Before the 20th century museums experienced a lot of growth and were influenced by the public as well as technology. Cabinets of curiosities were the beginning of museums because they were collections of oddities from society and other cultures. Originally, museum collections were grouped into objects that were similar. Typically the greatest distinction between objects was natural and artificial (97). As technology increased more groups were created to distinguish objects from one another. Over time collections were broken up chronologically which made museums more of a learning experience for visitors (100). The problem with these approaches was that the materials weren’t connected to the outside world and the world was considered universal and encyclopedic (100).
The contextual approach was created because people wanted to appreciate the connection between the material in museums and the community that they came from. Instead of seeing the world as an “overarching system” a contextual approach makes the world about different communities (110). As popular culture became more important the interaction and meaning behind artifacts also became important. By understanding how communities relate to and interact with their objects museums enhance the learning experience of the patrons and give new meaning to the objects.
I think that the contextual approach is likely to be found in museums today because of the view of museums as a learning experience. Art museums are probably the most difficult to approach with a contextual view because people generally go to admire the art and giving a background on the time period or community from which it came can be distracting. However, by breaking paintings into different time periods and providing optional reading or headphones for audio people can decide whether or not they want to learn more about the context. In history museums it is especially important to provide context because without background on the time period or the event it is difficult to fully understand the objects that you view. Overall I think that the contextual approach was important for museums to adopt because it places objects within a community, allowing for more understanding.
