New media is a term that applies to a wide range of technical medium including installation art, information kiosks, hand held information devices, museum archiving systems, blogs, websites, and podcasts. New media can be useful to museums in helping to create new ways of accessing and exhibiting collections, but it can also present new sets of problems. Of primary concern to the author of Chapter 18 is the issue of how museums can reconcile new media with traditional ways of organizing knowledge. Rather than thinking of new media as something that requires new modes of thinking, and new organizational structures, it would be helpful to think of new media as a supplement or analogue to traditional museum ideas. To do this effectively a museum must carefully consider how new media can be used to further the museum’s mission, and the resulting benefits and problems that are a consequence of implementing new media strategies.
A museum should first consider new media that is easier to implement and could give measurable results concerning their success or failure. For example, a website is relatively easy to implement and could provide several benefits to a museum such as informing the public about current exhibits, and giving directions and hours to the museum. A website could also be used to create a virtual museum that would give access to objects to people who might not otherwise be able to physically visit the museum. The website could further be expanded to include blogs and downloadable audio or video podcasts that could give information on exhibits, as well as lectures on related topics. A blogging feature could help create a dialogue between museum goers and museum professionals and may help the museum develop further ideas and better serve its audience.
New media also includes technologies that can be used within the museum as an adjunct to traditional exhibits. These technologies include hand held informational devices and informational kiosks. However, these types of new media may or may not be useful depending on both the ways in which museums implement them, and the degree to which museum goers actually use the devices. A major disadvantage to kiosks and hand held devices are the high cost. Finding corporate sponsors can reduce some of this cost, but a museum may prefer not to do this. An advantage to using kiosks and held devices is that they may allow the user to delve further into the collections than is possible through exhibitions, and thus be able to more fully exploit the resources of the museum.
When dealing with digital information museums are faced with two problems: storage space for the information and changes in file type in the future. The author discusses the problem of storage space in Chapter 18, however, I do not believe that it is as much of a problem as it would lead one to believe. Although the amount of digital information that a museum has to deal with is increasing, the storage capacity of computers and servers are increasing as well and storage space is probably not the biggest issue that museum should be concerned about with digital information. A much bigger problem, and one that is not discussed in the text, is possible changes to file types in the future. For example, while the jpeg may be the standard photo file type presently, this is bound to change sometime in the future. To prevent a museum’s collection of digital information from becoming obsolete the museum will have to be active in preserving and updating its digital collection. This pragmatic concern should underlie decisions that a museum makes in how it stores and handles digital information.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Chapter 19 – Museums and Free-Choice Learning
John H. Falk, Lynn D. Dierking and Marianna Adams of the
Western societies are changing from a goods-based economy to a knowledge-based economy and these changes have affected museums of all types. Knowledge and information, which is fueled by learning, is rapidly becoming a major economic product of society.
In order to develop new ideas in this knowledge economy, Western societies must evolve into a ‘learned society’. The 21st century has produced many outlets which give people free-choice to learn whatever they want. This ‘free-choice learning’, which includes watching the news, reading magazines, surfing the net or visiting a museum, is motivated by the need to expand knowledge and augment information. This shift in educational theory can be perceived in the changing conception of the role of museums. Before, museums were mainly seen as a source of authoritative knowledge. Now this new knowledge economy is reflected in how museums take on the role of institutions that are able to provide opportunity for individuals to engage in ‘free-choice’ learning.
People have always learned, but what has been altered with this new knowledge-based economy is what they are learning and how and why they are doing it. The original behaviorist approach in which the museum visitor is believed to arrive with a blank slate of knowledge and whose previous experiences, interests and motivations are irrelevant in their visit seems to be flawed. The new constructivist approach seems to better understand that learning is a highly contextual process. This approach is based on perspectives that emphasize the input of the learner in the meaning-making process and recognizes the variable ways in which this learning takes place. It considers that a learner’s prior knowledge, experiences and interests all encompass a personal context that will affect the visitor’s experience.
Next, the authors propose the contextual model of learning that portrays the process and product of the interactions between the visitor’s personal, socio-economic and physical contexts. Personal context is the sum of the personal history that an individual has. Their learning will be influenced by the individual’s past knowledge, experiences and beliefs. Since humans are products of their socialized relationships, a visitor’s socio-cultural context is influenced by their upbringing and interactions. These interactions will clearly influence their museum experience. Learning always arises within the physical environment and one would expect the visitor’s reactions to be influenced by a multitude of architectural and design factors such as lighting, crowding, presentation, context and quality of the information presented.
It is very hard to incorporate the above factors into an analytical approach to public learning in museums. The Institute for Learning Innovation has focused on investigating free-choice learning. They discuss a five step approach that one should incorporate in order to yield more significant evidence of the complexity of free-choice learning experiences. The five steps are as follows:
- Allow for the individuals own unique learning agenda to emerge.
- Address the effect of time on learning.
- Respect that learning is always situated and contextualized.
- Be open to a broad range of learning outcomes.
- (in research-speak) Emphasize validity over reliability
Because of the five criteria above, Falk developed the approach of ‘personal meaning mapping’ (PMM). It is designed to measure how specific learning experiences will influence the visitor’s interpretation or meaning-making process. This is based on the assumption that not all visitors will arrive with comparable knowledge and it does not require that the visitor emit a ‘right’ answer in order to exhibit that they learned something.
Another challenge that researchers face is recognizing the rapidly changing world that is observed through three interconnected social-economic trends. These trends are the change in the nature of goods and services, the rise of free-choice learning and the need for accountability. In order to accommodate these various trends, museums must adopt a new business model and redefine what comprises success. They need to maximize the quality of the learning experience available. Free-choice learning will help to transform individuals and maximize this quality. In this new learning society, the greatest experience an individual can have is one that supports knowledge that they decide to learn, and not just at the moment, but across their entire life-time. Museum’s focuses needs to be directed in bolstering the individual’s ability to control what they want to learn, instead of providing knowledge to the masses.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
"Studying Visitors", Eilean Hooper-Greenhill Response
Within the necessary functions of today’s museum is included research, not just of the objects in the museum’s possession, but also of the people visiting and not visiting the museum, the “audience”. This type of study helps to fulfill the needs of this audience and allows the museum to reach its fullest educational potential.
The study of visitors involves a number of different disciplines, and has a long history, following the progression not only of museums, but also of these other disciplines. Early studies followed the behaviorist model from psychology and focused on studying only the behavior of visitors within the museum space. Within this model, based on somewhat elitist attitudes, was the idea of the transfer of knowledge from the expert to the commoner. Many of these studies, however, merely focused on the “attracting” or “holding” power of exhibits, and not on the sociological reasons behind this attraction. Also, these studies were done in order to measure the success of the exhibit and used preconceived ideas of what should be attained by visiting the museum.
Some research included questioning the visitors after their visit, and by the 1960’s, visitor surveys were very prominent among museums. Although possibly helpful from a business standpoint, these observations and surveys only provide basic demographic information on visitors. It cannot measure the experience of the visitor, or why people do not visit the museum.
In the 1980’s, some surveys were revised to be more efficient. Other surveys were expanded to include people not visiting museums. Also, a number of museums began participating in market research with focus groups including both visitors and non-visitors. These actions were able to gather more social data on people’s ideas about museums from a larger demographic.
Out of these earlier studies, grew a large research program based out of the Natural History Museum in
In today’s research on visitors, many of the methods used are again borrowed from psychology. However, changes in the field of psychology, from a focus on behavior to interpretation and ethnography, have influenced the methods and conclusions of more recent research. These studies now take into account the reasons for a person’s visit, and varying levels of willingness to learn. Instead of surveying visitors after their museum experience, visitors are now studied before, during and after their visit to measure changing attitudes and a fuller experience. With this broadening of factors, has also come an extended reach for these studies. Early visitor studies mainly took place in science museums, however, visitor studies are now employed in almost all types of museums.
Although ethnographic study of visitors is the ideal method of research, the costliness and time-consuming nature of these more thorough methods can be prohibitive to many museums. It is also noted that the results do not lead directly to museum policy, although I would argue that when analyzed properly, much like market research, ideal policies can be realized from these results. Therefore, many museums still focus on the demographic studies to measure “success” of exhibitions and the museum itself. What is needed is an integration of the demographic study with ethnographic data, analyzed in a way that can be useful to the museum in better catering to the fullest available audience.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Museum Education by George E. Hein review
Chapter 20, Museum Education by George E. Hein
Below is a summary of the chapter, very closely paraphrased with direct quotes form the original text. In other words, the formulations are those of Hein, and not me unless noted in text:
The eighteenth Century enlightenment brought private collections to the public sphere. The first “children’s museum” was formed in 1899 and was explicitly educational. During the nineteenth century, the unevenness in museum education was comparable to the unevenness in attention to public education. The chapter notes the increased but uneven role of specialized education in museums over the past 50 years.
The 2005 ICOMS mission statement stresses museum education while the earlier 1946 statement does not even mention museum education.
Three possible museum philosophies are elaborated: educational, aesthetic, and social.
The educational philosophy is seen in the very notion of moving from guards to docents. The earliest mention of a “museum educator” is from a 1927 publication. A 2002 survey showed that museum educators operated in seven areas of programming with more than 45 task in these programs - the point being that museum educators are highly flexible in their responsibilities.
Several pages discuss the learning theories along a passive to active continuum, leading to a discussion of the advantages and challenges of a “Constructivist Museum” that seems to me to counter a modernist to a post-modernist paradigm. For example the “meaningful experience” is countered to the “defined content outcome.” Of interest is a mentioning that that mandatory testing programs in school systems have tended to force an overshadowing of addressing curriculum standards in museum education.
The chapter concludes with a very interesting discussion of the social responsibility in museums citing the contributions of John Dewey from the early twentieth century. Four aspects of Dewey’s contribution are highlighted: Constant questioning of dualisms; the goal of education is further education; applying progressive theory in education universally; connect educational work back to life.
Below is a summary of the chapter, very closely paraphrased with direct quotes form the original text. In other words, the formulations are those of Hein, and not me unless noted in text:
The eighteenth Century enlightenment brought private collections to the public sphere. The first “children’s museum” was formed in 1899 and was explicitly educational. During the nineteenth century, the unevenness in museum education was comparable to the unevenness in attention to public education. The chapter notes the increased but uneven role of specialized education in museums over the past 50 years.
The 2005 ICOMS mission statement stresses museum education while the earlier 1946 statement does not even mention museum education.
Three possible museum philosophies are elaborated: educational, aesthetic, and social.
The educational philosophy is seen in the very notion of moving from guards to docents. The earliest mention of a “museum educator” is from a 1927 publication. A 2002 survey showed that museum educators operated in seven areas of programming with more than 45 task in these programs - the point being that museum educators are highly flexible in their responsibilities.
Several pages discuss the learning theories along a passive to active continuum, leading to a discussion of the advantages and challenges of a “Constructivist Museum” that seems to me to counter a modernist to a post-modernist paradigm. For example the “meaningful experience” is countered to the “defined content outcome.” Of interest is a mentioning that that mandatory testing programs in school systems have tended to force an overshadowing of addressing curriculum standards in museum education.
The chapter concludes with a very interesting discussion of the social responsibility in museums citing the contributions of John Dewey from the early twentieth century. Four aspects of Dewey’s contribution are highlighted: Constant questioning of dualisms; the goal of education is further education; applying progressive theory in education universally; connect educational work back to life.
Monday, October 15, 2007
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Below is a recent review of the NMAAHC's efforts to begin programming before they open their doors in 2015. It offers an interesting perspective on the challenges of online content and curation in an era when so much information is available elsewhere on the web.
CONNECTIONS
Web Preview: Tentative Step for Black Museum
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
Published: October 15, 2007
Of all the hyphenated museums built in recent years or planned for the coming decade, of all the institutions exploring ethnic, racial or religious identities and their relationship to the larger American experience, none is as important as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, expected to open on Washington’s Mall in 2015.
Related
National Museum of African American History and Culture
All other such museums — whether they examine Arab-American culture, Jewish-American culture or Hispanic-American culture — are fully hyphenated. Each side of the hyphen is distinctive and stable. It is the hyphen that is the focus of dynamic attention, transforming each side into something new. In the case of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the metaphorical hyphen is made even more prominent, turned into an arrow or dagger, marking the confrontation of separate and unequal forces.
But an African-American museum on this scale — cost estimates range from $300 million to $500 million — is beyond hyphenation. Though it will of course tell the history of slavery, its perversions and its legacy, along with the much-hyphenated explorations of identity and culture that ensued, the museum’s tale of interactions may be more profound than any other hyphenated account. American history and black American history cannot be split apart.
With great violence and suffering, the institution of slavery actually melded both terms almost from the start, making each side of the hyphen unthinkable without the other. So rather than being a hyphenated museum, this may be a museum of American history, seen through a particular perspective.
The extraordinary ideals of American life, the scars left by one of their excruciating failures, and the fervent hopes that remain in their persistence — these shape an unfolding American chronicle. Such an integration of historical experience, with its combination of virtue and vice, reformation and resistance, mistakes and insights, could make this museum a national monument that would not only herald the accomplishments of black Americans but also transform American understanding of race.
The museum’s founding director, Lonnie G. Bunch, seems to understand the nature of this daunting task.
He doesn’t want to wait until 2015 to begin it, and late last month the museum actually opened — not in the world of bricks and mortar but in the world of hyperlinks and tags. With $1 million in assistance from I.B.M., the Smithsonian Institution created what Mr. Bunch calls a “virtual platform,” a Web museum (nmaahc.si.edu).
The museum is also offering an inaugural exhibition in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery and the International Center of Photography, “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits,” a series of photographs of figures ranging from Frederick Douglass to Ella Fitzgerald from the Portrait Gallery’s collection.
That exhibition was organized by Deborah Willis, a member of the African-American museum’s scholarly advisory committee. It has already opened on the site (and was shown in New York over the summer). The show will have a more traditional debut at the Portrait Gallery in Washington on Friday and will later tour.
In establishing the Web site and its first exhibition, Mr. Bunch, who was previously a Smithsonian curator and a president of the Chicago Historical Society, is signaling the scope of his ambitions. He means the museum to be a national institution that would explore the full range of the black American experience, that would collaborate with other institutions, and that would, through the Web and these partnerships, reach far beyond its future walls. The Web presence would also help the museum in soliciting collections beyond the Smithsonian’s current holdings.
The Web site also announces several other ways these plans will be executed, most notably creating a “memory book,” in which viewers can upload memories and photographs related to black American life, filling historical gaps with first-hand experience (vetted by the museum’s staff). In a mission statement on the site, Mr. Bunch says that he wants the museum to become “a place of meaning, of memory, of reflection, of laughter, and of hope.”
Unfortunately, though, these declared ambitions are jarring given the half-realized efforts on display. Even in the realm of hyperlinks, the mortar has a long way to go here before it congeals. Given the enormity of the interpretive project ahead, and its national importance, why was it prematurely undercut with something as thin and uninspiring as this site?
Consider the exhibition of portraits. If it were going to be unveiled on the Web, then why not do it in full? Many images are not available. All have brief, overly compressed biographical notes. And the essays from the show’s catalog are unavailable.
Even the selection of portraits seems unshaped by an interpretive idea. The exhibition’s title, “Let Your Motto Be Resistance,” is taken from a fervent message delivered to free Northern black Americans by a black clergyman, Henry Highland Garnet, in 1843. And while there are photos of some who variously resisted the debilitating forces arrayed against them — from W. E. B. Du Bois to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — the idea of resistance is interpreted so broadly and blandly as to also encompass artists like Diana Ross and Wynton Marsalis. The idea may be that given historical circumstances any achievement can be interpreted as a kind of resistance; but distinctions, even among political positions, are left unexplored, at least on the Web.
It is also frustrating that a museum planning to be definitive in its reach — and even promising a sophisticated international vision — offers such scant insight into what it does portray. When describing the actor and singer Paul Robeson, for example, the Web site tells us: “Robeson became a committed socialist and worked actively against fascism both before and during World War II. But after 1945, growing conservatism at home clashed with his strong support of left-wing political causes” and “curtailed his American performing career.”
Actually Robeson became a committed Stalinist, praising that tyrant’s “deep humanity” and idealizing the Soviet state even after its horrors had become evident. That might have been used to suggest that tragically the experience of brutish racism in America had distorted his thinking. Instead, the biographical note simply ignores the complexities.
It is also futile to search the Web site for a hint of deeper and wider perspectives. Two exhibitions announced on the site, one scheduled for January 2009 in collaboration with the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland, and the other for June with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, are both concerned with the civil rights movement. The first will display graphic images, the second, photographs. These shows may turn out to be quite powerful, but as debut ideas they don’t suggest the scope of the enterprise Mr. Bunch outlines in his mission statement.
Even the Web-based “memory book” requires more curatorial oversight to give it better thematic shape than the awkward subject index “tags” placed by visitors. Its accounts also need to be more tightly edited to add force to meandering memories and imagistic poems. There are limits to the power of participatory exhibitions.
These initial glimpses of the museum do not seem like preliminary forays into a deep exploration of black American experience, but skate along on the surface. That would be fine if this were simply going to be another hyphenated museum, but it has the potential to be so much more. The Web site may be premature, but in coming years the hope is that its evolution will chronicle continuing efforts to discover the world within and beyond the hyphen.
Connections is a critic’s perspective on arts and ideas.
CONNECTIONS
Web Preview: Tentative Step for Black Museum
By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
Published: October 15, 2007
Of all the hyphenated museums built in recent years or planned for the coming decade, of all the institutions exploring ethnic, racial or religious identities and their relationship to the larger American experience, none is as important as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, expected to open on Washington’s Mall in 2015.
Related
National Museum of African American History and Culture
All other such museums — whether they examine Arab-American culture, Jewish-American culture or Hispanic-American culture — are fully hyphenated. Each side of the hyphen is distinctive and stable. It is the hyphen that is the focus of dynamic attention, transforming each side into something new. In the case of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the metaphorical hyphen is made even more prominent, turned into an arrow or dagger, marking the confrontation of separate and unequal forces.
But an African-American museum on this scale — cost estimates range from $300 million to $500 million — is beyond hyphenation. Though it will of course tell the history of slavery, its perversions and its legacy, along with the much-hyphenated explorations of identity and culture that ensued, the museum’s tale of interactions may be more profound than any other hyphenated account. American history and black American history cannot be split apart.
With great violence and suffering, the institution of slavery actually melded both terms almost from the start, making each side of the hyphen unthinkable without the other. So rather than being a hyphenated museum, this may be a museum of American history, seen through a particular perspective.
The extraordinary ideals of American life, the scars left by one of their excruciating failures, and the fervent hopes that remain in their persistence — these shape an unfolding American chronicle. Such an integration of historical experience, with its combination of virtue and vice, reformation and resistance, mistakes and insights, could make this museum a national monument that would not only herald the accomplishments of black Americans but also transform American understanding of race.
The museum’s founding director, Lonnie G. Bunch, seems to understand the nature of this daunting task.
He doesn’t want to wait until 2015 to begin it, and late last month the museum actually opened — not in the world of bricks and mortar but in the world of hyperlinks and tags. With $1 million in assistance from I.B.M., the Smithsonian Institution created what Mr. Bunch calls a “virtual platform,” a Web museum (nmaahc.si.edu).
The museum is also offering an inaugural exhibition in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery and the International Center of Photography, “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits,” a series of photographs of figures ranging from Frederick Douglass to Ella Fitzgerald from the Portrait Gallery’s collection.
That exhibition was organized by Deborah Willis, a member of the African-American museum’s scholarly advisory committee. It has already opened on the site (and was shown in New York over the summer). The show will have a more traditional debut at the Portrait Gallery in Washington on Friday and will later tour.
In establishing the Web site and its first exhibition, Mr. Bunch, who was previously a Smithsonian curator and a president of the Chicago Historical Society, is signaling the scope of his ambitions. He means the museum to be a national institution that would explore the full range of the black American experience, that would collaborate with other institutions, and that would, through the Web and these partnerships, reach far beyond its future walls. The Web presence would also help the museum in soliciting collections beyond the Smithsonian’s current holdings.
The Web site also announces several other ways these plans will be executed, most notably creating a “memory book,” in which viewers can upload memories and photographs related to black American life, filling historical gaps with first-hand experience (vetted by the museum’s staff). In a mission statement on the site, Mr. Bunch says that he wants the museum to become “a place of meaning, of memory, of reflection, of laughter, and of hope.”
Unfortunately, though, these declared ambitions are jarring given the half-realized efforts on display. Even in the realm of hyperlinks, the mortar has a long way to go here before it congeals. Given the enormity of the interpretive project ahead, and its national importance, why was it prematurely undercut with something as thin and uninspiring as this site?
Consider the exhibition of portraits. If it were going to be unveiled on the Web, then why not do it in full? Many images are not available. All have brief, overly compressed biographical notes. And the essays from the show’s catalog are unavailable.
Even the selection of portraits seems unshaped by an interpretive idea. The exhibition’s title, “Let Your Motto Be Resistance,” is taken from a fervent message delivered to free Northern black Americans by a black clergyman, Henry Highland Garnet, in 1843. And while there are photos of some who variously resisted the debilitating forces arrayed against them — from W. E. B. Du Bois to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — the idea of resistance is interpreted so broadly and blandly as to also encompass artists like Diana Ross and Wynton Marsalis. The idea may be that given historical circumstances any achievement can be interpreted as a kind of resistance; but distinctions, even among political positions, are left unexplored, at least on the Web.
It is also frustrating that a museum planning to be definitive in its reach — and even promising a sophisticated international vision — offers such scant insight into what it does portray. When describing the actor and singer Paul Robeson, for example, the Web site tells us: “Robeson became a committed socialist and worked actively against fascism both before and during World War II. But after 1945, growing conservatism at home clashed with his strong support of left-wing political causes” and “curtailed his American performing career.”
Actually Robeson became a committed Stalinist, praising that tyrant’s “deep humanity” and idealizing the Soviet state even after its horrors had become evident. That might have been used to suggest that tragically the experience of brutish racism in America had distorted his thinking. Instead, the biographical note simply ignores the complexities.
It is also futile to search the Web site for a hint of deeper and wider perspectives. Two exhibitions announced on the site, one scheduled for January 2009 in collaboration with the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland, and the other for June with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, are both concerned with the civil rights movement. The first will display graphic images, the second, photographs. These shows may turn out to be quite powerful, but as debut ideas they don’t suggest the scope of the enterprise Mr. Bunch outlines in his mission statement.
Even the Web-based “memory book” requires more curatorial oversight to give it better thematic shape than the awkward subject index “tags” placed by visitors. Its accounts also need to be more tightly edited to add force to meandering memories and imagistic poems. There are limits to the power of participatory exhibitions.
These initial glimpses of the museum do not seem like preliminary forays into a deep exploration of black American experience, but skate along on the surface. That would be fine if this were simply going to be another hyphenated museum, but it has the potential to be so much more. The Web site may be premature, but in coming years the hope is that its evolution will chronicle continuing efforts to discover the world within and beyond the hyphen.
Connections is a critic’s perspective on arts and ideas.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Reality Show Response
There are many concerns for the archaeologists and government historians asked to consult on the Jaketown museum project. First and foremost, the mission of the museum must be clearly delineated and followed in its entirety throughout the museum-building process. Unfortunately, it is not clear who will be responsible for writing and adhering to the mission statement. Is it Mr. Turner, the former mayor? The government run MDAH? The city of Belzoni? The same question holds true for funding. A small local museum requires far less expense than a larger urban museum, but the significance of the Jaketown museum as an archaeological museum, which will hold important and sometimes rare artifacts, requires professional formation and administration. It is clear that the former mayor is dedicated to creating a museum to showcase local history and culture, but how dedicated is the current mayor or governmental institution to building and supervising a museum? Is there public support for a local archaeological museum? Will the local public be actively involved in the running of the museum? Where would the museum be located? Will private funds need to be raised to build a new construction, or will public funds be used? Will the collection be housed in a public building already run by an organization such as the MDAH? Before starting construction on a new museum or even exhibiting a collection in an existing building, those in charge of the museum must develop a plan for long term funding for the museum with a priority on the care and security of the acquired, loaned, found, and excavated objects.
In addition, the administrators must develop proper guidelines for registering and cataloging acquired and loaned objects for related museum purposes such as insurance, as well as future academic research and local education. This should include documentary procedures such as photography and video. The building should have proper storage facilities, security, and conservation areas to deal with archaeological items. In addition to a facility, the museum must have the proper insurance and legal work to handle objects from an archaeological site. Those in charge should be familiar with laws regarding the acquisition and display of objects removed from an archaeological site. Administrators and professionals who value risk assessment and prevention must run the facility.
The site seems to have been excavated and published in 1955 by Ford, Phillips, and Hagg. Will the information and artifacts from this original excavation be available to the museum? How will the museum handle future excavations and academic inquests? The objects displayed in the museum will most likely be smaller goods such as pottery, projectile points, ceramics, beads, and other ceremonial and utilitarian objects. This will require comprehensive educational texts and graphics in the exhibit to contextualize the displayed objects for the viewer. In addition, the exhibit should follow anthropological guidelines for labeling the objects with generally accepted period names and explanations of these eras.
Although Mr. Turner appears dedicated to creating a Jaketown site museum, he must consult (and employ) professional historians, archaeologists, conservators, and museum administrators to develop a mission, goal, and long-term plan for a Jaketown museum so that it is capable of meeting both the needs of the local public and of the academic community. He has taken the first step in contacting the MDAH, who in turn contacted Prof. Connolly. Obviously a very well liked and charismatic person, Mr. Turner should have no problem turning his museum dream into reality if he engages the help of professionals such as Prof. Connolly and follows their recommendations.
In addition, the administrators must develop proper guidelines for registering and cataloging acquired and loaned objects for related museum purposes such as insurance, as well as future academic research and local education. This should include documentary procedures such as photography and video. The building should have proper storage facilities, security, and conservation areas to deal with archaeological items. In addition to a facility, the museum must have the proper insurance and legal work to handle objects from an archaeological site. Those in charge should be familiar with laws regarding the acquisition and display of objects removed from an archaeological site. Administrators and professionals who value risk assessment and prevention must run the facility.
The site seems to have been excavated and published in 1955 by Ford, Phillips, and Hagg. Will the information and artifacts from this original excavation be available to the museum? How will the museum handle future excavations and academic inquests? The objects displayed in the museum will most likely be smaller goods such as pottery, projectile points, ceramics, beads, and other ceremonial and utilitarian objects. This will require comprehensive educational texts and graphics in the exhibit to contextualize the displayed objects for the viewer. In addition, the exhibit should follow anthropological guidelines for labeling the objects with generally accepted period names and explanations of these eras.
Although Mr. Turner appears dedicated to creating a Jaketown site museum, he must consult (and employ) professional historians, archaeologists, conservators, and museum administrators to develop a mission, goal, and long-term plan for a Jaketown museum so that it is capable of meeting both the needs of the local public and of the academic community. He has taken the first step in contacting the MDAH, who in turn contacted Prof. Connolly. Obviously a very well liked and charismatic person, Mr. Turner should have no problem turning his museum dream into reality if he engages the help of professionals such as Prof. Connolly and follows their recommendations.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Pink Palace Response
Museum mission statements provide the basis for the objectives and functions of a museum. According to Mister Brister, the mission statement of the Pink Palace Museum is to collect and preserve objects related to the history and culture of Memphis and the surrounding region, and to exhibit these objects in a way which best serves the education of the local public. The extensive nature of the mission statement allows the Pink Palace Museum to collect, preserve, and exhibit objects related to natural history, history, art, commerce, and entertainment of the region. Since the Pink Palace Museum must adhere to its mission statement, it must often turn away potential objects from donors that do not relate to the specifics of the mission statement. Mister Brister emphasized this as a priority of the Pink Palace Museum.
In addition, Mister Brister seemed to be in charge of enforcing the mission statement and evaluating potential risks. The Pink Palace Museum has many strategies to prevent damage to objects following the guidelines stated in ICOM, such as special cabinets that keep out light and pests, humidity and temperature control, and theft protection. Mister Brister emphasized the best strategy for dealing with pests is a preventative approach. Additionally, the Pink Palace Museum regularly sprays for pests. Mister Brister also highlighted the difficulty in keeping constant temperature and humidity in a city as perpetually hot and humid as Memphis. Similarly, the urban environment of Memphis presents the Pink Palace Museum with pollution problems that have to be dealt with by conservation and prevention strategies, although Mister Brister did not mention this specifically. Not only does the Pink Palace Museum stress the importance of object preservation, but it also allocates a large amount of its funding to theft protection. Although the ICOM focuses on the external threats such as nighttime burglary, Mister Brister mentioned that the biggest theft threat to the Pink Palace Museum is from internal sources such as independent contractors and construction workers.
As a principal part of the mission statement, preservation at the Pink Palace Museum takes precedence. The Pink Palace Museum appeared to incorporate successful strategies in storage, cleanliness, and organization of objects in accordance with ICOM. In fact, the storage facilities at the Pink Palace Museum were much more pristine and exact according to the ICOM than I expected after completing the readings. The Pink Palace Museum also has special conservation rooms and employs an expert conservator. The goal of the Pink Palace Museum is to use sustainable methods that can be adapted to future conservation technologies without permanently damaging the objects. In its entirety the Pink Palace Museum and the Collections Curator, Mister Brister, appeared to diligently follow the standards set forth by the ICOM to the best of their abilities considering their limited resources, budget, and external forces such as weather and pollution.
In addition, Mister Brister seemed to be in charge of enforcing the mission statement and evaluating potential risks. The Pink Palace Museum has many strategies to prevent damage to objects following the guidelines stated in ICOM, such as special cabinets that keep out light and pests, humidity and temperature control, and theft protection. Mister Brister emphasized the best strategy for dealing with pests is a preventative approach. Additionally, the Pink Palace Museum regularly sprays for pests. Mister Brister also highlighted the difficulty in keeping constant temperature and humidity in a city as perpetually hot and humid as Memphis. Similarly, the urban environment of Memphis presents the Pink Palace Museum with pollution problems that have to be dealt with by conservation and prevention strategies, although Mister Brister did not mention this specifically. Not only does the Pink Palace Museum stress the importance of object preservation, but it also allocates a large amount of its funding to theft protection. Although the ICOM focuses on the external threats such as nighttime burglary, Mister Brister mentioned that the biggest theft threat to the Pink Palace Museum is from internal sources such as independent contractors and construction workers.
As a principal part of the mission statement, preservation at the Pink Palace Museum takes precedence. The Pink Palace Museum appeared to incorporate successful strategies in storage, cleanliness, and organization of objects in accordance with ICOM. In fact, the storage facilities at the Pink Palace Museum were much more pristine and exact according to the ICOM than I expected after completing the readings. The Pink Palace Museum also has special conservation rooms and employs an expert conservator. The goal of the Pink Palace Museum is to use sustainable methods that can be adapted to future conservation technologies without permanently damaging the objects. In its entirety the Pink Palace Museum and the Collections Curator, Mister Brister, appeared to diligently follow the standards set forth by the ICOM to the best of their abilities considering their limited resources, budget, and external forces such as weather and pollution.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Response: A Reality Show Comes to Museum Practices
The role of museums, whether small or large, is very important to the community that they provide services to. They are in charge of the world’s cultural property and they interpret it to the public. These museums are part of the world’s natural or cultural heritage whose cultural property provides primary evidence in disciplines such as archaeology and the natural sciences. Museums represent an important contribution of knowledge and are an essential component in defining cultural identity, nationality and internationality. The Jaketown project of the Poverty Point culture can contribute to the community of Louisiana, but first certain steps must be taken before planning the exhibitions of the artifacts that will be acquired by loans from private collectors.
Before Dr. Connolly should help to organize the exhibition, displays, exhibit labels, documentation of archive materials and a production of an introductory video, he must make sure that Mr. Turner has followed the proper guidelines in beginning a museum. Mr. Turner needs to make sure that this museum is what the community of Belzoni needs and will be productive for the city and its people. A new museum needs a home, collections, income and activities that will benefit the community. It is also a necessity that he finds collectors, experts and specialists in the community and secures their cooperation in beginning the museum collections. He should provide a written, published public document which accords with national laws and clearly states the standing of the institution, its legal status and mission statement as well as its non-profit nature. The mission statement should publicize the objective and policy statement of the new museum before beginning the acquisition of collections.
Once he has established these guidelines, then he must confirm that the new museum has an acquisitions policy that addresses the care and preservation of the objects that they will acquire by purchase, gift, loan, bequest or exchange. The collections should have proper ownership documentation along with a full history of the item from discovery to production and must be relevant to their mission statement. He should require proper care of biologically or culturally sensitive material, such as the jasper owls and effigy beads, and ensure that they can be properly cared for and stored safely with protection from the nine agents of deterioration.
After these steps have been fulfilled, Dr. Connolly can assist in exhibition planning. Before beginning this process, it is important that the “whole design” of the exhibition is planned and this design focuses on what Mr. Turner wants to achieve with the exhibition. When producing graphics for museum displays it is important to ensure that the display communicates the context of history, memory, identity or scientific knowledge to a person or group of persons. This is why it is important to get expert museum advice and competent museum workers to help communicate the objects history and meaning. Mr. Turner most likely asked for Dr. Connelly’s advice because of his eight years of experience as Station Archaeologist at the Poverty Point site. Also important in the interpretation of museum exhibitions is the exhibit label wording. This wording is just another step in defining the objects in the exhibition and communicating their cultural significance through the aid of graphics and written information in the form of text panels, captions and individual exhibit labels.
In addition to this, documentation of all the artifacts is an essential resource for collections management, research and public services. Any objects acquired for the museum by Mr. Turner needs full identification, description, its associations, provenience, condition, treatment, present locations as well as photographic documentation. The production of the introductory video that Dr. Connelly agreed to assist in should utilize all the information from the excavation reports and articles that he discovered on other Poverty Point exhibitions. This information should communicate the message of the exhibition in a clear and precise visual and written language that is easy to understand at any level or levels of public interpretation. This video will aid in public outreach that aims to educate people in the community of Belzoni about their cultural heritage.
These are but a few deliberations that need to be addressed when planning a new museum and exhibition of culturally significant artifacts to a community.
The role of museums, whether small or large, is very important to the community that they provide services to. They are in charge of the world’s cultural property and they interpret it to the public. These museums are part of the world’s natural or cultural heritage whose cultural property provides primary evidence in disciplines such as archaeology and the natural sciences. Museums represent an important contribution of knowledge and are an essential component in defining cultural identity, nationality and internationality. The Jaketown project of the Poverty Point culture can contribute to the community of Louisiana, but first certain steps must be taken before planning the exhibitions of the artifacts that will be acquired by loans from private collectors.
Before Dr. Connolly should help to organize the exhibition, displays, exhibit labels, documentation of archive materials and a production of an introductory video, he must make sure that Mr. Turner has followed the proper guidelines in beginning a museum. Mr. Turner needs to make sure that this museum is what the community of Belzoni needs and will be productive for the city and its people. A new museum needs a home, collections, income and activities that will benefit the community. It is also a necessity that he finds collectors, experts and specialists in the community and secures their cooperation in beginning the museum collections. He should provide a written, published public document which accords with national laws and clearly states the standing of the institution, its legal status and mission statement as well as its non-profit nature. The mission statement should publicize the objective and policy statement of the new museum before beginning the acquisition of collections.
Once he has established these guidelines, then he must confirm that the new museum has an acquisitions policy that addresses the care and preservation of the objects that they will acquire by purchase, gift, loan, bequest or exchange. The collections should have proper ownership documentation along with a full history of the item from discovery to production and must be relevant to their mission statement. He should require proper care of biologically or culturally sensitive material, such as the jasper owls and effigy beads, and ensure that they can be properly cared for and stored safely with protection from the nine agents of deterioration.
After these steps have been fulfilled, Dr. Connolly can assist in exhibition planning. Before beginning this process, it is important that the “whole design” of the exhibition is planned and this design focuses on what Mr. Turner wants to achieve with the exhibition. When producing graphics for museum displays it is important to ensure that the display communicates the context of history, memory, identity or scientific knowledge to a person or group of persons. This is why it is important to get expert museum advice and competent museum workers to help communicate the objects history and meaning. Mr. Turner most likely asked for Dr. Connelly’s advice because of his eight years of experience as Station Archaeologist at the Poverty Point site. Also important in the interpretation of museum exhibitions is the exhibit label wording. This wording is just another step in defining the objects in the exhibition and communicating their cultural significance through the aid of graphics and written information in the form of text panels, captions and individual exhibit labels.
In addition to this, documentation of all the artifacts is an essential resource for collections management, research and public services. Any objects acquired for the museum by Mr. Turner needs full identification, description, its associations, provenience, condition, treatment, present locations as well as photographic documentation. The production of the introductory video that Dr. Connelly agreed to assist in should utilize all the information from the excavation reports and articles that he discovered on other Poverty Point exhibitions. This information should communicate the message of the exhibition in a clear and precise visual and written language that is easy to understand at any level or levels of public interpretation. This video will aid in public outreach that aims to educate people in the community of Belzoni about their cultural heritage.
These are but a few deliberations that need to be addressed when planning a new museum and exhibition of culturally significant artifacts to a community.
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