Nelson Mandela Museum (Nov 20 Blog)

The Nelson Mandela museum located in South Africa, was opened exactly ten years after Mandela's liberation from prison. Created as a living, breathing museum, Mandela was determined that this museum should not just be a stagnant shrine to him, but a living embodiment of his ideas and philosophies in the hopes to inspire and nurture those who come to visit the museum.

The museum itself has two campuses: the Nelson Mandela Youth and Heritage center in Qunu, and the Bungha building in Mthatha. This allows visitors to walk in the same exact steps as this great man himself. See the same neighborhoods and culture that inspired him, rather than the much more separate and dull atmosphere we are commonly use to seeing in most tribute museums. Visitors are able to see the remains of the school he attended as a child, the place in which he was first anointed with the name "Nelson". The granite sliding rocks he used to play on as a boy, the cemetery in which his children and parents are buried, his current home, all are within the location making the visitor experience that much more poignant and awe inspiring. The remoteness and authenticity of the entire landscape makes the entire experience more unbelievable and resonating.

Mandela's spirit and value of the human spirit and equal rights is at the heart of everything the museum does, and although this great man is now deceased, I am confident in saying that this mission will continue to strive on and create a large remembrance as a site of pilgrimage of a great man.

#NelsonMandela #MoreThanATribute #SouthAfrica #GreatVisionGreaterMan #InRemembrance

www.nelsonmandelamuseum.org.za

Maintaining Accessibility in Museums: ADA (Oct 2 Blog)

When it comes to accessibility in museums, we must understand that their is theoretical accessibility, access to ideas and culture, and then there is physical accessibility, meaning the physical ability to actually be in the space and enjoy all that the museum has to offer.

Thanks to the American Disabilities Act, or ADA, museums now have a guideline to follow to help include all visitors in the process of enjoyment at institutions. From making multiple handicap spots and ramps into the building, the ADA guidelines go one step further. Include are making sure that space in exhibits is traversable in a wheel chair, that tables and other media activities are wheel chair accessible and have alternatives for those with hearing and sight impairments, to even the suggested height of exhibit cases.

Things that people without impairments take for granted, such as easy access through exhibits and being able to look at a museum case from multiple angles to be able to see an object, are not always a simple given for people with disabilities or handicaps. Thus, why should these individuals be alienated and unallowed to fully enjoy all that a museum has to offer? They shouldn't! Which is why the ADA tries to work closely with museums and other public institutions to help make the necessary modifications so that all visitors can have an equal and pleasurable experience.

#ADAGuidelines #MakingMuseumsAccessible #Equality #ChangeIsntSoHard #MakeADifference

www.ada.gov/business/museum_access.pdf

ICOM Code of Ethics... Interpreted For the Modern Museum Student (Sept 4 Blog)

Written to be a commentary on the minimum standard for museums to align themselves with, the ICOM Code of Ethics is organized like any formal document: a preamble and articles that make the entire document appear to be intimidating for those in smaller institutions or even for those of us that are students looking to make our way into the museum world. To make this document a bit easier to digest, I have broken the articles down into a more modern day interpretation that we can all make sense of. It is important to note that while I mainly relate these principles to collections and objects, they are meant to fully encompass every aspect in museums from audience, to preservation, to employees, etc. 

Article 1: Museums preserve, interpret and promote the natural and cultural inheritance of humanity.

Museums are institutions that are meant to keep collections in appropriate condition, studied to their fullest potential and made available to the public so that each item can tell its specific story and its significance to natural and cultural history. Simple as that. Museums are the keepers of the keys for your Harry Potter fans. Meant to make sure that things are taken care of in a proper manner but made available to serve a greater purpose.

Museums must create a main message and carry it out through their collections and exhibitions, and continuously strive to flow with the times.

Article 2: Museums that maintain collections hold them in trust for the benefit of society and its development.

Simply put, museums that have collections must maintain and expand their collections as a part of their duty to society of preservation and education. As Spiderman would say, "with great power comes great responsibility". Once you're bitten by that radio active spider of the museum world you're bound to carry out the proper care, studies and exhibition of current pieces and to seek out new and exciting objects.

Article 3: Museums hold primary evidence for establishing and furthering knowledge.

This means that museums hold a responsibility to the care, accessibility and interpretation of pieces within the collection. You cannot simply acquire items and put them in a basement never to be seen or heard from again, but rather, pieces must be cared for as one would care for precious family heirlooms. Do you think that the Queen of England simply throws her crown jewels into a box and puts them in the basement of Buckingham Palace? No! She puts them on display for the world to see and learn from.

Article 4: Museums provide opportunities for the appreciation, understanding and promotion of the natural and cultural heritage.

Museums have a duty to broaden their educational spectrum and their audience. Rather than a simplistic, narrow-minded view and a select elite client base, museums need to open their arms to a whole variety of educational styles, ideas and participants. A kid from the "inner-city" may have just as much of an interest in Picasso as a kid raised in "high society". Both should have access. As well, who's to say that Picasso has as much to do with Van Gogh and Rembrandt as he does modern graffiti painting? Perhaps taken a more modern interpretation or even including technology and media might just be the ticket museums need to raise attendance and funds that are so quickly dwindling.

Article 5: Museums hold resources that provide opportunities for other public services and benefits.

The most popular phrase in American politics cans apply here: "Share the wealth!" Museums have privilege to some of the most invent specialisms, resources and skills that collaborations and sharing amongst various disciplines and industries that to selfishly cling to these things would be a greater harm than good.

Article 6: Museums work in close collaboration with the communities from which their collections originate as well as those they serve.

Although I feel this deserves a higher educational "duh" sadly this principle is not always followed. Museums need to collaborate with the community and allow the cultural perspective to be showcased alongside of collections. Without that context, what really makes an object so significant?

Article 7: Museums operate in a legal manner.

Here's that higher educational "duh" I was talking about. Duh! Museums have to operate in a legal manner. Follow the law or end up like Enron. 

Article 8: Museums operate in a professional manner.

Again, duh! No sweatpants and cotton t-shirts unless you are working incredibly late at night. But even then, wear a pair of jeans an a nice looking t-shirt. In a more serious manner, museums have to follow ADA and have to provide their employees with a safe and productive environment.

With that all said and done, I hope that this brief overview helps introduce individuals to the Code of Ethics in a less intimidating manner than what it can be perceived to be.

#ICOM #CodeofEthics #PopCultureInterpretation #NotSoScary #ICOMforDummies

http://icom.museum/professional-standards/code-of-ethics/preamble/#sommairecontent

MoMA Takes Technology to the Next Level: But is it Too Far From Art?

Encompassing over 200 individual exhibits, in the late Summer early Fall of 2011, the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, New York put on a new, technology-charged exhibit called "Talk to Me: Design and the Communication Between People and Objects". From herding robots around the permanent collections to playing video games that are broadcast onto televisions in the main lobby of the museum, the creative team at MoMA is attempting to push the envelope of the relationship between art and technology.

Personally, I feel as if the museum is trying to hard and losing sight of the "art" within their exhibits. While yes, the museum's mission is to focus on the innovative, modern art of the new age, is chasing robots and playing video games really instilling this message into visitors? Or is it merely a time of the visitor being able to play throughout the galleries like a child in a toy store? To me, it seems to dumb down art to try and draw in the masses by flashing lights and electric-powered gizmos.

#TechnologyandArt #MoMA #SeniorCuratorPaolaAntonelli #GrownUpPlayground #TalkToMe

www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/arts/design/momas-talk-to-me-focuses-on-interface-review.html

Visitor Studies: The Three Fundamentals

Following in the well-trodded footsteps of Randi Korn, museums are now putting more emphasis and serious time into their value and research of visitors. In an article off of Randi Korn's website, Studying Your Visitors: Where to Begin, it is laid out in the most simplistic terms of the three basic types of visitor studies and the appropriate times to conduct them. As well, the article hammers home the importance of visitor studies and the valuable information that can be obtained by performing them.

Overall, the three most common and unattested evaluations are Front End, Formative and Summative. Now Front End, as the name would suggest, is taking a visitor evaluation during the early planning stages of an exhibit so that a museum can really get to know what it is that visitors desire from a new exhibition. This helps the museum to spend their limited funding more effectively in an attempt to draw in the maximum amount of visitors possible.

Secondly, Formative evaluations are taken during the design stage up through and into the actual framing and construction of the exhibit. Visitors, at times, are invited to come through exhibits during the construction phase and evaluate what they think of the preliminary design. This makes visitors feel as if they are more a part of the process of the new exhibit, as well as, it allows the museum to potential change or modify in the most cost efficient way possible. 

Lastly, there is the summative evaluation. Perhaps the most common already in the museum community, summative evaluations are used to examine a visitors' experience with individual components within the final, opened exhibit. This type of evaluation lets the museum know how well each step of the exhibit planning and creating process has culminated and resinated with visitors.

Personally, I think that utilizing more evaluations in a more diverse way will allow museums to better understand the enjoyment and experience visitors are achieving through their visits, while also "grading" a museum on their effectiveness of delivering their mission statement to serve and educate it's visitors without a large margin of error or flaws.

#MuseumGrades #VisitorInterpretation #VisitorEvaluations #FrontEndFormativeSummative #RandiKorn

http://randikorn.com/docs/studying_your_visitors_where_to_begin.pdf

Michigan Barn and Farmers Preservation

The preservation organization, meant to help restore and catalog Michigan's historical barns and farms is a great initiative. With the ever sprawling suburban neighborhoods, the countryside of Michigan and it's wealth of architectural treasures from another time are quickly being threatened. "Participating in the barn survey can help community members take the next steps toward preserving and using the barns in their area for continued agricultural use, educational activities, business and tourism opportunities, and other purposes," thus making these sights something that can be shared with future generations to actually physically see and experience, rather than just reading about the way things "were" from a textbook and having no physical or emotional connection with these masterpieces. I think that the old farm architecture that we have here in Michigan is incredibly unique. After living for the past eight months in El Paso, TX where everything was arid desert, I found myself craving the open spaces that fields and farms in the countryside provide. It is so singular to the midwest and cannot just be recreated. It is important that we understand the value of these spaces now before it is too late for us to do anything for the,. I find this organization to be fascinating and would love to learn more about them and keep my eyes on their progress.

www.michiganbarns.org
#MidWestistheBest #MidwesternGentleman #OldArchitecture #WideOpenSpaces #PreservingtheOldisBetterThanJustBuildingNew

Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum

The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, with it's innovative and modern architecture, looks to spring Michigan State University into the future by putting them on the cutting edge of art. With a predominant focus on Modernism, particularly post 1945, the museum is a huge departure from the previous art museum, Kresge, on campus. Personally, well the building is itself an architectural masterpiece making it art itself, I find it to be a stark contrast to the principal architecture on campus in an almost deliberately confrontational way. Perhaps if the building hearkened somehow to the arts and crafts, traditional style on campus with a hint of modernism incorporated, it would seem less cold and overstated.

As well, with the focus of the museum's exhibitions and collections being towards post WWII, the fabulous ancient and pre-modern collections developed by the Kresge are now without a permanent home, but rather spend their time hollowed away into collections. I understand the want for a more modernist style, but perhaps take a similar approach to the Grand Rapids Art Museum, in that, you can incorporate traditional pieces with modern accents to give them a new context of interpretation alongside your singularly modern pieces.

I am interested to see how the Broad develops and incorporates itself with the community and if they will have similar issues to the MSU Museum in bringing in the college student population? Hopefully with their eyes so focused on the modernity of art, the Broad will incorporate such things as gala martini nights and the Spring Fashion show put on by the Apparel and Textile department into their festivities to keep their "fresh, young and modern" mission alive, similar to the actions of the Met Gala.

www.broadmuseum.msu.edu
#NewIsn'tAlwaysBetter #TheSpaceshiponCampus #EliandEdytheBroad #ModernandTraditional #NeighborhoodIncorporation