Art in Abundance: The Role of Museums in Society Today

Art in Abundance: The Role of Museums in Society Today

Art museums are among the few spaces where honest commentary can be made. The role of art
museums in society today is to facilitate a space where individuals in a society can interpret,
make decisions, and receive an emotional reaction to art objects uninhibited by a predetermined
analysis.
Although it is tempting for a museum staff to interpret the art on their own, it is the mark of an
excellent staff that allows their own personal biases to be set aside in order to let the art speak for
itself. How the art objects are lit, where they are situated in a space, the sequence of the exhibit:
these seemingly simple decisions create an opportunity for exhibit designers to be a part of the
art-process. These decisions provide the very foundation on which the viewer’s critical moment
of reception stands. An exceptional museum distinguishes itself by perceiving the subtle
differences between the word “simple” and the word “plain.” Although used synonymously, the
slender difference between these words is where the great interpretation of art lies. I use the word
“plain” here to denote the idea that lighting, climate, and sequence is a matter of happenstance
and the plain decisions do not affect the outcome of the reception of the art or art object. The
word “simple,” as I see it in relation to the exhibit, is the careful understanding that lighting,
climate, and sequence are simple but subliminal contributors to the viewer’s art experience.
When an art object is delivered to the museum, it should be the priority of that museum to place
the object in a space which will not convey any pre-conceived notions about how the object
should be interpreted. In fact, the role of the museum is to inspire the patron to remove the lens
of the world; the lenses of art theory, history, philosophy. If a museum facilitates the removal of
the lenses, rather than their installation, then what can occur is what the German art critic Hans
Robert Jauss would call the “pregnant moment” or, rather, the moment in which the vessel of the
art object can be poured, unrestrained, into the viewer who is ready to receive the image without
any filtration. Once those lenses are removed, a purified art experience can occur: one that
enlightens the patron’s intimate intellectual and emotional faculties.
Essentially, what a museum does as opposed to any other space, is ask a question while
refraining from answering it. Whether the patron arrives at any conclusion - or even if the patron
understands his or her role in the art process is irrelevant; what is necessary is that a space be
conducive to any eventuality, even if nothing happens at all.
During a recent visit to Glasgow, Scotland I visited the Glasgow Museum of Art which I believe
emulates the principles of the role of museums in society today. Much of the museum’s spaces
are open, well lit and quiet. However, the age of the architecture also facilitates smaller spaces,
such as the narrower hallways that make patrons feel that they are in the process of discovery
when moving from room to room; they make the conscious effort to finish their experience in the
first room, and prepare themselves for what may be encountered in the next room. Another
example is the building’s rotundas that can be accessed on any floor. Each rotunda is comprised
of several doors that can be opened to reveal a space the size of a closet and contain one piece of
art. The conscious act of opening and closing a door - starting and finishing an art experience -
can resonate with a patron and gives that patron the option of intimately reacting to a piece,
knowing that he or she is the only person who can view it at a time.
I, too, strive to emulate the principles I feel are important for museums to uphold. For my senior
thesis, I was asked to design an exhibit that focused on the Parowan Gap, which is a National
Monument of Native American petroglyphs. Art students were invited to submit artwork, and
English students were invited to submit poetry. I wanted each experience, the act of reading and
the act of looking, to be separate. Our campus gallery is divided into two rooms and I chose to
interpret the poetry through
lighting. I printed the poetry
on vellum, then strung up a
series of backlighting and
hung the poems roughly 18
inches from the wall. When
the lights were dimly lit, it
produced the effect that the
poems were emanating light; almost as if they were their own petroglyphs on a fire-lit cave wall.
The interpretation of how to light poems is simple, but certainly not plain.
Art museums are vital to the progression of society today, yesterday and tomorrow. There are
fewer and fewer spaces in which a vast number of individuals can enter, and feel that they have
all received a personal experience. For this purpose, the role of museum in society today is to ask
questions, but provide no answers.