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

Nazi Era Materials in the Art World

World War II and the Nazi acquisition of art is a topic that I am, personally, fascinated by. I decided to read an article on the archives website pertaining to looted art as it is a cause dear to me. The fact that a staggering amount of artworks are now either lost, no longer in existence, or are in the hands of individuals who refuse to return them aggravates me. The repatriation of this art should be taken seriously, and sadly, most of the times families are unaware the art that they have is even stolen, thus making it hard for them to want to give it up to a museum or foundation. As well, the Nazi's hid much of the art they had stolen into bunkers or old train depots that are no longer mapped out, thus making the re-discovery of these pieces practically impossible. Personally, it has always been a dream of mine to work on finding some of the preservation and storage areas that paintings were taken to in hopes to find art and return it to the art world for everyone to enjoy and learn from. It is sad the amount of lives that are lost in any war, but the loss of culture and historical documents such as art pieces is just as detrimental.

http://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/articles-and-papers/symposium-papers/looted-art-sources-documentary-evidence.html
#WWIIArt #MonumentsMenofWWII #RepatriationofArt #LostandFound #LootedArt

Transforming Museums... Into What?

Museums, like any other company, have, for decades, been concerned with their bottom line. Of what the museum is outputting rather than impacting. With little results to show, perhaps museums need to take a new approach on how they base the quality of their institution. After all, the majority of museums are non-profit organizations, so besides the number of visitors per year and grant money allocated per year, what output is there really to report on? In recent years it has been noted that "new donors often choose results-orientated humanitarian causes" and museums are surely being left behind. This is not to say that people do not value the work that museums are doing, but rather that the output being published has little to show for many institutions. "People are drawn to the arts not for their instrumental effects, but because the arts can provide them with meaning and with a distinctive type of pleasure and emotional stimulation" meaning that the arts are meant to be enjoyed holistically in a spiritual, cognitive and emotional approach, something hard to document results of.

In my opinion museums need to be categorized and rated on their effectiveness of impact on their community through their exhibitions and programming, gauged on their overall emotional stimulation of visitors. Museums need to be held accountable for their presentation of collections and their overall demeanor towards their surrounding neighborhoods. Only then, in my opinion, can museums be accurately weighed and measured.

www.randikorn.com/resources/works.php
#accountabilityofmuseumstosociety #impactnotoutput #caringaboutthecommunity #numbersaren'teverything #transformingmuseumsforthebetter