Museums are old!

I am conducting a parallel research among people who are not in the
arts to understand how they see art museums and why they do/do not
visit them.
I want to share two answers I have received in the last two days:

"I have been to a few and I'm neutral. I would rather go to a history
museum, or natural sciences. I have seen paintings on par with many
famous ones, in kindergarten classes. And some of the sculptures
resemble things I can find in a junk yard. Art is subjective and much
of it I can't be bothered to be subjected to."

"The word itself already gives me the impression of something old and
intellectual.
I don't look at it in a positive way.
Yes, I have been there both by myself and with the school, but it has
never been a pleasant experience. It all depends on the nature of the
museum, of course.
Generally, for me ... I leave museums for when I will be old...
For now there are more interesting places to see!"

It is very common, especially among young people, to see art museums
as something detached and uncomfortable.
This is why many of them are trying to give away a different and new
image of themselves.
This change, however, is considered by some as a negative move: they
are calling it the "Disneyfication" of museums or the new "fast food"
culture.

But is this new "populist" change necessarily so negative?

Art Museum: from art temple to leisure centre?

The new challenges art museums around the world are facing now are many and difficult.
The first one is a main issue that compromises the existence of the museum itself: the lack of funds. Another concern of museums today is the policy of inclusion by which museums are expected to involve new potential publics, enriching the community and the social life of non-usual museum visitors. A third matter is created by a new competitive market: art museums have now to face other art or non art museums, entertainment facilities and also indirect competitors like the worldwideweb.
This peculiar situation has pushed art museums to rethink their relationship with the community, their image in society, their strategies and even their roles.
In recent years, one new approach has seemed to be common to most of the big national and private museums as a response to all three challenges: the leisure approach.
Museums try to reach new and larger publics adopting the most popular strategies of marketing, providing a variety of different experiences and additional corollary services such as shops and restaurants.
But, is this new approach taking museums to the result they are aiming for? Or is the evolution from museum to leisure centre dangerous and even misleading for the experience of art?
Some schools of thought see this shift negatively. They affirm that traditional main functions of museums, such as conservation, restoration and research, have been put in a secondary place of priorities by the one of being a space for temporary exhibitions that are able to attract more potential visitors. From being object-oriented, museums are more and more public-oriented by making themselves accessible to wider publics through blockbuster exhibitions, subsidiary activities and new interactive technologies.
Some theorists, on the contrary, see this contamination of functions as a positive and necessary evolution in museums roles. In contemporary society, as art shows, there is no more space for dogmatic principles and defined behaviours, but everything and everyone needs to mix and transform and reinvent continuously. Cultural and creative spaces must become flexible, participative, multicultural, democratic, places of production not of conservation. To them the role of museums is to serve its visitors, therefore, they should engage them and involve them, offering experiences in a learning and enjoyable environment. Culture consumers today are increasingly exigent, they don’t want only the product, but they want the experience with it. They don’t only want to learn but they also want to be entertained. Museums should respond to their needs.

Is this the correct and inevitable evolution of our museums? Or are they simply corrupting their nature to the rules of a consumerist society?

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Art - friend or enemy of our society?

The debate around art goes way back to ancient Greece.
Aristotle considered it to be a source of inspiration and educational values for the good citizen, while Plato viewed it as an unhealthy and corrupted enemy of reason. To him art could only move man away from truth inciting passions and fitful behaviour.
During the 18th century with the invention of the concept of aesthetics, art begin to be seen as a conductor of morality, improving emotional and spiritual awareness. This was when art galleries became temples and art a new form of religion.
In the 19th century a new philanthropic philosophy of art begin to be established; art was considered a way to improve society by arising the spirit of every man, including the poor. It therefore could lead to social cohesion and democratisation (and maybe keep down the malcontents of lower classes that were starting to claim their rights and threatening the hierarchy with strikes and riots).
However new scepticism and criticism on the power of art on man, made their appearance from the 20th century, until now. While theorists of the Frankfurt School in the 1930s and 40s considered art as a tool of unity and social formation, others like Berger start to point their fingers to Western history of art, accusing it of only exploiting and reinforcing the political power of the upper classes. Marxist critic Pierre Bourdieu, conducting a research in the 1960s in French museums, concluded that taste in art is just a maker of class distinction, reflecting the difference of educational and economic status of people.

What can we say about art today?
Where do art museums stand?
Are they a positive tool in our society or are they still deviously "elitarian"?

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A PLACE FOR FREE DEBATE!

Hello!

This is a blog that I have created as my personal RESEARCH tool on art, especially CONTEMPORARY ART, its meanings, its importance in society, they way people approach it, they way people experience it and the way it is percieved in modern society.

I am currently working on my dissertation that wants to analyse contemporary art museums strategies to open up to new publics.

I want to understand if their management and marketing methods, that ususally consist in making the museum more entertaining, are the right answer to their policies.

I will post news and articles around the topic and I want readers to INTERACT, comment and share their OPINIONS.

I have to inform whoever will participate that the information posted on this blog will be used for my research.

I really hope this blog will become a place for a free debate. I am interested in knowing all the points of view, so feel FREE to say what you think.. always RESPECTING others, that's obvious! :)

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