San Bernardino County History Belongs in a Museum

SAN BERNARDINO >> Melissa Russo, director for San Bernardino County Museum, met with locals in order to talk about the plans to develop the museum into a more engaging and interactive learning environment for children, teens and adults. This meeting took place in the San Bernardino Historical & Pioneer Society on Thursday, May 5th. According to Russo, the San Bernardino County Museum maintains and develops unique cultural and natural science collections related to the region and the greater Southwest. She believes that responsible collection, preservation, exhibition, and education are key factors to inspiring the public into a deeper understanding of San Bernardino's cultural and natural society. Some areas of concern are Paleontology/Geology, Biology, Anthropology, and History. Out of Los Angeles' population of 10,116,705 people, there are 234 museums. San Bernardino's population of 2 million has only 53 museums. Russo believes the reasons for the declining revenue and attendance is not only in the lack of museums, but also of people's interests in artifacts. She used examples like the rise of "the selfie" in popular museums such as The Broad in comparison to the seriousness in exclusivity of viewing artifacts. The room was full of amusement in disbelief both due to the new standards of popularity and the urgency to raise awareness for San Bernardino's museums. Russo believes in the new plans to shift directions in renovating ideas. The crowd of fellow San Bernardino museum enthusiasts were also optimistic about the future of preserving the history of San Bernardino.