Tuesday, September 6, 2016
The Primary Focus of a Museum
Thinking about our discussions in class about the concept of museums as temples for the elite protecting objects or as pleasers of "the lowest common denominator," what do you think should be the main focus or function of a museum? How could such a function be communicated effectively to an audience? Use examples. Please respond in at least four (4) sentences, and upload to this blog no later than Monday, September 12, 5 pm. Thanks!
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Personally, I believe that the main focus of a museum should be to stimulate conversation amongst people about the objects they are viewing. It should cause them to think about the importance and relevance of the object or work of art and promote further learning. This function could be communicated effectively by presenting objects in such a way that draws the visitor’s attention. For example, in the Museum of Natural History remains of a dinosaur are located in the entrance, which not only grabs the visitors attention but it should cause the visitor to want to learn more about the object. It also should prompt a conversation among visitors to question its importance. I also believe that Museums should also focus on making their visit to the museum one that is personal and memorable and encourages them to come back and visit again. This could be achieved through hands on interaction or integrating technology into the museum to hold the visitors attention. For example, when I studied abroad this past summer in England, the Yorkshire Museum had many stations around different parts of the museum where you can hold historic artifacts instead of just viewing objects through a glass. Even though I know this may not be possible at all museums, I believe it was an effective way of making a memorable experience for the visitor.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the main focus or function of a museum should be to immerse the visitors in a cultural experience that they can not witness anywhere else and to encourage thought-provoking experiences and discussions that will lead the visitor to share what they have learned elsewhere, thus leading to more future visitors. This would be communicated effectively to an audience by purposely curating exhibits that will lead to new cultural and historical experiences for the visitors. The museum would also have to properly promote exhibits before the visitor steps in the door and then capture a visitors attention when they do walk in the door so that they are intrigued and want to see and learn more. A good example of what I believe the main focus of museums should be was the VMFA’s recent exhibit featuring Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic. Not only was the exhibit promoted in the media throughout the local city and suburbs of Richmond extremely well, but also the exhibit captures your attention as soon as you see the VMFA with several large banners of Wiley’s work. The Wiley exhibit was a timely political choice for our society and the work urges the visitor to think deeply about race and gender equality therefore displaying this main focus of cultural engagement. Also, after being so moved by the exhibit, I didn’t want to leave and walked around the museum for a few more hours, and this, I would hope, is what museums would want all their visitors to do.
ReplyDeleteI think that the main focus of a museum is to provide visitors with an enlightening or educational experience. People who visit museums should leave having learned something they did not know before, either about the world and society or themselves. The items showcased in a museum are carefully selected in order to relay a certain message. We learn by looking at objects and understanding their functions or purposes and how that reflects the views of the world at that time. Visitors can physically see the differences between the past and even other cultures by what is preserved in museums. Or in relation to art, how society influenced an artist to create something that forces people to stop and think. Museums can either reaffirm or advance what we do know and believe to be true or make us re-evaluate our beliefs. For example, in the Lisanby Museum the function of education is communicated with the use of iPads. Each painting or object has a brief history of the artist, and influence behind the piece. Wall labels, pamphlets, and things that offer some insight or information into pieces that visitors can take at face value or examine further on their own time.
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ReplyDeleteObviously, the best scenario would be for a museum to be able to appeal to everyone. I realize, though, that this hope is pretty unrealistic. The main function of the museum must be, then, to appeal to the broadest audience possible with the goal of educating as many people as possible. If this mindset means going for “the lowest common denominator,” then so be it. It just seems to me that a museum can have all the amazing objects and exhibits it wants, but if no one is seeing them then they aren’t really worth anything in terms of contribution to public knowledge. It seems like a group of elites lording over a posh collection of historical objects is really only serving the elite clientele that would be able to make their way into that group. I believe “that appealing to the greatest audience” means different things for different museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are so famous that I bet most people are willing to go just for the experience of going, even if they don’t care about the art they’re actually seeing. For others, though, it means being willing to entertain new ideas about who might be interested in their collection. For the Poe Museum in Richmond, it might seem like the target audience would be literary people who enjoy Poe’s writing. However, if research shows that people who like historical places in Richmond or people who really like the paranormal would be willing to come, the museum needs to change its focus to accommodate that clientele. Whatever can be done to attract large and diverse audiences should be done.
I think the main function of a museum should be the preservation and sharing of the collections with the public, in order to enrich the communities around them. I believe this applies to both historical and contemporary museums, and that the pieces in both kinds of collections are good ways for people to learn about cultures. Historical museums should celebrate and preserve historical artifacts, so that the public may learn about the past, and the important things that were produced and helped shape their world. Contemporary art museums are also important, as their collections allow the public to immerse themselves in present-day culture, and better understand the world they live in. I believe this function can be communicated most effectively by making the collections the center piece of the museum. For example, museums and galleries that rent out their spaces for private events, receptions, or learning experiences, should still make the focal point about the collection itself. Places like the MoMA draw people in with guest lectures, and gallery spaces rent out their space for private events. Even though not directly connected to the “collections”, these places still place emphasis on the pieces in the space by focusing lectures on art or by hanging pieces on the walls during an event. This ensures that people can take in as much as they can from the collection, whether it is through creative learning experiences or passively, by having the exhibit around them during private events.
ReplyDeleteThe main function of a museum should be making the visitors gain knowledge with enjoyment. Some people might dislike going to school because it sometimes makes them feel like they are learning forcibly. Unlike schools, museums can demonstrate knowledge without pressuring visitors. To communicate the function effectively to an audience, museums should combine knowledge with recreation deliberately. On one hand, museums show the collections and art that can’t be seen in daily life, making visitors experience something new and acquire knowledge. Museums should express clearly to the visitors what the exhibition is about and provide clear illustration. The exhibition should be designed according topics or chronology, so that the visitors can follow the logic to broaden their knowledge. On the other hand, museums should make visitors enjoy the visit, immerging the visitors in the environment so that they would be more interested in learning more information. The interior design, collections display, and the light, which museums should elaborate, can be attributed to the pleasure of visitors. Moreover, the illustration of collections should be understood by everyone, so no one would get bored during the visit. Take the Virginia quilt museum as example, which communicates the function of museum effectively to an audience. I gained knowledge about some works of quilts with the clear illustration. The topics are clear and organized well, including American pride: eagles and stars, presidential quilts, and some works inspired by national park. Moreover, the display of quilts is pleasing with cozy light and good space arrangement, making me enjoy strolling in the museum. The museum also provides a lot of chairs in the gallery, so the visitors can take a rest and appreciate the quilts with light heart.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the main function of a museum, whether it is focused on art or on history, is to give light to the stories of the art or artifacts on display. The cases that line the halls and the frames that hang on the walls with either a hand written love letter from a soldier to a loved one during war or a Rembrandt self portrait that stares directly into the eyes of the viewer hold so much history and meaning that it is up to the museum to tell these different stories. People visit these institutions that have become more and more relevant as major contenders in educating our public to learn about the past and cultural patterns; to see how people may have lived during a time different from our own or to follow the progression of art through gallery after gallery. It is up to the museums to effectively communicate their function as “story tellers” through how and what information they choose to share. The behind the scenes team, such as the curators or exhibit designers and even employees from the education department, all need to work hand in hand so that they can discuss whether, for example, a v-mail is more effective than a photo when it comes to explaining the impact war had on loved ones. It is up to the employees to work together and filter through the facts to decide how they can best bring the stories of objects from their collection to life. Each person involved will have a different approach for a display or for a description of whatever may be on display, so if they filter through different perspectives, they can reach a more universal approach to sharing the stories through a preservation of the past.
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ReplyDeleteI believe the main focus and function of a museum should be to educate and enhance human’s lives. As I mentioned in my last blog post I also believe that museums should cater to all humans: of all abilities, disabilities, social classes, generations, and cultures. I believe that museums should protect art, artifacts, and objects; but they should not be considered “temples.” Museums are not a place of worship, but they should be a place of inspiration. An example would be people who are visually disabled experiencing artwork through the assistance of technology, demonstrated in the following video: https://www.facebook.com/techinsider/videos/451312848400410/?__mref=message_bubble
ReplyDeleteAnother example would be the Virginia Museum of Fine Art’s interactive children’s gallery. During the international bike race in Richmond, VMFA had an “ArtCycles” exhibit. In this interactive gallery, visitors will invited to draw, create, ride bikes, and use technology to engage with the exhibit and learn in a direct way. By having interactive exhibits and engaging learning opportunities, the lives of all human populations will be educated and enhanced.
I believe that the main focus or function of a museum should be the care, preservation, and general well-keeping of all of its objects. The items of which museums present to the public should be well taken care of so that audiences can see them how they were originally intended to be seen. Much like in the video we watched in class about the "moving" saints in the London museum, everything in the installation is preserved and presented in its original context. Furthermore, museums should be just as invested in taking care of their items as showing them off, because that way, they will be able to show the same items off for many more years to come.
ReplyDeleteI believe that museums should focus mainly on being places of enlightenment and preservation. Many people do not have the opportunity to travel around the world and be immersed in different cultures in order to broaden their horizons and many people also never learn their local history either, like in my case, I've lived in Staunton my entire life and have never been to the Woodrow Wilson Museum. Museums offer visitors the opportunity to become educated about cultures, people, and events that they may not learn about otherwise. By engaging visitors with historical stories about why we are the way we are or about a significant event that lead to a massive change, museums spread knowledge and understanding to all social classes and in order to maintain receiving that knowledge, the artifacts that produce it have to be preserved. Museums exhibit many extremely rare and valuable items, some the only in existence so it is important to preserve these valuables so that they may be used for generations to educate more people in the future. For example, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History houses many fossils, ancient Egyptian artifacts, dinosaur bones, and many other objects that once they are gone, they are gone forever.
ReplyDeleteI’ve always thought that the main focus of any museum should be not only to care for pieces of all kinds of the world’s history, but also to be a place of focus. A museum should provide a welcoming space to really contemplate the significance of those historical pieces, an environment where the objects are not “dumbed down” or hidden by flashy effects, but presented as they are to tell their own stories to all. To help people really concentrate on all of the information before them, I think museum buildings should be accommodating to the things they are presenting; for example, I believe that with the arrival of a new collection or exhibition, the Taubman Museum of Art (as well as many other museums, I would think) repaints certain rooms in colors to better complement the works they hold. In doing this, the walls reinforce the visual effects of the objects on or in front of them, and draw attention back to those particular objects in a subtle way – an effect that the viewers may not notice, specifically, but that will (hopefully) eliminate distractions from to the works before them, allowing for some serious contemplation.
ReplyDeleteI believe the main function of a museum should be to bring the community in and share the history of what man kind has created or discovered. This function can be communicated to an audience by preserving objects and having an inviting environment for people to attend the museum. Museums have to connect to the common person to be effective in a community. Having outreach days or days where the museum entrance is free helps to make the museum more approachable for a lower class audience as well as an upper class. When people feel invited in they are more likely to attend, making the museums function to share precious objects discovered and created by man kind effective.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe that the main focus of a museum is to care and to preserve objects and history. I also feel that museums should also try to engage audiences and invite people to learn. I have been to museums that are just filled with so many things that it makes it hard to truly appreciate certain objects. When I went to the Natural History Museum in New York, I was in awe with the wide collection. I was also overwhelmed with everything that the museum had to offer. The Louvre as well has an amazing collection, but it would take days to truly appreciate each and every piece. I feel that museums should be about the collection, but not have such an overwhelming collection that the meaning and the history gets lost. It goes back to the temples and the houses of royals that were all focused on the overwhelming amount of stuff, not the actual individuality of each pieces of the collection. It becomes an issue of quantity over quality and it longer focuses on the history of the objects. I think that museums should make it about objects but also make sure that they have the special exhibit places for objects that can be changed out in a regular basis. I think what draws audiences to visit museums is the possibility of seeing something rare. I think that people are interested in seeing something that might go away. For example, what made the King Tut exhibit so special was that it was not only something famous, but it traveled from city to city. People rushed to go see it because it was being brought to their city. It brought about an amount of publicity and it became a trend almost to see the exhibit. With museums that have a lot of objects, it looses the appeal of the history and the publicity because the objects are lost among the clutter.
ReplyDeleteIf a museum is unable to open its doors for one reason or another (funding, low visitation or staffing levels, etc.), then the institution itself cannot serve its given purpose to begin with: acting as a brick-and-mortar facility for the presentation and preservation of the objects and history in its care. Then again, some museums today exist in a virtual space online rather than a physical one and therefore need not be concerned with maintaining functional hours. Regardless of whether an institution presents itself as a ‘temple for the elite’ or a more accessible space, the dialogue between the collections or exhibitions a museum maintains and the audience that it draws emerges as the primary focus of the ‘institution’ in this virtual context more thoroughly than it might in a typical, ‘physical’ museum gallery and allows it to come to the forefront for both. There are those museums that blend the accessibility of a virtual experience with that of an in-house, immersive visit via interactive website features, such as that of the Musee Toulouse-Lautrec (Toulouse-Lautrec Museum) in Albi, France. This specific feature engages the site visitor in an imaginative, animated experience that prompts them to click on and view specific facets of the works of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec as they learn—albeit in French— of the provenance of the included pieces and its creator’s history via textual cues. During a visit to the museum itself a few summers ago, it became evident that the flow from one exhibit to the next, the information included in exhibit labels and in the multi-lingual audio narrative devices, as well as the inclusion of initial underpaintings and underdrawings alongside the artist’s finished pieces all drew upon the effectively blended curation of that immense collection and the multi-cultural audience to which it caters.
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Regardless of what the main function of museums at this time may be, I think museums should focus on becoming places of community interaction and social change. Thinking of the museum as a place for social change last class really struck a chord with me because I think there are lots of artist’s thinking and talking about social change and I think there are lots of exhibits that involve those topics as well, but I think people rarely view a museum or an exhibition as a place where social change actually happens. Maybe exhibits highlight problems, or talk about what should be done to find solutions, or maybe they even document successful examples of social change in the past, but either way, people come to those exhibitions to see them, not to be a part of them. I think that there would need to be a serious change in the way people think of museums before there can be actual social change in them and not just examples of social change. Little changes would not likely jump start much a movement but important first steps would be to make exhibits involving social change much more interactive and related to the specific community it is shown in. For example, an exhibit on lowering emissions in a city could discuss walking as a replacement for driving, but the same exhibit in a rural area would have to offer different solutions for the same problem.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, just because museums become a place to jump start social change, does not mean they would have to entirely remove exhibits for education and pleasure. All three types could potentially exist simultaneously in an institution.
In my opinion, the main function of a museum should be enlightenment. I think so because no matter what the focus of a museum is, whether it’s an aquarium, where people can learn about different types of fish, or an art gallery, where people can learn about history by studying the painting’s subject matter, museums always contain things that people can learn from. I think in order to communicate a function effectively museums should create interactive programs, so visitors can participate, learn from the experience and possibly become more interested in the subject. For example, this summer I participated in the Temple Mount Sifting Project, which is a program offered by the Emek Tzurim National Park in Jerusalem. Anyone can participate in sifting the earth debris of the Temple Mount, an ancient center of the Jewish life. Even though, this place is kind of difficult to reach in terms of transportation, many people of different ages go there everyday, hoping to find archeologically important things. And I know a few people, who did it even more than once, because they really enjoyed the idea of "touching the history."
ReplyDeleteI think the main focus of a museum should be to provide a home to art and artifacts, new and old. A home that preserves and researches these objects with the goal of sharing their importance with the public as an educational source as well as for their enjoyment. One way this could be communicated is by offering visitors interactive programs and special events. This summer at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Kehinde Wiley came to speak to visitors about his artwork. This is such a special experience that brings people in and educates them, because they get to hear directly from the artist about his methods, inspirtations, and the meaning behind his work. Also the children’s classes I worked with are a great way to get kids and their parents in the museum, studying the artwork, and creating art that is inspired by the museum’s collection. It’s a learning experience that’s also really fun for the kids.
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