I was just working on a message to respond to this and other posts on
this thread. It was sent before I was done. Don't know why. I apologize
to the list if it got through. Here is what I meant to say:


I agree with almost all of what is being said here even though a lot of
people seem to have incomparable things. The fact is what a curator does
and what a museum educator does and what their relative
responsibilities are changes from museum to museum and even project to
project. To state such sweeping generalities as educators care about the
visitor and the curator cares about the collections may be accurate as a
general rule like fish swim and birds fly, but it doesn't hold much
water when considering real examples of real people in real insitutions.
(some birds swim and some fish fly) Let us not forget also, that in many
smaller museums the curator and educator are the same people. Just
becuse something works well at your institution now, doesn't mean it
will work well at another institution or even at your institution 5
years from now when priorities and resources change.

Also saying such things as "it should be part of the experience,"
strikes me the same way. It all sounds good, and if you put a gun to my
head and forced an anser from me I would agree, but I must quibble and
ask you what you mean by "the" experience. There is no such thing. A
good museum should offer a broad range of experiences and sometimes it
is appropriate to work in material that helps visitors understand what
we do and sometimes it isn't. It makes sense for a tour or exhibit to
include information on
collecting and interpreting strategies, but it would ruin a concert to
bust in and talk about what it takes to put on a special event.

What we should be working on is not defining categorically what
specific people, exhibits, programs, and museums must/should do, but
work on different strategies and practices that might be appropriate and
efficient under different circumstances with different resources,
audiences and desired outcomes. There are few absolutes in this
business.

That having been said I'd like to play devil's advocate. If we agree
that museums require collections and visitors (in whatever ratio) does
that mean that most children's museums are not museums? What about
science centers? Do teaching collections count?

Matt


>>> [log in to unmask] 06/13/02 04:09PM >>>
> I have to agree with Jill Keehner - I was a curator and am now an
educator - all museum's should be focused on object or collection based
learning.  Just to be contrary, there wouldn't be a museum without
visitors either!  The relationship between our collections, whether they
be art, history or science - and the visitor is what makes the museum
experience!

And it definitely goes for art, too!

I also want to comment on the concept of helping the visitor understand
what a museum is and does - it should be part of the experience, perhaps
not the focues but certainly, the visitor should leave knowing what a
museum is and a better process of the scholarship that occurs in the
museum.  For example, we try to teach people how a curator looks at art
as part of the process of helping them build a relationship with the
pieces in our museum.

Kathrine Schlageck
Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University

=========================================================
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).