No.

We at gammaSPACE, a contemporary commercial gallery, have a comments book and we get a huge variety of different marks and comments; good, bad and downright ugly.  We also get an array of wonderful drawings in the book.

All of it is valid and all contributes to an interesting compedium to be archived and cherished, even the offensive bits.  The best outcome of the book is that it creates an open forum for people to express their responses much like going to a football match and yelling at the
umpire.  If people feel comfortable enough to openly express how they are responding to the work on display then surely this is an indicator that you have reached your audience.  I think expecting them to always agree with you is a bit presumptuous.

Bernadette Jones
Curator



Amy Kleinert wrote:

> Jay brought up that they monitor their comment book
> and remove "lewd, racist, sexist, etc. comments."  Is
> this common practice in other museums as well?
>
> Amy Kleinert
> Marketing Manager
> South Bend Regional Museum of Art
> South Bend, IN
>
> --- Jay Heuman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Hi Pamela,
> >
> > I think the Barnes & Noble or Borders suggestion is
> > best and
> > cheapest.
> >
> > If you are not already, prepare yourselves to review
> > the
> > comment book on a daily basis to remove pages with
> > offensive
> > comments.  We had a comment book during an
> > exhibition of
> > glass work by Dale Chihuly last year -- ended up
> > with lots
> > of lewd, racist, sexist, etc. comments (written
> > mostly by
> > unsupervised school children).  We checked every day
> > . . .
> > cut out pages with such comments with an Exacto
> > knife.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Jay Heuman, Visitor & Volunteer Services Coordinator
> > Joslyn Art Museum, 2200 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE,
> > 68102
> > 342-3300 (telephone)     342-2376 (fax)
> > http://www.joslyn.org
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Museum discussion list
> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> > > Behalf Of Feltus, Pamela
> > > Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 10:19 am
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > Subject: Comment book
> > >
> > > In an exhibit we're about to open, I included a
> > comment
> > book,
> > > thinking it would be easy to find one. I though I
> > could
> > goto
> > > my local art supply store and buy a blank drawing
> > book.
> > Boy-
> > > was I wrong! I can not find a thing! Does anyone
> > have any
> > > recommendations/ sources/ tips on a comment book
> > for an
> > > exhibit? What people have used that works well?
> > >
> > > Pamela Feltus
> > > Curator
> > > National Museum of American Jewish Military
> > History
> > > 1811 R Street NW, Washington DC 20009
> > > 202-265-6280 x201
> > > www.nmajmh.org
> >
> >
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