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Musings on Museums
Oct. 19th, 2012 11:07 amWhen I was a kid, I didn't like history much, at least as it was taught in school. We always seemed to be having to memorize dates of boring battles in boring wars - like, say, the War of 1812. But when it came to learning about ANCIENT history and SOCIAL history - Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Babylonian, Norse - I was fascinated. Learning about the origins and evolution of the arts, and religion and philosophy, and scientific and medical thought and inventions - that was stuff I could relate to. I could see myself (or at least my ancestors) in there and understand how it related to my life in the present day. In short, I was more interested in "civilization" than in what I had come to think of as "history". That's in large part why I was dismayed to learn that the Canadian Museum of Civilization is to become the Canadian Museum of HISTORY. I guess the good news is that it will not officially be the Canadian Museum of CANADIAN History, although the public announcements leave no doubt in my mind that that's what the politicians have in mind.
I no longer consider Canadian history or Canadian politics to be unambiguously boring. But I suspect a lot of children do. If we want our kids to be excited about their heritage and involved in the world at large, we have to show them why it matters. To do this, we should be embracing history in the broadest sense of the word, as well as demonstrating or suggesting how it informs our present and speculating about - or inviting speculation upon - how it may inform our future. A great way to begin the process would be with our network of museums, since museums can engage all the senses and ignite learning and imagination.
Luckily, the Children's Museum portion is to remain - for now. But the Postal Museum is to be disbanded which to me, defies logic. Surely postal service - at least in terms of regular letter-mail - is one facet of our lives that is in danger of BECOMING history!
As it is, most museums in Canada are able to display only a tiny portion of their permanent collections at any one time - I believe ten to fifteen percent may be fairly typical. And some room has to be set aside for the travelling exhibitions, which is where the museums make most of their money. When a museum restricts its mandate, some of the permanent collection will inevitably be deemed to be no longer within its purview. What will happen to the artefacts then?
We've already witnessed the abortive attempt to get a portrait gallery on Wellington Street, at the site of the old US Embassy. There's also an impressive array of art from the Art Bank languishing in the vaults of the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Preservation Centre in Gatineau. How long it can continue to be preserved there is anyone's guess, with the draconian cuts being made to the LAC and for that matter, the public service at large (including national museums)!
Remember when there was to be an exhibit of Arabic art at the Museum of Civilization and it was initially to be deferred because the powers that be decided they needed to "add context" in light of recent political events in the arab countries? Well, the public actually won that battle, insisting they could perfectly well draw their own conclusions, thank you, and the exhibit opened as originally scheduled. But these days, it seems that the government wants to put "context", or more accurately, interpretation, front and centre, while the artefacts are trotted out almost as an afterthought to support the party line!
Context is certainly important. But what is particularly disturbing to me is that research is frequently not done thoroughly enough (Do they just look at Google and Wikipedia and call it a day?) and accompanying "information" may be just plain wrong! For example, at an exhibition of Karsh photographs at the Museum of Science and Technology, the birth and death dates for some of the photographic subjects (including Helen Keller and Ravi Shankar) were completely wrong. I don't mean just a year one way or another, I mean wrong by around ten to fifteen years! When I sent an e-mail to the museum to inform them of this, I never even got the courtesy of a reply. Not even an instant robotic comeback like "Thank you for your feedback. We read all messages and reply if appropriate." I later learned that that particular exhibit (which admittedly was very interesting in other respects) had won some sort of major award. Did they correct the misinformation before (or for that matter, after) they won the award? I don't know. Go figure.
In the Vancouver area, there's a very interesting museum of anthropology and aboriginal art on one of the university campuses (apparently near to the nude beach, which I didn't visit). Some of the museum is fairly traditional in the way the exhibits are laid out, but there are also sections which simply display artefacts from their vast collections, in some sort of logical or functional order but without any commentary. I did find it got a bit overwhelming after a while but I nevertheless commend the museum management for daring to do this - it's a wonderful way to ensure that their collections can be viewed and appreciated rather than languishing unloved and unmaintained in dusty vaults, even if the curators don't have the time to mount a full-fledged exhibition.
When I was in Scotland, I noticed that all their national museums are open to the public free of charge. As ours used to be at one time. They do invite donations, but through the Scottish National Trust, they are committed to allowing residents and visitors alike to view the outward manifestations of Scottish heritage. Edinburgh is a paradise for museum-goers. As is Glasgow. I was particularly taken with the Kelvingrove Museum. Imagine a museum of civilization, museum of natural history, art gallery, hall of fame, library, medical museum... and more, all rolled into one. It even has its own organ, and offers daily organ recitals between 1:00 and 2:00 PM in the atrium area, which also includes a couple of wonderful places to eat lunch!
Why can't we be more imaginative with our museums here in Canada?
I no longer consider Canadian history or Canadian politics to be unambiguously boring. But I suspect a lot of children do. If we want our kids to be excited about their heritage and involved in the world at large, we have to show them why it matters. To do this, we should be embracing history in the broadest sense of the word, as well as demonstrating or suggesting how it informs our present and speculating about - or inviting speculation upon - how it may inform our future. A great way to begin the process would be with our network of museums, since museums can engage all the senses and ignite learning and imagination.
Luckily, the Children's Museum portion is to remain - for now. But the Postal Museum is to be disbanded which to me, defies logic. Surely postal service - at least in terms of regular letter-mail - is one facet of our lives that is in danger of BECOMING history!
As it is, most museums in Canada are able to display only a tiny portion of their permanent collections at any one time - I believe ten to fifteen percent may be fairly typical. And some room has to be set aside for the travelling exhibitions, which is where the museums make most of their money. When a museum restricts its mandate, some of the permanent collection will inevitably be deemed to be no longer within its purview. What will happen to the artefacts then?
We've already witnessed the abortive attempt to get a portrait gallery on Wellington Street, at the site of the old US Embassy. There's also an impressive array of art from the Art Bank languishing in the vaults of the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Preservation Centre in Gatineau. How long it can continue to be preserved there is anyone's guess, with the draconian cuts being made to the LAC and for that matter, the public service at large (including national museums)!
Remember when there was to be an exhibit of Arabic art at the Museum of Civilization and it was initially to be deferred because the powers that be decided they needed to "add context" in light of recent political events in the arab countries? Well, the public actually won that battle, insisting they could perfectly well draw their own conclusions, thank you, and the exhibit opened as originally scheduled. But these days, it seems that the government wants to put "context", or more accurately, interpretation, front and centre, while the artefacts are trotted out almost as an afterthought to support the party line!
Context is certainly important. But what is particularly disturbing to me is that research is frequently not done thoroughly enough (Do they just look at Google and Wikipedia and call it a day?) and accompanying "information" may be just plain wrong! For example, at an exhibition of Karsh photographs at the Museum of Science and Technology, the birth and death dates for some of the photographic subjects (including Helen Keller and Ravi Shankar) were completely wrong. I don't mean just a year one way or another, I mean wrong by around ten to fifteen years! When I sent an e-mail to the museum to inform them of this, I never even got the courtesy of a reply. Not even an instant robotic comeback like "Thank you for your feedback. We read all messages and reply if appropriate." I later learned that that particular exhibit (which admittedly was very interesting in other respects) had won some sort of major award. Did they correct the misinformation before (or for that matter, after) they won the award? I don't know. Go figure.
In the Vancouver area, there's a very interesting museum of anthropology and aboriginal art on one of the university campuses (apparently near to the nude beach, which I didn't visit). Some of the museum is fairly traditional in the way the exhibits are laid out, but there are also sections which simply display artefacts from their vast collections, in some sort of logical or functional order but without any commentary. I did find it got a bit overwhelming after a while but I nevertheless commend the museum management for daring to do this - it's a wonderful way to ensure that their collections can be viewed and appreciated rather than languishing unloved and unmaintained in dusty vaults, even if the curators don't have the time to mount a full-fledged exhibition.
When I was in Scotland, I noticed that all their national museums are open to the public free of charge. As ours used to be at one time. They do invite donations, but through the Scottish National Trust, they are committed to allowing residents and visitors alike to view the outward manifestations of Scottish heritage. Edinburgh is a paradise for museum-goers. As is Glasgow. I was particularly taken with the Kelvingrove Museum. Imagine a museum of civilization, museum of natural history, art gallery, hall of fame, library, medical museum... and more, all rolled into one. It even has its own organ, and offers daily organ recitals between 1:00 and 2:00 PM in the atrium area, which also includes a couple of wonderful places to eat lunch!
Why can't we be more imaginative with our museums here in Canada?
