What is a Museum? Reading Blog for Week 5

This week's readings, Private History in Public, The New History in an Old Museum, "Civic Seeing", and Chs 1&5 in Re-Imagining the Museum raise several important issues for discussion. And more importantly how the ideas and issues can help shape the exhibit that we are responsible for (theoretically) designing.

Tony Bennet's article "Civic Seeing" brings up the important issue of museums being places for civic engagement and the underlying power relations that implies. If being a visitor at a museum is an act of citizenship, what does this say about the way in which museums specifically target demographics and different constituencies? The idea that museums are reinforcing class (among other) divisions is important in thinking about the suitability of a museum as an inclusive cultural institution. The chapters in Andrea Witcomb's Re-Imagining the Museum reaffirm this view of the museum as a meeting of history and power.

Witcomb also discusses another of the common themes in this weeks readings, the importance of new and digital media in museums. This is of particular importance to the exhibit that we will be planning. Witcomb makes a point to detail the relationship between objects and power, so how can our exhibit function in the context of a museum with only a defining concept but no real artifacts? Answering this question will be important in moving forward with our exhibit planning.

The two monographs in this weeks readings also are important in thinking about the place of museums in our society and how best to design an exhibit that is both engaging and relevant. Private History in Public is a great jumping-off point for thinking about the way in which visitors and museums curators interact. Assuming the responsibility of (theoretical) curators for this exhibit, we must be mindful of how we relate to our stakeholders.  The New History in an Old Museum, in the context of our assignment, is a cautionary tale of how even the best intentions at innovative and timely historical interpretation can go awry, or worse, unnoticed. We would do well to think about the ways that sensitive subjects can be displayed in a museum/exhibit setting that while not alienating, can still be salient.