To Collect, Preserve, and Interpret

In anticipation of visiting the American Association of Museums (AAM) on Friday, a peek at the purpose of the institution seemed appropriate.  The AAM tenders a mission “to enhance the value of museums to their communities through leadership, advocacy, and service.” Since 1906, the association has marshaled American museums to set common benchmarks, to exchange scholarship or information, and to sponsor the entirety of the museum population.  The AAM embraces the gamut of museums—such as art and history museums, zoos, science and technology centers, botanical gardens, and several other types of museums and cultural centers.  Also, the organization proposes definitions of museums and explains the link between them being “a unique contribution to the public by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the things of the world.”  Museums professionals have promoted these three actions for decades (at least), so how are they put into practice today?

Collecting.  MoMA boasts one of the world’s most paramount, comprehensive collections of modern art.  The Barr galleries, for example, display at any given time 400 works from the collection predating 1975, and this number is chosen from a pool of approximately 2,800 pieces.  Regardless of the deep pockets of the collection, Ann Temkin, MoMA’s latest chief curator of painting and sculpture, efforts to continually add flavor and “surprises” in the permanent collection.  They now intermingle media as well as install works like a Louise Bourgeois in place of a tried and true Jackson Pollock as

opener and thus mise en scène for the 1940s to 1970s display.  Temkin explains, “The tradition here has been fluid special exhibitions and the permanent collection is relatively unchanging….  I want a fluidity and constant rhythm of change.”  Additionally, Temkin stripped many of the Abstract Expressionists’ canvases of their wood frames to release their strokes and bared them in a way appropriate to their radicalism.

Yesterday, AMUS students had the terrific opportunity to meet Lucille Spagnuola, the art collector associated with the galleries at Georgetown University.  Her collection is not an example of an AAM museum, of course, but still worth mentioning. The pictures that showed the art hung in her home were absolutely astounding, as her walls were reminiscent of a nineteenth-century museum with floor to ceiling paintings, prints, photographs, and sculptures.  Interestingly (and perhaps to some obviously), she, as a collector, exhibits a similar mindset to a museum professional.  She contemplates the best and most appealing pieces to collect for herself and others, debates the method and position for the display in her home, and questions whether or not to show all her works at once or store some to reduce wall clutter.  While she still abstains from storing in her home because of her inability to part with the works, Mrs. Spagnuola nevertheless feels compelled to share her and her husband’s collection with the public.  Exhibitions of her art in galleries, she explains, gives her an opportunity to see the art as an individual—piece by piece—to refresh her view of and love for the piece.

Preserving.  The labors of MoMA serve also as an exemplar for museum preservation.  In conjunction with the preservation efforts of other institutions like the Deutsches Filmmuseum, the Korean Film Archives, and the World Cinema Foundation, MoMA hosts an annual film festival called “To Save and Project.”  The purpose is to salvage various films—such as John Cassavetes’s A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Lester James Peries’s film on Sri Lanka titled The Changing Village (1964).  Many restored films like Kim Ki-young’s “The Housemaid” inspire contemporary filmmakers and illustrate the significance of film preservation: “a major work reclaimed from the past that points to the future.”  On another note outside of the American museum circuit, the advocacy of preservation has also provided some museums with leverage over others—for example, in the case of the British Museum and the museums (and even the government) in Greece.  The British Museum, holding fast to several Parthenon marbles, previously claimed that the museums in Athens lacked the ability to properly preserve the pieces.  With the building of the new Acropolis Museum, no doubt the art world sits on the edge of its seat in anticipation of how the drama over preservation between the British and Greeks will now unfold.

Interpreting.  In order to enrich art historical studies, Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker designed Smarthistory.org, which launched with podcasts for the Met and MoMA (there seems to be recurring theme in art news, no?) in 2005.  The endeavor has since expanded into comprehensive, organized sets of audios, videos, and images that educate on and enliven art history.  The project has not only permeated museum education but also entered American school systems; for example, in August the Smithsonian American Art Museum hosted the Clarice Smith National Teacher Institute, where the dialogue inevitably shifted to correlative matters of interpretation, types of speech (informal, formal) in audios, and the concretion of knowledge through questions and exchange.  Today, the use of technology for aesthetic interpretation appears almost critical to dispersing knowledge for the coming generations, and applause should be given to museums for not only interpreting art for the public of their individual museums but also actively engaging schools across the nation to advance an understanding of art.  No doubt, methods such as these exhibit tangible evidence of the AAM's productivity and mission.