Factor’s Affecting Museum Artifact Selection
Museum’s are a staple in our lives and much of what we learn in class can be taught first-hand at a trip to an exhibit. With thousands are artifacts in a single museum, it is important that each item has relevance to it’s particular exhibit. An artifact’s intention should be easily identified by the audience and a clear picture as to why it belongs at the museum should be established. Museum’s have a great responsibility to educate the public, and it is very important to properly select the appropriate artifacts to do just that.
Museums can be infatuated with finding the rarest or most expensive artifacts. However, this can either put the museum in great debt, as the rarer it is the more it usually costs. It might have sentimental value, but it can also have an abstract or little to no meaning at all that does not educate the public. Many times if price isn’t mentioned at all, viewer’s will not be attracted to a meaningless item. The famous painting “Black Circle” went for tens of millions of dollars however it has little to no meaning as it only teaches the audience how seemingly easy it is to become rich. This was proven with the Museum of Modern Arts as poor management and not culling less meaningful holdings led to a deficit of about $1 million dollars per year. Museums are on a strict budget, and that budget should solely be used for picking the artifacts that have great relevance to an exhibit and are clear to teach the public about that exhibit.
The Essay on Oudrys Painted Menagerie The Getty Museum
Oudry's Painted Menagerie; The Getty Museum Introduction The exhibition Oudrys Painted Menagerie (May 1- September 2, 2007) at the Getty Center is the mutual project of curators, conservators and art historians. Oudrys Painted Menagerie features twelve paintings. Originally, the project was initiated in 2001 (Schwerin, Germany) in result of the reemergence of two Oudrys canvases, one depicting a ...
The museums are there to educate the public. A museums goal should be to provide a 3rd-person perspective and an unbiased view of a vision, culture or an event. The exhibits are teaching history to the public, and if their view of history is bias, they are re-writing history and misinforming a large amount of people who haven’t learned otherwise. If the museums funding doesn’t solely come from donations or government funding, it can have an effect on the types of artifacts selected for the exhibit. Commercializing museums will undoubtedly cause a change in the selection of artifacts as museums will become more favored to pick or remove artifacts based on their sponsors wishes or beliefs.
Museums can leave out the negative or unpopular sides of an event, and without proper knowledge the audience could completely misinterpret the exhibit. A vast collection of artifacts are necessary for an exhibit to properly educate the audience. The more artifacts you have, the more examples you are showing of an event, and the less likely it is that you miss out historically important events. The National Museum of the American Indian is a textbook example of this principal. Their vast collection of artifacts mixed with a variety of items (historically significant or daily use) made the perfect learning ground for the Native American culture. With a collection of over 800,000 items, there is a minute chance that any significant Native American event’s were missed. However an exhibit such as the Colonial Williamsburg, a village dedicated to reenacting the pioneer times, shows a misinterpreted past as many activities were intentionally left out. This shows a skewed world where “slavery, disease, and class oppression” is nonexistent. Uneducated viewers would leave the exhibit thinking it was a perfect world with “no signs of exploitation”. Museums need to select artifacts that cover all sides of an exhibit and offer as much of an unbiased view as possible.
Museums have been for the public since the late 1700’s. They are a place for young children and teenagers to go on a field trip, and for a good reason. They offer many entertaining exhibits with an important goal, to educate. Therefore, it is extremely important that artifacts of exhibits are carefully hand -picked to suit the needs of the public, rather then the needs of corporate sponsors. They should provide as close to an exact replication of a culture or reenactment of an event as possible, in order for the audience to get a first person view on what these historical events were really like. They must be persistent as museums hold an immense responsibility, and a mishap will misinform a large amount of people.
The Term Paper on How The Publics View Andor The Governments Role Can Escalate
How the public's view and/or the government's role can escalate or create a situation for celebrities? There is something about famous people that fascinates the public. Although they are ordinary people who must eat and breathe as the next person, famous people are seen as very intriguing to most. Why was everyone so interested in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, or ...
