The Museum is a staple of Animal Crossing. It collects bugs, fish, and fossils, all sourced locally from players for display, and more recently, artistic works have been added. It acts as a living catalogue of your island experiences. But, as a real-world museum professional of over a decade’s experience in museums big and small, I have some serious questions about the conduct of the museum’s sole employee. Who exactly is Blathers, the enigmatic overlord of the island’s cultural hub?
There are two options here. Firstly, Blathers may be blameless for his museum’s shortcomings. He may be the overworked, underpaid, singular member of staff at a small, local museum. Many small museums with a local focus can only afford a skeleton crew; some really great and important places like Dr Johnson’s House and the Cartoon Museum only have a few staff. You would expect Blathers to have an army of volunteers supporting him, but since the other island residents show precious little interest in even helping with donations (wasters), we shouldn’t be surprised at their lack of civic duty. But this museum is huge; the Animal Crossing museum of old was on a scale where you could believe it was a small local indie. This one is a significant step up – a high tech natural history/ aquarium/ botanical garden hybrid with an internationally significant art collection. There could have been a recent influx of grant money, but Blathers never leaves the door – when did he have time to contend with that kind of labour-intensive administration?
Another question arises here: who does Blathers answer to? Small museums are usually run by the local council, or are independent and have a Board of Trustees who guide the museum’s direction, and make sure it remains true to its purpose and the industry standards all museums must abide by. In some ways, it would be classic Tom Nook to have built his own museum to show off the treasures of his Island. (No one from Nook, Inc. was available for comment at the time of writing.) But as the museum has no way of making money, attracting tourists, or edifying the great Nook name, we have to assume he’s not pulling the strings here.
The Museum is a staple of Animal Crossing. It collects bugs, fish, and fossils, all sourced locally from players for display, and more recently, artistic works have been added. It acts as a living catalogue of your island experiences. But, as a real-world museum professional of over a decade’s experience in museums big and small, I have some serious questions about the conduct of the museum’s sole employee. Who exactly is Blathers, the enigmatic overlord of the island’s cultural hub?
There are two options here. Firstly, Blathers may be blameless for his museum’s shortcomings. He may be the overworked, underpaid, singular member of staff at a small, local museum. Many small museums with a local focus can only afford a skeleton crew; some really great and important places like Dr Johnson’s House and the Cartoon Museum only have a few staff. You would expect Blathers to have an army of volunteers supporting him, but since the other island residents show precious little interest in even helping with donations (wasters), we shouldn’t be surprised at their lack of civic duty. But this museum is huge; the Animal Crossing museum of old was on a scale where you could believe it was a small local indie. This one is a significant step up – a high tech natural history/ aquarium/ botanical garden hybrid with an internationally significant art collection. There could have been a recent influx of grant money, but Blathers never leaves the door – when did he have time to contend with that kind of labour-intensive administration? Another question arises here: who does Blathers answer to? Small museums are usually run by the local council, or are independent and have a Board of Trustees who guide the museum’s direction, and make sure it remains true to its purpose and the industry standards all museums must abide by. In some ways, it would be classic Tom Nook to have built his own museum to show off the treasures of his Island. (No one from Nook, Inc. was available for comment at the time of writing.) But as the museum has no way of making money, attracting tourists, or edifying the great Nook name, we have to assume he’s not pulling the strings here.Read moreEurogamer.net
