This discussion took an interesting turn this morning with postings from
Amy Marshall and Kyra Schuster about their experiences with visitors
who did not respect the universal law that says "thou shalt not
touch the museum artifacts".

Amy mentions a visit to an airplane museum where "the museum had
placed a metal staircase beside the plane - the idea being that the
public could go up the staircase and look into the cockpit", but to
her horror, "The kids...were GETTING IN AND OUT OF THE PLANE AND
WERE STANDING ON THE WINGS!" (her capitals). She says that the parents
"should KNOW better". She concludes that "it's amazing what people
don't know about museums and collections and handling. I've also
heard people plainly state: 'If it isn't in a case or roped off, its
MEANT to be touched'".

Kyra Schuster was visiting an art gallery, "wandering slowly" through
the galleries as she puts it, when two women came in "making quite
the entrance and talking rather loudly". One of these "loud"  women grabbed a
sculpture and hugged it, proclaiming her undying love for it, at
which point Kyra "stared at her in horror, and asked her politely to
remove her hands from the sculpture."

Kyra claims that her  faith in (presumably the sanctity and professionalism of)
the  gallery was restored later when she saw a man touching a canvas and "a guar
d
yelled across the room 'NO TOUCHING!!!' - boy did that guy jump back."

What these two stories illustrate to me is not that some museum
visitors are ignorant or stupid or rude or loud as the writers clearly felt
at the time, but that many, many people who visit museums are not
fluent in the culture that exists in museums - a culture that often  insists tha
t
visitors are not "loud", do not "touch", and (best/worst of all ) assumes that a
ll
people who enter these places automatically know the rules of behaviour
expected therein.

I think the authors of these two postings expect us, as museum
workers or people with more than a passing interest in museums, to empathise
with their feelings at seeing such uncultured museum-visitor behaviour, and to
nod in knowing agreement - "yes, isn't it terrible". Well I do not
empathise with their feelings - as a museum worker I confess to being
somewhat embarassed and exasperated by them.

While I certainly do not believe that "anything goes" in terms of visitor
behaviour in museums (I could get into trouble for that!), I think it is downrig
ht
arrogant to assume that all those people who do bother to visit will know to
behave in a manner that we think is acceptable. Entering a museum for the first
time is for some people about as alien an experience as that of others entering
a
strange culture as a visitor/refugee/immigrant. The host culture (and
the museum) must help newcomers/visitors orientate themselves, try to encourage
behaviour that is deemed acceptable in that culture, etc.,  not yell
at them or make fun of them and their lack of understanding of the language and
mores of the culture.

Sometimes the behaviours or beliefs  brought by newcomers to a culture actually
become adopted as "normal" by the host culture. I offer a museum example
from New Zealand whereby museum staff and visitors place fresh green foliage
on or next to Maori artworks and treasures in galleries & storerooms.

This practice began when the exhibition Te Maori returned to NZ from a tour of
the US in 1984-5 (it may well have occurred in the US host museums as well, I'm
not sure) at which time Maori people began visiting (and working in) museums in
numbers previously unheard of. Obviously the practice raised some concern among
(European) curators and conservators. It is now standard behaviour  in NZ
museums as Maori beliefs and practices regarding the care of taonga (treasures)
have become as much a part of NZ museology as anything taught in Museum
Studies courses.

Likewise the touching of taonga - from a Maori perspective it would be absolutel
y
unnatural to NOT touch a carved ancestor figure in a museum - I have
seen young children planting kisses and hongis (touching of noses in
greeting) on their own ancestor figures in museums. Terribly dangerous behaviour
according to the textbook  from Organic Conservation 101, but completely normal
and acceptable behaviour according to the culture of the people from whom the
artifacts originated and who maintain spiritual guardianship of them.

A rambling post I know - sorry - but the issue is a vital one
(although not a new one) and the cultural arrogance that came through
in the two postings referred to above really got my goat (to use a
rather bizarre expression!) Please tell me if I'm out of
line...again...


Greg McManus
Gisborne Museum & Arts Centre
Te Whare Taonga o Te Tairawhiti
NEW ZEALAND
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