Old Greek Museum

By each exit door, a small box requests that visitors write their opinions on the collections and what they would like to see in the future. The museum’s desire to be relevant in the community has shown, as locals were excited to see artwork that they had requested in an earlier trip.

To highlight the relationship between each of the exhibitions, the staff could provide daily visitors with a cohesive guide map of the entire museum. The current location of the museum is massive to accommodate for the displays as well as three research laboratories, but due to large size, each exhibit feels isolated and

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

After arriving and going through the security screenings, I proceeded to go down the stairs, entering the exhibit itself. Before even observing anything specific, it was immediately realized that this was no typical museum. Most people know that upon arrival, but only when you first enter the exhibit do you realize that this museum is not one that inspects the past, but one that reminds us of it.

For my first museum paper I went to OSV since it was my first and only choice of venue. I went to the Towne’s House since I was told I would be able to find what I was looking for. After struggling to find a painting that I could read the information on, I saw the various the paintings along some walls and ceilings.

For this report, I will write a reflection concerning society in ancient Greece. I will include information pertaining to the lives of those who lived in ancient Greece and what their daily lives consisted of. Social issues and political philosophy will also be discussed along with other material that is considered significant to ancient Greek society. This concludes my introduction.

The rows of glass cases filled with artifacts models the traditional history museum – lots of stuff with very little explanation. It interprets the story with items for relational experience. Despite the antique approach to subject interpretation, the designers incorporated an interactive level. It gives the viewer the option to explore the museum according to individual preferences. Other characteristics generally considered as a good, interactive exhibit include bringing the subject to life - the ability take a mugshot and view the tales of imprisoned women; developing a clear point – artifacts showing a hard life at the prison; making the trip memorable - talking to ghosts from the cell blocks or standing in the famous locations. Each aspect synthesizes with the other to create the experience of visiting the original territorial prison.

This was the medium in which the MET used to construct their narrative and to educate the participant. These artifacts spoke in a unique way, each one depicting images that told about the structures of society, trades, religious motifs, as well as the techniques and mysteries around the methods used in creating such masterpieces. As I continued from one display to the next, reading the descriptions and tidbits of history, I easily transitioned from one period to the next. I describe this experience as being engaged with a living

Brian Droitcour says in his article, The Institution as User: Museums and Social Media, published by the electronic magazine Art in America the following:

Theastre Gates' minimalist exhibition, How To Build A House Museum, is a historic event for the Art Gallery of Ontario. Commonly regarded as a somewhat conventional gallery, Gates' immersive work is a monumental step towards engaging the AGO with contemporary artists lives and works. As we walk into the fifth floor, the audience feels as if we have crossed through time to another space, similar to the transportive journey that listening to music or being in a club takes you on. Gates uses his art to evoke that same form of escapism. However, once your mind feels relaxed and is open to take in the exhibit, Gates throws a multitude of historical graphs, personal items and architecture layered in meaning onto you, as a reminder that this whole

The city-state of Athens is a part of the Greek Archaic cities. The history of Athens dates back to 3000 BCE, where the earliest evidence of occupation is documented, but the focus here is on Athens in the Archaic Period, which dates from 800-500 BCE. During this period there were a large variety of features that were detailed in the accounts of the city’s society and history. The center of the city is dominated by two hills, the Pnyx and the Acropolis. Pnyx is where the Popular Assembly held its meetings. The Acropolis was the fortified center, then later became a religious sanctuary, the home of Athena, the patron goddess of the city, and a host of other deities. During the 6th century the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power under

Nowadays we are surrounded by an abundance of technology in which public historians make use of this technology in order to make memories and history come alive. One of the more common ways public historians use technology to make memories interactive and interpretive are through documentaries and movies based on

Tumemorial.cl’s The digital platform is an interactive space developed by the Area of Education and Audiences of the Museum. The questions that aim to motivate the public participation are: “Do you know what happened in your neighborhood during the dictatorship in Chile? Where were your relatives the day in which the government’s palace was bombed? What was in the place in which today your school is located? Do research and report the memory of your neighbor, your city, your family and publish it in our Memory Map”. The goal is –as the website points out- to awake the local memory and to promote youth engaged

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

I toured the virtual Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Though it was not face-to-face, I still really enjoyed my experience through the virtual word. I was more fascinated about the liveliness in the virtual world than anything else. I think the virtual museum itself was more of a work of art than the art it displayed because it covered almost every inch from many different points of view in the museum. I also liked how it was pretty easy to operate and move around, and no matter how much I zoomed in or out I could read almost everything perfectly fine. While being able to explore this museum from the comfort of my own home was a plus, I truly missed out on being able to read the display labels to learn more about the artifacts. Reading about the history or story behind a work of art is, in my opinion, the best part. This virtual tour was captivating, and I hope to someday visit the museum in person.”