Karp's And Handler Definition Of Museum

Quoted by Handler and Gable, critic Ada Louise Huxtable declares the newly constructed reproduction of Colonial Williamsburg as “too clean,” arguing that it “does not include the filth and stench that would have been commonplace.” (Source E) This sanitation of the truth completely misrepresents history, and the educational value greatly suffers. Conversely, the National Museum of the American Indian hopes to avoid this lack of judgment by dedicating itself to the “preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and Arts of Native Americans.” (Source C) The main goal of the museum is to “span all major cultural areas” (C) and educate the public about and preserve the rich history of such a vast culture. The authenticity and significance of artifacts are important to representing culture and history, and the ability of these artifacts to educate should be a key factor of the selection process.

The museum believes in a pastiche and populist pathway, in which the history of all people is displayed. Its interactive viewpoint allows this museum to convey history in a way that would be more accessible to its audience. For example, patrons are given the opportunity to record their own history. However, academics, such as Keith Windschuttle, assert that the NMA is a “profound intellectual waste”. He argues that although it displays accurate history, it’s purpose of entertaining its audience detracts from its value, thus creating “waste”. Although Windschuttle’s view may be extreme, it demonstrates the considerable extent to which the tension between academic and popular historians exist.

Positioned alongside Central Park in the heart of New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest and most influential art museums in the world. The Met houses an extensive collection of curated works that spans throughout various time periods and different cultures. The context of museum, especially one as influential as the Met, inherently predisposes its visitors to a certain set of understandings that subtly influence how they interpret and ultimately construct meanings about each individual object within the museum. Brent Plate in Religion, Art, and Visual Culture argues that “objects obtain different meanings in different locations and historical settings.”An object placed on display behind a glass case inside a museum would hold a vastly different meaning if it was put on sale by a street vendor, like the ones who set up their tables in close proximity to the Met. The different meanings that objects are able to obtain is attributed to the relationships that are established between the object itself and the environment that surrounds it. These relationships often involve the kind of audience that a museum attracts, where the work is exhibited, and how the exhibits within a museum is planned out. Museums subsequently have the ability to control how these relationships are established which influences the way a viewer is able to construct meaning. When a visitor observes an object on display at the Met, they instinctively construct a certain set of

What defines a memorial museum as a category of museum? While symbolizing the event and forming public perspectives on it, “the ethics in memorial museums, ethics morality and human deeds occupy the very heart of the topics on display, and correspondingly involve especially careful consideration of representation and reception” (Williams, Memorial museums, 220). Memorial mMuseums should be responsible at when choosing the objects they display, narrating the event and establishing visitors’ memories.

In the Robyn Autry article, it mainly focuses on the national conflict of museums mainly focusing towards African American. The author travel to 15 museums around the United States that focuses towards African American. She mainly talks about how the African American were facing numerous hardships in the U.S and how the museum represents those issues to the general public. She believes the way to tell the hardship of African Americans is by exhibiting through a museum. When traveling through these museums she focused towards “centered on three traumatic episodes: capture and displacement from Africa, enslavement, and racial segregation” (Autry 64). The author of the articles wants to show that over time that museums meanings has changed over

When a museum has prestige on a national level, they can be under high scrutiny of exhibits or objects displayed by the public. Controversial topics, for example, the Enola Gay exhibit, has left historians hesitant and confused on how to create exhibits with correct history, but also not upsetting any individual who were involved with said history. Historians have a trying task of addressing both sides of a historical event, even though it might depict individuals in an unflattering way. A historian is not allowed to have a bias for events, this could have an impact on the way an exhibit is created. Another point that was brought to light in Bunch’s article was museums have the ability to educate the public, so difficult topics should not be

The interpretation and appropriation of culture within museums came under attack starting in the 1960’s. Native American groups raised questions about the biases and agendas of curators and museums and demanded that their voices be heard in the political arena. Many Native American organizations argued that if Whites are the ones interpreting and appropriating other cultures, then it is actually their culture on exhibition.(King 1998: 96, Stocking Jr. 1985: 88, Patterson 2014: 52). Deidre Sklar, a researcher of Native American artifacts, stated that: “Time and space in a museum, are defined in terms of the confines of the collection, not of the context from which [the collection is] drawn. Visiting hours from ten to five and the glass exhibit case define EuroAmerican, not Native American time and space” (Weil 2004:3). In response to this outcry, the Museums of the American Indian Act was created and signed on November 28, 1989, enabling the creation of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The NMAI is arguably the most famous native-run institution and acts as a living memorial to Native Americans and their traditions (King 1998: 106).

When constructing an exhibit, the museum staff must ask themselves: What demographic are we designing this exhibit for. Correspondingly, the museum staff ponders what is the line of sight for the targeted demographic, so they know where to place the artifacts and how the exhibit should be structured. Similarly, the museum staff must predict how the public will respond to their exhibit and the necessary precautions to avoid negative reviews. Most importantly, the museum staff must question if the exhibit can offend a certain demographic and the steps they will need to take to properly represent that society. When creating an exhibit, the museum staff must contemplate how the structure and content will relate to the audience and what is the best approach to have interaction between the exhibit and its attended audience.

In Autry article, she stated that “how national histories marred by racial conflict can be translated into narratives of group identity formation” (Autry, 57). Autry is trying to say that museums is a sacred place of memory and trauma. When traveling through these museums the author notice that the most common themes were “capture and displacement from Africa, enslavement, and racial segregation” (Autry 64). When she notices that these were the three main topics being shown to the public then it’s a major problem. She felt that the museums had too much power because they were choosing certain information to be displayed about the struggles of African Americans. The author wants to show that over time that a museum can change and can interpret things in a new way in order to attract

A museum is a place where we can find collection of things of the past at one place where we get an unknown information known just by a visual treat.

Maintaining and increasing visitors to museums is essential to the existence of the institutions. Art Galleries, Children’s Museums, Anthropology Museums, Zoos, History Museums and other types of museums all depend on a steady stream of people coming to their institutions. Without a robust attendance, gallery halls are just empty, full of objects collecting dust. Objects and artifacts that the public and researchers are not viewing are wasted opportunities to be an inspiration or to help gain new knowledge. Empty exhibition halls would become no better than 15th century collections locked up in private homes of wealthy individuals promoting their affluence. These institutions keep important stories for posterity by collecting, preserving, researching, interpreting objects, living specimens, and historical records (Museum). Even beyond the cultural implications, museums need visitors to keep income flowing into the institutions. Donations are made to all museums in the form of objects and money. Nonetheless, larger donations are usually made to well-known institutions where the donor knows the object will be seen by a vast audience or that a monetary donation will be noticed by a larger number of people. The importance of a sizable, steady attendance rate to a museum is not a complex issue, and with 850 million people visiting a physical American museum, which is more than all major league sporting events and theme parks combined, it might not seem like an issue that the

Because of these connections, it is vital to study or at least garner basic knowledge of other cultures. A key factor to this cultural integration is the establishment of museums for ease of access to the general public. Museums are highly based on visuals and it is very important for museums to present themselves well. The SAM and the Burke museum utilizes their displays very differently, but both focus on the expression of different cultures and do so successfully; however, both can learn from each other and present a more holistic display.

When looking at the big question “is morality relative?” some may ponder over the matter and look for a safe middle ground. However, unlike others I tend to believe that morality is not relative, that it is quite clear there are an objective set of moral truths. When looking at the world we see there is some form of an objective truth present despite what culture one belongs to most likely hold at least a few similar basic principles. Our evaluations of morality are contextually based and dependent upon different variables.

I am doing this magazine because I think that when someone sees a homeless person, the first thing that comes to mind when you look at them is to lock your doors and pretend they are invisible. But actually, they are just like us. And they can do everything we can do if you just give them a little help and some support. So that is why I think that everyone should volunteer at soup kitchens to help feed those less fortunate than us because they may look different, act different and even talk different, but really it doesn't matter about that stuff, it only matters about what is on the inside. All that you have to do is spend two hours at a soup kitchen and you can make a big difference in people’s lives.

Collections play a crucial role in fulfilling a museum’s mission and purpose. A museum’s collection is defined by its collection policy past and present which in turn helps to shape the museum’s goals and direction. As stewards of collections, museums are expected to maintain the highest professional standards legally and ethically.