I recently discovered that there is an
entire subculture of museum workers. An academic circle of writing, debating museum
curators actually exists. What’s less
clear is whether or not they actually really have much of a following outside of
their own little group. Kinda weird...
But over the past couple of weeks, I’ve
had an opportunity to look in on this world of museums in one of my
classes. I’d like to consider myself one
of the curious, privileged few. Or you
can just call me a little obsessive; that works, too.
One eminent topic in “museum
literature” is the idea of the business of museums. In museums, or any private educational
institution, for that matter, there is a conflict between trying to make money
and trying to educate the public.
Mary Miley Theobald in her book Museum Store Management writes (link) about the ethical problem of museum gift shops. She writes, “If the shop’s only reason for
being is money, then the museum is operating a gift shop rather than a museum
store and it has little justification for existence.”
Aside from gift shops, museums raise
revenue by charging for admission, so museums have a huge financial incentive
get people in the door. In order to
accomplish this, curators may feel pressure to give the masses what they are looking
for rather than creating the most accurate or educationally valuable exhibits. But then again, as one classmate put it, isn’t
an “EPCOT” understanding of the world better than nothing at all?
Other museum-oriented writers are a
little more philosophical and focused on language, like Stephen Weil who writes (link) about metaphors we use to think about museums.
He argues that the temple, in its sacredness, describes the museum, and asks
do we not imagine museum objects as being “in constant danger of pollution . .
. by . . . the spiritual pollution of sordid commercial interests?”
Do the ends justify the means? Without money, museums would not be able to
stay open, and thus, they would be unable to fulfill their purpose of educating
the public. But more fundamentally, do museum gift shops actually corrupt the very
essence of the museum? Do they really
destroy its educational value?
Several of these academics who write
about museums tend to speak normatively, in imperatives. ("We must...") I find that a lot of these arguments--Weil’s
in particular--tend to come off as somewhat melodramatic.
The museum is both a business and an
educational institution. It is a great
example of self-interest and altruism functioning simultaneously.
(Image from: voices.suntimes.com.)
Mr. Bondy,
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with you on most issues; however, I feel we can and should try harder to make museums free of commercial interests. We can do this by increasing government funding, private funding, and regulations on how commercial museums can be. Maybe "we must" is too strong a term, however if hyperbole gets the job done I encourage it.