NathanY Museum Ethics

 This week, I read the following pieces A Virtual Museum Preserves Black Lives Matter Protest Art by Leah Feiger and Should human remains be displayed in museums? by Julia Deathridge. The article by Leah Feiger describes how George Floyds memorial has transformed from a memorial to part of a virtual "museum". George Floyds memorial has been added along with black protest artwork to preserve the history of the protests. The reason "museum" is in in quotes is because of the negative history museums have with preserving African culture. Really, the collection of art and the memorial is seen as a database that cannot be taken by anyone. In a way, its a privately owned digital museum that removes itself from the colonization of its contemporaries. This database provides a hopeful future for the preservation of art. While the art featured may be destroyed or unviewable to those who are out of state, it can be easily accessed and permanent through the database, safe from ...

 Hello everyone,  my topic is to cover how museums plan to target and appeal to people with lesser incomes. This includes how often people of color view and enter museums compared to their white lower income counter parts, as this reflects what demographics museums are typically built around, as many poorer folks cannot afford to drive further to another town for a museum. While not current and I am looking for a more updated source of this study, according to the 2010 study performed by the NEA in 2008, only 15% of Hispanic people  and  12% of African Americans visited museums. (Farrell & Medvedeva, 2010) The world has changed since then and I would be interested to see if the same study was performed again, though I can currently only find the one study from 2008. However, I did discover an attempt to encourage lower income families to visit museums recently as 2017 called Museums for All. The organization has succeeded in 190 museums to participate in its prog...

"Mining in the Museum" by Fred Wilson was an exhibit designed to showcase museums history. For example, the piece shown above is a critique of curatorial pieces. The piece featured above lists Napoleon, Henry Clay, and Andrew Jackson on the right with Fredrick Douglas, Benjamin Banneker, and Harriet Tubman in black statues on the left. In the center, is a silver globe with the word "Truth" written upon it. This piece presents many interesting ideas. For example, the fact that the white men on the right are given names and faces, while the black people on the left are simply pedestals. Symbolic of how we can recognize the names and faces of white conquerors but not those of black leaders. Overall, his piece forces the viewer to consider why they don't recognize the faces of black leaders, but the white ones are on a literal pedestal. The word, "Truth" in the center also brings some interesting questions.  Truth is provided on a silver platter, or its a...