Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

Cuno, James

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Description: Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

BOOKWhose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100022

During the economic boom of the 1990s, art museums expanded dramatically in size, scope, and ambition. They came to be seen as new civic centers: on the one hand as places of entertainment, leisure, and commerce, on the other as socially therapeutic institutions. But museums were also criticized for everything from elitism to looting or illegally exporting works from other countries, to exhibiting works offensive to the public taste.

Whose Muse? brings together five directors of leading American and British art museums who together offer a forward-looking alternative to such prevailing views. While their approaches differ, certain themes recur: As museums have become increasingly complex and costly to manage, and as government support has waned, the temptation is great to follow policies driven not by a mission but by the market. However, the directors concur that public trust can be upheld only if museums continue to see their core mission as building collections that reflect a nation’s artistic legacy and providing informed and unfettered access to them.

The book, based on a lecture series of the same title held in 2000–2001 by the Harvard Program for Art Museum Directors, also includes an introduction by Cuno and a fascinating roundtable discussion among the participating directors. A rare collection of sustained reflections by prominent museum directors on the current state of affairs in their profession, this book is without equal.

Author

James Cuno (Editor)

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Print publication date October 2006 (in print)

Print ISBN 9780691127811

EISBN 9780300281019

Illustrations 30

Print Status in print

Publisher (in print)

WorldCat

Google Books

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Contents

James Cuno (Editor)

Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

Contents

Author

James Cuno (Editor)

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100023

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Preface and Acknowledgments

James Cuno

Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

OVER THE COURSE of ten months, from October 2001 through June 2002, the Harvard Program for Art Museum Directors and the Harvard University Art Museums, of which at the time I was director, organized a series of lectures on the subject of the public’s regard for and trust in art museums. The participants and I...

Author

James Cuno

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100024

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Introduction

James Cuno

Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

OVER THE YEARS at meetings of the Association of Art Museum Directors, around the seminar table at the Harvard Program for Art Museum Directors, or in one or another of our offices, we, the authors of this book, found ourselves frequently discussing the nature and foundation of the public purpose of art museums and wondering why art museums, which are more popular than ever before, are also more...

Author

James Cuno

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.11-25

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100025

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--Public relationsArt museums--Public opinionMuseum studiesMuseum financeArt museum directorsMuseum ethics

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A Pentecost in Trafalgar Square

Neil MacGregor

Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

I WOULD LIKE to address some of the problems related to the kinds of responsibilities that we, as directors, curators, or trustees of public collections, have with regard to our collections. Specifically, how, for whom, and to what purpose do we present our collections? What are our obligations to the public? What to the artist? What to truth, to beauty, or—more prosaically—to the...

Author

Neil MacGregor

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.27-48

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100026

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--PhilosophyArt museums--Public opinionArt museums--Public relationsMuseum studiesNational Gallery (Great Britain)Art museums--Collection managementMuseum ethics

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The Object of Art Museums

James Cuno

Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

WE HAVE ALL heard stories of people going to museums in the days following September 11, just to be there, quietly, safe in the company of things that are beautiful and impossibly fragile, yet that have lasted for centuries through war and tumult to lay claim still on our imaginations. I was reminded of Neil MacGregor’s story of London’s National Gallery during the Blitz....

Author

James Cuno

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.49-75

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100027

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--PhilosophyArt museums--Public opinionArt museums--Collection managementMuseum studiesArt museum visitorsHarvard University. Art MuseumsMuseum ethicsArt museums--History

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Pictures, Tears, Lights, and Seats

John Walsh

Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

JAMES CUNO SAYS something in his essay that I want to repeat: In the end, this is what our visitors most want from us: to have access to works of art in order to change them...

Author

John Walsh

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.77-101

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100028

Chapter subject tags:Art museum visitorsArt museums--ExhibitionsArt museums--Public opinionMuseum studiesArt museums--PhilosophyEmotions--Social aspectsMuseum ethics

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The Authorities of the American Art Museum

James N. Wood

Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

OUR SUBJECT IS “Art Museums and the Public Trust.” I am turning my attention to the American art museum and primarily those with a substantial permanent collection. The contents, strengths, and weaknesses of these collections define the museums of each of my fellow contributors just as they certainly provide the fundamental identity of the Art Institute of Chicago. However, beyond the...

Author

James N. Wood

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.103-128

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100029

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--United StatesArt museums--PhilosophyArt Institute of ChicagoMuseum studiesMuseum architecture--United StatesArt museums--Public opinionArt museums--HistoryArt--Conservation and restorationArt museums--Collection managementMuseum ethics

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A Deontological Approach to Art Museums and the Public Trust

Glenn D. Lowry

Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

THERE ARE MANY ways to explore the question of art museums and public trust. I take as my point of departure the American art museum, though my comments may, in a general sense, apply to European art museums as well. But it is important to remember that American art museums are primarily private entities that are accorded public status, whereas European museums are, for the most part, civic and...

Author

Glenn D. Lowry

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.129-149

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100030

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--PhilosophyArt museums--Public opinionMuseum studiesArt museums--HistoryArt critics--United States--20th centuryArt museums--ExhibitionsArt museums--AcquisitionsMuseum ethics

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Art Museums, Inspiring Public Trust

Philippe de Montebello

Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

I HAVE STRUCTURED my discussion on the issue before us—on the art museum and the public trust—in two parts. First, there is an introduction in which I give my own interpretation of the term public trust in order to make sense of the second part, in which I propose to examine the state of art museums today and consider how current trends may be affecting that trust.

Author

Philippe de Montebello

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.151-169

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100031

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--PhilosophyArt museums--ExhibitionsArt museums--Public opinionArt museums--Public relationsMuseum studiesArt museums--Educational aspectsArt museums--HistoryArt museum visitorsMuseum ethics

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Round Table Discussion

James Cuno (Editor)

Whose Muse?: Art Museums and the Public Trust

Round Table Discussion

Author

James Cuno (Editor)

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.171-201

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-100032

Chapter subject tags:Art museum directorsArt museums--PhilosophyArt museums--ExhibitionsArt museum visitorsMuseum studiesArt museums--Public opinionArt museums--Public relationsMuseum ethics

Access to this content is only available to subscribers. If you are at an institution that currently subscribes to the A&AePortal, please login to your VPN before accessing the site. If you have already purchased an individual subscription, please sign in to your account to access the content. Learn more about subscriptions.

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