History of musuems & effect of covid.

The history of museums

It was interesting reading about the history of musuems; it seems in many ways coorelated with the rise of industry and increasing concentration of wealth (I suppose this makes sense, as the “collection” type of musuem which many people identify with today largely started as private collections, and it’s hard to collect, store, and exhibit objects (esp. signifigant ones) without having some wealth to go with it. I pulled some observations that seemed relevant to the notion of what a musuem’s purpose has been, and what it could be: Way to better understand self & culture: humanists saw museums as collections of items to better understand classical past and the world. Smithsonian was pure science institute for a while. “a museum of science . . . in essence a school; a museum of art in essence a temple.” Once the museum admitted the public, its exhibition function became predominant. Collecting, conservation, and research in the main supported the development of exhibitions Brooklyn Museum director Duncan Cameron published the notion that museums occupy two ends of a spectrum from a “temple” to a “forum” The value of the museum as a resort for popular entertainment must not be underrated. . . where every opportunity that is given to the people to employ their leisure time in healthy and stimulating surroundings. . . that counteracts the influence of the saloon and of the racetrack is of great social importance

Musuems & Covid

Many of the ideas in the first reading don’t seem particularly relevant to COID in particular, other than the fact that it gave time for reflection. The second reading uses a particular exhibit to showcase the effect that it could have had, but beyond that superficial observation it seems that the actual meat of both articles is how to interact in a digital only context. In the last few years, people have been moving more digital, and COVID seems to me to be an example of this taken to the extreme. The question of how to leverage technology to connect with people and better server the mission of the musuem is an interestion one thought ,and the second reading had some more thoughts on this: one that I enjoyed was the ability to send an anonomous message and have this included as if it were in person. I think that the idea of a “digital only” musuem aas discussed in the reading, however, is far outside what I would term as as musuem; it should be a place to showcase and reflect, and this is hard to do in virtual only. I also think that the discussion in the article of the increase of online viewership wasn’t necessarily due to people wanting to engage more with musuems, but rather exploriung the ends of the internet in frustration.