Art Museums and Washington, DC: Aesthetics, Politics and Histories
Dr. Frederick N. Bohrer, Spring 2013
University of California, Washington, DC Center
Office Room 350
bohrer@hood.edu
Class meets Wednesday evenings 6-9 PM Room 210
Other meeting times to be arranged, for museum and monument visits
"The people's museum should be much more than a house of specimens in glass
cases. It should be a house full of ideas..." G.B. Goode, Director of US National
Museum, 1891
Course Description
This course is designed as an introduction to the histories, types, functions,
and meanings of museums, focused particularly on the remarkable collection of art
museums and related collections in Washington, DC. Through reading, discussion
and lectures, we will consider the varieties of museums: their collections, structures,
displays, audiences and contexts. We will also have the opportunity to visit museums
and public monuments both as a group and individually, and will speak with museum
professionals about their intentions and goals.
In all, this course should acquaint the student with the past, present and
future of museums, central institutions of culture in modern society. We’ll learn what
makes a museum, and some of the issues that face the institutions today, visit some
of the most important museums and monuments in Washington, and hear from
professionals who will share their insights in the stewardship of national collections
and the future of cultural leadership.
Classroom activity will be devoted to lecture, active presentation, discussion
and debate of assigned readings, as well as lectures on central topics in museum
discourse.
Grading
Class Attendance and Active Participation in discussion—30%
Paper 1- 30%
Paper 2 (including presentation)-40%
Assignments
Don’t worry, specific, detailed instructions will be delivered for each assignment.
Assignment 1-Brief, in-class presentation about a museum you know and like.
Paper 1-Analysis of an exhibition currently on display in Washington, DC, using
concepts developed in class. 1000 words
Paper 2-Analysis of a museum in Washington, or exhibition proposal. This
assignment also involves a brief in-class presentation about your project. 15002000 words.
March 26
Week 1. Introduction: Defining the Museum
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Class overview. Distribution of Assignment 1 (A museum I know)
History of museums – from mouseion to kunstkammer to Louvre to the
present
The motivations and politics of collecting:
A museum vocabulary
Recommended Reading
Carol Duncan, “From the Princely Gallery to the Public Art Museum”
April 2
Week 2: Typology and Anatomy of Museums
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Assignment 1 presentations
The variety and necessity of museums
Making a museum: its many parts
Readings
Kenneth Hudson, “Attempts to Define ‘Museum’”
Svetlana Alpers, “The Museum as a Way of Seeing”
Carol Duncan, “The Art Museum as Ritual”
Apr 9
Week 3. Parts of a Display: How a Museum Makes Meaning
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Understanding a museum display
Display and audience: How and what the viewer sees
Curatorial practice, or the history of display
Guest speaker: Debra Diamond, Curator, Freer/Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian
Institution
Readings
David Carrier, “Museum Narratives”
Stephen Greenblatt, “Resonance and Wonder”
Field Trip,
April 12th weekend
National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery
Exact time TBA
Apr 16
Week 4. Contemporary Issues in Museums, 1. Display, Collecting and the Fate of
Antiquities
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Presenting the past: The politics of antiquities
The Elgin Marbles and their history
From Monuments Men to the Iraq war
Contemporary Art about the Past : Alfredo Jaar and Michael Rakowitz
Readings
Yannis Hamilakis, A Nation and Its Ruins (excerpt)
Online exhibit, The monuments Men and the National Gallery of Art
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/features/monuments-men.html
Alfredo Jaar, It is Difficult (excerpt)
PAPER 1 DUE IN CLASS
Apr 23
Week 5. America’s Own Antiquity: DC Historic Monuments
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Memorials and Sites of Remembrance: Definition and Function
The Mall and DC memorial sites
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt: Who is (and is not) commemorated
War and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Readings
James Loewen, Lies Across America (excerpts)
Kirk Savage, Monument Wars (excerpt)
Christopher Thomas, The Lincoln Memorial and American Life (excerpt)
Field Trip,
April 26th weekend
Lincoln and Roosevelt Memorials
Exact time TBA
Apr 30
Week 6: Contemporary Issues in Museums, 2. Barnes and Corcoran
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Audiences: understanding a public and serving it
Case study: The Barnes Foundation and the question of access. Whom are
museums for?
Whither the Corcoran?
In class film “The Art of the Steal”
Assignment 2: Self-guided visit to the Corcoran
Readings:
Roberta Smith “Art Review: A Museum, Reborn, Remains True to Its Old Self, Only
Better.” The New York Times, May 18, 2012.
Philip Kennicott, “The End of the Corcoran Gallery of Art” Washington Post
February 19, 2014.
May 7
Week 7. Contemporary Issues in Museums, 3. Gender, Sexuality, Censorship
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Women, feminism, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Just what is “indency” ?
Fall 2010: ‘HIDE/SEEK’ at the National Portrait Gallery
Guest Speaker: Virginia Treanor, curator, National Museum of Women in the Arts
Readings:
Anne Higgonet, “A New Center: The National Museum of Women in the Arts”
Carole S. Vance, “The War on Culture” (pp. 119-131); in Zoya Kocur and Simon
Leung, eds. Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985, (Blackwell Publishing, 2005).
Jacqueline Trescott, “Ant-Covered Jesus Video Removed From Smithsonian After
Catholic League Complains,” The Washington Post, Dec. 1, 2010, p. A1.
Blake Gopnik, “National Portrait Gallery Bows to Censors,” The Washington Post, Dec.
1, 2010, p. C1.
Holland Cotter, “As Ants Crawl Over Crucifix, Dead Artist Assailed Again,” The New
York Times, Dec. 10, 2010, p. A1.
Philip Kennicott, “’Hide/Seek’ One Year Later,” The Washington Post, Nov. 21, 2011.
May 14
Week 8: Curatorship and The Way Forward
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Digital art; online exhibitions
Do we need museums anymore? Biennials, galleries, fairs; where the market
is now
Readings:
TBA
May 21 and May 28
Week 9/10: In-Class Presentations on Contemporary Museum Issues and Exhibition
Proposals
Student presentations for Assignment 2, choose from either a Museum Analysis
Or Exhibition Proposal (or other topic to be approved in advance by me)
Instructions will be distributed for both assignment options