Amalia MesaBains Multiculturalism New Museology Not euphemistic substitution

Amalia Mesa-Bains Multiculturalism New Museology Not euphemistic (substitution of an Transitional age – postcolonial agreeable expression for one that may diaspora – transcultural exchange offend) sense but consideration of race, class, gender Not just mere entertainment “Another system of knowledge and thought” (p. 103) patrimony, cultural memory, diverse aesthetic perspective (p. 104) “Interethnic intimacy” Carlos More (p. 100) Respect, understanding, exchange Aim: An expanded sense of an American aesthetic (p. 108)

Michael M. Ames Multiculturalism New Museology “The Browning Age of of America” deconstruction: Authority of How much cultural diversity cultural and educational can we institutions tolerate? questioned – What is the Traditional impact of canon criticized ethnicity on for Eurocentric public culture? and male“Cultural oriented bias trepassing” – Do non-Natives Art, artifacts and any longer have their institutions Aim: Democratization of the museum (consumerism- post-modernism) have politics. the right to

Elaine Heumann Gurian Multiculturalism It is the ownership of the story not the object itself that disputes are about (p. 271) Quality - “cultures whose aesthetic might be different…(p. 275) Who selects the object by what criteria? New Museology Museums may not need objects any longer to justify their work (p. 270) Instead…place, memory Shared ownership, appropriate use, and potentially removal and return… Object care, use, ownership – Ex. Desecrated torahs by Jewish Accommodations to the beliefs of the tradition should be buried, yet some producers of the materials or their on view in US Holocaust Museum. descendants…necessary. (278) May be petitioned for reburial. We need collective history in congregant locations to remain civilized. ” (p. 283)

Duncan Cameron Glenbow Museum in Calgary Multiculturalism “Temple or Forum? ” “Equality of cultural opportunity” Class-based analysis – problemscurators academic elite “private club of curators” – value system of middle, upper-middle class. Audience mobile (high education achievement levels, museum goers) and non-mobile (mass-media, “unsophisticated”? ) New Museology Universals – A. The idea of collecting, B. timeless function- the use of the structured sample of reality as an objective model to compare individual perceptions The academic systems of classification must be replaced (supplemented) by interpretations of the collections based on the probable experience and awareness of the museum audience. P. 67 The “democratic museum” There is a clear and urgent need for the reestablishment of the forum as an institution in society. p. 68 “Museums are essential in the life of any society that pretends to civilization. ” p. 67

http: //news-service. stanford. edu/news/2007/june 20/grad-062007. html

Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, during Stanford University's 116 th Commencement • Gioia noted that statistical studies show that the nation is splitting into two groups. The first "spends most of its free time sitting at home as passive consumers of electronic entertainment, " with family communication disintegrating as its members are increasingly isolated, "staring at their individual screens. " • The second group also enjoys the new technology, but exercises, plays sports, volunteers and does charity work at about three times the level of the first group. "By every measure they are vastly more active and socially engaged than the first group, " he said. • The defining difference between the groups is not income or education, but "whether or not they read for pleasure and participate in the arts. These cultural activities seem to awaken a heightened sense of individual awareness and social responsibility. "

Here Is New York: Remembering 9/11 This exhibition of photographs and artifacts opens on Tuesday at the New-York Historical Society. By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN NYT September 11, 2007 http: //www. nytimes. com/2007/09/11/arts/design/11 muse. html? _r=1&8 dpc&oref=slogin In two galleries, 1, 500 inkjet-printed photos taken six years ago during those apocalyptic days are mounted with simple stationery clips. They are reminders of hidden pressure points and buried sensations. The photos, without credits, titles or dates, from 790 contributors, range from the amateur to the professional, from the clearly posed composition to the frenzied snap of a moment.

It isn’t memory that is the issue. It is commemoration. Memory, at least right now, is readily summoned. Commemoration is something else altogether. Commemoration provides interpretation; it offers a public meaning that survives the event. It surpasses private experience and continues to provide significance even when memory is long gone. Commemoration is not a matter of healing or feeling; it is a matter of meaning. The problem is that no other event I can think of has proved so resistant to public commemoration. The record has been dismal. Ground zero itself is still contested ground wrestled over by competing interest groups. The events of 9/11 did not arise out of natural disasters. 9/11 was an attack. And it was an attack not just on individuals, but also on national institutions. That is why it merits public commemoration, not a pastoral meditation space

Commemoration provides interpretation; it offers a public meaning that survives the event. Rothstein Is commemoration the same concept as Cameron’s “forum”? What has changed since 1971? (36 years…). What serves as a “forum” in 2007?