Museums in the Future~

Museums are some of my favorite places to be in the Washington D.C. area. I make special trips to see exhibits that I want to see and try to keep up with what is going on in the shrines of free entertainment that line the mall. There's a feeling that I get when I stand in front of an inspiring work of art that I can't get anywhere else. Recently, I saw the Morris Louis retrospective exhibit at the Hirshhorn; it was after a stressful day of class, and standing in front of the massive pools of color in a nearly empty space made all of the troubles that I'd just experienced go away. So, you can see why I would think that this new expansion of museums is both exciting and disheartening: exciting because it allows for me to expose myself to new things more easily, but disheartening because the idea of experiencing these things while packed in with hundreds of other people is very off-putting.

I believe that the problem of large crowds in museums is an over-blown one. I have yet to experience a time in a museum where I haven't been able to see what I want to see because of large crowds. Perhaps that's because I haven't been to any large museums to see internationally talked about exhibitions; however, the fact remains that I've yet to truly be uncomfortable in a museum, and I like it that way.

If museum expansion were to stain my experience at museums, I would stand whole heartedly against it. However, part of that experience is the vast collection of works that you're able to see in one space. If expansion is able to accomplish this, then I don't have a problem with it. Expansion allows for more space which helps to alleviate the problem of congestion. Some people also complain about the architecture of the expansion, claiming that new minimalist constructions distract from the more traditional collections inside. However, I think that this is a problem that could be easily fixed. When you're inside of a gallery, you're not viewing the outside of the building. The architectural facade can be as interesting as the architect can imagine; the only thing that should be constrained is the flow of spaces within the building... which is not that much to ask of an architect.

I believe that the biggest threat to the museum experience is the digital world. I think it's important that museums have a digital catalogue of their works and I find it frustrating when I can't find images of what a museum has in its collection on their websites. However, if the museum were to do this, it would completely take away from the museum experience. With traditional art, you have to experience a work in person in order to understand it the way the artist intended. Seeing an Agnes Martin painting on the internet doesn't fill you with the same overwhelming sense of serenity that it would if you were able to see the image hung on a wall and in full size.

So what is the future of museums? America is a country that's becoming less and less concerned with personal education and enrichment. It seems as though people no longer seek pleasure in learning or more ephemeral experiences, instead offering to rest in compartmentalized spaces that appeal to a larger, more social experience. Art and museums in general are stoic and somewhat solitary institutions that aim to please and educate the individual, and individualism is waining. It's uncertain where the museum will end up in the 21st century. With such extreme expansion, it's obvious that there are people who still feel the necessity for them, but will this over expansion, do the museums have enough structure beneath them to sustain themselves in the long run? I hope so. With more expansion, quantity increases, and I believe that the more we take in, despite the quality of those works, the more we can begin to synthesize and understand.