Museum Review: Grand Rapids Public Museum

Earlier this month, I visited the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The first thing that I noticed was that there were a lot of tables set up that lined the entire hallway underneath the whale skeleton. The themes of all the tables were about different countries, and at each table there were people in traditional cultural clothing and information about their countries and some sort of activity related to that culture such as origami, henna tattoos and different types of music and dancing. I noticed that many local businesses were involved in this such as a Mexican restaurant that had different samples of food and drinks for people to try. The event also involved local schools by having foreign exchange students there talking about their countries with the community. I thought this was a very cool idea that incorporated community outreach and I felt like it created a very welcoming and accepting environment for everyone. This was further echoed by the many staff members and volunteers, who were all very friendly and informative.

Another thing that I noticed about this museum was its accessibility. There were plenty of parking options, and many handicapped parking spaces, both by the museum and in the parking garage. There was also a designated covered drop off location for buses for visiting groups at the front of the museum. In the museum, the aisles were spacious and I noticed multiple people in wheelchairs navigate around without any apparent difficulty. There was plenty of seating throughout the museum where people could rest if needed. Free wheelchair rentals were located at the front desk. There was also an elevator that reached all of the floors of the museum. The planetarium inside of the museum offered shows in Spanish as well as English. Additionally, I also noticed Braille on some exhibits.