Don’t be evil!

How can museums keep the public’s trust?  Because of their positions of power as cultural institutions, they must do more than obeying the law.  They should serve the public interest and be ethical stewards for their collections.  This means not only protecting them, but above all, ensuring a legitimate and moral provenance for each item.  But what happens when everything goes horribly wrong?

Kenn Harper’s book Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo considers the pitfalls of ignoring museum ethics.  He uses Minik Wallace, and the other Greenland Inuit brought to the American Museum of Natural History by Robert Perry in 1897, as a prominent example of the inequalities between indigenous peoples and museums.  As a Polar explorer sent partly on the museum’s behalf, Perry established an unequal power relationship between the museum and the local people.  He considered himself a paternal figure, and in return for cheap trade goods, he used the local people as laborers in his expeditions, and brought back items such as furs, ivory, and even a large iron meteorite considered sacred by the local Inuit to the AMHN.  Perry brought the Inuit group back to the AMNH as human subjects for study, and after the entire group, except Minik, died from tuberculosis, their remains became museum property.  Although Minik requested his father’s bones, he never received them before he died in 1918 from the Spanish flu.  Eventually in 1993 after much controversy because of the book, the museum finally released the Inuit bones for repatriation to Greenland.  What can we do to save our museums from this type of controversy?

I spoke with Eva Fognell, the curator of the Fenimore Art Museum’s Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, about how to be proactive about ethics.  She explained that before she acquires any object for the collection, she thoroughly examines it for a legitimate provenance to determine proper compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.  Legislation such as this gives indigenous peoples such as Native Americans a voice in museums.  Eva goes beyond the simple legal requirements of the legislation to involve the Native American community in managing and exhibiting the Thaw Collection.

Should museums share authority over their collections and exhibitions?  Does this fit with their missions as public institutions?

By Colin Walfield

References:

AAM. Code of Ethics for Musems, 1994.

Harper, Kenn. Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, The New York Eskimo. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 2000.

Interview with Eva Fognell of the Fenimore Art Museum.

ART ATTACK!?

In the book, “Displays of Power” by Steven Dubin, Dubin asserts that “Museums are important venues in which a society can define itself and present itself publicly. Museums solidify culture, endow it with a tangibility in a way few other things do.” Considering this statement and the huge implications of power that it holds, what culture do we as a society choose to solidify? Who ultimately decides and how?

Dubin argues that the role of the museum is changing to be both that of cultural temple and that of cultural forum. Forums are where the cultural battles are fought and temples are where the victors rest. If the role of the museum is opening up to allow for more voices to be heard and more stories to be told then necessarily the old stories need to be eclipsed to make room for the new. The cultural redefinition of the role of the museum has lead to heated debates on the topics of representation and responsibility, the control of expression, and elitism versus populism.

The issue of censorship follows closely in a discussion of controversy in exhibitions. Pablo Picasso once wrote that, “When a painting is finished, it goes on changing according to the state of mind of whoever is looking at it.” In a museum the audience is vast and moods, backgrounds, and interpretations vary greatly. Pieces of art and culture are taken out of their original contexts and continually re-arranged to satisfy the needs of various exhibitions. With all of these variables it is often hard to avoid controversy. But is controversy necessarily a negative thing for museums to deal with? Where there is controversy there is passion, care, and community awareness. There is a chance to discuss and re-examine cultural concepts. Do we not grow as a society from what we heatedly discuss? And if the role of the museum is in fact evolving to be that of  a community forum then it must be the museum’s role to make room facilitate community discussions.

Dr. Stephen Perkins, Director and Curator of the Lawton Gallery in Green Bay, Wisconsin has dealt first hand with the issue of censorship. In 2005 the Lawton Gallery brought in the traveling exhibition entitled, “Axis of Evil: The Secret History of Sin.” The Chancellor of the gallery’s university censored one piece from the show. This act of censorship ignited the student body and community in a heated debate about censorship, community morals, and what should or should not be presented in the gallery space. Discussions took place in the gallery, news articles were written, tv stations were present, and workshops to better understand the topics at hand were set up. I believe that if we look to this example as a model, we as museums can in fact take the attack of censorship and turn it into an educational opportunity. Dr. Perkins further states that if we as curators are overly concerned with the consequences of what we present to the public then we will eventually no longer be willing to take risks. And if we do not take risks that force people to think, discuss, and learn from each other then there is no point in curating to begin with.

Dubin asks these open questions: “Why do groups feel that so much is at stake in what is depicted in museums and how it is presented?” And “Why can’t exhibits be dismissed as irrelevant or simply wrong?” I believe that the answer is quite simply, Museums Matter. People understand innately that what is presented and validated by the museum is what will survive to represent us culturally in the future. And so it is important for museums to not be afraid of controversy because I believe that through those battles is how we best define our collective culture.

By Jenna Neumann

Sources

Dubin, Steven C, Displays of Power (New York:  New York University, 1999).

Interview with Dr. Stephen Perkins, Director and Curator at the Lawton Gallery in Green Bay, WI, November 30, 2011

Museums and Exhibitions

In Displays of Power, Steven C. Dubin recounts the various controversial exhibitions displayed by such museums as The Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of the City of New York, and the Brooklyn Museum.  These museum exhibits became entrenched in politics and controversy based on their contents.  While the different museum staffs believed in the material they were showing, and the ideas they were trying to teach their audiences, only the Brooklyn Museum stood firm in the midst of the demands surrounding a painting in their show, Sensation.

While the Brooklyn Museum left its controversial exhibition intact, the other Museums resorted to shelving exhibitions, canceling shows, and changing labels.  This resulted in even more outrage from the public and the media, they saw this as an admission of wrongdoing from the museum, and a claim that the public had been right in their critique of the exhibitions.  According to John Cotton Dana, “Museums must be at the centers of their communities…Any publicly supported institution must do something for that public.”  Museums can do this by becoming arenas for audience interaction and dialogue, but in order to accomplish this goal the museum exhibitions must continue to exhibit the more controversial areas of American history, and create exhibitions that provoke and stimulate thoughts in their audiences.

Erik Strohl, Senior Director of Exhibitions and Collections at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum agrees, stating that a museum cannot allow its donors and visitors to direct what material will be shown in the exhibitions.  As a museum that shows how baseball has influenced American culture, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has a job to display history, and history cannot be accurate if only certain parts of history are told.  You have to include both the good and the bad.

The role of the museum is changing.  In addition to preserving and teaching history, museums are now becoming forums for discussion.  With this new role, we as museum professionals need to show a conscious awareness of the choices we make when we decide to show a thought provoking exhibition.  We must stay true to our missions and visions and make sure our audiences are taking away the right messages from our exhibitions.

If you had the choice between canceling an exhibition, changing some parts of it, or going ahead with it as planned, what would you do, and why?  What would be some of the repercussions of your choice?

The responses to some exhibitions depend upon the time in which they are shown.  How do you know when it is the best time to show certain exhibitions, or bring up new, potentially controversial ideas?

Sources

Dubin, Steven C, Displays of Power (New York:  New York University, 1999).

Bunch III, Lonnie G. “Embracing Controversy:  Museum Exhibitions and the Politics of Change,” Call the Lost Dream Back:  Essays on History, Race and Museums, 1992:  163-166.

Interview with Erik Strohl, Senior Director of Exhibits and Collections at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, November 29, 2011

More than Opening Hours: Museums and Public Service

In the 1917 screed The Gloom of the Museum, John Cotton Dana complained that American museums were too much like, “remote palaces and temples, filled with objects not closely associated with the life of the people who are asked to get pleasure and profit from them, and so arranged and administered to make them seem more remote.”

Dana would be disappointed to discover that much of the public today still levels the same charges against museums that he did almost one hundred years ago. In 2008, an independently-run social commentary website called The Pinky Show posted a video discussion about museums, cleverly titled, “We Love Museums… Do Museums Love Us Back?” Using a tongue-in-cheek cartoon, The Pinky Show criticizes museums today in a way that directly echoes Dana, arguing that they are still elitist, mysterious, temple-like institutions.

So what can museums do to change their public image and become  “outward-looking institutions?” While Dana’s suggestions that museums institute regular opening hours, move to city centers, and depict everyday life provide good starting points, these are not enough. Museums today need to find new ways of reaching into their communities.

The Philip Foster Farm, a living history site located in a rural community outside Portland, Oregon, is trying to do just that. Under the leadership of Elaine Butler, the Farm’s site manager, and Jamie Damon, the President of the Board, the PFF has worked to engage the community, especially by offering volunteer opportunities to teenagers. This year, they took their role in the community a step further. They partnered with an online charter school, and are now offering a curriculum to select students that includes history, public service, customer relations, and trades.

Playing such a new role in a small community can be tricky, though. In my conversation with Elaine Butler, she noted that the PFF’s board does worry about how working with other organizations might affect the site’s reputation. If a student misbehaves, how will that change the image of the Farm? If the charter school comes under fire, will the Farm get swept along in the negative press? Additionally, because the school-in-a-museum concept is so new, partner organizations have sometimes been skeptical. Elaine laughingly stressed that she has to attend partner meetings armed to the teeth with assurances that she doesn’t want to invade their “turf” or make more work for them.

Nevertheless, Elaine and the Philip Foster Farm are optimistic. Though they only have five students this year, they are hoping to grow to about thirty students for the next academic year. More importantly, Elaine is committed to public service. Though the Philip Foster Farm is the only museum where she has worked, she intuitively knows that small museum can’t exist without community support. “The strength of the community,” she declared, “is the strength of the organization.”

If there’s a better mantra for the modern, outward-looking museum, I don’t know what it is.

-Becca

***

Sources

John Cotton Dana. The Gloom of the Museum (Elm Tree Press, Woodstock, Vermont) 1917.

“We Love Museums… Do Museums Love Us Back?” The Pinky Show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFbmuEUdwI (access October 30, 2011)

Stephen E. Weil. “From Being About Something to Being For Somebody: The Ongoing Transformation of the American Museum.”  in Daedalus; Vol 128 No. 3. 229-258.

Interview with Elaine Butler, Site Manager at the Philip Foster Farm, October 29, 2011.

Museums and Public Service

Museums have long been seen by the public as educational institutions – these buildings can sometimes be an impressive and intimidating way for people to interact with objects and interpretation of our past. In John Cotton Dana’s 1917 article The Gloom of the Museum, Dana encourages museum leaders to expand operating hours, cease the deification of objects, and if possible, move to a centrally located facility within reach of pubic transportation in order to effectively reach the widest variety of people and the largest populations groups. The Gloom of the Museum was ahead of its time, as many 21st century museums grapple with issues of accessibility and visitor engagement.

The age-old question seems to be, simply put, how can a museum be an effective resource in an ever-changing community? Also, should museums be restricted to duty as an educational repository of artifacts and objects, or is it acceptable for museums to act as a community service center?

Megan Wood (CGP Class of 2005), the Visitor Experience Department Manager for the Ohio Historical Center, in Columbus, Ohio feels that museums have a responsibility to the residents in the surrounding area to act as a safe community space where people can gather, learn, and interact with each other. Wood feels that museums of the 21st century should be encouraged to see their mission more broadly to encourage creative uses for its space (for instance: hosting art groups, community clinics, information centers). She also feels that museums as a whole need to be more proactive at letting the community know that they are changing, or have changed, from objects in a case to community gathering spaces – the concept of being “trained” that museums are a place you go with your school on a grade school field trip came up in our conversation as a barrier in most communities that museums are situated in today.

Megan Wood urges future museum professionals to remember that the public is anyone they do, or may, serve in any way. While this is an admittedly broad statement, museums must broaden their own perspectives on public service in order to succeed in the future. In the words of Megan Wood regarding her own institution, “we hold our collections in care for the people of the state of Ohio, and we must remember that’s why we’re here in the first place.”

Since few, if any, museums can pick up and move to centralized locations or museum campuses (which Megan Wood admits are the best case scenario for museums – a way of one stop shopping for families and ease of accessibility):

•What are ways in which museums can be an active member of its community?
•Is it appropriate to have a community service, such as a walk-in health clinic, operating alongside museum collections in the same building?
•How can museum professionals better inform the public of changing priorities or mindsets of museum administration to encourage community involvement?
•Should new-build museums have the focus on centralized locations and proximity to transit hubs as Dana’s The Gloom of the Museum suggests?