We know the feeling, Kermit. We really do.

The title and the link both from Heidi Kartchner, Oberg Research staff member extraordinaire:

www.hulu.com/watch/38858/sesame-street-muppet-news-flash-angry-reporter

Trust Museums? - Part 1

Last week the NY state government repealed a temporary law preventing museums from deaccessioning collections in order to cover operating expenses. This issue struck a rather raw and apparently vocal nerve in me (see AAM’s face book status about this issue). Partially I was incensed by the involvement of the government of NY deciding on a museum best practice in the name of the museum and the public trust. Yet if museums are funded by the state it should not be a surprise that the state feels it has a say in museum practice.

Rather it was the underlying distrust of museums to make responsible decisions. Between NY State enacting the temporary law in the first place and the Facebook commentary and AAM’s response after repealing the law, I assumed they expected that galleries would suddenly become empty halls as staff rushed to deaccession their objects and give themselves raises.

If we trust museums to care for, display, and research our cultural heritage then why do we not trust them to deaccession thoughtfully.

Challenge me with a counter-narrative

When we think about it, what makes our intellectual engagement with object or subjects at museums not just memorable, but transformative? It is not just new information about an object. It is being asked and allowed to challenge our long-held assumptions, whether personal or communal. It is the result of this challenge that leads us to see the world in a fundamentally different way. It is engaging with the counter-narrative.

Professor Steve Horwitz discuses the importance of the counter-narrative in his article “The Importance of History.” Dr. Horwitz’s emphasizes the importance for classical liberals to present counter-narratives to traditional economic history with the task of challenging what students know about history and what they believe they know about history (italics added). He further explains that challenging students to consider their knowledge of history is important because such narratives color our response to present-day concerns.

Such challenges exist in museums but they tend to be few. More often than not museums believe that to present counter-narratives is too risky. Museums need our support to minimize such risk. Private funders should be rewarded for supporting counter-narratives. Publicly supported institutions should be rewarded for intellectually challenging the public they are said to be educating. Such statements are simplistic, ignoring the fact that transformations are difficult, even painful. We can start at the beginning, as Dr. Horwitz does -- facilitate more and more experiences that challenge visitors to consider what they know and what they believe they know about history.

Your library and organizing your thoughts

Book A and Book B have always been next to each other in my library. Until I moved.

Now Book A is just that bit to tall to fit on the shelf unit next to Book B. I cannot put them together. As I thought through why I have Book A and why it had always rested next to Book B I began to consider how the my library layout reflects how I think about these topics in my head and in my work. It occurred to me that Book B and Book W go together far better than Book B and Book A. Once placed together I found they gave me a hint towards solving a project issue with which I had been struggling (and was the reason I had abandoned the computer for the moving boxes).

I am fascinated by the mental image of my brain subtly rewiring itself as I change the positions of the books on the shelves.