Article Rankings - last post!

Okay, so here are my rankings for the articles in the Museum Studies book.

I'll be honest like I have been in our meetings, this book is not my favorite. But it's mostly because of the rather random arrangement of articles. Some of them were very insightful, it was just hard for me to wrap my brain around how they fit into the big picture. I put them in chronological order rather than putting them in my own personal order, because I couldn't choose "favorites"... they all served a different purpose.

Top 15

#3: The Universal Survey Museum by Carol Duncan and Alan Wallach

• Great comparisons of museums to historical architecture and how they flow naturally out of human experience.

#9: At the Holocaust Museum by Alice Friman

• Poignant poem about the experience of a gut-wrenching history exhibition.

#10: To the Citizens of the United States of America by Charles Willson Peale 

• Example of curator asking for objects from "friends of the museum."

#17: Ambiguous Messages and Ironic Twists by Enid Schildkrout 

• Good example of what NOT to do as a curator.

#18: Thinking and Doing Otherwise by Mary Boquet

• The anthropology behind designing exhibitions.

#21: The Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford by James Fenton 

• Nice imagery, a poetic interpretation of a museum. Nice change of pace. 

#26 -- Melodrama, Pantomime or Portrayal? by Gaynor Kavanagh

• Discusses the history museum and being careful with its accuracy, scope, and limits. 

#29 Museums, National, Postnational and Transcultural Identities by Sharon J. Macdonald 

• Concerning museum identity in general, and how they might be changing.

#30 - Architecture and the Scene of Evidence by Catharine Ingraham 

• Slightly unclear but makes interesting claims about the architecture design representing the museum.

#31 - Some Thoughts about National Museums at the End of the Century by Roger G. Kennedy

• Insightful points about the nature of museums here and now, in our postmodern society. 

#34: Reality as Illusion, the Historic Houses that Become Museums by Mónica Risnicoff de Gorgas 

• Great examples of house museums, and the authenticity that is necessary within them. 

#38: Indigenous Models of Museums in Oceania by Sidney Moko Mead 

• Great example of a "specialized" museum, and the respect that is due the original culture of the objects. 

#39 - Museums and the Native Voice by Gerald McMaster

• Honoring the voice of the native people in your museum because it's easy to mix cultural assumptions with the truth. 

#42 - Aims and Principles of the Construction and Management of Museums of Fine Art by Benjamen Ives Gilman 

• This is probably the best introductory article, deals with how to handle and display objects, and the visitor's understanding of the art. 

#55: Museums, Corporatism and the Civil Society by Robert R. Janes

• Great article on the public purpose and function of the museum.

Bottom 10.... or 3?

So I actually don't have any more than 3 to put on the "bottom" list... but it's because all the rest of the articles in the book I either skimmed or didn't read because it looked boring or too long for the concept that it was dealing with. So I don't have a huge opinion on those. The three below are really the only ones where I would say " please don't make them read these." Hopefully all of this helps, and you can use the book in a way that truly aids the study of museums. 

#2: The Museum: It's Classical Etymology and Renaissance Genealogy by Paula Findlen

• Far too involved for this class.. all about the meaning of the word museum. Only good if you are interested in etymology or have way too much time on your hands. 

#23: Presidential Address to the Museums Association, Maidstone Meeting, 1909 by Henry Balfour

• I'm sorry, this was just plain boring. Super long speech in which he talks in a roundabout manner, only hitting a few significant points. 

#27 -- Artifacts as Expressions of Society and Culture by Leone and Little 

• This was my absolute least favorite. They made a variety of clams that didn't seem to tie together at the end, and I was confused almost the entire time. 

Thanks for a good semester, and for the grace you showed us while we figured out how to do this "studying independently" thing.  I hope you have a wonderful time with the students in the spring semester! 

p.s. I don't know whats up with the funky formatting in the bullets... I can't fix it for some reason! Oh well....



FIN 

Ethnology

eth•nol•o•gy

: a science that deals with the division of human beings into races and their origin, distribution, relations, and characteristics. 

Article #16 -- Ethnology: A Science on Display by Fabrice Grognet. 

This article was all about the transition that ethnological and history museums have made along with that field of science that is ethnology. Grognet talks about how specifically the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro and ethnology took three huge steps: 1) Just objects and their stories, 2) institutionalizing those objects and employing professionals, and 3) ethnological research began to loose interest in the objects themselves. The author illuminates that the original intent of ethnological museums is "to educate the public about alien cultures" (Grognet 165). Then he goes on to say that in order to actually attain this goal, there needs to be a step taken back to focusing more on the objects. "How then can it [the object] be made to communicate? 'First and foremost by ridding ourselves of the notion of art work. The object must shed its invasive aesthetic dimension!'" (Grognet 165). It's this line that made me think the most from the whole article. 

I do agree that ethnological museums should not cease to use their objects as a first reference point, but the thing I don't like about this statement is that it assumes art is intrinsically and inseparably based on its aesthetic value, and that if you were to strip something of its "aesthetic dimension," it would cease to be art. We have all seen art that is not pretty, and nor is it meant to be pretty. Each object has an aesthetic whether is it meant to have one or not, and so I'm not sure what the author is proposing here. I tend to be more on the side of believing that almost everything could be considered art, and anything that pours out of a person as expression and records history is art. So if it was an object made by a person, I don't think you can strip it of its aesthetic values. 

That's my little tangent for the day. haha. Until next blog! 

Curator Snafus

#17: Ambiguous Messages and Ironic Twists by Enid Schildkrout

First of all, Enid Schildkrout. What a name. I should give one of my future children a middle name like that, because then when I'm angry and I use their full name, part of their punishment will just be the reminder that they have a middle name like Schildkrout. 

Secondly, this poor Ms. Cannizzo. (Cannizzo? Another unique surname.) Poor, poor Jeanne. I don't think she even knew what she was doing when she created such a controversial exhibition. For me, this article really illuminated the importance of a thoughtful and educated curator, or at least the importance of having curators on staff who are trained to design exhibitions for a specific category of art. In this particular exhibition at the ROM, Cannizzo failed to think about her audience, and to communicate clearly what she wanted to communicate. She wanted to create a dialogue, and instead the exhibition came off extremely biased. She did not give both parties being examined (people involved in colonialism and the people being "colonlized," or in this case, people in Africa) an equal voice. She, even if it was unwittingly, made it so it "appeared that colonialist-collectors were being allowed to speak for themselves (although, even here many observers felt words were being put in their mouths), while Africans were not" (Schildkrout 171). Since her audience was a good amount of African-Canadians, this put her in a bad spot, and also made the museum look bad.

Another quote from the article: "Tracing the life history of objects from Africa takes one through many minefields of history."
I would assume that it's like that in many specific art historical fields of knowledge, but ESPECIALLY when it comes to Africa. Cannizzo opened Pandora's box when she handled the topic of the colonization of Africa in the manner that she did. She shouldn't have tried to be so broad if she was not going to be able to research thoroughly, and accurately give voice to both people groups. It's the museum's job to identify these minefields, and I guess the lesson learned is to choose your curators carefully.

The comparing of the exhibition The Other Museum at the WPA gallery drives this point even further, since the exhibition dealt with colonialism, racial stereotypes, and misinterpretations of these. I mean, you are kind of asking for it when you do such a bold exhibition. Everyone has different ideas of these things! Even when there are stereotypes, people have slightly different ideas of what those are. I like the guts, and I think those things need to be discussed, but maybe framed as an art show of one particular artist, so it's that artist's voice and not the museum's.

Things to think about. Great article. Another blog to come, tonight if possible :) 

Back from Break

Okay, so here we go! It's Museum Studies for the next few hours! Tuesday too many study abroad things came up, so this night I may try to catch up or maybe I will have to work some on Friday. We shall see how this reading goes... and if I can read fast maybe I can do some Dream Museum research as well.

#11 - Letter of 1863 to Mr. Thomas G. Gary by Louis Agassiz

Well, like the Peale article, this is merely an address.. quite literally since it is a letter. There is not a whole lot to glean from this letter, except to see that in museums where they have a specific focus, it is good to move progressively towards attaining new works. Also, extending your intended scheme of works is good, if you have grown enough: "...and now that it has become desirable to extend our scheme to objects which have thus far been neglected I make another appeal to you." This quote also illustrated the next thing I got from the letter, which is that just like in every other industry, it is important for museums to utilize their connections. This is true generally in the arts, but here it rings true as a general rule. Make friends, and keep them.

#21 - The Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford by James Fenton

Wow... this is a great work of poetry. Really evocative and imaginative, and not really informative but probably just included because it speaks of and describes a natural history museum. He makes it sound rather wonderful, and exciting, and dangerous even. I read it aloud, and the syntax is a work of art in itself. He speaks of the museum as a place for the imagination to roam free, "where myths go when they die." He talks of different types of museum visitors; the school groups, the students researching with their "soft electric hum," the lonely and unpopular, the solitary, the curious. He mentions the need to bring children to museums. He also speaks of a need to be careful, as if the museum were a piece of property with "men traps and spring guns set up on the premises." A place that is dangerous, but exciting. I'm not sure why he calls the museum dangerous. Perhaps it is the concept of the museum being a collections of memes and paradigms... which themselves can be parasitic in nature. I suppose there is danger of falling into a thinking that is not truly your own, but besides that I see no harm in seeing from other points of view. Overall, one of the most interesting things I have ever read with the subject being a museum.

Until tomorrow!

Charles Willson Peale

The article I decided to start with in Part II was To the Citizens of the United States of America by Charles Willson Peale. It's the first article, and by the dude I learned about in American Art Hist who started the Philidelphia Museum, so naturally I just started there.

If you remember, I've been running sound board for a Cave show all week. I was reading by the lights of backstage, like I've done most of my homework recently, and when I turned the page I realized that Peale still hadn't picked up his subject matter to address anything that had much to do with the museum as an institution, and there were like 200 words left in the address. So I finished the article as it came time for end-of-show sound cues, and then came here to the library to try and "write on my article." 

But honestly, what is this article about? It's an address to the public about the Peale Museum, by Mr. Peale. He states his hopes for the museum, and requests any "curious objects" and/or people who would like to help in the development of the museum. That's really all it is. I suppose perhaps this is simply a way to look at a museum from a museum developer's point of view, but that's really all I can think of to illuminate from this text. 

I suppose I'll try and choose a meatier article next time, but for now, I'm off to another meeting! 

Dream Museum Thoughts

So yesterday I spent my time thinking/writing about my Dream Museum project!

I decided to pursue conceptualizing an interactive, educational museum. In the end, I came to the conclusion that  I would rather err on the side of being too didactic rather than creating a museum that isn't new-art-viewer friendly. I'm realizing that while there need to be several different types of museums with different identities, if I were to work at a museum, I'd want to work at one that was colorful, fun, and engaging. I would want to share art in a captivating manner, teaching a passionate type of art appreciation via multiple media. Because of my passion for education and carefully designed exhibitions, my dream museum would be a Children's Art Museum. 

I started to do some online research to see if there were any of these institutions already in existence. There are a few, but they aren't super common! The ones that do exist, however, look so awesome. This is definitely the type of museum I would want to be involved with and represent. Here are a couple of examples:

Children's Museum of the Arts in NYC

Young at Art Museum in Florida


I think I will continue to look on these websites and make notes about how these museums seem to be run, and decide which elements I like and which ones I do not. I'm assuming that these museums are very program-driven, which is something that I actually do like. I suppose that is a defining factor of the "didactic" museum, and in this case it is purely educational. Didactic doesn't have to carry a negative connotation in any way with a Children's museum, especially one where the message is, "art is important and fun!" Work that is didactic only becomes negative when it's a message that people don't want to hear, but I don't know of anyone who would disagree with developing an awareness and appreciation of art in children. :)

Hopefully my museum would utilize many many media, not only 2-D and 3-D art but art that utilizes technology (meeting children in their own era) like videography or other computer art, fashion, music, architecture, and even some implications of visual culture, to show children that art is all around them.

These are my ideas thus far, there will be more to come!

          

Identity Summary

After reading through several of the articles from Part IV: Histories and Identities in the Museum, there are several conclusions that I can draw.

1. The history of any given museum is incredibly wrapped up in its role in society and how the public views the institution. The museum can look at itself via the society it dwells in or through the artists it is representing. Hopefully it can do justice to both.

2. There is a strange phenomenon within museums in which we re-live history, and often human suffering. Reliving human experience in general can become a mind-twisting thing if you think about it too hard, since, for example, the act of watching a video of a historical event is experiencing someone else's experience. Your experience of that person's experience will be different than anyone else's in the world. Museums are stewards of these experiences and this phenomenon.

2. House museums operate differently and have different values than institutional museums and school museums. They are supposed to imitate an experience of actually living and walking in the space, and there is less room for imagination. This is the space where the previous owner of the house actually LIVED and walked, and the patrons who come to the museum want to feel just how that previous owner did when they lived there. Therefore a more precise historical accuracy is to be aimed for.

3. Each cultural group has a different identity, and naturally they want to be represented well. Examples in these articles are of the Mexican culture, culture of museums in Oceania, Aboriginal culture, Southern New Ireland culture, and New South African culture. Some of these are just examples of exhibitions or museums that include the culture, or are run by the culture. I think there are things we can learn from each separate culture about how to value and exhibit artwork.

Identity in the museum is ultimately an inexhaustible subject. Each museum has to decide what kind of identity to portray and how to do justice to the identities of the cultures and artists represented. This makes it so that there are innumerable options for different museums, and obviously no two institutions will ever be the same.