THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF ART: VARIATION IN THE VALUATION OF ART WORKS IN A COMMUNITY ART MUSEUM*

This paper examines variation in the valuation of art works in a community art museum. It often is assumed that art objects collected and displayed by museums are treated as highly valued if not sacred objects. Research at a community art museum indicates that the value of art works varies. Frontstage at the museum, art works are treated with care by museum workers. Backstage, they may be destroyed, misplaced, lost, or stolen. In addition, when not engaged in playing the conventional role of museum visitor, visitors to the museum may disregard and even mistreat art objects. Data are based on observations and interviews conducted over a two-year period in a medium-sized community art museum.     

The art museum in Africa – a utopia desired?

In this paper, I argue that museums in general are utopias, “no-places” in which categorisations of objects can be opened up for destabilisation. Following a discussion of the ways in which the categories “material culture” and “art” are reflected in museums, I argue that once the museum is transposed to Africa, its function as a space in which heritage is maintained through the conservation and preservation is thrown into disarray. I argue further that this is particularly the case with the most utopian of museums, the art museum. I argue that most African nation states do not have national art museums, and offer an argument about why they have museums of “arts and cultures” instead. I end with an analysis of the history and situation of art museums in South Africa and possibilities for alternative ways of conceiving the art museum as an inclusive rather than exclusive space.     

Ergonomics and accessibility for people with visual impairment in hotels

This article presents a diagnosis of luxury or superior hotels in the city of Natal, located in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, in northeastern Brazil, in what concerns accessibility to the visually impaired. The main objective is to present the guiding principles to design actions and interventions that must be considered in the preparation or revision of technical standards and manuals of good practice in accessibility related to people with visual impairments who are hotel users. The survey showed that the hotels do not meet the normative indications of accessibility, their facilities are in-accessible (have prevented access) or of reduced accessibility and its employees are not prepared to provide adequate hospital services for people with visual impairment. It was concluded that some of the accessibility problems faced by people with visual impairments are also faced by people in general.     

Visitors to modern and contemporary art museums: towards a new sociology of ‘cultural profiles’

Sociologists traditionally focus on the power of socio‐economic variables as drivers of attendance at museums. However, this research runs the risk of a certain socio‐economic reductionism which fails to register the aesthetic dimensions of cultural consumption. To remedy this, I propose a new focus on cultural profiles beyond the prism of SES, which allows us to better interpret the role of the art museum visit in visitors' daily life. The cultural profile is defined as a set of cultural, creative and leisure preferences and activities, towards various forms of art, which classify and can be classified. I use multiple correspondence analysis to examine the nature of cultural profiles among visitors of six museums of modern and contemporary art in Belgium. Six different cultural profiles are defined, each a ‘bricolage’ of different classifying registers that structure and define practices and tastes. My approach allows us to reconcile and elaborate current interests in cultural sociology about the relationship between high versus low culture (Bourdieu), experimentation versus classicism, transgression versus conservatism and omnivores versus univores (Peterson).     

People with sight impairment in the world of visual arts: does it make any sense?

Abstract

The article describes an educational and artistic project in Poland where individuals with sight impairments could learn more about visual arts through guided city tours around their greatest monuments, appreciation of art pieces and meetings with artists. During workshops, they could test their own artistic skills by creating tactile drawings, pottery sculptures, photographs and tactile picture book. The effects of their attempts were presented in a temporary exhibition in the contemporary art gallery (with an associated educational program). The exhibition was a significant experience both for the artists with visual impairments and the visitors. Through analysis of the structure and content of the artworks, the gallery visitors could understand more about the situation of people with sight impairments as they struggle with everyday tasks and how creative they are.     

城市更新背景下的博物馆发展策略研究

简要回顾了博物馆、博物馆学理论的发展过程、城市更新理念的演变过程,分析了博物馆与城市更新的互动关系,指出我国在城市更新中,应高度重视博物馆的建设发展,重点发展地方性、专业性的中小型博物馆以及生态博物馆、社区博物馆,应丰富博物馆的功能、参与性和体验性,努力创造条件,鼓励社会各方面参与博物馆的建设发展,促进博物馆与社区的互动与对话。     

A usable body: coaxing the body into and out of captivity at the museum

The visual logic of ‘black’ identity as a social and historical fact is presented at museums depicting the transformation of enslaved Africans to racial citizens. I focus on the work of the body in narrating this transition at a black history museum: the historical object on display – the captive African and later the US citizen – and the imagined visitor moving through the physical space of the museum. I consider the visual treatment of the enslaved body in captivity as broken, bowed, beaten and often nude in contrast to the post-abolition period when the body is positioned as erect, individuated, self-possessed and always clothed. I also discuss how the imagined visitor’s body is oriented both to the narratives on display and to the built environment of the museum itself.     

Social Representational Communities and the Imagined Antebellum South

Tourists come to museums with varied expectations and leave appreciating different aspects of their presentations. Thus, tourists/audiences are primed to see, hear, and experience certain representations and narratives when they enter museums. This is particularly so with plantation museums. Most Americans possess at the very least a vague sense of the antebellum South. They have a vague sense of a time and of a place populated by wealthy and esteemed plantation owners and their Black enslaved labor. We use, as our raw material, visitors’ responses to the question: “What is your level of interest in ...,” ten topics related to plantations’ presentations. This question was asked of visitors returning from tours at three plantation museums. Specifically, all three differ in their presentation of enslavement and as so, have been selected to represent the spectrum of plantation museums in regards to presentation of slavery and enslaved labor. It is expected that the differences in presentations at the three sites reflect differences in plantation audiences. To this effect, plantation audiences are mapped and viewed through the framework of social representation theory in an attempt to discern social representation communities using visitors’ levels of interest in topics/items presented on plantation tours at sites. Disregarding incidental cultural tourists, we found there to be basically two social representations that visitors to these three plantation museums hold: a nostalgic social representation and a Janus social representation.     

建设“博物馆之城”的几点新认识

我国博物馆事业经历了百余年的发展历程,目前,又迎来了新的发展机遇,全国多地提出建设"博物馆之城"。为了探讨建设"博物馆之城",本文以广州为例,指出不能仅拘泥于博物馆数量之多,更重要的是要提高博物馆的质量,完善博物馆的基础设施,增加博物馆馆藏,提高博物馆的展示水平和服务质量,增强公众对博物馆的认知度和参与度,使博物馆事业真正成为城市的一项文化品牌。     

Diaspora and cultural heritage: the case of Indians in Canada

The present paper examines the historical and contemporary context of Indian communities in Canada from a cultural heritage perspective and analyses the processes of migration, settlement and cultural identity. It also examines the challenges of developing museum exhibits which depict the Indian diaspora in Canada. Despite its colourful history and its growing size and prominence in Canadian society, the Indian diaspora has not been the subject of much interest by Canadian museums. While recognising the necessity of working with local communities and thereby reflecting local concerns, it is submitted that any museum exhibit attempting to portray the complex set of experiences of the Indian diaspora in Canada should include some portrayal of the highly marginalised position which the Indian community faced when it first established themselves in the early 1900s. In addition to this historical focus, any attempt to portray the contemporary Indian diaspora needs to portray its growing diversity and its efforts to maintain, and in many cases modify and ‘hybridise’, cultural practices. Such a display would also have to reflect the influence of transnational forces on the contemporary Indian diaspora. Ultimately, efforts by museums to develop exhibits reflecting the Indian presence in Canada will only further the aims of its widely praised state policy of multiculturalism.     

Museums,scholarly enterprise and global assemblages: a response to ‘Artifacts and allegiances: how museums put the nation and the world on display’

This discussion of ‘Artifacts and Allegiances: how museums put the nation and the world on display’ by Peggy Levitt shows the efficacy of the cosmopolitan–national continuum as an analysis of the conditions of museums in a globalized world. It suggests that nationalism and cosmopolitanism, whilst posed as alternatives, are not seriously in tension within the liberal global museum. It finds that the book is useful in proposing the museum as a complex cultural assemblage, but that the lack of theoretical integration into the body of the narrative limits the scope for examination of what is entailed. The review suggests that a new progressive discourse of the museum of the 21st century would need to consider and include the participation and engagement of the museum’s audiences, both present and online.     

Art in the Time of Frugality: Scarcity,Cooperation, and Change in American Art Museums

Funding for American art museums has undergone significant changes in the past 20 years. In particular, federal and corporate giving have substantially declined following the Great Recession. These changes impact museums’ ability to secure funding for exhibitions. This study addresses how funding scarcity affects American art museums, specifically with regard to staff’s ability to execute their own tasks and the strategies of action they use to compensate for these changes. Drawing from literature on resource scarcity, I explore how funding declines have prompted museum staff to use “strategic cooperation” as a means of diversifying limited financial resources. Moreover, using interviews with curators and development officers, I identify three cooperative strategies they may use: coordinating inter‐professional activities, pooling professional knowledge, and finding creative financial solutions. These findings add to work on resource scarcity by identifying inter‐group cooperation as a diversification strategy. More importantly, I add to this literature by specifically identifying multiple forms of strategic cooperation individuals may employ to combat resource scarcity. Finally, while literature on the arts has focused on museums’ propensity for inter‐professional conflict during times of duress, my work demonstrates that, despite this, cooperative action is a present and viable strategy in cultural organizations.     

From Restored Past to Unsettled Present: New Challenges for Jewish Museums in East Central Europe

This article examines the institutional development of Jewish museums in Prague, Budapest, and Bratislava from 1989 to the present, with special reference to their role as agents of cultural memory. I consider how these museums contribute to the formation of Jewish identities in post-communist societies, which are themselves struggling to form collective identities. After analyzing the institutional structures and exhibition concepts of these museums in relation to shifts in the politics of representation, I propose a core area on which each museum could base its future development.     

Housing Historic Role Models and the American Dream: Domestic Rhetoric and Institutional Decision-Making at the Tenement Museum

How does a social history museum end up obfuscating issues it intends to highlight? How does the Tenement Museum—an institution committed to “challenging the future” by “revealing the past”—come to obscure structural issues related to housing, immigration, and poverty? Through a comparison of participant observation of tours and analysis of institutional archives at the Tenement Museum, I show how decisions made for pragmatic reasons and materialized into domestic spaces obfuscate structural issues, both in the past and the present. Specifically, I demonstrate how the museum advances historic role models and the American Dream through depictions of tenement apartments, thereby displacing the very issues that tenement housing encapsulates. It is not news to sociologists that museums depict selective narratives that reinforce cultural tropes. Nor is it surprising that museums use domestic space as a mnemonic vehicle through which to portray the narratives they select. What is surprising, however, is that this happens in a museum that is invested in challenging the narratives it ends up depicting. Unpacking how this happens is especially pertinent because of the prevalence of museums that depict domestic spaces of the past, given the increased necessity for museums to educate in order to secure funding, and in light of contemporary political debates over housing and immigration.     

博物馆——城市性格与魅力

博物馆已经逐渐成为城市文明的重要代表之一,通过对我国北京的故宫、英国伦敦的大英博物馆等国内外著名的博物馆的介绍说明人类文明发展史需要其作为载体去展示城市风采。并以南通博物苑、江苏省昆山市锦溪镇的中国民间博物馆之乡等活生生的例子说明,现代城市需要博物馆,有特色的博物馆将充分展现城市的性格与魅力．由此增强城市文化吸引力。     

Posing the Question: Visitor Posing as Embodied Interpretation in an Art Museum

This article identifies and explores posing by visitors to an art gallery as a unique meaning making activity. Conducted as a design experiment in partnership with a national art museum, this study builds on theoretical perspectives related to gesture and embodiment. Empirical findings suggest that particular posing activities function simultaneously to mediate internally and externally oriented processes of interpretation in encounters with art. Accordingly, these complex posing practices may be viewed as an integrated part of visitors’ meaning making experiences. Implications for this research include expanding our understanding of the roles of the body in visitor’s museum experiences.     

Reportage: Small exhibits,major steps: four post-Soviet Jewish museums

The small-scale Jewish museums in Chi?in?u (Moldova), Odessa (Ukraine), Lviv (Ukraine), and Minsk (Belarus) narrate the history of once flourishing Jewish communities, and document their disappearance. Their permanent collections, which consist of the private belongings that emigrating Jewish families gave them in the early 1990s, are the basis for their exhibitions. These museums opened in the early 2000s under the auspices of local Jewish cultural and charitable organizations. They are not state museums and lack a solid financial foundation and stable professional curatorial team. Much depends on the personal vision of their directors. Despite both limited exhibition space and locations not frequented by tourists, these museums are important agents of memory and identity for local Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, as well as for international visitors.     

Conflicting visions in American art museums

Conclusion By their nature, American art museums are pluralistic institutions. They cannot be simply characterized as the hobbies of affluent amateurs, or ivory towers for research or, despite appearances, playgrounds for the people. To some extent they are all of these together, but with more or less emphasis on each, depending upon the support which each of the principal sets of actors is capable of mustering. Trustees, curators, and managers each possess a legitimacy which they have used to effect the pursuit of their unofficial goals, some of which converge with those of the institution itself. The level of success they attained is modified by trends external to the institution, including scholarly and professional developments, art market activity, pressure from aspiring elites, and the emergence of new funding sources.Collecting involves the transformation of material into symbolic capital and is, therefore, a process in which museums play a pivotal role. Since trustees and prospective donors are continuing and even increasing their involvement in art collecting, whether from aesthetic interest or for speculative purposes, external processes of elite formation will continue to affect the art museum. Its aesthetic policies will result in gains and losses for particular individuals or groups, whether in the museum, or aspiring to enter. As repositories of art, museums are, therefore, willy-nilly linked to an external market whose speculations impinge upon their collections and exhibitions. Since principal actors are never totally insulated from it, and are even recruited in part because of their knowledge of it, a position in a museum itself may advance the interests of the parties involved. This lack of insulation from markets and the relative accessibility of non-professionals to its information helps to explain why the parallels between museums and other institutions, such as universities and hospitals, are not more striking. Museum professionalism diverges from that found in educational or medical institutions, where laymen have a difficult time justifying their intervention in abstruse scientific decisions. Yet, in spite of their lack of expertise, occasions when they do intervene still occur. If there is lay interference even where professionalism and scientifically validated criteria are entrenched, then it is all the more understandable that it would arise where external disciplinary canons are relatively less established, and the gap between laymen and experts is not so great. Though development of scientific scholarship created new reference groups for curators, they are still more closely tied to wealthy collectors than are their European counterparts who may be more research-oriented and have existing collections with little likelihood of donations, since structural supports for altruism (e.g., tax deductions for donations) are minimal or lacking. Thus in spite of the existence of structures to isolate curators from trustees, they still compete among themselves for each other's support; the trustees for inclusion, the curators for pre-selection of works. But curator-trustee relations are not the only sensitive spots in art museums. With the growth of external public subsidies from federal and state governments and with the likelihood of their continuation into the future, although not necessarily at as rapid a rate of increase as in recent years, the balance of forces within the institution is likely to be shaken. Public support entails two requirements: organizational accountability and greater accessibility to large publics. Both of these demands emphasize the rising importance of bureaucratic managers. Like curators of the past, they have been the servants of the Board. But just as curators grasped at external developments in scholarship and professional organizations on which to base their legitimation, bureaucratic managers are following an analogous path. Eschewing aesthetic expertise, they try to run museums as rationally as they claim modern firms function: introducing methods of membership development (including advertisement), gaining control of local patronage markets, and lobbying for and trying to monopolize governmental funding sources. On the whole they have no power base within the museum, since they are resented by curatorial personnel, and are viewed as mere technicians by trustees. But the expertise that they bring to bear on organizational functioning is becoming a necessity for efficient operations and justification of the public funds received. Not surprisingly, schools of business administration and universities are offering specialized training in arts management. But the newly trained managers are likely to differ from the older. Since they are largely self-selected rather than drifting into cultural organizations, they may be more committed to the arts from the outset than their predecessors. Impressionistic evidence suggests that they are more likely to include women than is true in other bureaucracies.While it is impossible to predict precisely what the outcome of their entry into museums will be, it is likely that new alliances may emerge. If at the moment curatorial professionals are suspicious of administrators, preferring to cajole their friendly trustee to act on their behalf, they may find it in their interest to forge new alliances with managers, especially as managers gain influence through their ability to solicit government and foundation funding. Furthermore, managers are less tied to an institution than are curators, since their skills are more easily convertible to other organizations or government agencies, while curators face an overcrowded market in museums and universities. The post-professional era is shaped by their growing importance, but is not wholly determined by it. Rather, their presence heightens the perpetual state of tension inherent in the multi-purpose institution the art museum.

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Maximizing public relations with the organization–public relationship scale: Measuring a public's perception of an art museum

This study employed the organization–public relationship scale to measure member perceptions of an art museum. Analysis shows member perceptions of the museum–public relationship differentiated members likely to continue their membership from those likely to discontinue their membership with the museum. This study confirms the appropriateness of using the organization–public relationship scale with museums.     

A cultural approach to culture

Artifacts and Allegiances: How Museums Put the Nation and the World on Display takes a global approach to how museums make sense of increased globalization and migration. Museums construct narratives that link their locality to the nation and to the world. Peggy Levitt’s major book explains how museums imagine themselves and how they work towards composing a kind of visitor experience. It is about museum visions, missions, and exhibitions as told through the eyes of those who create and are responsible for them, namely, top administrators, curators, politicians, and more. Her analysis explains why museums only a few hundred miles apart can have such different conceptions of how to create the proper citizen. As such, the book illuminates the power of a cultural sociological approach.