The Museum, the Fair and the Exposition
All world expositions to date have proved important occasions for cultural and symbolic bequests to their host cities. The Eiffel Tower, a legacy of the 1889 Paris exposition, is the most obvious example. The more usual pattern, especially in the nineteenth century, was for expositions to stimulate the development of public museums, often supplying these with their buildings and initial collections.
Yet, although we may be sure Expo 88 will leave its traces on Brisbane, it is now difficult to predict the precise form these will take. More difficult, certainly, than a few months ago when the River City 2000 scheme healed the transformation of the south bank into a tourist megalopolis. Except in one respect. Expo’s Official Souvenir Programme notes, of the World Expo Park, that “this collection of space-orientated rides, exhibits and amusements is destined to be Expo’s only physical legacy.” Whatever else happens on the south bank, we know (if it can find a buyer) that the fair will still be there, just across the railway line from the Performing Arts Complex, a stone’s throw away from the Queensland Museum and Art Gallery.
The museum, the fair, and the exposition: we have become accustomed to these nestling side by side over the past few months. And, when Expo has gone, we can expect the fair and the museum to continue their relations of peaceful co-existence. For there has been little objection to the proposal that a fixed-site fair be permanently located next to the museum. Yet, had such a suggestion been made a century ago, it would have provoked outrage. Appealing to different publics and occupying different zones of the city, the museum and the fair were... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Figure 1. George Cruikshank, A Scene at the London Museum Piccadilly, 1816.
Figure 2. The Prince Consort’s Gallery, South Kensington Museum, c.1876. Drawing by John Watkins.
