Haven't read the article yet, but my immediate reaction to the City Museum
(which I visited in July) was "Where are all the objects?"  I loved one of
their exhibits, a small show of historical maps and views of the city,
simply because it had real stuff in it.

Julia Muney Moore
Director of Exhibitions and Artist Services
Indianapolis Art Center
820 E. 67th St.
Indianapolis, IN  46220
(317) 255-2464 x233
FAX (317) 254-0486
email <[log in to unmask]>
website <http://www.indplsartcenter.org>


-----Original Message-----
From: Felicia Pickering [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2004 2:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Object Lessons


Essay
Object Lessons
One Museum Soars, One Plods. Both Want to Open Minds, but the Former Knows
Eyes Come First.

By Blake Gopnik

An article comparing the new City Museum of Washington and the Smithsonian
Udvar-Hazy Center and speculating that the reason Hazy is a success but the
City Museum has low visitation is "Wondrous stuff to look at -- or a
puzzling lack of such, at the City Museum." Article author says "museums
are, first and foremost, about fascinating objects." and "Realizing that
people learn from objects, and that museums have always made that learning
possible, curators have come to imagine that the learning is the ultimate
goal. Objects are thought of as handy tools for getting there. In art
museums as well as museums of history and science, flat-footed pedagogy is
taking the place of Wunderkammer wonder."

Just wondering what the list would think of this article, which can be found
at:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45679-2004Aug6.html

(free registration is required to access the Washington Post website or you
can use http://www.bugmenot.com/ )

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