MUSEUMS
PROBLEM
SOLVING IN PROGRESS
SOLUTION UNDERWAY
BEAUTIFUL MINDS
The founders of MoMath, the New York Museum of Mathematics explain how they’re on a mission to get ordinary people to fall in love with maths
Rhianon Howells, journalist O 48
n the subject of maths, Glen Whitney and Cindy Lawrence, co-founders and executive directors of the Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in New York City,
are surprisingly lyrical – they talk less about formulae, theorems and proofs than they do about beauty and wonder, excite- ment and falling in love. Yet despite this undisguised passion, they’re the first to admit that maths has an image problem. “Math is too often presented as a cook- book of recipes to memorise, and it’s really a cultural problem,” says Lawrence, a certified public accountant (CPA) who spent 16 years as national editor for CPA education provider Becker, and runs a programme for gifted maths students in her spare time. “If I go to a party and get into a conversation about what I do, people aren’t ashamed to say, ‘I’m terrible at math.’ If I said I was an author, no one would say, ‘I’m a terrible writer,’ whereas to say ‘I’m not a math person’ is almost a badge of honour.” Through MoMath, which celebrated its
first anniversary in December, Whitney and Lawrence have made it their
right. Here, they talk about changing public perceptions, the dangers of ‘maths illiteracy’ and what’s next for North America’s only math’s museum.
Glen Whitney (left) and Cindy
Lawrence (right) teamed up to create the Museum of Mathematics
mission to turn this common percep- tion of maths as difficult and dull on its head. “We’re not trying to shame anyone,” says Whitney, a Harvard- and UCLA-educated mathematics professor and former quantitative analyst for hedge fund Renaissance Technologies. “We’re just trying to show the face of math that people naturally want to engage with.” With MoMath’s visitors for year one
topping 173,000 (massively exceeding the projected 68,000), Whitney and Lawrence are clearly doing something
Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital
How was the idea for MoMath born? Glen Whitney (GW): For about 20 years, there was a tiny math museum on Long Island. I went along, and it was sort of run down, but I had a great time. I thought nothing of it until I started coaching the math club at my daughter’s elementary school. I was talking to some teachers when the topic of the museum came up and I found out it had closed down. I thought perhaps this was an opportunity to create an institution with a similar flavour and feel, but a little bit more of an ambitious mission. Cindy Lawrence (CL): I’d also visited
that museum with my family before I met Glen. Then our daughters became friends. One day, Glen was picking his daughter up from my house when he asked if I’d ever heard of this museum. I said, “Sure, I love that museum.” And he said, “Well, it is no more.” In the next breath he said, “But I’m going to open another math museum.” And I said, “Wow, if you
AM 2 2014 ©Cybertrek 2014
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88