Course Description:
Art museums are among the most important arbitrators of culture in the Twentieth Century. These institutions evolved in an era of global politics and military conquest in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Therefore they became the repositories and transmitters of national ideals and values. As such potent symbols of nationhood they wield tremendous authority and power in modern societies.
In this course we will first focus on the changing political and cultural climates that have dynamically molded the art museum since its inception. The history of the institution is shaped by the artifacts it houses. Consequently, our second focus will be on the range of historical imperatives that have impinged upon current methods of collecting objects for private and public consumption. Third, we will study theories of museum resource management, in other words, the mechanisms that ‘frame’ the object or ’stage’ the show. This part of the instruction will be conducted on multiple levels: through discussion of pertinent readings during the seminar; through practical work in the Fine Arts Gallery; and through observation during field trips to museums in Baltimore and Washington DC.
The final objective of the course will be to integrate this historical and theoretical knowledge about the art museum to the practice of proposing and designing an innovative model exhibition.
Expectations:
Class Participation:
This is a seminar course which means that you will be required to
Reading Assignments:
The required textbook for this course is A Cabinet of Curiosities . Inquiries into Museums and their Prospects, by Stephen Weil. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995 [henceforth referred to as ‘Textbook:’]. You will be assigned readings from this book throughout the semester.
In addition, you will receive a photocopied article to read each week (which must be returned to me in class). As preparation for certain classes you might also be required to watch a movie or make a museum visit.
Weekly Written Summaries:
Each week, during Preminda’s component of the class, students are responsible for handing in written summaries of the article, film, or field trip they were assigned for the previous. These summaries have to be a minimum of 400 words in length, typed, double-spaced and must include a title. Please observe the word limits for each summary.
Weekly summaries will be graded on a pass/unacceptable basis. Summaries are due at the end of class. Late summaries will be accepted within one week of the due date, however, students will only receive half credit.
Students who turn in the equivalent of 6 passing Weekly Summaries will receive an A for this section of the course. This means that you can turn in 6 Weekly Summaries on time, or 5 on time and two late. Students who turn in the equivalent of 5 Weekly Summaries will receive a B; 4 will result in a C, 3 will result in a D. Remember, a late summary is only worth half the credit.
Research Project:
The research project will be assessed in two parts. The first part requires you to brainstorm with your group and come up with an idea for an exhibition. Your team will have to work together on the research, the class presentations, a thesis statement, and designing a model exhibit. For this part of the project you will be graded as a team. Symmes and Preminda will evaluate this part of the project together.
The second part requires you to write 2 short papers (1000 words each): one describing your contribution to your team project; one evaluating the exhibition plans proposed by another team in the class. For this part of the project you will be graded individually. Preminda will evaluate this part of this project.
Stages:
Field Trips:
The Contemporary Museum, Baltimore
Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore
Baltimore Museum of Art
Maryland Historical Society
Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
Arthur M. Sackler and Freer Galleries of Art, Washington DC
Holocaust Museum, Washington DC
REFERENCES:
Belcher, Michael. Exhibitions in Museums. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
Bennett, Tony. The Birth of the Museum. History, Theory, Politics. New York: Routledge, 1995.
Berger, Maurice. "Are Art Museums Racist?" & "Speaking Out: Some Distance to Go ..." in Art in America, September 1990, pp. 69-77 & 78-85.
Bourdieu, Pierre and Hans Haacke. Free Exchange. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1995.
Bourdieu, Pierre. The Field of Cultural Production. Essays on Art and Literature. Edited and introduced by Randal Johnson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Brawne, Michael. The Museum Interior. Temporary and Permanent Display Techniques. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Company, 1982.
Brigham, David R. Public Culture in the Early Republic. Peale’s Museum and its Audience. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.
Burn, Ian. "The Art Market: Affluence & Degradation" (1975). In Art in Theory 1900-1990. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Edited by Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. Pp. 908-11. Cambridge Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1994.
Buskirk, Martha. "Interview with Fred Wilson." In The Duchamp Effect. Essays, Interviews, Roundtable. Edited by Martha Buskirk and Mignon Nixon. An October Book. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1994.
Clifford, James "On Collecting Art and Culture." In Out There: Marginalization & Contemporary Cultures. Edited by Russell Ferguson, et. al. Pp. 141- 169. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1990.
Clifford, James. The Predicament of Culture. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1988.
Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls/ by the Guerrilla Girls themselves (whoever they really are). New York: Harper Perennial, 1995.
Corrin, Lisa G. Editor. Mining the Museum. An Installation by Fred Wilson. Baltimore & New York: The Contemporary Museum & the New Press, 1994.
Crimp, Douglas. On the Museum’s Ruins. Photographs by Louise Lawler. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993.
Diamonstein, Barbaralee. Inside the Art World: Conversations with Barbaralee Diamonstein. New York: Rizzoli, 1994.
Drucker, Joanna Theorizing Modernism. Visual Art and the Critical Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Duncan, Carol. Civilizing Rituals. Inside Public Art Museums. New York: Routledge, 1995.
Elsner, John & Roger Cardinal. Editors.The Cultures of Collecting. Cambridge, Mass.: Havard University Press, 1994.
Fisher, Philip. Making and Effacing Art. Modern American Art in a Culture of Museums. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991.
Fusco, Coco. The English is Broken Here. New York: The New Press, 1995.
Haacke, Hans. "Statement" (1974). In Art in Theory 1900-1990. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Edited by Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. Pp. 904-5. Cambridge Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1994.
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. Editor. Cultural Diversity. Developing Museum Audiences in Britain. London: Leicester University Press, 1997.
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. Editor. Museum, Media, Message. London: Routledge, 1995.
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean.Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Hoving, Thomas. Making the Mummies Dance. Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Hughes, Robert. "Sold". Time Magazine. Nov. 27, 1989. Pp. 60-68.
Impey, Oliver & Arthur MacGregor. The Origins of Museums. The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Europe. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Ingalls, Zoe. "An Exhibit in a Constant State of Flux." Chronicle of Higher Education. April 21, 1995, pp. B4-B6.
Karp, Ivan and Stephen Levine. Museums and Communities: The Politics of Public Culture. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992. (AM5.M928)
Karp, Ivan and Steven Lavine. Editors. Exhibiting Cultures. The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
Kubler, George. The Shape of Time. Remarks on the History of Things. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962.
Linenthal, Edward T. Preserving Memory. The Struggle to Create America’s Holocaust Museum. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.
Luke, Timothy, W. Shows of Force. Power, Politics and Ideology in Art Exhibitions. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1992.
McClellan, Andrew. Inventing the Louvre. Art, Politics and the Origins of the Modern Museum in Eighteenth Century Paris. London: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Mosquera, Gerardo. "Some Problems in Transcultural Curating." In Global Visions. Towards a New Internationalism in the Visual Arts. Edited by Jean Fisher. London: Kala Press, in association with the Institute of International Visual Arts, 1994.
Neff, Terry Ann. Editor.Collective Vision. Creating a Contemporary Art Museum. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1996.
Newhouse, Victoria. Towards a New Museum. New York: The Monacelli Press, 1998.
O’Doherty, Brian. Inside the White Cube. The Ideology of the Gallery Space. Santa Monica, California: Lapis Press, 1976.
Pearce, Susan. Museums, Objects, and Collections. A Cultural Study. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
Preziosi, Donald. "Collecting/Museums." In Critical Terms for Art History. Edited by Robert Nelson and Richard Shiff. Pp. 281-291. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Price, Sally. Primitive Art in Civilized Places. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
Ramsden, Mel. "On Practice" (1975) In Art in Theory 1900-1990. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Edited by Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. Pp. 905-8. Cambridge Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1994.
Roberts, Lisa. From Knowledge to Narrative. Educators and the Changing Museum. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997.
Romare, Kristian. "Collector Agents from the Peripheries." In Third Text 35. Pp. 79-87.
Rosler, Martha. "Lookers, Dealers, Thinkers, Buyers. Thoughts on Audience." In Art After Modernism. Rethinking Representation. Edited by Brian Wallis and Marcia Tucker. Pp. 311-339. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984.
Ross, Richard. [Photographs] Museology. Santa Barbara, California: Aperture in assoc. with the University Art Museum, 1989.
Rubin William. Editor. ‘Primitivism’ in Twentieth Century Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1984.
Sherman, Daniel and Irit Rogoff. Editors. Museum Culture. Histories, Discourses, Spectacles. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.
Solomon-Godeau, Abigail. "'The Label Show': Contemporary Art & the Museum" Art in America, October, 1994 pp. 51-55.
Staniszewski, Mary Anne. Believing is Seeing. Creating the Culture of Art. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.
Staniszewski, Mary Anne. The Power of Display. A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998.
Sussman, Elizabeth. "The Curator’s Work. The Pragmatics of Internationalism." In Global Visions. Towards a New Internationalism in the Visual Arts. Edited by Jean Fisher. London: Kala Press, in association with the Institute of International Visual Arts, 1994.
Third Text 6 (Spring 1989) Special issue on the Magiciens de la Terre exhibition.
Valery, Paul. "On the Problem of Museums," First published in 1923.
Van Hook, Bailey. "Virtual Gallery. Curatorial Issues in Contemporary Art." : http://www.cyber.vt.edu/vgallery/ [A web-based course on the theory and practice of the art museum and gallery at Virginia Tech.]
Vergo, Peter. The New Museology. London: Reaktion Books, 1989.
Walsh, Kevin. The Representation of the Past. Museums and Heritage in the Post-modern World. London: Routledge, 1992.
Weil Stephen. A Cabinet of Curiosities . Inquiries into Museums and their Prospects. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.
Weil, Stephen. Rethinking the Museum and Other Meditations. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.
Wilson, Fred. "The Silent Message of the Museum." In Global Visions. Towards a New Internationalism in the Visual Arts. Edited by Jean Fisher. Pp. 152-160. London: Kala Press, in association with the Institute of International Visual Arts, 1994.
Yau, John. "Please Wait by the Coatroom." In Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. Edited by Russell Ferguson, et. al. Pp. 133-139. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art. 1994.
Young, James E. The Texture of Memory. Holocaust Memorials and Meaning. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
Museum Web Addresses:
American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore : http://www.avam.org/
Art Institute of Chicago: http://www.artic.edu/aic/firstpage.html
Baltimore Museum of Art: http://www.artbma.org/
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: http://www.lacma.org/
Museum of Contemporary Art, LA: http://www.walkerart.org/
New York City Museums: http://astor.mediabridge.com/nyc/museums/
Paris Museums: http://www.paris.org/Musees/
Smithsonian Museums: http://www.si.edu
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: http://www.walkerart.org/
Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore: http://www.artcom.com/museums/vs/sz/21201-51.htm
American Association of Museums: http://www.aam-us.org
WWW Virtual Library (Museum Lists): http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/other/museums.html
Pompidou Center: http://www.cnac-gp.fr/english
Museum of Jurassic Technology: http://www.mjt.org
Razorfish Studios (rsub): http://www.rsub.org