Museums In Between Social Duty and Controversy - Assignment Example

 Museums In Between Social Duty and Controversy The part that museums play in the social life of a nation has had different shapes along history. Museums activity has evolved from merely displaying exhibits to an interactive relationship with their visitors. Nowadays museums have, besides the collections exhibited, workshops and studios equipped with modern technology in order to support and stimulate research and study. Thus, not only they maintain a constant flux of visitors, but also contribute to the improvement of education. The transition from passive to active role in society has not been smooth; historians and media have openly criticized the flaws in the system - especially the political interference with museums activity. Margaret Anderson has done a thorough review of the Australian museums condition; she states: For a very long time the large museums in Australia presented no modern history at all. Traditionally museums have collected and exhibited fine art, natural history, ancient history and ethnography. In the late 19th century, in the context of Scientific optimism, they added technology and a new category of 'applied' art, but there was little concern for the past. (Selling) Due to this lack of interest in historical collections, the 1976 exhibitions in Western Australia contained "nothing about Aboriginal history: it remained elsewhere within a safer context of anthropology. There were few women. A large model of Queen Victoria, and a little later a very genteel parlor scene, constituted the sole female presence in the gallery." (Anderson, Selling) These were two of the major issues that later have shaken the tranquil world of Australian museums. Aborigine history and women's contribution to social development have superficially been approached and even diminished by setting specific exhibitions in locations that belittle their importance - as for instance is the case of the Powerhouse Museum reopening exhibit in 1988. (Anderson, Selling) Feminist groups have become increasingly displeased with the dim presence of women's history in public exhibits. They have also protested against the male predominance in museum's managements and "have formed a separate association within the museum professional organization, to promote debate on this issue and to raise the profile of women in the profession." (Anderson, Selling) At the Powerhouse Museum, "women are largely absent", or whenever present, they "are cast as the passive recipients of technological advance"(ibid). It goes the same with the Museum of Victoria, which in 1985 exhibited the "Story of Victoria" where women are present in a small section that dealt with "women's suffrage and with one of the women's early strikes"(ibid) but nothing more. "He, who controls the present, controls the past. He, who controls the past, controls the future." (Orwell, quotedb.com) The present is mastered by controlling funds and people in key positions in society. It's easy then to control the past by bringing forth or hiding facts and events according to one's own will or need - or, in other words, to shape any identity, from a person's to a group's and even a nation's. Thus, the future can be secured along the desired path. This instrument of power can dramatically change not only the life of individuals but also the dynamic of an entire society and have long-term effects. Political interference within museums activity had given for a long time a particular understanding and displaying of history, sadly in the detriment of truth. "The Piggott Inquiry into Museums and National Collections, which reported in 1975, wrote scathingly of this official neglect of Australia's 'potable heritage'." Not only museums were to blame, but also governments, for "their comprehensive policies of indifference and neglect". Such harsh criticism did not fail to set things in motion: governments began to "redress their neglect of the past"; historians began to take an active part in museums reorganization. (Anderson, Selling) The Powerhouse Museum has its own interesting story. It goes as far back in time as 1879 and went through several changes of names and locations. First known as 'the Garden Palace' - until the building burnt in 1882; rebuilt in 1883 and renamed 'the Technological Museum'; in 1945, known as 'the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences' and in 1979, finally moved to its present location and gone through its last change of names, becoming 'the Powerhouse Museum'. (powerhousemuseum.com) It also had to undergo dramatic transformations, and it is a notable difference between the times when it favored technology over history and nowadays, when we discover it has turned into one of the most complex museums in the world, endowed with systems that allow visitors to study and connect exhibits with their social and political contexts. Years ago, a critic opinion was cast on the way the museum had chosen to present a neutral version of history. Margaret Anderson believed that "machines do not have to stand as uncritical symbols of progress: they might also speak for the social and political turmoil which accompanied technological change." And she continued: "Museums like the Powerhouse have the capacity in its historians to provide this critical edge, but they choose constantly not to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to displays". (Anderson, Selling) Nowadays the museum "presents exhibitions and programs based on the ideas and technologies that have changed our world and the stories of the people who inspire and create them" and its purpose is "to discover and be inspired by human ingenuity". (powerhousemuseum.com) Besides technology displays, the museum has also various programs that help preserving the cultural heritage, research services and an educational centre. The role that history plays in shaping a sense of identity is very important but not easy to deal with. History keeps a nation in contact with its origins and ancestors. And a nation that is aware of its own roots can preserve its traditions unspoiled by other cultures and maintain its own identity intact. It also acts as a constant reminder not only of a nation's great accomplishments but also of its mistakes. Back in time again, we find the Enola Gay exhibit cancellation episode (1995), that proved quite clearly that society was (and most likely is still) not yet ready to face certain historic facts with impartiality. Richard H. Kohn has made a thorough analysis of the event in his work, "History at Risk. The Case of Enola Gay". From the very beginning, we find out that the cancellation of the exhibit was due to "political reasons: veterans' groups, . . . had charged that the exhibition script dishonored the Americans who fought the war by questioning the motives for using the bombs, by portraying the bombs as unnecessary to end the war, and by sympathizing . . . with the Japanese cause." What bothered the most was the exhibition's purpose to encourage visitors to question once again the decision of dropping the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1939. The project engaged in tremendous controversies and 81 days later, it was cancelled - Michael Heyman, at the time secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, publicly justified the action saying that "we made a basic error in attempting to couple an historical treatment of the use of the atomic weapon with the 50th anniversary commemoration of the end of the war." (Kohn, History) The "History Wars" bring forward the interference of the Howard government in the activity of the National Museum of Australia. "In 2001, writing in Quadrant, historian Keith Windshuttle argued that the then-new National Museum of Australia (NMA) was marred by "political correctness" and did not present a balanced view of the nation's history." (Wikipedia, History Wars) . The main problem was the inaccurate description of the impact of the British colonization on Aboriginal Australians and the development of the Australian society. After several years of conflict and arguments between historians, media and the Howard government, the 'History Wars' ended after the defeat of the Howard government in the 2007 elections and after "a Parliamentary apology sent to indigenous Australians". (Wikipedia, History wars) In both cases history has been a mirror; even if the image shown was not bright at all, it played an important role in helping society to come to maturity. Objectifying past mistakes helps improving present and future actions and this ability is defining for any healthy society. "History has had many functions in human society, the accurate reconstruction of the past being only one. 'What happened, what we recall, what we relate, are often sadly different', the scholar of the Middle East Bernard Lewis wrote twenty years ago. 'The temptation is often overwhelmingly strong to tell it, not as it really was, but as we would wish it to have been'." (Kohn, History) Works Cited Orwell, George quotes, quotedb.com. Web. 14 May 2010. Davison, Graeme, What Should A National Museum Do? Learning From the World. Pdf file. Anderson, Margaret, Selling the Past: History in Museums in the 1990s. Pdf file. The Powerhouse Museum, powerhousemuseum.com. Web. 14 May 2010. Kohn, Richard H., History at Risk. The Case of Enola Gay. Pdf file. Wikipedia, History Wars. Web. 15 May 2010. Read More