Christina Krep Reading:

Role of the curator is constantly evolving. Museums are now more concerned with providing an educational experience for visitors than it is with the actual objects within the museum. Curating has evolved into a people and socially-oriented field of work just as museums have evolved into such.

There’s a debate on whether museums should be people or object focused. I think there’s room for both to shine. Similar to Krep’s point I believe that these two concepts are not “mutually exclusive”. Instead there should be a call to action to encourage curatorial work that highlights the “interplay of objects, people, and societies.”

“Curating as a social practice.” Meaning that individual societies have patterned ways of seeing, valuing, and ascribing meaning to and treating objects. This point leads me to believe that the way we experience and engage with art is biased. When we frequent museums, we are doing so through the lens of the curator. Therefore, understanding the curator’s background is essential to understanding how you’re experiencing museums.

I appreciated Krep’s point that in Western museum culture, the “social value” of objects recede into the background once they enter museums. I have been in a many of museums whose sole focus was the uniqueness or rarity of an item instead of its historical implications.

However, museums have shifted from being defined by their relationships with objects, towards their relationship with visitors. Curators should make an effort to involve those cultures whose artifacts are a part of their collection, in an effort to not offend them. Furthermore, the shift in how we define museums has moved towards defining the curators relationships to those people represented in their collections.

Jana Macalik Reading:

Discursive spaces are defined as spaces that foster negotiation and debate. Museums serve society best when they are founded on the principle of intentionality. I like the notion presented to challenge the use of the term “visitor” when speaking about those “users” who explore and engage with the museum itself. “Visitor” implies that those coming to the museum are being hosted and therefore the objects found inside hold weight that supersedes interaction with said objects. This brings me to my point that my most memorable museum visits have been those where I am the engaging with the artifacts and feel a deep connection to the items in the museum (culturally). An example of this, was my visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. In this museum they provided users with a wide array of explorative and immersive experiences. One of my most memorable experiences was an exhibit that gave users the opportuinty to record a video based on prompts that relate to the African-American experience.

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