CCA 232 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Public Auction, Wayfinding
30 May 2018
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CCA 232 Notes
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1. Why museums matter
a. Helps us understand heritage
b. Promote education and critical thinking
c. Provides connection between past and present
d. Preserves past
e. Strive for us to learn from museums and become better as individuals and
societies
2. What is a museum?
a. Non-profit
b. Permanent
c. Public service
i. Educational or aesthetic purposes
ii. Trusted to provide accurate and reliable info
d. Open and accessible to the public
i. At least 120 days a year of exhibits
e. Collections
i. Tangible things as well as intangible heritage
ii. Can be owned or used
iii. Animate or inanimate
f. Exhibits
i. Can be temporary or permanent
g. Preserving objects, Displaying objects, educating about objects
i. Interpretation - linking components and public
ii. Provide public service for betterment of society
iii. An institution whose core function includes presentation of exhibits for the
public good
3. What are exhibits?
a. Dillenberg says it must be physical environment with dimension
b. Experience to visit museum exhibit because you physically move through it
c. Aimed to be meaningful through design
d. Physical environment designed for the experience of embedded knowledge
i. Formalist view
4. Museum Hierarchy
a. Director
i. Deputy Director
ii. Curatorial
1. Curator
a. designers/educators
i. Docents
1. Volunteers
2. Registrar
a. Preparators
i. Handlers
iii. Development
1. VP/Chief
a. Grants
i. Corporate Giving
1. Individual Donors
a. Events
i. Membership
iv. Marketing
1. PR
a. Ad
i. Graphic
v. Administration
1. HR
a. Finance/Accounting
i. Facilities
1. Store/Café Manager
a. Visitor Services
i. Security
2/5
1. Peale Museum - Charles Wilson Peale
2. P.T. Barnum
3. Large art museums founded in big cities - showed social, educational, and cultural
advancement
4. AAM founded 1906
5. 1930s - children’s rooms established in museums
6. Henry Ford est. industrial museum
a. Objects should be in vernacular
7. 1939 AAM published “The Museum in America”
a. Museums should be of service to the community as primary concern
b. Focus generally on collections in 20th c, audience secondary
c. Seen as elitist
8. 1980s many museums went on architectural campaigns or had renovations
a. Cultural tourism - go to destination for its culture
b. Museums thought of as economic drivers
9. 21st century - attention given to ways museums provide public service
a. Focus on designing individualized experiences to better reach and engage
audiences
b. Entertainment still in picture - too much attention
10. Museum Governance
a. Two part governing structure - governing body (board), director + staff
b. Governing body - policy, oversees director but not rest of staff
c. Directors and staff - everyday workings, implementing procedure
d. US museums can be governmental, private, university, combination/partnership
i. Governmental - Smithsonian
ii. Private - majority in US, can still apply for grants from gov’t with taxpayer
$
iii. University - state-funded public institutions
iv. Combination - Corcoran taken over
e. UNIDROIT, Hague Convention, UNESCO, NAGPRA, Nazi-era provenance
11. Mission statement (purpose), values statement (beliefs), vision statement (future)
a. Important to have guiding forces for strategy, answer policy questions, informs
audience and staff of museum’s importance
2/7
1. Janet Marstine’s New Museum Theory and Practice
Museums’
a. Past, Present, and Future
i. Renaissance - cabinets of curiosity confirmed perception of world as
created both by God and humans
ii. Classical - classification systems (Linnaean taxonomy), empirical and
rational (not contextual) linear, progressive, canonical, authoritative
iii. Modern - disciplinary public museum (like Louvre), display of state power
= national identity, director and curator determine importance and
unimportance, top-down delivery, staff hidden while public scrutinized
iv. Museums not neutral - every decision about display is subjective
v. Cult of authenticity - authentic objects (not copies or 3D prints)
b. Museum (Theoretical) Metaphors
i. Shrine - (traditional view)
1. Museum as sacred space, where visitors have a meditative,
personal experience that binds them to socially accepted ways of
considering the objects on display
ii. Market-driven industry - (Marxist view)
1. Museum embraces capitalist values, innovation, consumption and
“display”
iii. Colonizing space (Postcolonial/Feminist/Foucauldian view)
1. Museum as purveyor of colonizing, patriarchal, dominant culture
perspectives resulting from systems of power
iv. Post-museum (critical view)
1. Museum as transparent and continually reevaluating in ways that
acknowledges a sharing of power with communities
2. “Changing nature of relationship between institutions and
audiences” including opportunities for participation
2. Old Museum Ideas
a. Value - elitist
b. Visitor experience - contemplative
Document Summary
Trusted to provide accurate and reliable info: open and accessible to the public i. At least 120 days a year of exhibits: collections i. ii. iii. Can be temporary or permanent: preserving objects, displaying objects, educating about objects i. ii. iii. Formalist view: museum hierarchy, director i. ii. Individual donors: events, membership, marketing, pr, ad i. 2/5: peale museum - charles wilson peale, p. t. Private - majority in us, can still apply for grants from gov"t with taxpayer. Combination - corcoran taken over: unidroit, hague convention, unesco, nagpra, nazi-era provenance, mission statement (purpose), values statement (beliefs), vision statement (future) a. Important to have guiding forces for strategy, answer policy questions, informs audience and staff of museum"s importance. 2/7: janet marstine"s new museum theory and practice museums", past, present, and future i. ii. Renaissance - cabinets of curiosity confirmed perception of world as created both by god and humans.
