In case my two cents worth of information is not too late to be helpful, I
think that any discussion of (1) historic house museums [their essence,
physical components and the relationship of the "container" to the
"contained," assembly, conservation, choice of focus period, interpretation,
presentation, audience identification, etc.] and (2) the interpretation,
methodologies, strategies and outreach that are offered by the vast gamma of
"authentic vs. reconstructed vs. reinvented narrative" possible in historic
house museums ought to begin with methodological self-examination.
When constructing the identity (thus, interpretation) of a historic house
museum, it is important to remember that focusing on the identity of the
erstwhile inhabitants of the dwelling is not the "natural," nor, indeed,
"necessary" or "most helpful" choice. As is the case with the Bagatti
Valsecchi Museum, where I collaborate, the best way to explain/interpret the
16th-19th century palazzo and its (principally) Italian Renaissance art and
decorative arts contents was not through a history of the family responsible
for the house as we know it, today, but as an expression of late 19th
century traditional taste and artistic-socio-political identification.
As for the "authentic vs. reconstructed vs. reinvented narrative" issue,
these approaches (and the gamma of possibilities, including levels of
restoration, between them) are all valid, depending on the goals/mission and
audience of the house and its collection. What does need to be
clear/transparent to the viewer, not necessarily a savvy museum fan, is the
nature of what is being presented, and why.
If I may, one more thing before I get off my soap box :-). I think that, for
a museological institution to be accepted as a "historic house museum," it
is absolutely essential that (1) the structure (and grounds, if applicable)
were intended (at least during the chosen focus period) for human
habitation, and that (2) a preponderant percentage of the institution's
expository space be dedicated to presenting the habitation-intended objects
in a habitation-expressive way. This may seem obvious, but I have seen
museums--even those in what once were dwellings--with scanty space dedicated
to presenting the home environment, and a predominant amount of expository
space dedicated to traditional museum style exhibitions. To my way of
thinking, this is a (valid, of course) museum in a historic structure, but
it is not a "historic house museum."
For getting a start on these topics, I highly recommend reading the three
Acts of conferences published by DEMHIST, ICOM's International Committee for
Historic House Museums, and compiling for one's own museum the
"categorization" form (it takes only about 10-15 minutes, but is quite
stimulating). See the DEMHIST page on the ICOM web site: http://icom.museum.
For those interested, DEMHIST (from "demeure historique") was born in 1998
from which time, til the end of its Board's first triennial in 2002, it had
its first secretarial seat at the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, where I
collaborate since early 2000 (I was quite involved in DEMHIST til early
2003, and am still quite enthusiastic about its possibilities, so please
forgive my longwindedness!). In addition to the committee's ICOM page, some
information (including the table of contents of the Acts) also is available
in the historic house museum pages on the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum's
Italian-English web site (the button is on the right hand side of our home
page).
Although I am not directly involved in AASLH, since I'm in Italy, I know
that it, too, has a section dedicated to HHM, which probably would be very
helpful, too. Without a doubt, AAM also probably has publications on this
topic.
Best regards and Happy Holidays,
Star Meyer
Star Meyer, Ph.D.
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http://www.museobagattivalsecchi.org
Bagatti Valsecchi Museum - Milan, Italy
Dedicated to the Italian Renaissance tastes of the late 19th century Bagatti
Valsecchi collectors
One of Europe's most important and best preserved historic house museums
Facebook: Museo Bagatti Valsecchi
Twitter: BaVaMuseum
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