It gives museums chances to be a part of something bigger than themselves, to be a functioning part of the community and influencing the lives of the people in it. The Baltimore Museum of Art’s exhibit titled Imagining Home is an example of this. The Imagining Home exhibit uses paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, textiles, and works on paper from all over the world to typify the themes of facades and thresholds, domestic interiors, and arrivals and departures. The museum even went further, however, and established the Center for Home Movies, a virtual archive for the home movies of local residents that can be viewed by all online. This center allows community residents to bring the BMA to their homes and give them a glimpse into that world. By building an exhibit around the idea of home and creating the Center for Home Movies, the BMA is able to not only bring in locals attracted by a relatable and open-ended concept, but also to be brought to the homes of their resident through home movies. It allows the museum to be immerse in the community and gives locals the opportunity to reflect on themselves and the lives of their…
In “Why Museums are the New Churches” by Jason Farago, he argues how the art museum has surpassed the church as the most important and ultimate building of our society. Also, Farago continues to show how people mimic and copy religious acts and rituals while visiting a museum. He provides numerous examples from history and buildings from around the world. He also gives many modern examples of this shift from churches to museums. Throughout his writing, Farago builds an argument that museums have become the most vital building, and he uses some interesting techniques along the way.…
Although structure and utility as the meaning of act of ‘building’, architecture has a crucial visual component as well, and throughout the centuries, buildings have either failed or succeed in terms of either individual or societal aesthetic standards (Zukowsky, 2015). In this essay, two buildings are selected in similar functions with strong contrast in design and built within 20 years of each other. As for the function, museum as an important medium of communication to be analyzed, which is primarily but not essentially exclusively and engaged in the visual communication of objects of scientific and cultural interest. Therefore, museum design, both in terms of display and architecture, must thus at least contribute communicate to an individual actively and preferably (Brawne, 1965). The museums that have been chosen to compare are National Museum of Roman Art and Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and the selection of…
Museums are a place where one can see a collection of rare pieces; it is a house of historical and valuable pieces of history. When I arrived at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the outside structure of the building was an architectural piece of art in itself. The walls are windows to the outside giving an 180 view bringing the outside in. When I got inside the museum and walked through the hallway of windows to the museum, I was taken into another era. The light and airy hallways were replaced with stone walls of a dark and mysterious until I see the courtyard full of lavish greenery.…
Museums bring history and culture to life by allowing individuals to gain unique hands on experience that is different from learning from textbooks or television. One can never know the reality behind certain artifacts and art until they see it for themselves. The perception of viewing a multitude of replicas and pictures such as the Mona Lisa can be dramatically different from witnessing the painting up close. The interactive experience allows one to engage and immerse ourselves back into time to learn about the truth of different cultures and traditions. The intent of museums is not purely to enthrall historians and scholars, but to create an environment which is welcoming to all individuals. While historians argue that museums…
“The Kennedy Museum of Art is an integral part of the educational, research, and public service…
Museums are a perfect way to represent what history has unfolded for the public’s eye. Consideration needs to be made when a person is shopping for fragments of history such as arts or artifacts. A main consideration is profit; however, there are consequences if the museums does not make enough money. If a museum does not make enough money, this could suggest that people are not interested in taking tours throughout the museums anymore,the new age of technology is taking over. What happens after the museums cannot keep their wonderful art?…
When one goes to a Museum, it is easy to assume that they will go to the most famous and well known pieces that are showcased, look at them, and then be well on their way. Although Museums are a part of the spectacle, when looked at in the right context they can also enable to viewer to gain a new perspective. What better a place than to think “otherwise” than a museum? The setting upholds works of art that are categorized and characterized by certain attributes. But these institutions can also view the everyday in a new context – take a look at the Surrealists or the Stituationalists. In Museum Hours, by Jem Cohen addresses how people should look at art through a different lens, and how value legitimizes collections of art in museums.…
Financial stability is key to the existence of any institution, and often for these museums being beholden to donors was a setback for them. A main example of this is the African-American Museum of Philadelphia being beholden to their donors who wanted them to create the museum in time to open for the 1976 Bicentennial celebration, as the museum was formed as “a direct response” to the celebration. This time crunch did not allow the museum to take the time and care it needed to have a truly proper opening, and this concept of being restrained due to finances is a running theme throughout this…
The history of the United States is one of the most important in the world. Some of the most popular sources of our nation’s history are our museums. The collection of museums that make up the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C had a total of 21.8 million visits by individuals in 2013 alone. The National Air and Space Museum, in particular, was the biggest contributor to these statistics; with a total of 4.9 million visits by individuals in 2013 alone, making it the most popular museum in the United States. A reason for the National Air and Space Museum’s popularity is the museum’s massive collection of artifacts related…
I believe that museum exhibits should be set up in a way that visitors can learn ethics from viewing or interacting with the exhibit. I say this because as far as museum ethics I know that for the most part, ethics concentrating on environment, marketing, education, and services, are already confronted. This is a concern for me because the last museum I visited, the Michael Garman Museum claimed to be a museum, but it did not feel like a museum to me. According to ICOM, “ethics are aimed at guiding a museum’s conduct.” With that in mind, The Michael Garman Museum could be subjected to unwanted consequences of ethics for museum exhibitions, false advertising, and inadequate exhibit…
If you live in Dallas, most likely you have been to Northpark Mall. However, did you ever notice that Northpark is also a museum? Sort of. Most art people do not know about it, and the shoppers do not seem to care, but the place is owned by Ray Nasher of Nasher Sculpture Center, and he has placed an impressive percentage of his collection in front of Neiman’s, Barney’s, Victoria’s Secret, and the Watch Hut. For the sole purpose and interest in the art presented throughout the mall, I chose to visit Nasher Sculpture Center located in the Dallas Art District.…
So let us discuss art. When you look at the Highlights hypertext on the Collections pull-down menu of both museums you’ll find their prized works of art. Each compendium of pictures is amazing and beautiful in its own way. Complete with a myriad of sculptures, artifacts, pictures, and paintings both museums offer a visual portal to culture and civilizations of the past and written descriptions insightful to life very different than that of the present. I would like to point out some distinct differences in the pictures from both sites. Not so much as the pictures themselves, as I stated they both had such beautiful pictures that I would be hard-pressed to make a distinction as to which ones I liked more and that is also not the intention of this writing, but the manner in which they are displayed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art had a much more fluid presentation of the pictures than the National Gallery of Art. When I clicked on the pictures in The National Gallery of Art the pictures were presented in a digital fashion. What I mean by that is that the picture would appear digital block by digital block. So, as you could imagine, when I zoomed in to take a closer look there was a definite, and sometimes substantial, delay in the appearance of the picture. There was also an annoying thumbnail that I couldn’t escape.…
Firstly the curator, who is in charge of the museum, must be able to achieve a balance between business and education. In one hand, in order for a Museum to successfully operate, a budget and organizational structure have to be created as to avoid financial deficits like those noted from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The Museum of Modern Art suffered from “poor management structure” coupled with a lack of general consensus as to the “composition of MoMA’s permanent collection” caused an eminent recipe for disaster. (Source A) On the other hand, the financial aspect of a museum should not overshadow the intended education. According to Theobald Miley, “Commercialism has no place within the scope of museum activities.” Theobald…
My first reason is because of the history.The history is really cool to see and learn about.The reason I picked history is because I like to learn about people from an earlier time. So, that is my first reason why we should go to an art museum.…