Museums, Objects, and Collections - Assignment Example

Art Art is the expression of human imagination and creative skills, typically through sculpture, painting, and producing works that is appreciated for their emotional power and beauty. Artwork is usually displayed in an art museum. This is a non- profit making institution that collect and exhibits modern and historical artworks to the public. An art museum can also be in form of a hall, room, or building. Art museum is interchangeable with museum, for instance, as in the case of a museum in Maryland and Baltimore, as well as, the Walters Art Gallery. They vary in size and purpose because some are established as private commercial museum while others are owned by the national government (Mansfield 102). The private commercial art museums offer art work for sale and promotion of artists and are privately owned. The public art museums, on the other hand, are owned by the national government. They offer art work for the purpose of education and are preserved for future generations. Public museums are governed by boards of Directors, staffed by professionals, and led by CEOs. However, art museums are usually differentiated by their unique collections such as ceramics, textiles or art of a particular time period. Art is very crucial in Canada because it inspire understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of its diverse cultural heritage. In Atlantic Canada, there is a largest art museum called The Confederation Centre Art Museum. The museum has six exhibition spaces that feature historical and contemporary exhibitions year round. It collects, conserve, present, interpret, and communicate the diverse work of visual artists in Canada. Museum people and institutions believe art to impose itself as a responsibility in the sense that it enables spectators to explore different artwork collection for learning purposes. It portrays its responsibility through institutions called art museums. These institutions collect, protect and make it possible for the public to access drawings, paintings, sculptures among other artworks used by artists to portray the lifestyle of a particular society. Furthermore, the artists entrust art museums with their artworks for the purpose of promoting them (Pearce 108). All art museums fulfill a nexus task of exhibitionism, objectification, and spectatorship. The nature of objects being exhibited differs from one art museum to another (Pearce 105). This is because of social diversity that influences the artists when creating their work. Art is responsible for educating the people who come to the museum. For instance, in Canada most of the art museums educate spectators about Canada’s cultural heritage. There are five hundred and sixty artworks which present Canadian heritage, right from the era of European settlement to date. This is with emphasis on the cultural legacy of early British and French. Canada’s heritage is among the diverse cultures with deep roots. It is influenced by French, Aboriginal, and English cultures; the spirit of Canadian-ness and its evolving symbols and emblems of identity; and the recent mosaic of international ethnicity. In Canada the growing collections of artworks portray the cultures of successive immigrants. The historical artifacts, furniture, landscape, portraits, paintings, and religious artifacts assist us to understand the origin of Canadians and how the nature of Canadian-ness and Canadian identity evolved. They also help us understand the ongoing contributions to the Canada’s cultural fabric (Mansfield 123). In visual art some artists use media, technology, and subject matter to help the spectators learn about the things they portray. In most cases subject matter is usually used and is presented into various divisions. The first one is objects which are used as symbols of culture, value or ownership (Dudley 8). For instance, in the exhibition of a stunning red sofa designed by Karim Rashid and an iconic cellaret produced in quebec during 1880s. This educates spectators about the lifestyles of owning unique furniture during those eras. The second one is people, where specific human figures are portrayed to reveal stories of gods or heroes, or used for self discovery or religion or personality. In most cases, art has used human figure as a symbol of fertility or death, weakness or strength, and expression of feelings. For instance, in the Benjamin west’s artwork called ‘the death of General Wolfe’. This educates the spectators about the 1759’s pivotal moment when Britain declared war with the intent of colonizing New France. Another art work with a human figure is called “Trapped in Myself” by mprimrose. This art piece symbolizes an expression of self insecurity and consciousness among the women. It reveals the vulnerable female figure which is probably naked. This shows a woman with sense of wanting to strip down in public. The human figure also portrays the sense of pain as the woman’s self reality comes out hence teaching the spectators on the consequences of destroying ones dignity. The third division of subject matter is “other living things”. These are animals and plants from, air, sea, and land used by artists to decorate art as part of a particular story. They are also used as symbols for expressing themes and issues or humor. For instance, The Hunter’s camp art painted by Heming, who was also named as “chronicler of the North”, revealed the unique and beautiful nature and spirit of Canada. The last division is events. They may be classified as life events such as birth, death, work or sickness; as Public, Historical or social events such as war, ship wrecks, coronations or festivals; and as spiritual events (Sears & Thomas 54). Arts dealing with events educate people of certain eras, for instance, the ancient cultures. These cultures reveal the past civilization and there importance today. They also help people understand the diverse human experience. There are other arts that deal with fossils and evolution in order to help people understand the evolution of life over time. Viewing such arts influence spectators to appreciate the way humans contribute to forming the complex fabric of life in earth (Dudley 15). The deep history of life evolution also shows how ancient organism responded to environmental and biological changes. This contributes to spectator’s understanding of the current biodiversity loss and climate change. In most cases, art is responsible for educating the spectators who visits museums. Currently, art museums should carry out this responsibility by conducting a number of things. The first thing is preservation. In order to preserve the artwork, museums should have a preservation center that consists of specialized teams and technologies for ensuring that the artwork looks presentable, not only for the present generations but also for the ones to come. In the preservation centers, there should be labs and large work spaces (Dudley 12). This would help in conducting research on the artworks to discover how they have been designed and the extent of their damages. Furthermore, the results would determine whether the artwork requires active conservation or treatment. In case there is treatment of a damaged artwork, preservers should ensure that their work is reversible if changes are required in the future. The role of artwork preservers can go beyond the treatment and research of art. They can collaborate with other staff members in the museum to ensure that artworks are handled, stored, displayed, and transported safely. The second thing that needs to be conducted by art museums is proper exhibition. This should be done in a way that leaves the visitors satisfied (Carey 98). Museums should have a vast space of displaying large amount of artwork that is neatly divided in terms of genres and materials. The space should also be easy to navigate to avoid limiting visitor in accessing different artwork. There should be an audio guided service with majorly used foreign languages to assist visitor in touring around the museum. In addition, huge signboards need to be placed at the entrance indicating which sections to be found where. This would allow the discerning museum visitors to choose sections they prefer to discover first. Adequate captions should also be provided for the exhibits. This provides background information about the context and period of a particular painting or artwork. Artwork exhibits should be displayed in glass cases with lighting of different types. For instance, if the exhibit is a painting, it should be displayed with a bright spotlight inside the glass case to illuminate it in an attractive manner. If it is a sculpture, a dull bulb can be used to illuminate it. The next thing that Art museums need to do is providing proper explanation of the artwork. Educated and experienced guides should be employed to provide proper explanation on the style, period, and subject of the paintings. They need to be multi-lingual in order to serve visitors coming from diverse parts of the country. For the privately owned art museums, the owners need to conduction a proper art exhibition show in busy locations that advertise the art museum. These exhibition shows would enable them to sell more artwork in their art museums. There are a number of steps that need to be considered when preparing an art exhibition show. The first step is choosing a theme. This provides a concept of what the show is all about and becomes a proper marketing technique. The second step is looking for artists to exhibit with. They need to have related themes in order to create a group momentum. The third one is preparing a location for exhibition and it should be a highly populated area to attract many people. The fourth step is advertising the exhibition show through sending post cards, putting posters, and getting in touch with newspapers. Finally, setting the exhibition space should be considered. It should be done by properly arranging artworks to provide visual flow (Carey 111). The role of curators in art museums The primary responsibility of curators is the presentation, interpretation, acquisition, and care of artwork in the collection (Pearce 106). There must be a thorough research on the artwork under the acquisition and care of the curator to ensure their quality, authenticity and historical importance. The uncertainties found in artwork’s origins, authenticity, condition, provenance, or presentations need to be reported immediately to the museum administration. However, proper presentation, interpretation, and care of artwork require the curator to possess a specialized knowledge of art history. They need to maintain that specialty to accomplish their responsibilities to their profession and their collections. The role of curator is gradually expanding, emerging as user friendly, and going beyond the walls of art museums. It has evolved beyond the placement and selection of artwork in a space. It has become about empowering the collaboration, innovation, and audience both in a virtual world and the physical space. There are a number of factors influencing the change of curator’s role in the recent years (Stein et al 72). They include education emphasis in arts and museums; racial demographic changes; advances in technology; the evolving millennial generation among others. Currently, curators are more like television producers than academic scholars. Their intention is to capture the audience’s attention through engagement and entertainment. The current curators will be different from traditional curators. This is because current curators, will not only organize and select arts programs, but will also diagnose needs in their societies, seek out unusual and new settings for their artwork, and forge partnerships with disparate stakeholders. In addition, they will also cede some amount of artistic control to achieve broader impact (Stein et al 23). The current job description of curators will change as they continue becoming more open, communicative, collaborative, and curious. Furthermore, they will become anthropologists and sociologists while, on the other hand, they will still remain art historians. Curators are usually involved with educational institutions, especially at the university or college level. While in their museums they are the key points of contact for college students. Furthermore, the roles of curators can either be providing a single lecture or acting as full professors. Curators are also major implementers of museum programs, seminars, or colloquia. They initiate or facilitate individual research projects for both students and faculty. They can also initiate internships in their departments for graduate and undergraduate students. Curators have a crucial role in offering access to art museum collection, especially, to objects that are not present on public view. They initiate contacts between the museum staff members and the academic community who are involved in creating collections for viewing and research. However, at times there may raise potential conflicts of interest among the curators. If those cases happen, most museums have a general consensus which maintains that if curators are involved in a conflict of interest, their professional responsibilities should precede over personal gain and concerns (Stein et al 56). Traditionally, curators were required to acquire graduate and undergraduate degrees which they used to specialize in a certain field. They conducted research and developed exhibitions based on these specialties without considering the interests of visitors who came to art museums (Pearce 102). The current curators are proactively challenging the traditional curators. This is because they have been trained, through educational programs, to look different in creation of arts. The future curators can better be educated through educational programmes such as the “the institution for curatorial practice in performance.” This program is important in developing curator’s participating aesthetic perspective, deepens his or her familiarity with various contemporary performing artists, and creates entrepreneurial skills. The program not only provides curators with strong academic knowledge and theory, but also sparks collaboration and innovation. It also stimulates them to have visions (Zimmermann 98). Issues of display and interpretation An art historian is a person concerned with wide range of historical aspects of work of art. These aspects may include the origin of artistic movement and the political and social contexts in which the artwork was created. There are two main lines of historical inquiry performed by art historian. The first one is using material culture to recreate past cultures. The second one is studying art objects in their historical development state. They also consider the artists of these objects, as well as, their social and cultural contributions. Furthermore, artists’ products are evaluated and explained by art historians as expressions of political, religious, and philosophical concerns of cultures that are producing them (Mansfield 133). The job of an art historian varies widely because some work in education, others work as preservationists or curators. In addition, some art historians pursue journalism or publishing, or work as appraisers. It is important to note that most positions for art historian demand an advanced degree. Education is therefore the most important, relevant, authoritative, and meaningful aspect of an art historian. In most cases, art historians find education to be a common career path. They can teach art students at college levels to deliver knowledge from certain areas of expertise. This shows that education forms the platform for all the responsibilities of art historian whether as a curator, professor, or a preservationist. For instance, curators are educated on how to perform their duties such as acquiring new art pieces, how to display and store them. The preservationists are taught how to ensure that artworks such as sculptures, buildings, and paintings maintain their original state. Professor, on the other hand, have a specialized capability of educating graduate and undergraduate students on areas of art (Sears & Thomas 32). Most of the museum institutions prefer employing art historian with wide range of knowledge and experience in artwork; advance in technology is a major attribute towards this decision. Adoption of technology has increased among the current art museums that are publicly and privately owned hence bringing stiff competitions. This shows that art museums need to acquire art historians that are innovative in terms of technology as well as experience. When you compare the Art Gallery of Ontario with other art institutions of Canada, you will release that it has emerged as one of the most successful institution in the competitive market of artwork. This is because it has managed to conserve it artworks through use of advanced technologies available in it conservation centers. These technologies therefore maintain the state of the artworks making them more attractive to visitors (Zimmermann 112). The institution also has well trained and experienced team of conservators who have specialized in different academic fields. In conclusion, art is a process used by artists to express their imagination and creative skills through artwork such as painting, sculptures among others. These artworks are displayed, preserved, and explained to the audience through art museums. The art museums can either be owned by the public or individuals. Public museums are commonly used for education and preservation for future generation while private museums are used for commercial purposes. Most of the public art museums are homes for visual arts. These arts are divided into various subject matters which include objects, people, living things, and events. The objects educate people about cultures; the people educate about human beings; the living things express themes and issues; while events educate on certain eras. All museums consist of curators that are charged with a number of responsibilities. They include presentation, interpretation, acquisition, and care of artwork in the collection. Currently, these roles are seen to change over time due to various factors. They include education emphasis in arts and museums; racial demographic changes; advances in technology; the evolving millennial generation among others Works Cited Carey, Brainard. (2011). Making It in the Art World: New Approaches to Galleries, Shows, and Raising Money. New York, NY: Allworth Press. Dudley, H. Sandra (2012). Museum Objects: Experiencing the Properties of Things. New York, NY: Routledge. Mansfield, Elizabeth. (2007). Making Art History: A Changing Discipline and its Institutions. New York, NY: Routledge. Pearce, M. Susan (1993). Museums, Objects, and Collections. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books. Sears, L.E. & Thomas, T.K. (2002). Reading Medieval Images: The Art Historian and the Object. Ann Arbor, MI : University of Michigan Press. Stein, Lori, Hoving Thomas and Learson Kate. (2005). Master Pieces: The Curators Game. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company Zimmermann, F. Michael (2003). The Art Historian: National Traditions and Institutional Practices. Williamstown, MA: Clark Art Institute. Read More