Dear Sara,
  I think these are great questions, especially for us
who are entering the field. I don't believe there is
one solid answer that covers every museum, collection,
or exhibition.

 I believe your first question has two parts though:
one is ethical (integrity) and the other is related to
the institution's mission.

 Since I live in Boston, I'll use the MFA as my
darling example to distinguish the two. First of all
the MFA collection is broad and not based solely on
fine art (similar to the Met in this regard). So they
are duly suited to exhibit a wide range of objects of
material culture regardless of time period. For
example, in their collection, they have many guitars
from different cultures and historical eras. So an
exhibit of guitars is perfect for the MFA because it
is based on their collection, their scholarly interest
in the area, and it does not "sell out" their mission
to a single interest. I had no problem with the guitar
exhibit.

 As for the upcoming exhibit of Ralph Lauren cars, I
do have an ethical problem with the exhibit as I
understand it. Because Mr. Lauren is donating an
undisclosed sum of money to the MFA for the exhibit
and the car collection is entirely his own (meaning it
won't be placed in a larger context of historical
importance), it is unclear whether the exhibit will be
about Mr Lauren's car collection or about the
automobile.

The question for the MFA is, what are they exhibiting?
Are they exhibiting someone's capital investment in
these cars or is there some greater relevance of
material culture here that the community needs to know
about? I believe the Guggenheim had a similiar problem
with the Armani exhibition.

And no I don't believe the problem is museums are
"dumbing down" their exhibitions by displaying objects
from popular culture. What matters is making it
relevant. The critical interest in psychedelic rock
posters, modernist carpets, pulp paperbacks, or Ford
cars is to constantly reexamine and expand the
respective fields of culture (a kind of conversation
of sorts!).

 With so many artists today exploring popular culture
and media in their work it seems fitting that museums
are moving in a similar direction. Tomorrow's best
curators will have to be far more submerged and
sophisticated in popular expression than their
predecessors are, like it or not. I believe it is just
part of the changing times as we revisit the past with
an eye towards the future.

I will say this though, we need to be able to
distinguish between art and other objects. Because
contemporary art is inclusive of popular culture, it
doesn't mean that every single known human artifact of
everyday use becomes an artwork by virtue of
association or reference. If your museum exhibits only
art, why would you be exhibiting sneakers (unless of
course, it was used to illustrate the sudden
appearance of sneakers in contemporary figurative
painting)?

So I do believe exhibitions of "popular culture" play
an important role in contemporary society as long as
it is done for the proper reason and context.

Gerald Rojek
Tufts University









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