Case Study Frederick Historical Society

Museums have long served a purpose as cultural staples. For every museum, big and small, careful consideration is used in selecting its contents. When securing new items for a museum, it is most important to consider public appeal, educational value, and cost-effectiveness.

Positioned alongside Central Park in the heart of New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the largest and most influential art museums in the world. The Met houses an extensive collection of curated works that spans throughout various time periods and different cultures. The context of museum, especially one as influential as the Met, inherently predisposes its visitors to a certain set of understandings that subtly influence how they interpret and ultimately construct meanings about each individual object within the museum. Brent Plate in Religion, Art, and Visual Culture argues that “objects obtain different meanings in different locations and historical settings.”An object placed on display behind a glass case inside a museum would hold a vastly different meaning if it was put on sale by a street vendor, like the ones who set up their tables in close proximity to the Met. The different meanings that objects are able to obtain is attributed to the relationships that are established between the object itself and the environment that surrounds it. These relationships often involve the kind of audience that a museum attracts, where the work is exhibited, and how the exhibits within a museum is planned out. Museums subsequently have the ability to control how these relationships are established which influences the way a viewer is able to construct meaning. When a visitor observes an object on display at the Met, they instinctively construct a certain set of

To highlight the relationship between each of the exhibitions, the staff could provide daily visitors with a cohesive guide map of the entire museum. The current location of the museum is massive to accommodate for the displays as well as three research laboratories, but due to large size, each exhibit feels isolated and

I hope to see museums make more concerted efforts to educate the public. Too many exhibits are of the “passive, didactic looking” than like the engaging Object Stories program (Dartt, Murawski). Exhibits should seek to tell untold narratives, and programs should be places of communication and cross-cultural encounters. For too long, difficult confrontations have been avoided, both inside the museum, and by dominant communities

Include information derived from your course materials, research in the University Library, and your personal analysis describing why these exhibits must be included. Descriptions and analysis must use complete sentences and be at least 100 words in

The Dallas Museum is a renowned art museum established in 1903 and is located in Dallas, Texas (Neumann et al. 19). The Dallas Museum of art is one of the largest art museums in the United States of America containing more than 24,000 collections of art ranging from the ancient to the modern ones (MacDonald & Brettell 112). There are numerous things inside the museum, such as the pieces of art, museum visitors, and the architecture, that relate to the understanding of the world outside the museum in terms of the day to day life and the human society. My goal in this essay is to think outside the box and describe the observations I made inside the museum and explain how they relate to my everyday life, the wider world, or the human society.

In the Robyn Autry article, it mainly focuses on the national conflict of museums mainly focusing towards African American. The author travel to 15 museums around the United States that focuses towards African American. She mainly talks about how the African American were facing numerous hardships in the U.S and how the museum represents those issues to the general public. She believes the way to tell the hardship of African Americans is by exhibiting through a museum. When traveling through these museums she focused towards “centered on three traumatic episodes: capture and displacement from Africa, enslavement, and racial segregation” (Autry 64). The author of the articles wants to show that over time that museums meanings has changed over

It was impossible for Frederick to tell when he had been born or who his father was because he was born to a slave mother. According to Frederick’s former master, “such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent” (Douglass 236). This means that slaves were not to know because it showed that they had a “restless spirit,” or a troublesome mindset that could potentially grow to wanting freedom or more knowledge (Douglass 236). In doing so, it becomes harder to control slaves. Those considered slaves, or are slaves, are not told of any personal details other than what time they were to be used, this includes birthday, age, and in most cases, parents. Infants, as in the case of Frederick, are taken away from their maternal parents,

There are opportunities though, and they are good opportunities. I was able to identify three that they should pay attention to and really hit hard on. In today’s economy, people aren’t wanting to spend a lot of money. The recession is making people be a lot more conscious about money. Good news, the museum is free. If marketed properly, this could be a huge way to gain new visitors. Plus, art museums have sophisticated connotations that make people feel smart when they go to them. What better way to spend the day than to go somewhere that is free and feel sophisticated? Another opportunity is that new exhibits could attract younger demographics, pending on the exhibit. This could be tricky though because they want to attract everyone, but older crowds are interested in things that younger generations aren’t. They have to be able to balance the attractions so everyone can relate to it and want to view it.

In children's museum, exhibits are activities based, often includes building blocks, puzzles, computer pieces and dress-up areas. Staff should keep these areas clean and neat. Items on the floor become stumbling hazards and impediments for wheelchair users and people with low vision. Messy areas also create a sense of disruption and lack of control. They do not feel safe and comfortable. If maintenance staffing is minimal, components need to be simple and built to last forever. As visitors flow through museums, they break and lose items. Designs need to be flexible, allowing substitute of components rather than entire exhibits to assist with the ongoing renovation.

What is art? A question asked by many yet never answered. Art is something one can not really reply without personal bias. Every human alive has had experiences in life to form there like dislike and personal tastes. What one finds beautiful another might not. When one views an exhibit what question should one ask themselves? Let’s explore Carl knickerbockers exhibit “Incomplete Guide to Suburban Primitive”.

1. What have the museum curators identified as the central theme of this exhibit? Explain how curators understand this topic, its causes, and its consequences. How is this particular interpretation reflected in the exhibit? (Give specific examples).

The Victoria and Albert Museum created many different ways to interact with the visitors. First, they created their website to be easily navigated and created interactive exercises such as “Design a Wig” to promote their exhibitions. By visitors having fun with creating a wig, it builds anticipation on their visit and creates more reason to visit the museum. At the museum itself, visitors will be met with the Hands-On Exhibitions. The exhibitions allows the visitors to try on Victorian costumes, make a brass rubbing or a giant slider puzzle, try on armour gauntlet, design their own tea post, and more (). Through out the whole experience, the visitors are met with fun interactive activities that are not only geared toward children, but adults as well. At Science Museum London, they take pride in their own section of interactive exhibits. Launchpad, packed with over 50 interactive exhibits geared to ward 8-14 years old, is now closed as the museum prepares to open new Interactive Gallery. The new Interactive Gallery, 60% larger than Launchpad will engage all visitors in the drama and spectacle of math and science (). This change was done to better engage the adults, especially experience seeking millennials. One of Gen Y panel member from Millennial Marketing recalled that: “My best museum experiences were London Science Museum and Victoria & Albert. One common thing these both museums have is that they mange to interact with their visitors. Once you walked into the exhibition hall, you find yourself in some place like Wonderland. The interior design, interactive tools and toys are simply designed to create a magical experience. It is never boring. A magical land would never be boring.”

Collections play a crucial role in fulfilling a museum’s mission and purpose. A museum’s collection is defined by its collection policy past and present which in turn helps to shape the museum’s goals and direction. As stewards of collections, museums are expected to maintain the highest professional standards legally and ethically.

According to the American Alliance of Museums, community engagement in museums includes the use of this facility as “a center where people gather to meet and converse and an active, visible player in civic life, a safe haven, and a trusted incubator of change” (Long 141). Different museums