The Walker Art Center had a recent blog postbased on a discussion between museum staff and professionals about how to facilitate answers to visitor’s questions about what constitutes art. The museum professionals thought about how to empower visitors to trust their own opinions (and to form those opinions) about what is aesthetic, what “counts” as art, and how to talk about art.
The post from the Walker is about contemporary art, but it reminded me a lot about a conversation JTW and I had at the DIA the other week- why is it so difficult to make decorative arts interesting and exciting to visitors? We were up in the European galleries, looking at the super cool interactive dining table, talking about how difficult it is to help visitors understand why plates and bowls are works of art, and why they should care. We threw around ideas about
Social status of the user
The skill of artists
The time it took to produce those objects (not like a commercial Ikea plate)
The material of the objects- porcelain, glass, silver, gold leaf, colorful glaze
The time spent by the user looking at the object (4 hour meals)
How could we use the context of those ideas to help visitors realize the importance of these objects, more than just their beauty or craftsmanship? How can you explain that bowls and cups can be objects of passion and emotion, like a painting? Can they be?
Another place where viewers were empowered to voice their own opinions was at the second annual ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, just a couple weeks ago (yeah Michigan!). Nina Simon was there and made a poston her blog about the unusual and sometimes confusing atmosphere that broke down the hierarchy of art understanding and interpretation, and just let the public see things, and then talk about it.
I’m going to try my darndest to be there next year.
Lastly, I’ve been returning daily to the Values Study, especially some of the graphs, to think about how to present data and the ubiquitous idea of the public value of museums (what are museums worth to the public? What are they contributing to our socity? Do I now have a better understanding of French decorative arts?). I’m not sure the study really answers a lot of questions, but it helps me frame some of the ideas that have been floating around my head for a few years.
A new Pinky Show episode posted about the kitties traveling to meet with other radical education thinkers.
Pinky talks about things she saw and learned while in Slovenia, like
Radical Cartography (if you’re interested check out this and this)
Social Center ROG- a bicycle factory transformed into an “autonomous public space” for social justice, learning and art. Pinky thinks this might not be able to happen in America where we have a much more divided understanding of social and private, but I think these kinds of things are happening and could flourish specifically in Detroit, where we have so much space like this, and need so much more social cohesion on a personal level.
Their videos were shown in an exhibition with other groups who promote visual learning strategies with emotion, political, justice means. The video is a little long, but I think it’s worth it to see what other political/radical informal education groups are doing around the world. Sometimes, when you work in such a field, you get bogged down in the problems your area has, and forget that other people have the same issues and might be dealing with them in new and innovative ways.
The Takeaway on NPR had an interesting short article about the display of an exploded car from a 2007 bombing in Baghdad at the Imperial War Museum in London. One visitor reportedly said to Head of Collections at the museum, “This object doesn’t make me feel good.” Maybe we need more of that sometimes. Or maybe every object has an uncomfortable story that museums decide NOT to tell in favor of something safer.
Look at other responses Jeremy Deller collected when the car toured the US.
This recent WSJ article about the evaluation team at Detroit Institute of Arts gives the public a better understanding of why museums conduct audience research and how it’s used. I’m currently volunteering with Matt doing some Timing and Tracking as part of the summative evaluation for the reinstallation of the entire collection. The results should be impressive, but you’ll have to wait at least a year.
Maybe museums (their objects and stories) can engage people? And maybe we can prove our educational/emotional/radical worth legitimately?
I attended the nationalVisitors Studies Association Conference in Phoenix back in July. It was a great opportunity for me to really meet professionals and do some networking. Everyone was extremely approachable and so willing to offer advice, ideas and support. It was nice to see familiar faces from Seattle and Detroit, and to meet new people from D.C., Chicago and Minneapolis.
I particularly appreciated the use of “discussants” in each session; people from inside and outside the museum world who were charged with the task of summarizing the presentation and provoking new ideas. These discussants also spoke at the end of the day to try to consolidate ideas and pull out themes from the day. This helped me grasp all the diverse conversations (do we have equity in the field and our institutions? what is public value and do we deliver it?) that were constantly running through lunches and meetings, and bring a cohesion that was easier to solidify and take away.
I also enjoyed an impromptu “youth night” attended by UW students, IMLS staff and a few others who were mostly between the ages of 23-30. We discussed our current projects (check out my thesis final document on my work page), plans for the future (working in-house for an institution or consulting) and the broader picture of the field of evaluation. I think it was fair to say that many of us were in search of jobs not quite at entry level, but somewhere we could build a career foundation. But where can the grants for that come from? Or will we actually be able to be employed full-time through the new rules regarding grant funding and evaluation?
We also mentioned using evaluation in other positions at the museum (ex. a collections management plan that included evaluation of the accessibility to visitors). As young professionals we understand the need to be flexible and work in many different specialties, but building evaluation into all departments of institution will (one would think naturally?) make it stronger and more focused.
I wish I could have seen more of Phoenix and the surrounding area, but I enjoyed the flashlight tour at the Desert Botanical Garden. The plants were incredible, and the way they were lit and presented was magical.
I’m hoping to go to VSA next year in Chicago. Will you be there?
I recently found this very hip/indie/adorbs tumblr devoted completely to pretty images in pop culture related to museums. This does give me hope that the general public might still find museums nostalgic, if not sacred/rarified/soulful, places that can be beautiful and memorable.
And the popularization of the verb curate in everyday vocabulary.
This video, however, dashes most of those hopes.
I find it exciting and encouraging that these discussions are happening, but it means that, at the very least, we aren’t forgetting about these repositories of history. There is still debate about what museums are, what they should be collecting, and how they should be reaching out to the public, which means they are still alive.
My first blog post is a salutation and a preview: I now have a website and a blog devoted to museums, evaluation, education and the like. Also, I am heading to the AAM annual conference, held in Los Angeles this year.
I will be writing mostly about things that pertain to museums, educational events, and how to evaluate process and progress. I will frequently link to other articles and blogs that I find helpful or stimulating. I encourage participation- please join in and create a conversation.
Last night I watched Barton Fink to prepare for my upcoming trip to LA; hopefully my accommodations will be slightly less sinister than The Earle. Maybe my laptop will cooperate long enough to let me make a few posts about the conference and some of the sessions.
