, but also contains the Austrian Historic Armory as well as a historical musical instrument collection. I am always slightly worried about this kind of museum, as often they are simply boxes full of the results of imperialism and a history of theft from indigenous people, especially in Europe. However, this museum was different. Although some artifacts and items were not gained by genuine or equal means, the museum made an effort to teach visitors about the history of the items, how they are/were relevant to the culture they came from, and even how the museum came across them. Here are some of my favorites!

These two pictures are a pair - that's right!
This is, per record, the second oldest trombone we have.

The musical instrument section that the above came from also contained other wind instruments, plenty of string instruments, but also some keyboard instruments. In particular interest was a small tucked away section where the museum had recreated some of the older instruments using the same instructions as they would have followed, but these recreations were playable by the public! Applied learning is amazing, and that is an excellent example of museums, even while hands off, providing learning for all.

Another example of preserving culture is the above headdress, from 16th century Mexico. Previously, the headdress had been repaired using modern methods, which eventually began to harm the feathers and form of the item. However, scholars found a book that contained the methods that the native Mexican people used to create similar headdresses, and repaired the headdress using those methods and feathers from the same birds the native peoples would have used.

That's what this is all about, right? All these concerts we're going to on this trip are doing the same thing. There is an art, these artists and people are preserving that art, and we are observing the product. It's amazing to see cultures grow, rise, and fall, and all the while we are living among all of them.

Keep an eye out for more posts, and read everyone else's posts as well! You'll basically get a free month of traveling Europe out of it!