Museums And Museums Of Museums

Museums have long served a purpose as cultural staples. For every museum, big and small, careful consideration is used in selecting its contents. When securing new items for a museum, it is most important to consider public appeal, educational value, and cost-effectiveness.

This unique and contemporary event provides patrons with live entertainment, food and drink as they revel in the wonders the museum has to offer. Carrie Martin’s aim is to attract at least 3,500 visitors for the grand opening and maximize profits. Corporate capabilities, competitors, and consumers will be examined to develop an effective marketing plan.

In Steven Lubar’s book, Inside the Lost Museum: Curating, Past and Present, the recurring idea that museums are “more than the sum of their parts” plays a critical role in the overall argument (329). Lubar notes many aspects that make up a museum, the collection, for example is an essential part of any museum, but the community, as well as the experiences of the patrons create a lasting museum experience. Additionally, Lubar aptly utilizes real-world examples, contemporary and historical, highlighting the work of individuals in museums and establishing a connection between past and current events. Central to this narrative is the example of the lost Jenks Museum. Lubar uses this museum to argue that museums of the past can educate museum goers

I hope to see museums make more concerted efforts to educate the public. Too many exhibits are of the “passive, didactic looking” than like the engaging Object Stories program (Dartt, Murawski). Exhibits should seek to tell untold narratives, and programs should be places of communication and cross-cultural encounters. For too long, difficult confrontations have been avoided, both inside the museum, and by dominant communities

The 21st century has seen a dramatic increase in the challenges facing cultural institutions, particularly museums. One of the most pressing issues currently facing museums worldwide is the diminishing level of government support. Despite reductions in government funding, the sustained maintenance of museum collections and facilities continues to require substantial resources. In the face of such difficulties, a growing number of museums have turned to innovative programming, specifically exhibitions, as a way to ensure financial viability through increased attendance. Given the growing competition for consumer leisure time in today’s society, attention has shifted away from traditional scholarly collection based exhibitions, towards the populist exhibition format offered by blockbuster exhibitions. Through a discussion of Harry Potter™: The Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum and the First Emperor: China’s Entombed Warriors at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, this essay will examine the two approaches museums are taking to the blockbuster model. It will be argued that although exhibitions reflecting popular culture are becoming increasingly more common, there are institutions that manage to reflect popular taste in ways that continue to advance scholarship and create opportunities for lifelong learning.

Examining the Saint Louis art Museum gave me a new prospective on art and what it does for our society. The art museum is obviously filled with art, but it’s how they present the art that strikes me. From the statue of King Louis IX of France to the building itself shows that there is a lot of history in and around the museum. The museum is one of the principals of art museums in the country, with paintings, sculptures, and cultural objects from all over the world. The building is three-story tall and is located in Forest park. It’s free to attend the museum because the city pass a bill with subsidy from the culture tax from Saint Louis and city district. So, the museum was trying to achieve a since of culture coming from Saint Louis region

Positioned alongside Central Park in the heart of New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest and most influential art museums in the world. The Met houses an extensive collection of curated works that spans throughout various time periods and different cultures. The context of museum, especially one as influential as the Met, inherently predisposes its visitors to a certain set of understandings that subtly influence how they interpret and ultimately construct meanings about each individual object within the museum. Brent Plate in Religion, Art, and Visual Culture argues that “objects obtain different meanings in different locations and historical settings.”An object placed on display behind a glass case inside a museum would hold a vastly different meaning if it was put on sale by a street vendor, like the ones who set up their tables in close proximity to the Met. The different meanings that objects are able to obtain is attributed to the relationships that are established between the object itself and the environment that surrounds it. These relationships often involve the kind of audience that a museum attracts, where the work is exhibited, and how the exhibits within a museum is planned out. Museums subsequently have the ability to control how these relationships are established which influences the way a viewer is able to construct meaning. When a visitor observes an object on display at the Met, they instinctively construct a certain set of

While some may view museums as homes of the dusty, decrypt, and decaying, I think back fondly to the memories I've made in them. When I was four and living in a small apartment in Shaker Heights, Ohio, my father would take me to the Cleveland Museum of Rock and Roll on the weekends when he wasn’t busy working on his MBA at Case Western Reserve University. Every time we visited, I would tell my father that I would grow up to be just like Elvis, to which he would laugh and scoff affectionately. When we moved to Glen Allen, Virginia when I was six, we would occasionally drive up to Washington, D.C. to the Smithsonian Museums. On some Saturdays, we would walk for hours through the halls of art I didn't understand (and still don’t really understand) at the Museum of American Art. On other Saturdays, we would go to the Library of Congress, where I would press my forehead against the glass of the observation deck—much to the dismay of security guards. But perhaps the most significant "museum" I've been in is just a short three-minute drive or seven-minute walk from my suburban home: the Twin Hickory Public Library.

When a museum has prestige on a national level, they can be under high scrutiny of exhibits or objects displayed by the public. Controversial topics, for example, the Enola Gay exhibit, has left historians hesitant and confused on how to create exhibits with correct history, but also not upsetting any individual who were involved with said history. Historians have a trying task of addressing both sides of a historical event, even though it might depict individuals in an unflattering way. A historian is not allowed to have a bias for events, this could have an impact on the way an exhibit is created. Another point that was brought to light in Bunch’s article was museums have the ability to educate the public, so difficult topics should not be

Museums in America are visited daily; it is like they almost never close. In 2015 upwards of six million nine hundred thousand people visited the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC (USA Today), this tied with the National Air and Space Museum, also in DC. Many of these artifacts are from foreign countries that want them back.

History museums across the country are experiencing a decrease in attendance. In a study from 2012, only 24 percent of Americans older than 18 had visited a historic site in that year, 13 percent lower than 1982 (Marsico and Tiedemann). Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 have an attendance rate of only 20.5 percent in 2012 (Marsico and Tiedemann), The lack of early education and interest has led to this decrease in attendance. Americans only have one idealized version of the history and seek no other validation or explanation for it. Yet even with the decreases, every year the government continues funding the preservation of historical

There are opportunities though, and they are good opportunities. I was able to identify three that they should pay attention to and really hit hard on. In today’s economy, people aren’t wanting to spend a lot of money. The recession is making people be a lot more conscious about money. Good news, the museum is free. If marketed properly, this could be a huge way to gain new visitors. Plus, art museums have sophisticated connotations that make people feel smart when they go to them. What better way to spend the day than to go somewhere that is free and feel sophisticated? Another opportunity is that new exhibits could attract younger demographics, pending on the exhibit. This could be tricky though because they want to attract everyone, but older crowds are interested in things that younger generations aren’t. They have to be able to balance the attractions so everyone can relate to it and want to view it.

According to the American Alliance of Museums, community engagement in museums includes the use of this facility as “a center where people gather to meet and converse and an active, visible player in civic life, a safe haven, and a trusted incubator of change” (Long 141). Different museums

‘Imagine you were in charge of a museum’s collecting policy. What would you chose to collect and how would you justify these decisions?’

I have visited countless museums in my lifetime, and throughout these experiences I have noticed a general pattern in the museum visitors. Often times they grant only a slight glance at the pieces, and allocate their energy in to taking pictures with the pieces rather than taking the time to learn about the art. On the contrary, I view museums as a place of learning, where culture is preserved and diversity is celebrated, where creativity is fostered and exploration is welcomed. My interest in interning at the Smithsonian Institution stems from the idea that museums are a place to gain knowledge. Through my experience as a docent at the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College and leading tours for students and adults of various ages, I have seen the importance of a teaching museum, where the main goal is to educate. There is nothing more rewarding than helping kids learn about the world through the lens of art, or enlightening a trustee of the College about a work of their interest. The Smithsonian Institution’s goal of increasing and diffusing knowledge parallels my ideal view of what a museum’s values should entail. I aspire to intern at the Smithsonian in order to positively contribute and support the Institution’s goals and values, and have a unique learning experience.