In a message dated 00-09-07 12:18:00 EDT, Chris Dill wrote:

<< I didn't suggest that academic writing was inherently "better" than =
 exhibit writing, YOU did in the post to which I was responding.  >>

Absolutely not so.  I'm not sure why there is any confusion here.  The only
time I even used the word "better" was in the phrase "better opportunities."
YOU raised the issue of "which is better?"  And I certainly didn't claim you
said academic writing was inherently better--you implied quite the opposite
when you raised the issue.  You asked:

Is it better to write a book or bunch of articles about an =
obscure subject published in an obscure professional journal in art =
history, history, archeology, anthropology, etc., or to do research which =
results in an excellent exhibit which is seen by thousands of people?

If I erroneously interpreted this to mean that you had a bias against
"obscure" subjects and "obscure" professional journals, I apologize, but it
seems to me that "obscure" is a loaded word.  Perhaps "specialized" is what
you really meant.  But the point is that I never said one form was better
than another.  Are you sure you weren't implying a preference for exhibits
which reach a wider audience than "obscure" scholarly journals?

Again, I was arguing for peace, harmony, and mutual appreciation by academics
and museum people for each other's work.  I consider it absurd for an
academic to frown upon museum careers, especially since museums house much of
the actual historical evidence which forms the basis for academic scholarship
(and if an academic scholar feels that museum scholarship is inferior, it
would be doubly absurd to discourage a promising graduate student from
entering the museum field, where he or she might be able to raise the level).
 However, I also think it's ridiculous for museum people to deride university
professors as ivory-tower elitists, when much museum work is built upon the
insights of academic scholarship.  I felt that your questions about "which is
better" suggested a negative attitude toward academic scholarship, with their
emphasis on obscurity.

So, do we have that all straight now?

There ought to be a complementary or symbiotic relationship between the
museum and university worlds.  As a matter of fact, there traditionally has
been such a relationship, and in some ways it's stronger than ever.  After
all, much of what has been happening in history museums in recent years, for
better or for worse, is heavily informed and influenced by the social and
cultural theories of academia.  And many university professors are intensely
interested in the work of museums.

Some of the complaints alleging academic contempt for museum careers seemed
to relate to art history.  This was rather strange to me, since museums hold
the very stuff which academic art historians study directly, so the
relationship between museums and universities in that rarefied field is
inherently and necessarily very strong.  I haven't experienced any university
elitism in my own subset of art history, the history of photography, where
curators and professors seem to enjoy mutual respect--but on the other hand,
I'm not currently a student, so I don't have firsthand knowledge of what
professors say to their students behind curators' backs.  The main thrust of
my questions was to try to establish what was going on.  In fact, I wondered
if the phenomenon of academic disrespect for museums was as profound as some
suggested.  I was trying to suggest that there might be some element of
misunderstanding of motives or over-reaction.

This dialogue itself demonstrates that like-minded people can and do
misunderstand (and sometimes misquote) each other.  I hope I've made myself a
bit clearer.  I'm gratified to see that Chris Dill and I don't really
disagree (apparently), although we thought we did.

Next topic, please.

David Haberstich

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