"The reason that there haven’t been many math museums is that the enthusiasm the subject inspires is not easily communicated and not readily discovered"

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/arts/design/museum-of-mathematics-at-madison-square-park.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

MUSEUM REVIEW

Opening the Doors to the Life of Pi

Museum of Mathematics at Madison Square Park

By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN

Published: December 13, 2012

For those of us who have been intoxicated by the powers and possibilities of mathematics, the mystery isn’t why that fascination developed but why it isn’t universal. How can students not be entranced? So profound are the effects of math for those who have felt them, that you never really become a former mathematician (or ex-mathematics student) but one who has “lapsed,” as if it were an apostasy.

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That is also one of the flaws. The reason that there haven’t been many math museums is that the enthusiasm the subject inspires is not easily communicated and not readily discovered. In the United States, where student math performance is far from stellar, it is easy to see why a compensatory straining at “fun” is more evident than a drive toward illumination.