With the world's top fossil resources, why are these museums unattended?

The world's unique political sheep, the world's largest three-toed horse fauna, the world's richest shovel tooth elephant, the world's largest hyena-giant hyena, the world's largest real horse-Emma, the world's earliest Quaternary hairy rhinoceros. ...

Walking into Zhenghe Museum of Ancient Animal Fossils in Gansu Province is like opening a window to ancient times. There are more than 50 ancient animal fossils buried in Zhenghe and its surrounding areas between 30 million and 2.5 million years ago. Newcomers, whether experts in geology and paleontology or ordinary audience, were stunned.

This phenomenon is not uncommon.

At present, the property rights units and departments in charge of natural museums in China are different, but they all face similar difficulties: they should be open to the public free of charge, but due to insufficient operating funds, they can only offset the costs of water, electricity, labor, depreciation and so on by collecting tickets, not to mention updating facilities and exhibits, and carrying out corresponding marketing and brand packaging, thus falling into a vicious circle of "the fewer people collect tickets, the more difficult it is to operate".

Several families are happy and several families are sad.

This year's National Day holiday coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival, and punching in various museum venues has become more and more public travel options.

In zhejiang museum of natural history Hangzhou Pavilion and Anji Pavilion, the 8-day holiday * * * received more than 65,438+million visitors. The Chengjiang Fossil Land Natural Museum in Yuxi, Yunnan Province just opened this year, attracting 60,000 tourists during the National Day.

In addition, beijing museum of natural history, Shanghai Natural Museum, Liaoning Paleontology Museum, Chongqing Natural Museum, China Paleozoology Museum, etc. There is no public disclosure of passenger flow, but from the evaluation of major travel websites, it has also gained considerable passenger flow.

During the Super Golden Week, * * 654.38+043.6 million people experienced traditional culture in Shaanxi Culture and Culture Department; The total number of visitors to major museums in Chengdu exceeds 6.5438+0 million; Suzhou Museum adopts the real-name registration system to make an appointment to visit, with 800 places per hour, and the 8-day long holiday is full every day; Nanjing Museum of Natural History opened the night tour mode during the Golden Week, attracting 227,000 visitors. ...

In addition to the natural science museums mentioned above, a large number of museums are still inaccessible.

The curator of a fossil museum said that today's natural science museum is similar to the historical and cultural museum 20 years ago, lacking the support of operating funds, the system and mechanism are not smooth, and the display means are backward. In the past, the China Museum of History and Culture relied on collecting tickets to support the operation of the venue, which was difficult. For a long time, tourists are scarce and their influence is weak. Subsequently, through the guarantee of special funds, the operating expenses were solved and the "dead knot" of the operation of the cultural museum was solved.

So, where is the way out for the Natural Museum?

Property rights chaos caused by many "mother-in-law"

However, due to the variety of natural sciences, these museums are managed by different departments and institutions, and their property rights are also different. For example, Liaoning Paleontology Museum is managed by the land and resources department, China Paleontology Museum and Nanjing Paleontology Museum are secondary departments in scientific research institutes, Chengjiang Fossil Land Natural Museum and Zhenghe Fossil Animal Museum are invested and managed by local governments, and some fossil museums are invested and built by private enterprises, such as Sichuan Yin Tian Museum and Liaoning Beipiao Pterosaur Museum.

Different "mother bodies" have different main businesses, which leads to uneven construction level, funding sources and content design of museums. The Association for Science and Technology and other departments mainly carry out the popularization of science, and have professionals and special funds to build and maintain the operation of museums; Local governments, land and resources departments and universities are mainly responsible for administrative management and scientific research and teaching, and popular science work is marginalized; Private museums are ingenious in design and operation and are good at meeting market demand. However, the fundamental attribute of enterprises is profit, and their participation in the operation of state-owned museums lacks corresponding policy and mechanism support and operation channels, and the motivation for state-owned museums to introduce private enterprises is insufficient.

What binds the hands and feet of public welfare venues?

Nanjing Paleontology Museum, as a cooperative project of China Academy of Sciences and Jiangsu * * *, was the only large-scale paleontology science popularization venue in China when it was completed in 2005. It is not only backed by Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, but also located in Xuanwu Lake, Jiming Temple and Taicheng Scenic Area. It should be said that the weather, location and people are all available, so why can it only be opened to the public on Saturday, Sunday and holidays after 15 years?

"Nanjing Paleontology Museum, as the secondary department of the Institute, is staffed by the Institute. The entire museum has only four or five official staff for a long time. Due to insufficient personnel and limited funds, it is impossible to meet the requirements of normal opening every day. " Wang Yongdong said that the nature of the institute determines that the financial and material resources in the institute are invested in scientific research, and the assessment goal is also the output of scientific research results. Before 2020, the museum has no special operating funds for a long time. In the past, the ticket revenue of 20 yuan was a drop in the bucket to maintain the operation of a medium-sized and large museum; Not to mention providing more high-quality full-time explanations, selling cultural and creative products, holding special exhibitions and conducting research activities and other value-added services.

According to experts, the state has no unified financial support fund project to support the construction, operation and renewal of natural science museums. At present, most state-owned natural science museums lack a stable support mechanism for their construction and operation funds. The identity of museum staff is also varied, some are civil servants, some are career establishment, and some are market recruitment, which basically does not form the orientation of "professionals do professional things" and is not conducive to the formation of a talent flow mechanism for survival of the fittest.

The dinosaur park, which is "out of nothing", is bursting with popularity.

The 2020 National Day Tourism Report released by the well-known travel website "Donkey Mother Travel" shows that Changzhou Dinosaur Park ranks first among the TOP 10 popular scenic spots in the Mid-Autumn National Day Golden Week; Changzhou Dinosaur Park still ranks first in the TOP 10 popular scenic spot in East China during the Mid-Autumn National Day Golden Week.

Strictly speaking, the Chinese Dinosaur Museum in Changzhou Dinosaur Park is a fossil science museum that is "made out of nothing". Changzhou, located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, has not found dinosaur fossils underground so far.

Most of the fossils in China Dinosaur Museum came from geological museum, the former Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources, and many of them were purchased later, including the giant Shandong Dragon, the Chinese Dragon Bird, the Archaeopteryx, and rare fossils such as Chinese sturgeon, crocodile and lizard.

The success of Changzhou Dinosaur Park undoubtedly brings enlightenment to other paleontological fossil museums: whether a museum is popular or not depends on how operators practice their "internal skills" and provide more accurate and tasteful value-added services to the audience. Only in this way can we get passenger flow, praise and return rate.

In contrast, the Natural Science Museum not only needs professional content design, exquisite exhibits and a large number of static exhibitions, but also needs interactive means such as 3D movies, AR virtual and AI explanation to help the audience understand advanced scientific knowledge, and even can design mini-experience venues in the museum to let the audience, especially children, feel the mystery and natural wonders of science. All these require professional team design and planning, a lot of capital investment, and due to various factors, the exhibition means of natural science museums are generally backward and the content is limited.

Can the integration of science and culture break a new path?

Eight years after Chengjiang Fossil Land successfully applied for the World Natural Heritage, in August 2020 10, Chengjiang Fossil Land Natural Museum opened in the northeast bank of Fuxian Lake in Yunnan.

The museum invested 630 million yuan and took six years to build, covering an area of nearly 200 mu with a building area of 42,000 square meters. It has advanced exhibition equipment and first-class fossil resources in China. "We have collected precious fossils of various geological ages around the world, as well as the Cambrian biological explosion fossils unique to Chengjiang." Chen Taimin, director of the museum, said that the museum has been open to the public free of charge since it was put into operation.

Chen Taimin had been working in the Museum of History and Culture before. From his "outsider" point of view, if the natural science museum wants to let more people in, on the one hand, it should give full play to its public welfare attributes, strive for free opening to the public, and popularize scientific knowledge, so it is necessary to combine the ideas of cultural tourism and build an online celebrity museum.

Chengjiang biota recorded the exciting process of the CAMBRIAN life explosion. From lower sponges to higher chordates, almost all living animals and many extinct animal groups can find their own representatives in Chengjiang fauna.

There used to be a fossil museum in Chengjiang, with tens of thousands of tourists a year. Now the Chengjiang Fossil Land Natural Museum can receive more than 10,000 people a day. Why has the once unpopular place become a new landmark for scientific research, tourism and vacation?

"When designing the new museum, paleontologists suggested that we only show the animal fossils of the CAMBRIAN life explosion, but I know that the CAMBRIAN life explosion fossils unearthed in Chengjiang are small and intuitive, and they are too old for us. Compared with dinosaurs and elephants, not many people want to see it. " Therefore, how to solve these problems and make the public like this museum, so as to get close to fossils and know them, has become a problem that the construction team must seriously consider, Chen Taimin said.

Today, this museum built next to Fuxian Lake is the dream of Chen Taimin. The main museum consists of three floors, such as the Tree of Life Evolution on Earth, which unfolds at different levels, telling visitors about every step of life evolution: the first floor shows the unique value of Chengjiang fossils with the theme of Big Bang, the second floor shows the life evolution of various geological times with the context of life evolution, and the third floor shows rare animal specimens from all over the world with the theme of biodiversity, so that the audience can intuitively understand the grand story of life evolution on Earth.

The most popular dinosaur fossils in the museum. Photo courtesy of Chengjiang Fossil Land Natural Museum

"Because Chengjiang has unique resources, we should tell the best story by the best means." Chen Taimin said that there are more modern scientific and technological means such as VR and intelligent somatosensory interaction in domestic natural museums, and the museum also collects more than 60,000 precious paleontological fossils and living animal specimens. "Only in this way can we completely tell the grand evolution stories of life on earth, such as' life explosion, life evolution and biodiversity', and provide tourists with interesting visiting experiences."

However, Chen Taimin's dream of building a new museum was only half realized. How to make good use of this precious world-class fossil resource and the museum's hardware, let the museum exert its comprehensive benefits, innovate the concept of integration of literature and tourism, improve its service and management thinking, superimpose the interesting and mysterious scientific genes of the natural museum, and strive to build a fossil museum that the public likes.

Chen Taimin appealed that governments at all levels and departments should take active measures on how to give full play to the comprehensive benefits of fossil museums. For example, the central government subsidizes museums to open operating funds free of charge, so that more visitors can enter museums to receive nature education and popular science education; For example, support the fossil museum to enhance the exhibition effect and bring better experience to visitors; For example, support and fund fossil museums to tell good fossil stories through popular science books, popular science movies and other forms, encourage museums to cooperate with educational and training institutions to carry out rich popular science research activities, and make full use of China's precious fossil resources through various cultural tourism services.

Extended reading:

How do enterprises get popular science venues out of the "boudoir"

Ten years ago, Wang was an employee of Huawei. Today, he has become the founder and CEO of Beijing Weichuang Zhi Bo, a professional natural museum company.

For this huge identity change, Wang bluntly said that it was an opportunity brought by "science education".

In 2009, due to work reasons, Wang established contact with vertebrate paleontology Institute of Paleoanthropology of China Academy of Sciences. He found a strange phenomenon. The China Museum of Paleontology, affiliated to the Institute, exhibited interesting and informative contents, but there were few tourists and the response was deserted.

On the spur of the moment, he made a bold decision: on the one hand, he signed a cooperation agreement with the China Museum of Paleozoology and established the Darwin Club; On the one hand, primary and secondary schools connected with Beijing rely on museums and other resources to carry out research activities.

20 12 takes advantage of the free time in the evening to create the activity mode of "Wonderful Night in the Museum" in China. "We took over and settled in the museum at 5 pm, and started activities at 7 pm, introducing paleontology knowledge, putting popular science movies, and talking about whether dinosaurs will be resurrected at night. Then, the children visited the museum, looked for treasures, and made gypsum fossils to assemble dinosaurs ... then it was 10: 30. We took our children to sleep in the exhibition hall, got up early the next morning to make our own breakfast and left at 8 o'clock on time. " Wang said that this night tour mode created a brand-new experience for the Natural Science Museum, and it did not affect the normal opening and scientific research activities of the museum during the day, and it quickly became popular in the market. "Last year, we held more than 100 wonderful night activities in the China Paleontology Museum, with an average of three days and a full house."

Ten years have passed, and the cooperation between Microinvasive Blog and China Paleontology Museum has been deepened. The service content expanded to nine major projects, which also brought obvious changes to the museum. The number of tourists increased from 50,000 to 60,000 in 2009 to 400,000 in 2065, 438+09.

In 2020, the Nanjing Paleontology Museum finally obtained an exhibition renovation and support fund from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Microinvasive Zhi Bo through bidding to carry out museum operation cooperation. For such a brand-new cooperation mode, Wang Yongdong, director of Nanjing Paleontology Museum, gave a positive evaluation: "The participation of professional operation team will improve the operation efficiency of the venue. In the future, we can put more energy into the design and update of exhibition content, the development of popular science courses, and the holding of special exhibitions, invest time in the professional construction of museums, and leave market operations to enterprises. "

According to the cooperative division of labor, the science cafe, Darwin Experimental Station, popular science cinema, research activities, brand building and market expansion of Nanjing Paleontology Museum were entrusted to Weichuang Zhi Bo. The design of exhibition contents, the training of professional knowledge, the construction of popular science courses, the collection and display of fossil specimens and the organization of popular science activities are still the responsibility of museum professionals.

"Interpretation reception, health and security, research activities, market development and other work will be undertaken by the professional operation team, which is expected to provide a better visit experience for the audience." Wang Yongdong said that the museum will be open to the public free of charge on the basis of subsidies from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and local popular science venues, and the operation matters other than paleontology will be undertaken by enterprises, which will not only make the popular science venues return to public welfare, but also meet the market demand, which is conducive to actively promoting the healthy and sustainable development of the popular science education market.

The pictures in this article are provided by vision china, except for labeling.

Science and technology daily? Produced by prodigy studio

Wechat Editor | Liu Yiyang

Audit | Julie

Final appeal | Leng Wensheng