Readings

September 1: Introduction

Stephen Weil, "Fantasy Islands" in Making Museums Matter (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002), 53-54.

In this 1996 thought experiment, Stephen Weil questions the role, relevance, and function of museums by imagining two parallel societies, one that develops museums and one that does not. He raises the question of whether/how these two societies might diverge in future generations. Please read the Weil piece and write a short response about your own thinking about the questions he raises before our first class session. These responses should be no more than 250 words. Bring your response with you to class. These will be collected but not graded. This is an exercise designed to help you articulate the ideas you are bringing with you to class about the role of museums in any society; you will revisit this first writing at the end of the semester.

September 8: Becoming a Critical Museum Visitor/Visit to Allen Art Museum

Margaret Lindauer, “The Critical Museum Visitor” in Janet Marstine, ed., New Museum Theory and Practice: An Introduction (Blackwell, 2008), 203-225.

We will meet at the Allen Art Museum today. Please read the Lindauer piece before our visit. We will consider the Allen through Lindauer's framework for being a critical museum visitor.

September 13: Museums--A Pre-History?

John Simmons, Museums: A History, Chapters 1-4, pp. 1-58.

Christina Kreps, “Non-Western Models of Museums and Curation in Cross-Cultural Perspective,” in Sharon Macdonald, ed., A Companion to Museum Studies, 457-472.

September 15: Cabinets of Curiosities and Early Collectors

John Simmons, Museums: A History, Chapter 5, pp. 59-92.

Paula Findlen, "Inventing Nature: Commerce, Art, and Science in the Early Modern Cabinets of Curiosities" in Pamela Smith and Paula Findlen, ed., Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe (Routledge, 2001), 297-323.

Bert van de Roemer, “Redressing the Balance: Levinus Vincent’s Wonder Theater of Nature,” Public Domain Review, August 20, 2014.

Class Guest: Professor Ellen Wurtzel

September 20: Birth of the Modern Universal Survey Museum

Tony Bennett, “The Formation of the Museum” in The Birth of the Museum (Routledge, 1995), 17-58.

Carol Duncan and Alan Wallach, “The Universal Survey Museum” in Bettina Carbonell, ed, Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts, 2^nd ed. (Blackwell, 2012), 46-59.

September 22: Museums and Collecting

Steven Lubar, “Part I: Collect” in The Lost Museums, 11-92.

Rainey Tisdale, "Objects or People?" in Elizabeth Wood, Rainey Tisdale, and Trevor Jones, ed., Active Collections (Routledge, 2018), 21-33.

Christopher Kemp, “Museums: The Endangered Dead,” Nature, January 19, 2015, pp. 92-94.

Bob Beatty, “The Deaccessioning Debate in Museums,” Hyperallergic, August 2, 2018.

September 27: Objects and Authenticity in the Museum

Stephen Lubar, “The Ethics of Objects” in The Lost Museum, 128-146.

Elaine Heumann Gurian, “What is the Object of This Exercise? A Meandering Exploration of the Many Meanings of Objects in Museums” in Reinventing the Museum, 269-283.

Spencer R. Crew and James E. Sims, “Locating Authenticity: Fragments of a Dialogue,” in Reinventing the Museum, 159-175.

Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, “Museums and Authenticity,” Museum News, May/June 2007, pp. 76-80, 92-93.

October 4: Politics at the Museum

Tony Bennett, “The Political Rationality of the Museum,” in The Birth of the Museum, 89-108.

Steven Dubin, “Incivilities in Civil(-ized) Places: ‘Culture Wars’ in Comparative Perspective,” in A Companion to Museum Studies, 477-493.

“Mark Rectanus: Examining the Corporate Influence on Art Museums and Culture,” Green Dreamer podcast,January 7, 2021, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/287-mark-rectanus-examining-the-corporate-influence/id1382371884?i=1000504586623 [Listen from beginning through 22:14]

October 6: Art Museums and Natural History Museums

“Art Museums” in Edward and Mary Alexander, Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions. Of Museums, 2^nd ed. (Altamira Press, 2008), 35-54.

“Natural History and Anthropology Museums” in Museums in Motion, 59-85.

Class Guest: Andria Derstine, Director of the Allen Art Museum

October 8: First Field Trip—Visit Cleveland Museum of Art and Cleveland Museum of Natural History (leave campus 9:00am, return by 4:00pm)

October 11: Museum Visit Debrief

October 13: Class visit to the Oberlin Heritage Center

Meet outside the Oberlin Heritage Center (73 1/2 S. Professor St.) by 3:00pm.

Debra Ann Doyle, "The Future of Local Historical Societies," Perspectives on History, December 1, 2012.

Ron Potvin, "House or Home: Rethinking the House Museum Paradigm," History News Magazine, Spring 2010.

Oberlin Heritage Center, "Mission, History, and Policies," Oberlinheritagecenter.org (Please read through this page and then scroll to the bottom and read the "Fact Sheet" and the "History Sheet" for OHC.

October 14: First Museum Critique due by 5pm. Upload to Blackboard

October 25: History Museums

"The History Museum” in Museums in Motion, 111-140.

Caroline Klibanoff, "History Museums are Vibrant Civic Spaces," Perspectives on History, June 9, 2021.

M. J. Rymsza-Pawloska, "The Spaces of History: Museums, Interactivity, and Immersion," in History Comes Alive: Public History and Popular Culture in the 1970s (University of North Carolina Press, 2017), 89-117.

Explore the website of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museum

Class Guest: Christie Weininger, Executive Director of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums

October 27: Identity Museums

Andrea Burns, From Storefront to Monument: Tracing the Public History of the Black Museum Movement (University of Massachusetts Press, 2013), Introducton, Chapters 1 and 3, pp. 1-40, 72-105.

Manuel Betancourt, “I Am Here: Identity Museums and the Audiences They Serve,” September 14, 2018, http://exhibitionsonthecusp.com/stories/i-am-here-identity-museums-and-the-audiences-they-serve/.

Edward Rothstein, “To Each His Own Museum as Identity Goes on Display,” New York Times, December 28, 2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/arts/design/29identity.html.

October 30: Group Project Initital Proposals Due. Each group should email me their proposal by 10:00pm

November 1: Case Study--US Holocaust Museum I

Edward Linenthal, Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum, preface-Chapter 2, pp. 1-108.

November 3: Case Study--US Holocaust Museum II

Linenthal, Preserving Memory, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, and first 5 pages of Conclusion, pp. 109-260. (can skim pp. 216-248)

Chapters 3 and 4 in Preserving Memory describe the many challenges and disagreements that took place as the Holocaust museum sought to create a collection, construct its narrative, and design a permanent exhibit. Before class, please identify one specific debate/issue that you found particularly compelling and come to class prepared to talk about it.

November 3, 5:30pm: Optional Lecture

Hunter Old Elk, Assistant Curator of the Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, "Indigenizing Museums," Allen Art Museum, 5:30pm

November 8: Science Museums

“Science and Technology Museums” in Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions. Of Museums, 2^nd ed. (Altamira Press, 2008), 91-110 (can skim descriptions of specific museums)

Steven Conn, “Science Museums and the Culture Wars,” in A Companion to Museum Studies, 494-508.

Class Guest: Kate Raisz, Museum Media Producer, 42 Degrees North Media. Please explore some of their projects on their website before class.

November 12: Visit Great Lakes Science Center and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (leave campus 9:00am, return by 4:00pm)

November 15: Museum Visit Debrief

Class Guest: Dr. Kristen Ellenbogen, President and CEO of the Great Lakes Science Center

November 17: Group Work Time

This class session will be devoted to the group project. Groups will have time to work on their update and preliminary bibliography, which is due on November 20. I will also meet with each group to talk about project plans.

November 18: Second Museum Critique due by 5pm

November 20: Brief update on group project and preliminary bibliograhy due. Email to me by 10pm.

November 22: No Class Meeting--Start reading Dan Hicks book

November 29: Decolonizing the Museum

Dan Hicks, The Brutish Museum, Chapters 1-5, 9-Afterword, pp. 1-56, 109-242. [Can skim or skip Chapters 6-8]

Elian Peltier, “’Artistic Awakening’ in Benin as Return of Royal Artifacts Attracts Huge Crowds,” New York Times, August 21, 2022.

Wednesday, November 30, 7:30pm, Dye Lecture Hall: REQUIRED LECTURE--Porchia Moore, "'Examining the Buttermilk': A Biomythology of Anti-Blackness and Liberatory Praxis in the Museum”

Porchia Moore is Assistant Professor of Museum Studies and Affiliate Faculty in the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Florida. She has collaborated with many museums, including the Phillips Collection, the National Gallery, and the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters. She is the co-creator of the Visitors of Color Project and the co-director of The Incluseum. In this talk, Dr. Moore will share personal narratives and present case studies interrogating Whiteness and the impact of institutional racism both in and outside of museum praxis. Dr. Moore will offer a series of provocations illuminating crisis points in museums and putting forward innovative solutions and imagining inclusive futures for museums, their publics, and their professionals.

December 1: Decolonizing the Museum II--Museums, Race, and Whiteness

Lisa G. Corrin, “Mining the Museum: An Installation Confronting History,” Curator (1993), 302-313.

Porchia Moore, "Cartography: A Black Woman's Response to Museums in the Time of Racial Uprising," the incluseum.com, Parts 1&2, June 10 and August 6, 2020. [Part 1] [Part 2]

“Stephanie Cunningham on the Creation and Growth of Museum Hue,” Museum Archipelago, March 18, 2019, 14 minutes, https://share.fireside.fm/episode/L2KDH6cn+0Vh2zFQF.

Joanne Jones-Rizzi and Stacy Mann, “Is that Hung White?,” Museum Magazine, July 1, 2020.

"The Visitor of Color's Guide to Resistance," Visitors of Color Project, 2017.

Class Guest: Dr. Porchia Moore, Prof. of Museum Studies, Univ. of Florida and co-creator of the Visitors of Color Project

December 6: Museums and Social Justice

Robert R. Janes and Richard Sandell, "Posterity has Arrived: The Necessary Emergence of Museum Activism" in Jones and Sandell, ed., Museum Activism (Routledge, 2019), 1-21.

Steve Lyons and Kae Bosworth, "Museums in the Climate Emergency," in Jones and Sandell, ed., Museum Activism, 174-185.

Sarah Pharaon, Sally Roesch Wagner, Barbara Lau, and Maria Jose Balano Caballero, “Safe Containers for Dangerous Memories,” The Public Historian 37: 2 (May 2015): 61–72.

“Assessing Curatorial Work for Social Justice with Elena Gonzales,” Museum Archipelago, October 28, 2019, 15 minutes, https://share.fireside.fm/episode/L2KDH6cn+4sBSdlkg.

December 8: Course Evaluations, Conclusions and Group Work Time

I have decided to make the reading for this class OPTIONAL. You may still write a reading paper for this session, but the readings are not required. Instead, we will devote this session to our final Museum in the News Presentations, course evaluations, some discussion of course takeaways, and group work time.

Charles Saumarez Smith, “The Future of the Museum” in A Companion to Museum Studies, 543-554.

Robinson Meyer, “The Museum of the Future is Here,” The Atlantic Online, January 20, 2015.

Cary Carson, “The End of History Museums What’s Plan B?,” The Public Historian 30:4 (Fall 2008): 9-27.

Andras Zanto, “What is the Future of Museums,” Art World, January 1, 2021.

Suyin Haynes, "Why a Plan to Redefine the Meaning of Museum is Stirring Up Controversy," Time Magazine, September 9, 2019.

December 13: Presentations

Our last class session will be devoted to group presentations about their projects in-progress. Groups will have ten minutes to present, followed by five minutes for questions and class feedback.