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 SMP Silver Salon Forums
 A Curator's Viewpoint
 Mundane or Masterpiece?
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| Author | Topic: Mundane or Masterpiece? |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 05-12-1999 09:15 AM
  
OK, let's try to be provocative. Some curator's only want "masterpieces." I share their pain. However, other curators want typical, everyday things--like butter knives and cheese scoops--but only one of each, to demonstrate what people really used. Still other curators want marks--which is to say that they don't care so much what the form is, but that they document every single maker of a region, a period, a style. Collectors, on the other hand, often are very focused. What do YOU think museums "should" collect? IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 05-12-1999 10:27 PM
This is a very good question. It is easier for me if I restate it as: What is a museum? In a perfect world, the simple answer is that a museum is the preservation repository of artifacts, knowledge & history. The museum maintains, preserves and organizes thier collection(s) as a resource for objective public and private scholarship and research. And going forward, to diligently seek out and sponsor the ongoing collection of human kinds ever expanding base of artifacts, knowledge & history. To do these tasks without prejudice thereby ensuring that these goals are accomplished with total objectivity. The ideals outlined in the above paragraph may never be completely achieved. Nevertheless, these ideals should remain a goal. Museums need to realize that the only way to come close to this ideal is to join forces with all other similar and diverse institutions. These institutions should subscribe to a universal set of cataloging protocols and continually develop and refine these protocols until such time as every institution's diverse and unique collections can be accessed and networked by anyone from anywhere. It is the new age of ubiquitous information and communications so we must get beyond institutional protectionism and recognize that the opportunity is before us now. I am hopeful that other curators will see this message and look forward to their postings. Scott IP: Logged |
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wev Moderator Posts: 4121 |
posted 05-14-1999 08:15 PM
As you say Scott, in a perfect world. (I once emailed a request to Bill Gates to fund putting the entire image database at Winterthur on line, but haven't heard back...)But it still requires an institution to decide what it is trying to be and how that role's sucess is to be measured. If their intent is to display treasures to the public and they measure success by the clicks of the turnstile, they better look to the flash and butter up the flashy for objects to show (ala the LA County's collection of monumental silver). If their intent is to provide a research facility, they may set aside a pursuit of perfection in favour of a broad cross-section of forms and makers (ala Winterthur's study collection). Such decisions are at the core of a museum's structure: if it chooses one, but does the other, disaster follows quickly -- I know from personal experience. Most institutions, of course, will desire some blend of the two extremes, so collect a reasonable set of examples to illustrate the period, buying to as high a standard as their budget allows. At that point it becomes more a matter of person taste and the ability of the curator to fight for what he craves than anything else. Personally, I have little use for the flash; my own collecting interest is in the development of personal and regional styles which are more often revealed in the mundane than the monumental. IP: Logged |
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