There is a great short story about controversial art in museums by Nick Hornby, author of High Fidelity and About A Boy. It's part of a collection of short stories he edited and contributed to entitled Sleeping With The Angel, and it's called "Nipple Jesus." A working class British bloke employed as a bouncer for a night club has a close call one night and starts working as a security guard for an art museum. He's not sure if he wants to be a security guard for the rest of his life, but he knows he's a big guy and it's what he does best. His first task is to protect the controversial piece "Nipple Jesus." From far away the image appears to be Jesus on the cross; however, as he gets closer he realizes it's made from thousands of nipples cut from pornographic magazines.
The rest of the story follows the exhibits opening from the perspective of this security guard and his mixed and changing reaction to the artwork as it becomes a major controversy.
Check Amazon for more details: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1573228583/qid=1107531590/sr=8-7/ref=pd_csp_7/103-6124367-6291020?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Best,
George Garner
Director of Exhibitions
Center for History
808 West Washington, South Bend, IN 46601
--------
Celebrate Black History Month in February at the Center for History by visiting the exhibitions, "A Free Life" and "A Nation Divided."
| Keni Sturgeon wrote:
|
| >Hello all,
| >
| >I have two separate and slightly related questions. I have been teaching an introduction to museums course for the past three years. One of the assignments I have students do is research and present on a Controversial Exhibit or an ethical dilemma. This works well when my enrollment is down, but the course is gaining in popularity and I'm running out of controversial exhibits. I'm wondering what exhibits members of the list could suggest. They are covering "Enola Gay", "Sensation", and "Old Glory, the American Flag in Contemporary Art" as well as some controversial exhibit topics, such as sex, Mapplethorpe, and displaying nudes. What other exhibits come to mind?
| >
| >Second, I am looking for suggestions for museum videos. Not videos with museums, or videos by museums about their collections/exhibits, but videos about a museum. I have one from The Heard Museum, which is great, and I have some recordings from the PBS series "Great Museums" (some episodes are helpful, others not so much). Any suggestions?
| >
| >Thanks,
| >Keni Sturgeon
| >Jensen Arctic Museum
| >Western Oregon University
| >Monmouth, OR 97361
| >
| >=========================================================
| >Important Subscriber Information:
| >
| >The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
| >
| >If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
| >
| >
|
| =========================================================
| Important Subscriber Information:
|
| The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
|
| If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
|
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
|
