MUX 118: THE HISTORY AND CRITICAL ISSUES OF MUSEUMS Smith College, Fall 2011, M 2:40-4 p.m.

, Graham Hall, Brown Fine Arts Center, September 12 through December 12, 2010 Jessica Nicoll, course director and Director of the Smith College Museum of Art; office hours Monday, 45pm or by appointment, jfnicoll@smith.edu or 585-2762 COURSE DESCRIPTION: Through readings and a series of lectures by Smith faculty and guests, we will examine institutions that shape knowledge and understanding through the collection, preservation, interpretation, and display of material culture. We will look at the emergence and history of museums and the evolution of architecture to house them. We will consider the role of museums in preserving and elucidating our cultural heritage and such critical issues as the ethics of collection and display and the importance of cultural property rights. We will examine different types of museums, using the Smith College Museum of Art and the Smith Botanic Garden as case studies. ASSESSMENT: Three response papers of 2-3 pages. Papers are due on: October 17, November 14, and December 5. Each student will be expected to attend the weekly lecture and to keep up with the weekly reading schedule. Two or more unexcused absences will be grounds for a grade of unsatisfactory. For tracking attendance, students will take an index card at the beginning of each class. During the lecture, students should write their name on the card and write down an issue or question the speaker raised that they would like to explore further. These cards will be collected at the end of each class. Students are expected to visit the Smith College Museum of Art, the Botanic Garden of Smith College, and other museums within the Five College area.

CLASS SCHEDULE Week 1, September 12: Museums Before There Were Museums: Collections from Ancient Rome to the Renaissance, Barbara Kellum, Professor of Art Readings: o Stephen Greenblatt "Resonance and Wonder" from Exhibiting Cultures: the Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. I Karp and S.D. Lavine eds. Washington, D.C., 1991, pp. 4256.

Week 2, September 19: From Princely Collection to Public Museum in Enlightenment Europe, Andrew McClellan, Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts & Sciences and Professor of Art History, Tufts University Readings:

Museums Course Syllabus, P a g e | 2 o McClellan, Andrew. Louvre Museum, Paris: Art for All, Palace of the People. To be published in 2012.

Week 3, September 26: From Philadelphia to Bentonville: A Short History of Public Collections in the United States, Randall Griffey, Curator of American Art, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College Readings: o o Richman, Irwin. "Charles Willson Peale and the Philadelphia Museum." Pennsylvania History, vol 29, no. 3 (July 1962); pp. 257-277. Mead, Rebecca. "Alice's Wonderland: A Walmart heiress builds a museum in the Ozarks." The New Yorker (June 27, 2011); pp. 28-34.

Week 4, October 3: Furnishing the Frontier: Mayhem, Memory and Museums in Old Deerfield, Massachusetts, Philip Zea, President, Historic Deerfield Readings: Required: o Evan Haefeli and Kevin Sweeney. Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003), pp. 11-33, 95-124. Elizabeth Stillinger. Historic Deerfield: A Portrait of Early America (New York: Dutton, 1992), pp. 1-57.

Recommended: o Suzanne L. Flynt. The Allen Sister: Pictorial Photographers (Deerfield, MA: Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, 2002), pp. 32-47. Philip Zea. Use Improvements, Innumerable Temptations: Pursuing Refinement in Rural New England, 1750-1850 (Deerfield, MA: Historic Deerfield, Inc. 1998), pp. 11-45.

Week 5, October 17: The History of the Smith College Museum of Art, Linda Muehlig, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs/Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, SCMA Readings:

Museums Course Syllabus, P a g e | 3 o Image and Word: Art and Art History at Smith College. Northampton, MA: Smith College, 2003. pp. 115-142.

October 17: First response paper due: reflecting on one or more of the lectures and related readings address one of the following questions: 1. How has the understanding of the social or cultural value of museums changed over time? 2. Compare and contrast the history of museums in the U.S. with their European precedents.

Week 6, October 24: The Art of Institutional Critique, Frazer Ward, Associate Professor, Art History, Smith College Readings o o Buren, Daniel. "The Function of the Studio." October vol. 10 (Fall 1979); pp. 51-58. Haacke, Hans. "Museums, managers of consciousness." Art in America vol. 72, no. 2 (Feb 1984); pp. 9, 11, 13, 15, 17.

Week 7, October 31: Battling Entropy: A Brief History of Conservation in Museums, David Dempsey, Associate Director for Museum Services, SCMA Readings: o o Rebecca Mead, Onward and Upward with the Arts, The Art Doctor, The New Yorker, May 11, 2009, p. 58-65. Dianne Dwyer Modestini. "John Brealey and the Cleaning of Paintings," Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 40, Essays in Memory of John M. Brealey (2005), pp. 27-36

Week 8, November 7: Living Museum Collections, Michael Marcotrigiano, Professor and Director of the Smith College Botanic Garden Readings: o Leadlay, Etelka and Jane Geene. The Darwin Technical Manual for Botanic Gardens. London: Botanic Gardens Conservation International, 1998. pp. 27-39, 89-99.

Museums Course Syllabus, P a g e | 4

Week 9, November 14: Cultural Property, Art History and the Museum: From Whose? to How?, Elizabeth Marlowe '94, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art & Art History, Colgate University Readings: o Neil MacGregor, The Whole World in our Hands, The Guardian, July 24, 2004. o M. ONeill, Enlightenment museums: universal or merely global? Museum and Society 2:3 (November, 2004): 192-202.

November 14: Second response paper due. Label Analysis Exercise: This assignment asks you to critique and analyze interpretative labels at SCMA. **See the detailed assignment posted on Moodle.** Week 10, November 21 Museums, Architecture and Visitor Experience, Ipek Kaynar-Rohloff, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art and Art History, Mount Holyoke College, Five College Mellon Fellow Readings: Choose one of these 2 readings to read: o Giebelhausen, M, 2006, "Museum Architecture: A Brief History," in A Companion to Museum Studies Ed S Macdonald (Blackwell Publications, Oxford).pp.223-244. Lampugnani, V. M., 2006, "Insight Versus Entertainment: Untimely Meditations on the Architecture of Twentieth Century Art Museums," in A Companion to Museum Studies Ed S Macdonald (Blackwell Publications, Oxford) pp.245-262.

And choose one of these 2 readings to read: o Hillier B, Tzortzi K, 2006, "Space Syntax: The Language of Museum Space", in A Companion to Museum Studies Ed S Macdonald (Blackwell Publications, Oxford) Psarra, S, 2009, "Tracing the Modern: space, display and exploration in the Museum of Modern Art" in Architecture and Narrative: The Formation of Space and Cultural Meaning (Routledge, New York)pp. 185-210

Week 11, November 28 Making Museums Matter in the 21st Century, Lesley Wellman, Assistant Director, Curator of Education, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College

Museums Course Syllabus, P a g e | 5 Required Readings: o Falk, John and Lynn Dierking. Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning. CA: AltaMira Press, 2000. Chapter 10, Making Museums Better Learning Experiences, pp. 177-204. Weil, Stephen E. From Being about Something to Being for Somebody: The Ongoing Transformation of the American Museum. Daedalus Vol. 128, No. 3 (Summer, 1999), pp. 229-258. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20027573

Recommended online perusals: NOTE: These three reports include clear executive summaries, introductions, headers, and/or recommendation sections, so the information they offer is quickly accessible. Selected pages to focus on are indicated for each. o Demographic Transformation and the Future of Museums, a 42-page report by the Center for the Future of Museums, available on the web site of the American Association of Museums. See pp. 28 31 for research recommendations and a call to action. http://www.futureofmuseums.org/reading/publications/upload/2DemoFoM_AAM2010 .pdf Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills, a 40-page report by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and available on their web site. See pp. 3-6 for an introduction to the project and pp. 25-28 for definitions of skills, and pp. 30-31 for recommendations. http://www.imls.gov/assets/1/AssetManager/21stCenturySkills.pdf The 2010 Horizons Report: Museum Edition, a publication of The Marcus Institute for Digital Education in the Arts, a program of The New Media Consortium. See the 5-page Executive Summary for a quick overview. http://www.nmc.org/publications/2010-horizon-museum-report

Week 12, December 5 Museum Censorship 2.0, Christopher Steiner, Lucy C. McDannel '22 Professor of Art History and Director of Museum Studies, Connecticut College Readings: o Christopher B. Steiner, "Museum Censorship," in The Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics: Redefining Ethics for the Twenty-First Century Museum, edited by Janet Marstine. New York: Routledge, 2011; pp. 393-413

Museums Course Syllabus, P a g e | 6 o Daniel Spock, "Museum Authority Up for Grabs: The Latest Thing, or Following a Long Trend Line," Exhibitionist 28:2 (2009): pp. 6-10.

December 5: Third and final response paper due: Visit an exhibition or collection display at a local museum or collecting institution. Take time to experience the exhibition/display yourself and observe the behavior patterns of other visitors within the space. Write a critical analysis of the exhibition, focusing on the institutions presentation of objects and information. Week 13, December 12 Thelma Golden 87, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem