Museums are often tied by their public role

Assignment Help Other Subject

Reference no: EM131176005 , Length: word count:2500

On the basis of the reading provided and any of your own reading you might choose to undertake, address the following question:

Museums are often tied by their public role to ‘representing the interests' of audiences. Why then is this role so often seen as problematic?
Length: no more than 2500 words not including citations. Need reference.

Requirement:

The aim of the work is to tangle with the problems of how museums have to balance the needs of so many different audiences, so this question is trying to get to the bottom of how this happens, and what it means to 'represent' someone's (perceived) interests back to them. Museums have found themselves in trouble in the past when they have worked with outdated/patronising/wrong assumptions about what audiences' interests are. Many scholars have also questioned the ways in which the process of representation can be used to reinforce the status quo, rather than to open up a debate in which 'all' can participate.

Often it is government who decrees that museums must 'represent' the interests of tax payers, and museums are left dealing with a very subtle task that government perceives as straightforward. Today the task is less didactic than that, and involves conversations with communities (yes, how to choose which ones?) in order to devise more open ended ways of working. The central concern of this piece of work is the task of 'representation' and possible approaches might track some historical changes in the ways that role has been perceived.

BUT be careful not to take the question too much a face value and think critically about the terms it uses steering away from black and white responses Some of the different roles museums have upheld for instance are (bear in mind many of these have operated concurrently in the same institutions). Also remember some approaches belong to particular moments in history and are not really current any more but are significant in the historical context.

Museums as a means of educating the working people Museums as a means of encouraging self-regulation of behaviour Museums as symbols of national identity in which ideals of citizenship are set out Museums reinforcing the 'rightness' and often theprivilege of existing social structures via their representation ofclass/gender and education norms(look at Bordieu here) Museums asfacilitators(often in a community arts setting, e.g.certain immigration museum shows) Museums ascivic service providersfor thetax payer (often a bums on seats model) Obviously you wouldn't be dealing with all these, it would cover too much ground, but this should give you an idea about material you might cover. Think too about the kind of museum you are discussing and narrow itearly, i.e. don't try to cover science, art and everything else between. Focus on one clear area.

Reference no: EM131176005

Questions Cloud

Identify which leaders were involved in the communication : Prepare an infographic using Microsoft PowerPoint, Publisher, or sites such as Glogster or PiktoChart that you will share with the class and that covers the following: Identify which leaders were involved in the communication

Which proposal should michaels accept : The average term of either loan is expected to be 35 days.- With an average receivables balance of $250,000, which proposal should Michael's accept?

Develop the guide for a windows ten desktop environment : One of the most useful tools you will use in your role as an Information Security professional is a hardening checklist. Develop this guide for a windows 10 desktop environment.

Which involves grouping observations into bins : The Z-Score can be thought of as the distance the sample statistic is from the hypothesized population parameter measured by the number of standard errors.

Museums are often tied by their public role : Museums are often tied by their public role to ‘representing the interests' of audiences.- Why then is this role so often seen as problematic?

Briefly evaluate its international business-level strategy : For the corporation that operates internationally, briefly evaluate its international business-level strategy and international corporate-level strategy and make recommendations for improvement

How the matching principle relates to accrual accounting : The matching principle matches all revenues with the expenses generated to earn those revenues during the accounting period. Explain how the matching principle relates to accrual accounting.

What are the profit-maximizing price and output levels : What are the profit-maximizing price and output levels? Explain them and calculate algebraically for equilibrium P (price) and Q (output). Then, plot the MC, D, and MR curves graphically and illustrate the equilibrium point.

Explain how the substitution effect influences food purchase : Explain how the income effect influences food purchases and provide some examples of the income effect that might occur when the price of food rises and other things remain the same.

User Account

All Pages