Monday, August 29, 2016
Thinking About Museums: Your Personal Perspective
Based on your personal experience with museums, what are they doing right? And, on the other hand, what are they doing "not so right?" Finally, what do you think is the biggest challenge museums face today? Please answer in at least four sentences, and upload no later than Monday, September 5, 5pm.
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Based on my personal experience with museums, there are many things that they are doing right and also many things that they are doing wrong. Museums have been doing a good job with being more interactive and including new technology to aid the explanation of exhibits. It makes things much more entertaining, while educating the public. However the ways in which some museums are set up are not necessarily the best and lack a flow and consistency, which hinders the visitor’s overall the experience.
ReplyDeleteSince I live in Richmond, I am used to having numerous, very different museums operating in the same community. The strongest common denominator I have seen in this large group of museums is an extremely impressive number of exhibits. Whether it's the Science Museum of Virginia and its numerous interactive displays, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the wide array of time periods its collection represents, or the Virginia Historical Society and its revolving door of special exhibitions, the museums I have seen never lack for content for the visitor to absorb. While not all are as well-funded as the three I mentioned above, I feel that it is very rare to see a museum where the visitor would say, "Wow, there just isn't very much to this." Conversely, I feel that the museums I have interacted with need to do a better job of appealing to young people. Kids go on field trips to museums all the time, but it feels like I rarely see teenagers choosing to go back and visit those same museums of their own accord. I think the museums need to increase outreach to teens in order to 1. Be sure to reach all audiences and 2. Help for the future of the museum by helping people become interested for the long term. In that same vein, I feel that the greatest challenges museums are facing is a lack of interest from younger populations. We have read about how museum attendance is still very high in the United States, but I wonder what the median age of those 800,000 yearly visitors is. I fear that the majority of people who visit museums are older. If young people aren't interested now, it seems like it will be tough to interest them later in life. If audiences get too old, the museums will eventually find themselves without visitors.
ReplyDeleteIn my personal experience with museums there are many things they are doing right but also a few things that need improvement. One experience I have been apart of when a museum has done something right is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. They have a program with a rehab hospital, taking work from patients and allowing them to have a show of their own in the museum. However many museums lack the ability for people to feel comfortable within the space. They typically make you be quiet and no pictures or interactions with the collection. Making collections more interactive with the public could attract a larger crowd to the museum. Many museums today face challenges such as keeping up with technology. Technology is such a wonderful asset to museums but if they fail to keep up with the times it could hinder their success.
ReplyDeleteIn the past year I've learned that museums are incredibly complicated above and below the surface. What you see in the museum and what's going on behind closed doors can be remarkably different. My internship this summer showed me that lots of times, museums are very aware of the problems they face in and out of the galleries and they simply lack the skills, money, training, or resources to fix them in the near future. So based on my most recent experience in a museum, I would say that contrary to what it may seem, museums are very good at staying up to date on what innovations they need. I would say they are not very efficient at making those things happen quickly or easily. A large part of that is money, but another major part is that as museum staffs have become more diverse to including people with widely different educational backgrounds and job descriptions, it has developed many conflicting agendas. For example, the education department and the social media department may not see eye to eye on what they believe is the most important thing for the museum to focus on at the time. This causes both problems to be pushed back until they can come to a consensus about what should be tackled first. After sitting though many wasted hour long meetings this summer, I think administration is something museums could use a lot of help with in the coming future.
ReplyDeleteBased on my personal experiences at museums I think that the variety and number of objects or exhibitions is something that museums are doing right. Museums have vast amounts of different materials that relate back to the same subject or theme. On the other hand, this is something museums struggle with. The more a museum has to offer the more overwhelming it can be. A patron would have to spend all day in a museum in order to actually see everything. The biggest challenge museums face today is attendance. I feel that only the bigger and more well-known museums get higher attendance rates. There are so many museums in the world, but unless you or someone you know is aware of them one might never visit them. Or people are going to the same museums multiple times without giving other museums a second thought.
ReplyDeleteAs major contenders in the public sphere of education, certain museums, in my personal experience, have successfully shared the stories of the past. Whether its an artifact on display, a painting to question, a portrait to stare at, or any other sort of historic piece, museums have people coming, exploring, and leaving with either one new fact they didn't know or a completely new understanding for a certain movement or point in time. One of the challenges museums face is embracing the importance of social media to our society today, but in a sense many museums that I have come across are approaching this technology correctly because they have chosen to embrace it and make it a small branch off of their exhibits or collections. It allows people who can't visit right now to get a taste of what they could potentially visit in the future. I like to believe that the good of museums outweighs the bad, but improvements can always be made for any museum. I'd say some may struggle with their structure and how they're set up. A lot of times, there's an unspoken direction that visitors should follow to get the full "effect" of the museum, but that's not always known. So even though people are seeing the whole museum and exploring each exhibit, they aren't viewing it in the particular order it was designed to be seen.
ReplyDeleteThe museums are doing well about many things. The collections can be preserved by museums well with nowadays technology and knowledgeable professionals. The staff in museums knows how to protect the collections and lower the risk of damage. Moreover, museums are good at aesthetic. They design the exhibition with the emphasis on unity, placing the visitors in the area and time period that is relevant to the collection around them. However, museums still have some rooms to improve. Some museums don’t see things from the visitors’ point of view and ignore the small but important details. For example, sometimes the words on the explanatory boards are too small or the locations of the explanatory boards make it hard for the visitors to read. They sometimes fail to have clear guides of direction, confusing the visitors where the next section is. The main mission of museums is to let visitors know more about what they want to show; however, they sometimes make visitors confused. The biggest challenge museums face is the right of interpretation. Who can decide what the work is about and how the relics related to an ethnic minority at that time? Sometimes professionals can’t make the object interpretation. For art museum, should the museum interpret the art for audience of let the audience appreciates by themselves? If there is a memorial of someone, should museum also talks about the bad things he/she has done?
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that a lot of museums have improved their online presence, which includes integrating technology into their exhibits and putting information online. I also think many museums have done a good job of creating places for different age groups, like focusing on educational material for younger people. However, I feel that a lot of museums have not grasped the skill of drawing people in through social media platforms. I've interned in a few gallery spaces, and I know first hand that it is a struggle to create a social media presence from scratch; this can hurt attendance and means that the public may not know interesting things going on in museum spaces (like events or new exhibits). With that, I think the biggest challenge that museums face today is attendance rates, especially for smaller museums. Everyone knows about museums with huge name recognition, but smaller spaces are just as important in bringing culture to societies.
ReplyDeleteGoing off my personal experience with museums, I believe they are doing many things right. From what I have seen at art galleries and historical museums in New York City and the D.C. area, most institutions are very good about publicity and advertisement on new exhibits. I have also noticed a great deal of dedication toward education, especially with well-trained tour guides. Museums are becoming more and more interactive with the public, which is fantastic for further comprehension of the installments. For example, Mount Vernon Estate in Northern Virginia has quizzes, imax movies, and fake food with real smells to enhance public curiosity. What I believe museums today are not doing very well is cost of admission. There are so many museums I can think of that I have always wanted to visit, but the ticket price cost too much. If profit museums could keep their fees at a lower rate, I am sure more of the middle class public would visit. Furthermore, pricing and cost must be the biggest challenge museums face today.
ReplyDeleteGoing off my personal experience with museums, I believe they are doing many things right. From what I have seen at art galleries and historical museums in New York City and the D.C. area, most institutions are very good about publicity and advertisement on new exhibits. I have also noticed a great deal of dedication toward education, especially with well-trained tour guides. Museums are becoming more and more interactive with the public, which is fantastic for further comprehension of the installments. For example, Mount Vernon Estate in Northern Virginia has quizzes, imax movies, and fake food with real smells to enhance public curiosity. What I believe museums today are not doing very well is cost of admission. There are so many museums I can think of that I have always wanted to visit, but the ticket price cost too much. If profit museums could keep their fees at a lower rate, I am sure more of the middle class public would visit. Furthermore, pricing and cost must be the biggest challenge museums face today.
ReplyDelete(The "Unknown" post above was me)
I think that museums are making great strides in trying to get a younger audience into the museums. I think that the overall experience of a museum helps to shape the desire to learn. I think that one of the difficult things that a museum must overcome is getting past being a storage area for items. It is hard for people to gain an appreciation for an object if we just see it placed behind glass. For example, if a museum has a mask that was used by a culture in a dance or ritual, it is hard to create a setting for the object in a museum that sheds light on the mask's intended purpose. If the mask was purposefully created to come to life during a ritual setting or to embody something else within it, it is hard to recreate that life to the object if it is static behind glass. Art is created with the intention of being a art of an experience. Even the anthropological objects that are found and displayed were all created within an intended purpose. It is hard to show that purpose or teach that purpose behind glass or in a pristine setting. Some museums, like natural history museums, try to create settings where there are staged scenes that show a settlement with objects and mannequins. I think that experience is a big factor in getting people engaged and also to get people interested in the history.
ReplyDeleteMuseums are some of the most important institutions in our culture. The biggest thing that museums are doing "right" is striving to embrace the future. Museums are incorporating contemporary art, modern issues, pop culture, technology, media, and more. The biggest thing that museums are doing "wrong" is not embracing and welcoming people of all populations. I believe that museums should be a place of learning for all people: babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, college students, adults, the elderly, visually impaired, the rich, the poor, all disabilities, and all social economic classes. I believe the biggest challenge that museums face is reaching all people. Similar to what I believe museums are doing "wrong," I believe that the goal of museums should be to welcome every human, which is a huge task to take on.
ReplyDeleteIn my experiences with museums over the past several years, I believe that museums are improving the diversity of narratives they present, adopting post-structural practices developed in academia over the past several decades, however it is important that these narratives are cohesively integrated into the experience. Several exhibits I have seen recently have tried to integrate a variety of perspectives but done so in a disorganized manner, often presenting a core narrative with several auxiliary points for visitors to investigate at their whim, meaning that the museum experience can be overwhelming and fractured for some visitors. Moving forward, large institutions, or institutions that involve the potential for a variety of interpretative experiences, must devote equal attention to each issue/ perspective they wish to address in an exhibit. For example, if a historic house wants to address the role of women or slavery in the history of the location, they must devote as much resources to presenting these topics as others, or else not until they are ready to fully devote attention and resources to these topics because otherwise the entire program is compromised by dividing attention to a variety of perspectives, each with a half-developed mission, competing for the visitors attention behind the backdrop of a core narrative. In general, most museums are doing well in that they are increasingly trying to provide unique experiences for visitors, justifying their existence in an age when information once guarded by museums can be accessed from anywhere on Earth at any time. The biggest challenge for museums today is the existential threat of why museums and physical museum experiences are relevant when soon, virtual reality content will allow for people across the globe to experience museum content. For museums to survive, they must combat this by defining and providing experiences that are unique, and beneficial to all members of the public.
ReplyDeleteThroughout my entire life I have been in awe of museums and have always been intrigued by the never-ending amount of knowledge and satisfaction they have to offer. From the VMFA in Richmond where I live to D.C. and New York City, museums are where I go to find a deeper connection with the people and the cultures around us. When asked what museums are doing right, I believe the answer to this question is that museums give people a cultural experience they can witness no where else, whether it be a historical, creative, innovative, futuristic, or perspective-changing exhibit. When asked what they are doing not so right, I believe that they don't always promote large exhibits as much as they should, especially on social media. Of course the people who go to the museums on a regular basis will know, but getting the word out to a wider range of people who may be interested would be key in attracting a larger range in the type of people that visit the museum. Therefore, social media platforms are key especially in this tech savvy world. This leads to what I believe the biggest challenge that museums face today which, in my opinion, is striving to reach a wider group of people to come and see the exhibits. I know that many people go to museums every weekend, while others have been to maybe one in their entire lifetime. Many people do not see the benefits of going to a museum and I know many people who could greatly benefit in their education and view of the world in general from visiting museums, but they simply refuse to do so.
ReplyDelete.
Based on my experience, I think one of the things that museums are doing right is having a free admission. While I understand that museums are always in need of extra money, for some families, such as my relative’s family of seven, admission cost is just too much to pay. I also think a positive change of attitudes towards children in museums has happened. I remember going to a museum in the middle school and I also remember those stern looks of museum curators at us. Of course, children often times misbehave and they are a group of people who is most likely to break something, however, I always felt wrongfully accused. Nowadays, not only museum workers are friendlier with children, but there are even special museum programs for children to learn and understand information better. The only thing that I can think of what museums are doing not so right is the opposite of what I said about what museums are doing right: a cost of admission. Some of the biggest and most lavish museums, such as the Louvre and the Hermitage, have a paid entrance. Moreover, these museums are the ones that you would want to spend more than one day in. I think the biggest challenge that museums face today is staying relevant in the age of modern technology. I remember a few years ago a website emerged, which provided virtual tours through some most famous art galleries. My friend’s comment was: “well, is there a point of going to museums anymore?”
ReplyDeleteMy main experience working directly with a museum, was interning for the education department at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I found that the biggest success of this specific department, was the incorporation of the museum’s collection into the children’s learning. Almost every class period, the kids were taken to the galleries and specific works were related to the art projects they were working on. The biggest downfall was the lack of reliability from some of the teachers. We had teachers miss days with no warning, and one just dropped a class completely the week of.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the biggest problems museums face, is getting creating engaging experiences for visitors. We live in a world being swarmed with new technologies. It’s hard 1. to get people off their phones and computers to actually come out to a museum and experience things in person. 2. To compete with other museums and their growing technologies within their institution. Relating back to my experiences, it was hard to get kids (12 and under!), teens, and even volunteers off their phones and engaged in the art classes and gallery visits.