On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 12:00 PM, Jason B. Jones <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> The following hinges on: I don't believe the dresses were museum objects. As explained before.

But unless you poked around on that site, this isn't obvious. Some
people aren't going to poke around enough or just assume it is true.

> Considering they took it down off the original site, the way I see it: this group of museum professionals just helped to censor an artist's creative expression.  An expression the wasn't harming anything, but the museum professionals' own sense of decorum regarding the sacredness of language about collections. Even if it was "real", shouldn't museum professionals know how important it is to challenge popular conceptions? Were would we be without artists and academics challenging our beliefs?

Look at it this way, what if it was real and it was YOUR collection?
What if you were the curator who is now faced with trying to get grass
stains and sweat stains off of 100 year old fabric?

And what "popular conception" are they challenging? That museum
objects can be used for dress-up or taken without permission?

> I find condemning artist expression of this nature to be a very slippery slope. Were does it end? No more loaning of objects? No receptions in galleries? No more visitors in the museum?

We aren't condemning the expression, just the thought of a museum
worker taking objects without permission, subjecting them to the
environment and then making cutesy blog posts like it was all a game.
Would you be upset if a friend took a family heirloom out of your
house without permission and blogged cutesy photos of it all over
town? What if it came back damaged? What if they "borrowed" your kid
or your dog for such a blog and for a few frantic hours, you didn't
know where s/he was?

> How do we use our objects to educate, if we can't use our objects (or in this case the idea of the object)?

Apples and oranges. Museum curators and educators carefully evaluate
using museum objects for either display or educational programs. Many
times the actual objects are not used because they are too fragile.
Again, this is up to trained professionals, not the whim of college
students with a creative writing bug.

> We should protect artistic expression (especially challenging expression), and find ways to use to create an educational dialog - not keep it from being seen.

I agree. I don't think we should jump down the bloggers throat but
politely educate her about the importance of caring for a museum
collection and why museums don't play dress up with their costume
collections. I really don't think the blogger meant any harm but has
no clue about museums and collections. I doubt anyone would have been
been upset if the blogger has said, "We found these dresses in
grandma's attic when we were cleaning it out and decided to take some
pictures of us wearing them."

> I'm 100% for protecting our collections. I'm 100% for protecting artistic expression. I'm 100% for using objects and ideas to educate.

I'm also 100% for not using objects without permission for either
education or artistic expression.

Deb Fuller

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