Making It to the Museum Museums play a big role in deciding which art is valuable and important. While there are many ways to collect art, museums have the benefit of making it available to the public. This means that museums must very carefully consider the pieces that they include and display. Sometimes museums work with others to share their collections and will host a special exhibit of another museum’s collection.

Using the Internet, do some research on how museums choose what to exhibit. Of course, there are many different kinds of museums, so for this assignment, the focus should be on art museums. You can look at a museum’s decision to get a particular piece of art, create a special exhibition, or display an existing collection. You will use the presentation software of your choice (like Power Point) to create a presentation showing the history of this piece or exhibition. Your presentation should include:

The significance (importance) of the piece of art/exhibition
How the museum actually got the piece of art/exhibition
Who made the decision to get the piece of art/exhibition
How the piece of art/exhibition represents what the museum is all about
The cost of the piece/exhibition
Any challenges that there were in getting the piece/exhibition
Factors that needed to be considered when designing the display
At least one image of the piece of art or the exhibition
Make sure that your presentation is well organized and free of mechanical errors in spelling and punctuation.

Making It to the Museum

Museums play a big role in deciding which art is valuable and important. While there are many ways to collect art, museums have the benefit of making it available to the public. This means that museums must very carefully consider the pieces that they include and display. Sometimes museums work with others to share their collections and will host a special exhibit of another museum’s collection.

Using the Internet, do some research on how museums choose what to exhibit. Of course, there are many different kinds of museums, so for this assignment, the focus should be on art museums. You can look at a museum’s decision to get a particular piece of art, create a special exhibition, or display an existing collection. You will use the presentation software of your choice (like Power Point) to create a presentation showing the history of this piece or exhibition. Your presentation should include:

The significance (importance) of the piece of art/exhibition

How the museum actually got the piece of art/exhibition

Who made the decision to get the piece of art/exhibition

How the piece of art/exhibition represents what the museum is all about

The cost of the piece/exhibition

Any challenges that there were in getting the piece/exhibition

Factors that needed to be considered when designing the display

At least one image of the piece of art or the exhibition

Make sure that your presentation is well organized and free of mechanical errors in spelling and punctuation.

Explanation:

notes in Transforming Museums in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, London:

2012): “We are living through a period of profound change in Western society,

underpinned by a rise in new media and a fundamental shift in Western economies to a

globally interconnected information economy.” For art museums, this shifting landscape

has also been marked by periods of rapid growth and facilities expansion as well as

economic crises and financial uncertainty.

Struggling with issues of audience relevance, leadership and financial sustainability,

museum directors around the world are boldly questioning the future of the art museum.

For some directors, the model of the art museum has never been more challenged and

in need of creative re-imagination. For others, the call to radically reinvent the museum

model is less urgent and the future is more a matter of “minor tweaks” and modest

adaptation. As Richard Armstrong, director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

and Foundation, noted at a recent seminar of international art museum directors at the

Aspen Institute, a key tension among colleagues today is, “Which side of the dynamism

question are you on?”

In conjunction with an ad hoc committee of art museum directors, we convened a fourday seminar in 2013 focused on the future of the art museum. This gathering took place

March 7 through 10 in Aspen, Colorado, at the Aspen Meadows campus of the Aspen

Institute. There an independent group of seventeen art museum directors from the

United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia were joined by seven thought leaders (or

provocateurs) from other fields, including the disciplines of architecture, science,

marketing and communications, technology, business, and the performing arts. Two of

the outside provocateurs were artists. Five countries (including the United States) were

represented. Funding