Time-Traveling With the Muses in Boston: NYT review 1/15/10

The author of this article, Holland Cotter, discusses how museums sparked his interest when he was living in Boston as a kid. I thought this article was interesting because he talks about how he got interested in museums through Egyptian art that was on display. Instead of seeing the art as the Egyptians meant for it to be seen, as an “irrepressible hunger for life”, he just saw death. This was really interesting to me because it demonstrates that people can interpret art in so many different ways, oftentimes even differently than how the artist meant to portray it. When you place different works of art in a museum people have a chance to compare different artists, eras and styles at one time.
The author explains that he had not been to the museums since a child and when he returned it was great to compare reality to what he remembers of the museum, and was happy that it matched for the most part. I think that this is also another important part of museums: they’re stable and yet fluid. Most of the collections stay the same over time which allows more people to experience the objects, but museums can also acquire new objects and collections to expand what is already there. This gives the museum the unique ability to hold lots of different material, newly collected and old acquisitions, and display them for long periods of time. This means that if I go to either of the two museums that he mentions in the article, Museum of Fine Arts or the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, I can look at the same objects that he describes seeing as a child.
I’m most interested in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum because of the way that it was created and maintained. Instead of displaying artifacts on white walls with a distinct understanding of why they were arranged in a particular way, Gardner filled her home with lots of different art, making it an eclectic mixture of different pieces and allowing you to explore and discover works of art, furniture or statues. What I loved about this way of designing a museum is that you are surrounded by pieces that are part of a decorated, ornate space so you are never without something interesting to look at. From the pictures, it really does give off the feeling of a home because the walls are covered in decorative wallpaper and there is a large courtyard with statues in the center of the building. Gardner made certain that the way she arranged the pieces would not change by stipulating in her will that if a piece is moved from the collection, the entire museum would be put up for auction. While this is not feasible for museums to do now, it’s something that I’ve never heard of before and I thought it was a cool way to leave behind a memory of yourself and what was important to you.
Overall, this article made me think about the way that museums are designed overall, and why they’re important for society. Museums allow you to collect artifacts from around the world and put them on display for people to see throughout the years. This makes art and other objects available over time and helps to spread understanding of culture to many generations. I also realized how many different forms a museum can take: from a house created and filled by one person, to a large art gallery with pieces acquired over a long period of time that is constantly added to.

architecture's influence on museums

Before this class I didn’t really consider the architecture of a building to have influence over my experience in a museum, but upon further reflection I realized that the more I admire the building, the more excited I am to experience the exhibits within the museum. For example, while in Washington, D.C. I visited the National Archives. The outside of the building reminded me of the Greek structures we discussed in class because of the columns and the oftentimes imposing presence of the building. The archives have a set of steps leading up to the museum and there are columns in the front of the building. However, you enter into a tour through a smaller door off to the side of the main steps. I love the architectural design of the building and in my mind it solidified the fact that the documents that I was about to see were incredibly important. The smaller entrance that we went through to go on the tour also added to the overall experience because instead of climbing the steps to enter you are given the feeling of privilege because you are taken in through a smaller, less noticed area of the building.
Architecture also makes me more interested in going into a museum that I wouldn’t normally be interested in. If the structure is eye-catching it draws me in because I then want to explore the inside of the building. I think that the more visually appealing that a museum is, the more I think that I will like the objects that are displayed inside. It also gives you a better idea of what kind of exhibits you will experience because in modern art museums the outside of the building is abstract and different from its surrounding structures while history museums typically have a more classical structure. It gives you the opportunity to have an understanding or inkling of what kind of objects or topics you are going to explore and sets the tone for your experience.

layout is key to an effective museum

I think that the layout of a museum is important for it to be effective because without a clear purpose for viewing the artifacts, you resort to wandering around aimlessly. I noticed how effective a clear layout for a museum was when I was visiting Washington, D.C. Each Smithsonian houses a tremendous amount of objects and information and in order to have a good experience and maximize your visit you need to have a clear understanding of what the museum offers. For example, in the Museum of American History there are sections devoted to certain time periods so that if you are interested in the Civil War you can visit a section that gives more information and exhibits for that particular era in American history. This gives the visitor more power over what they view and how much they view in a museum. This is especially important when a museum hold such an immense amount of objects or covers an long period of time in history. I think that a clear layout and thoughtful grouping of objects adds to the quality of a museum because it gives the people the power to learn as much as they want and get the most out of their visit. Since this particular museum was very large maps were extremely important because it gets you to and from any exhibit in the building. This also helps to maximize the amount of time you spend at a museum and can increase the experience that a person has. The layout and grouping of objects is also important in smaller museums because if there is no sense of order or continuity within a museum or gallery the visitors can become confused as to what they should take away from an exhibit. Having a clear understanding of the pieces in a museum and providing an easy to navigate layout makes visiting a museum more effective.