Don't get your pressure up. Remember friendly discourse is always best -----Original Message----- From: David E. Haberstich [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 1:11 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: It IS important, but is it a museum? In a message dated 4/23/2003 10:50:27 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << It is true, we are all upset over the loss of Iraqi objects. (Some of us more upset than others. ;-) ) No one is upset over the loss of the exhibits. I would argue that this is due, at least in part, to the fact that there weren't any. I have read that the Iraqi National Museum had been closed for five years. (Even when it was open, it was clearly part of the regime's mantle of power. It was not a people's palace, a place for public discourse. Such discourse was not possible under Hussein. But I digress...) In the eyes of the people, this was not a museum at all. It was another government warehouse, full of wealth the regime had looted from its people. Now the people were taking their heritage back. >> Gene, I'm curious about how you know what the Iraqi people thought of the museum and how they didn't consider it a museum. Can you substantiate this or is it just an assumption? So some of the people took their heritage back--and smashed it to smithereens. Is that what they think of their heritage? Others apparently were professional thieves, according to experts quoted in the newspapers, who carried off this "heritage" to sell it outside Iraq. So there weren't any exhibits--despite the fact that smashed exhibit cases are visible in the photographs. Ah, but very few people saw the exhibits, therefore they didn't exist? I see. How many viewers does it take to make an exhibit an exhibit? What do we call a would-be exhibition before anyone sees it? If the Museum of the American Indian is not a museum until it opens to the public, what is it before then? What do we call it? Please provide a word so that we can name it to your satisfaction. Two other Smithsonian museums are currently closed for renovation, the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Apparently by your reasoning they have ceased to be museums. If so, what do we call them in the interim while they're closed? What's the word? Wait--the Portrait Gallery recently held an exhibition in another building--did it become a museum again during the course of that exhibition, or doesn't that count because it was in another building? If it did count, is the Portrait Gallery currently a non-museum again? Should closed museums be pressured to rename themselves? Is a "Gallery" still a gallery when it's closed? Would "collection" do? (The American Art Museum used to be called the National Collection of Fine Arts--even when it was open and had exhibitions.) For that matter, does a museum cease to be a museum when it closes for the evening? Yes? What is it, then? No? Why not? How many hours, days, or weeks does a museum have to be closed to the public before it ceases to be a museum? Since you seem to agree (gasp! at last we agree on something!) that some institutions with exhibitions, such as airports, shopping malls, etc., are not museums, what's that extra something that makes an institution a museum--or am I making too great a leap in assuming that you agree that a museum is an institution of some sort rather than an exhibition per se? Why don't all exhibitions define a museum? Is it fair to assume that you're now admitting that the bald assertion that exhibitions define museums was incomplete? Finally, if a museum does not need to have a collection to be called a museum, what do you call a museum (an institution of some sort with exhibitions) which also has collections? What's the word? (Obviously, I think my dictionary definition of a museum is easier to explain and utilize. I find an implicit need to submit candidates to a single person to see if they qualify as museums a bit cumbersome.) About that analogy concerning the chemical constituents of a 150-pound person and their limited value: I don't think anyone ever said they added up to a person--just a human body. Getting the words right is important. David Haberstich ========================================================= 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] . 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