Why the Museum Matters

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23589

Art museums have played a vital role in our culture, drawing on Enlightenment ideals in shaping ideas, advancing learning, fostering community, and providing spaces of beauty and permanence. In this thoughtful and often personal volume, Daniel H. Weiss contemplates the idea of the universal art museum alongside broad considerations about the role of art in society and what defines a cultural experience. The future of art museums is far from secure, and Weiss reflects on many of the difficulties these institutions face, from their financial health to their collecting practices to the audiences they engage to ensuring freedom of expression on the part of artists and curators.

In grappling with these challenges, Weiss sees a solution in shared governance. His tone is one of optimism as he looks to a future where the museum will serve a greater public while continuing to be a steward of culture and a place of discovery, discourse, inspiration, and pleasure. This poignant questioning and affirmation of the museum explores our enduring values while embracing the need for change in a rapidly evolving world.

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Print publication date November 2022 (in print)

Print ISBN 9780300259353

EISBN 9780300275209

Illustrations 0

Print Status in print

Publisher (in print)

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Google Books

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Contents

Contents

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PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23590

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Introduction

It is difficult to argue with the idea that museums matter. Those of us who live in large cities are surrounded by an astonishing variety of them, and the rest of us are touched by them in one way or another. The cultural life of every city, and most communities of any size, is in large part defined by museums. This is true not only in Europe and the United States...

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PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.1

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23591

Part I: A Selective History of the Art Museum

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Part I: A Selective History of the Art Museum

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PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.2

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23592

1. Ancient Antecedents

The origin story of the encyclopedic art museum is both longer and more complex than its Enlightenment history would suggest...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.11-22

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.3

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23593

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--HistoryMuseum studiesArt--Collectors and collecting--HistoryMaterial culture, Ancient--Greece

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2. Reinvention

The elements of the public art museum as we know them today were all in place in the classical world—as were many other ideas about how to live thoughtfully and well...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.23-40

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.4

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23594

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--HistoryMuseum studiesArt--Collectors and collecting--HistoryBritish MuseumEnlightenmentGrand tours (Education)Musée du Louvre

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3. The American Experiment

The decades following the Napoleonic Wars were good ones for the museum movement. With increasing political stability in Europe, and the examples of the Capitoline, British Museum, and especially the Louvre...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.41-53

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.5

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23595

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--HistoryMuseum studiesArt--Collectors and collecting--HistoryMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Part II: Why the Museum Matters

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Part II: Why the Museum Matters

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PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.6

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23596

4. A Place of Consequence

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We all inhabit real and fictive spaces, which serve, for better or worse, as the setting for our daily lives, our memories, and our dreams. The places of greatest importance...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.54-75

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.7

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23597

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--HistoryMuseum studiesArt--Collectors and collecting--HistoryArt museum architectureDesign--History--ExhibitionsMuseum ethics

5. A Forum for Ideas

If the museum has always been experienced as a place of beauty and permanence—something like a sanctuary—it also functions (or aspires to) as a place where ideas are discussed, debated, and critiqued...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.76-99

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.8

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23598

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--HistoryMuseum studiesArt--Collectors and collecting--HistoryMulticulturalismHabermas, JürgenWhitney Biennial (2017 : New York, N.Y.)

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6. An Enterprise for Community

Beyond functioning as a destination of consequence and as a forum for ideas, the American art museum serves an essential role within the wider community as a civic enterprise...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.100-124

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.9

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23599

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--HistoryMuseum studiesMulticulturalismMuseum ethicsMuseum trusteesMuseums--Admission feesMuseums--Deaccessioning

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7. A Source of Identity and Connection

At the time of its dedication in 1870, the founders of The Met said their vision was to create for their growing city a museum and library dedicated to art...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.125-142

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.10

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23600

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--HistoryMuseum studiesMulticulturalismCultural property--RepatriationMuseum ethicsSocial justice

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Part III: New Directions

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Part III: New Directions

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PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.11

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23601

8. Evolving Mission/Preserving Values

Despite an impressive record of sustained progress—achieved across generations, in good times and bad—the American art museum is today facing new and unprecedented challenges...

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.145-151

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.12

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23602

Chapter subject tags:Art museums--HistoryMuseum studiesMulticulturalismArt museums--United StatesCivic improvementMuseum ethicsSocial justice

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9. Museums for a New Generation

In the years ahead, I believe that for museums to meet the needs of our society, and ideally to thrive, our efforts must focus on making progress in four major areas...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.152-168

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00353.13

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23603

Chapter subject tags:Art--Collectors and collecting--HistoryMuseum studiesArt museums--United StatesCivic improvementArt museum directorsMuticulturalism

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Acknowledgments

I have been a dedicated museum person for most of my life, but I have learned the most about these remarkable places during my years at The Met, where I have been privileged to work...

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PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23604

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Index

Index

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23605