Museums and Visitors: Membership issues

Brooklyn Museum has launched a variety of membership schemes, to encourage and recognise the value non-traditional membership visitors being to the Museum. Initially identifying Members as "lifelong learners...and donors, who support the museum" the families and other media visitors (eg. bloggers) who are also enthusiastic, do not join.

Whilst the cost issue was raised, the article discusses the benefits for both the institution, and the new visitor, with a new structure of membership categories. The use of social networks, blogs etc is discussed, and the influence of those media on the communication and perceived value for money of the $20 membership cost.

Given the historic patronage of the arts and culture in the UK, and the move towards HLF funded 'free' entry, should (or could) the National or local museums adopt such a scheme? The sense of belonging, possibly having an input/feedback, or receiving extra value for the membership is worth considering. Or is it? 

http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2009/02/1stfans-audience-specific-membership.html

Pavilion..and Cultural Led Urban Regeneration

Hello,

me and the MAs all trundled, carefully, in the blizzard of snow yesterday (sorry...just picked the wrong day I suppose!) down the hill from Leeds Uni to Pavilion, the contemporay art space in 'Holbeck Urban Village' (now that's got to be an oxymoron?)....


We had a chat with Gill Howard (ex Leeds MA!) about the role that Pavilion plays as catalyst for 'emerging' artists...it was really interesting I thought, to hear about the relationships between Government (quango) funding (Arts Council primarily), and the 'idea' of Culture...and especially revealing, I thought, given the location of Pavilion in a space of urban regeneration...... Such projects have been driven, to a large extent, by 'expert' reports such as Lord Rogers' 'Towards an Urban Renaissance' in the late '90s....unfortunately, we ran out of time (and it was too cold and snowy) to take a walk around and see the extent to which society was being 'healed' through the organic development of past-and-present architectural form......but we're going to discuss these interesting urban spaces next week (hopefully).. Anyway, what we found interesting (maybe it was just me?) was how 'difficult' these spaces are to get to, but maybe that's because they have been partly 'forgotten' in the memory of the city?...it's strange that they seem to be part of the city, and yet not part of the city....ah...that brings us back to Heterotopias!
Mark

When are human remains not human remains?

In anticipation of our discussions about the ethics of displaying human remains, I thought it might be interesting to bring these two unfortunate chaps to your attention. I came across these figures when I was doing some research into anatomical teaching aids at the Royal Academy and I think their use and display also has ethical implications. As casts of executed, flayed criminals from the 18th century, can they be considered alongside what we might consider 'innocent' remains? Are they remains at all, or objects baring the trace of a body? Do they have historical value? Or have they become a bit side-show and macabre in a similar vein (if you'll excuse the pun) to Gunther von Hagens' plastinated figures? I think there are continuities to be drawn with other problematic material that our institutions have inherited, such as taxidemy and medical specimens.

There's some fascinating information about these two figures on the RA website, searching for 'Smugglerius'. I can't seem to post the specific links.

(Here's the link Rebecca:

http://83.138.168.41/ixbin/hixclient.exe?submit-button=search&search-form=object/object_month_july2007.html&_IXSESSION_=suKMxRyi9wP

Kindest regards..Mark)

Bourriaud as curator of Tate Britain Triennial

Jonathan Jones has written an interesting piece about Altermodern (defined as post-post-modernism) at Tate Britain, a triennial of British art curated by Bourriaud. It will be interesting to see how far the exhibition is able to avoid the illustration of theory, as many of the selected artists cite Relational Aesthetics as a fundamental influence upon the nature of their practice. The concept of heterogeneity might dominate both theory and practice (if they are to be considered separate) to such an extent that it appears homogeneous. There is also the idea of the star guest curator, which is also discussed in this month's Museums Journal.

Here's the link for the article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/feb/03/tate-britain-triennial

Palladio exhibition

Hi All,
I read a review of the Palladio exhibition in the Times recently, which I found interesting and I thought that some people might like to read it. The criticism is pretty relentless but seems to encapsulate the problems facing a curator designing an architectural exhibition.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/architecture_and_design/article5599289.ece
Enjoy
Jennifer

Are snow days heterotopian?

I wonder what Foucault would make of snow days. If the usual conditions of production, consumption and social interaction are disrupted, does it create a space of otherness? I think the sight of grown men on sledges may provide us with the answer.

The BM....The Universal Survey Museum...?

Hello All,


I thought I'd start the Blog rolling (do Blogs 'roll'.....unfurl maybe?)...anyway, I thought I'd start the Blog by directing attention to what's been happening at the British Museum lately...........you may have noticed the report in the Sunday Times last week (25th Jan)............
Neil MacGregor, Director of the BM, has suggested that the BM has refound its purpose by returning to its roots....MacGregor has (rather neatly, one could argue) pointed to the founding (Enlightenment) principles of the BM in 1753 as a rationale for a renewed contemporary purpose...(I thought this was quite a poetic rationale actually - the museum as a kind of legitimizing presence of it's own historical authority...but then I think MacGregor is aware of such a marketing poesis?)...............(here's the link to the article)

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5566699.ece
Anyway... MacGregor's notion is that the collections at the BM are the 'private collection of every citizen in the world' and although he dosen't actually mention it, the implicit suggestion is that the BM is a 'Universal Survey Museum'. On the surface of it the idea of the BM as a kind of library, (a comparative collection, as MacGregor suggests), seems quite plausible....(almost a bourgeois comfort?)....but surely there must also be a space at the BM to articulate the contested histories of the objects on display....or does the 'idea' of the BM loom too large to effect such a project?




Mark