May 5, 2013 - Associate Professor , Chair, Museum Studies Program Director. University .... paintings in a traditional salon-style ... beauty to the uninformed spectator. ..... strong in Russian Empire. .... becomes a time machine allowing one.
imultaneous Satellite Exhibitions A Supplementary Platform for Exhibiting Collections of Traditional Art Museums
MFA in Exhibition Planning & Design Department of Museum Studies The University of the Arts May 2013
A thesis submitted to The University of the Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirments for the degree of Masters of Fine Arts in Museum Exhibition, Planning & Design
Kimberly Andrews Committee Chair Executive Director of Shofuso Japanese House and Garden
Nancy Heller Professor, Faculty of Fine Art University of the Arts
Jane Clark Chermayeff President at Jane Clark Chermayeff & Associates J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board
Polly McKenna-Cress, Associate Professor , Chair, Museum Studies Program Director University of the Arts
Acknowledgments I would like to thank my committee members for great insights and thoughts, who followed my thesis development to help me shape and reshape my ideas, and consider all the necessary issues. I am thankful for my writing tutor who patiently helped me comminucate my thoughts cleary on paper. My classmates provided a great emotional support during the two semesters of thesis work, which varied from feeling really good about the work to total frustration. They always helped me to keep up the good work, motivated me and gave thoughtful comments about the thesis ideas. I want to thank my Philadelphia friends for helping me to take necessary breaks from constant work on my thesis, to think about different things and get back to work refreshed. And my family who supported me all the way from St. Petersburg by trying not to ask too many questions about my thesis until the day of the defense. I am gratful for all the support and good moments that I have experienced during work on my thesis.
Abstract This thesis proposes “Simultaneous Satellite Exhibitions” (SSE), explores three case studies and suggests considerations for creating SSE. SSE is a supplemental platform for expansion of digitized museum collections of traditional art museums. SSE suggests creating access to collection resources for the populations that are geographically remote from large museums and that lack cultural enrichment. Satellite exhibitions aim to encourage cultural development in remote locations and raise interest in using museum collections as an informative resource. SSE uses non-traditional art museum approaches to display and provides relevant and meaningful interpretation to contemporary audeinces. Simultaneous features will allow visitors to explore the exhibit across the locations with other visitors, their friends or family. Their communication will bring more personal and memorable experiences to their visit and the opportunity to share points of view across the cultures. SSE is an effective way to deliver collections of several museums at the same time to remote locations, advocate usage of museum collections as informative resource and encourage cultural development of underserved areas.
CONTENT I. Introduction Nomenclature Thesis statement Introduction
12 12 13 14
II. Supplementary Platform for Traditional Art Museums A. Visitor experiences in traditional art museums in Russia & the US B. Visible Storage: Exhibited Versus Stored Collections C. National and International Relations and Museum Goals D. Satellite Exhibitions: Creating Access for Underserved Locations
20 21 24 29 31
III. Case studies A. Temporary Satellite Exhibitions - Festial model
34
1. Temporality 2. Multiple Locations 3. Environment 4. Social Aspect 5. Interpretation
35 38 42 44 45
B. Pop-Up Exhibitions: 1. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Project “Inside Out” 2. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg “The Masterpieces in the Streets” C. Satellite Exhibitions: The Guggenheim and BMW Group
50 50 56
IV. Conclusion Further Research
66 70
60
V. Project – Simultaneous Satellite Exhibitions Description, Goals + Expected Outcomes 1. Participating museums 2. Selecting Satellite Locations for Exhibitions 3. Developing Collaborative Interpretation 4. Satellite Exhibitions 5. Creating Cross Cultural Exchange of Intellectual Access to Collections 6. Selecting Exhibition Topics Further Research Project
72 72 75 76 80 85 88 90 93 95
VI. Appendix Survey Executive Summary Survey Data, the U.S. Survey Data, Russia
105 106 114 127
Bibliography Image Sources
139 144

Introduction
I
Nomenclature Meaningful experience – explanation of the artwork in a historical context; an intriguing and challenging atmosphere Satellite location – in a pop-up space outside museum Pop-up exhibition location – appears for the duration of one month in the geographically remote and culturally underserved locations in a temporary built pavilion Simultaneous Satellite Exhibitions – exhibitions that take place at the same time in various remote from the participating museum locations Traditional Art Museum – encyclopedic museum in a former palace; where the collection is displayed on the walls/ along the walls and interpreted through labels, audio and tour guides. Visible Storage – open access to stored museum collections Festival model - social, temporary and international features Application – project of this thesis Underserved areas – geographically distant locations from large cities that lack cultural development Participating museums – several museums that provide digital resources of their collections and participate in creating satellite exhibitions Collaboration – collective participating museums’ exhibition development
12
Thesis Statement
Audience Impact
This thesis posits that there is a need to expand the reach of collections of traditional art museums to populations in culturally underserved and geographically distant from large museums locations. Expansion of the collections beyond the museum’s physical space aims to provide relevant to contemporary audiences ways of display, deliver cultural enrichment to underserved areas and encourage cultural development of those areas.
The project provides access to collections of traditional art museums and their dynamic interpretation to primarily 18 to 44 year olds populations of geographically remote and culturally underserved areas. The international, multi-locational nature of the project will allow visitors to be in touch with much of the world through exposure to a variety of collections, cultures and connections with visitors in other locations. Such an experience is also aimed to make audiences look at art museums from a different perspective.
Thesis Application This thesis proposes a model of simultaneous satellite exhibitions for display museum collections. These simultaneous satellite locations are an effective way to expand resources of collections of several museums at a time, encourage alternative interpretation of collections and reach out to underserved popuations. Satellite locations are functioning simultaneously nationally and internationally providing the visitors with the opportunity to communicate across the borders of one satellite.
Museum Impact This project aims to create an opportunity to exhibit and interpret digitized versions of museum collections in a new way, and will create a dialogue among collections of various museums. Such an approach aims to develop stronger collaboration among museum institutions, in terms of sharing their resources and interpretative approaches. SSE will help museums to reach out to wider audiences and engage them into using museums’ collections as an informative resource.
13
Introduction
exhibition environements.
This thesis explores how museum collections can be delivered to the populations in locations situated far from large museums and stay relevant to the contemporary audiences through their interpretation outside the framework of traditional museum.
The problem of making the modern visitor experience in a traditional art museum more relevant has existed for a long time in the U.S. and across the globe. Russia is beginning its consideration of these needs, but have not yet integrated many theories or applied in practices. This problem has not been completely solved, and probably will not be, because society is constantly changing, but there are ways to create more meaningful and intriguing experiences with the collections of traditional art museums. To address the new expectations of audiences, cultural institutions started to expand museum experiences beyond their walls to bring the art closer to the public’s daily life. This thesis examines this trend and suggests a project of simultaneous satellite exhibitions for display of permanent and stored museum collections to allow for alternative interpretation in new non-museum spaces.
Based on the surveys in chapter III, it was found that many visitors like museums but for several reasons they are intimidated by the environement. It is either crowds, lack of the background story and interpretation or too many objects in one section and throught the museum. Many visitors of St. Petersburg would like to see collections in a different environement that ingintes their perception as well as see more traveling exhibits. Populations of the areas further from museums lack cultural enrichement and need to travel to museums. The introduction considers creation of meaningful and relevant interpretation for modern visitors while the summary of the surveys (pp. 23, 110) gives visitors’ insights about their museum experience and cofirmation for the need to create contemporary, relevant to modern visitor
14
First, any visitor experience created by museum professionals, whether inside the museum or outside, should be meaningful to the community. So what is a meaningful experience and how do
museums create one for their visitors?
the visit to the museum.
Meaningful experiences vary greatly for each individual. The Dallas Museum of Art conducted interviews to find out what a meaningful experience means to its audiences. Based on the conducted research visitors of the Dallas Museum of Art were divided into four categories: Tentative Observers, Curious Participants, Discerning Independents, and Committed Enthusiasts.
Discerning Independents and Committed Enthusiasts prefer to view art on their own. Meaningul experience for these visitor groups must include emotional impact, immersion into the physical gallery environment, and a clear interpretive narrative. The responses of the Discerning Independents and Committed Enthusiasts can be traced back to two contexts: environmental and personal (background information, interpretation). It is important for these visitors to connect to the intellectual context of the artwork and atmosphere to absorb this information.
The first two categories of visitors prefer to perceive art through additional kinetic art forms – music, dance, theatre performance. The museum experience is meaningful to Tentative Observers if they can connect personally. Tentative Observers mentioned that museums need to provide some sort of historical context. Curious Participants like to discuss what they are looking at with friends. For this category of visitors, a meaningful experience is created by developing an understanding of the history behind the paintings, and being able to emotionally connect with art and environments. Curious Participants also find it essential to have background information before
Overall it is important to establish personal connections by providing historical context or social factor for the visitors to develop an understanding; to create thoughtful exhibition environments to impact others emotionally. These needs are considered in this thesis and suggest to be addressed when creating an exhibition and evaluated after. One of the essential frameworks for visitor experiences is design of museum spaces.
15
As Charlotte Klonk states in her book Spaces of Experience: “ . . . what we may take for granted has not always been the case: that the history of showing art is as rich and varied as only the exteriors of museum buildings are now.” Klonk as most other art historians discusses how the gallery space and the layout of displays influence visitors’ behavior and impact their relationship with an exhibition. In the Royal Academy of London in 1787, the walls were filled to the ceiling with paintings in a traditional salon-style of exhibition. Paintings were crowded together, as the visitors were. Visitors also gathered in groups next to the clusters of paintings; they were “echoing the symmetrical hanging of the pictures on the wall, while in others they fill an irregular space, again like the paintings on the wall.” (Klonk, 15). The founding of national galleries throughout Europe fifty years later brings a sense of individuality: artworks were hung individually in a liner format and on the level of visitors’ eyes. Their behavior in such space becomes more private; in fact, Klonk states that individuality was encouraged in the nineteenth century and “viewers were addressed as citizens
16
of ideal liberal nation-states, responsible individuals who shared a common set of moral and ethical values.” In the beginning of the twentieth century, El Lisitzky and Alexander Dorner suggested changing individualistic modes towards collective viewing experience. In the nineteenth century visitors were left to develop their own visitor viewing experiences of art. The New York City Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) stated that educational aspects presented didactically and in historical progression will develop visitors’ aesthetic taste. It is interesting, however, that German festival Documenta in 1955 shifted towards creating visually immersive experiences – “spaces of sensations” (Klonk, 17). Today, art museums provide a wide variety of different viewing environments, but museum professionals still seek to create the spaces more relevant to collections’ interpretations and personal visitor connection to them. In a contemporary attempt to expand viewer experience, some museums today are literally extending their impact on the public beyond their walls. The concept of “museum under the sky” is mentioned in the reserach “New tendencies of the development of museum field” by
St. Petersburg State University (Russia) in 2005. It says that the concept of the “museum under the open sky” has developed during the twentieth century. This trend in Russia has been influenced by new definition of “cultural heritage”, social expansion, and search for new ways of displaying traditional art. As a result of these factors museum collections became valuable resources for the development of cities, regions and the whole country. Museums such as the Denver Institute of Arts (DIA), the Russian Museum and the Museum of London implemented this outreach method to integrate art into the community’s everyday life, and to establish stronger relationships between museum and the community by creating communal viewing experiences. “The program began when DIA Director Graham Beal visited London in 2007, and he was inspired by works of art hanging around the city. The opportunity came three years later for the DIA to display their own works of art in different communities.” (Sherri Kolade, The TimesHerald Newspaper, May 5, 2012). The DIA project Inside | Out brings reproductions of artworks outside the museum to connect with the community and provide people with an opportunity to enjoy the artworks on a daily basis.
A similar project called “The Masterpieces in the Streets” was created by the curator and the founder of Art-Tour Alexander von Busch . He collaborated with the Pushkin Museum of Art in Moscow in 2008 and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg in 2009. In the St. Petersburg project, reproductions of famous artworks dedicated to the War of 1812 were hung on the walls of several buildings along a nearby Griboedova canal. Installation and interpretation of these reproductions for this project were approached the same way as inside the museum. The art was framed and supplemented with short descriptive labels. The project’s goal was to integrate art into everyday environments, creating an artistically charged city and promoting the values of classical art, traditions and cultural heritage to the public-at-large. How can we make cultural knowledge - content, context, and experience - as widely, freely, and equitably accessible as possible? ... To someone outside the world of art criticism, there must seem to be an element of almost mystic faith in this belief in the power of great paintings to communicate abstract of beauty to the uninformed spectator... When background is lacking – where
17
there is no knowledge of what the artist is attempting to say in terms of time, place, or social meaning – the resulting impression is confused and is likely to be painful as pleasurable. Visitor’s interest and attention is determined not by object’s inherent appeal but its relevance to their own framework of knowledge and experience. (From Knowledge to Narrative. Educators and the Changing Museum. The Smithsonian Institution, 1997). Museums such as MoMA (New York, USA), the Denver Art Museum (Colorado, USA), the Detroit Institute of Arts (Michigan, USA), the Pushkin Museum of Art (Moscow, Russia), the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia) and others constantly pursuing the creation of interpretational projects that are meaningful to their audiences and that expose the content of their collections outside the museum. Museum professionals seek to improve the interpretation in their museums by conducting visitor evaluations, studying the outcomes of exhibits, and finding new ways of interpreting the collections of their museums. Outside of St. Petersburg’s and Moscow’s
18
museums, which lead the way in Russia in developing new ways of presenting art, this type of research and evaluation is weak in other Russian cities.
Supplementary platform for the collections of traditional art museums
II
II. Supplementary platform for the collections of traditional art museums The majority of traditional art museums in St. Petersburg can be defined as encyclopedic art museums, which also have the characteristics of historic houses, because the art collections are housed in foremr palaces, creating a hybrid model of the traditional encyclopedic art display and the interpretation of historic house. Most of the St. Petersburg collections are stored and exhibited in such setting. The art collections may be perceived as an art exhibit within the historic house exhibit. The abundance of decorative elements of the interiors and exhibited collections in those museums allow little room for nontraditional, non-linear display and limited variety of interpretative approaches. Klonk, in her chapter The Museum and the New Media, noted that in the first European museums of the nineteenth century, artworks were separated according to their time period and country of origin in, a linear way, to trace the linear progression patterns of development from the Renaissance to present day. This tendency is used in St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum and
20
the Russian Museum as well as in many other large traditional museums. These collections are grouped by country and era; however, there is no direct or indirect thread connecting the objects within each section and there is little narrative explanation to guide the visitor through the puzzles of these collections and their environments or to provide them with a broader context. Such museums cannot easily change their displays, due to conservation aesthetics views, which are especially strong in the museum field in St. Petersburg. Creating interpretation sources in addition to labels, audio and tour guides is not simple in the museum space that, as do the artworks, moves visitor’s attention to the rich and overwhelming historical interiors. A survey of current citizens of St. Petersburg was conducted to find out whether they are satisfied with the current system of display or would like to see some change.
The individuals were asked about their likes and dislikes in the visit to the traditional art museum. An interesting detail was that almost all the surveyed individuals in St. Petersburg loved going to the museum, because they liked the architecture of museums - former palaces, the feel of the epoch and connection with the past times. At the same time, they mentioned variety of negative factors in their museum experience.
difficult, after five minutes I forget what I read about. Maximum I remember 1-2 objects”. Another visitor mentioned that: “I need lots of patience to read long labels, if not read them, then there is no understanding of what is going on”. In addition to this stunning but stiff environment, the surveyed individuals mentioned lack of communication: “not enough social engagement with other visitors, interesting exhibitions are rare”. Also a respondents from the U.S. on the question about effective ways of learning mentioned that: “other visitors might be very helpful and engaging”. These collected reponses prove the need for the proposed SSE that provides the opportunity to socialize with other visitors in the satellites and offers dynamic viewing experience.
One of the most mentioned adverse factors were prices for audio tours and photography, and “often monotonious and boring” space. Interpretation of the collections was another factor that the individuals were unsatisfied with. They mostly used labels to get information, especially when audio and guided tours were paid. One survey participant stated that he: “easily get tired from amount of information. Reading labels with really small and volumonous text is
On the question “what can possibly attract your visit to an exhibition” the most replies were: temporary exhibits, famous artworks, stored collections, contemporary approaches. That reflects lack of foreign temporary exhibitions in St. Petersburg, lagre closed stored collections, which just recently started to become available, and conservative way of displaying the collections. “I like going to the museums. However, if the museum is 200 years old and all the exhibitions
A. Visitor experience in a traditional art museums in Russia & the U.S. The surveys to examine the visitor experience in traditional art museums were taken in the U.S. and St. Petersburg, Russia with a sample of 100 people.
21
there feel like they are ancient, then it is boring. Often small museums in removed towns are terribly boring and didactic. Nothing new, and all the rest have old approach we have seen many times.” This is another proof for expanding collections in the areas where museums do not offer variety of engaging exhibitions for its community. The results of the survey in the U.S. showed that museum visitors would like to be more engaged in the story behind the artworks and artifacts. The majority of the Americans mentioned lack of storyline behind the pieces, saying that they missed “a thrilling story, passion in the narrative, a context for understanding, and intriguing facts.” There were also several comments about the density of the artifacts in the museum. People mentioned that there are too many pieces in the space, which sometimes cause crowds, especially next to the most famous artworks, and disable them from viewing it in their own pace and in calm environment. The participants in St. Petersburg gave very similar answers; they also mentioned the lack of thrilling storylines.
22
Traveling Van Gogh Alive exhibit
Another interesting comment in the U.S. survey was that the artifacts “are not rotated enough”, and the display is very predictable. That can relate not only to the actual display of objects, but also to the overall two-dimenisonal display and linear layout. Rochester Institute of Technology did research on the effective learning environments and found out that large images effectively draw one’s attention and stimulate thinking process. Australian company Grande Exhibitions uses large digital representations of the famous artworks, creating an environment different from a traditional art museum. This approach also breaks the two-dimensiality of the
museum display. Applying such approach in the traditional art museum, specifically a former palace, is not simple because of the conservation issues, and aesthetics of the interiors that museums keep. Room for contemporary interpretation and approaches of display, as well as the opportunity to be installed in museum locations at a distance are the reasons for SSE to be outside the museums.
23
B. Visible Storage: Exhibited Versus Stored Collections Stored collections in most cases take around 90% of the whole museums’ collection and are rarely on view. This thesis encourages museums to use digitized stored collections for SSE to expand museum resources and the information and stories that the objects carry. The results of the surveys showed that visitors would like to get more information about the context of objects, the stories that the artworks are part of, in order to create meaning and connections to the visitors’ knowedge and experience. Providing the context for the artworks is similar to the research that the Dallas Museum of Art when evaluating their visitors and dividing them into four groups (Introduction, p.4). Museum professionals work on different interpretations to reach diverse audiences and connect visitors to art in different ways. However, looking beyond the interpretation, what else can foster a different framework for creating connections between visitors and art? Expansion of permanent and stored collections outside the museum can create open access to collections in
24
new environments less familiar than a museum setting, and foster new ways of interpretation. “New” collection pieces from the storages may ignite the public’s interest as something finally revealed that they have never seen before. Most museums display only between 2% and 4% of their permanent collections at one time, as stated in the New York Times article “The Good Stuff in the Back Room” from March 12, 2009. “The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, for example, owns two million objects and displays only tens of thousands at a time. At the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, 18,000 objects are on display at one time, of 450,000 in inventory. But now, one unanticipated effect of the economic downturn has been to motivate museums to display more pieces from their collections”, says Geraldine Fabrikant in the New York Times article. The data collected by the BBC in 2010 shows what percentage of collections British museums keep in storage:
The article that mentioned the BBC report “90% of collections stored” posed a question: how can we make museums’ stored collections to provide open access and be used as resources of information? Some museums today open their storage spaces to the public. Such museums include the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art in Texas. The Henry Luce Foundation has underwritten open storage galleries at four museums: the New York Historical Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The museums exhibit parts of their collections in new open storage spaces, also relying their expansion on showing their collections to audiences through rotating exhibits and loaning objects to other institutions. British Museum 99% Tate 15% National Maritime Museum 93% Science Museum 95% National History Museum 95% National Museum of Scotland 90% National Gallery 20% Implied War Museum 95% Victoria & Albert 81%
Open storage, Hermitage Museum
25
The Hermitage in St. Petersburg also has a massive collection much of which is in storage, and Michail Piotrovsky, the director of the Hermitage Museum, answered several questions about the museum’s plans for the objects that are not on view (according to the newspaper “Independent” from March 6, 2013). He said that the museum exhibits 10% of
Open storage, Philadelphia Museum of Art
26
their collection at the moment and plans to expand it up to 20%. The museum is incorporating new galleries to exhibit some parts of the stored collections; however, as Piotrovsky mentions, storage is the place where the pieces live, not the galleries, where tons of people walk by, implying that the storage spaces are the real, vital collection’s environment
Open storage, Hermitage Museum
27
and the space where professionals and artworks create a special atmosphere. Those storage spaces can tell very different, less didactic and more natural stories that the ones that are created for the galleries. How to imply and use it when exhibiting the stored collections? This thesis application will take this into consideration and suggest solutions. When loaning objects to museums, the Hermitage, like any other museum, has to follow the rules of transportation and also keep its reputation while loaning its world- famous art pieces. In the Soviet era the Hermitage exhibited less famous artworks even in the small towns; however, today the museum lends only famous artworks, when all the conditions of transportation, loans and insurance are followed. Based on Piotrovsky’s comments, it is clear that the museum exhibits world-famous art pieces, while the other 90% of the collection also represent a historical collage of the thinking process, social relationships and image of the era. This high volume of information is not yet available to the public, which is unfortunate since it could greatly broaden perspectives on history of art.
28
Piotrovsky also thinks that the goal of the Hermitage in the twenty-first century should be directed towards exhibiting collections in the Hermitage’s permanent locations in London, Las Vegas and Amsterdam, because this is easier than finding new locations that will satisfy the conservation and other requirements. However, these permanent Hermitage sites are located in large cities with developed cultural infrastructures. Expanding museum collections internationally in a more efficient way is one step, but also extending it to underserved, rural areas is something a museum with such reputation should take into consideration.
C. National and International Relations and Museum Goals Since SSE suggests connecting collections or reuniting those that were separated, national and international relations are also important. Some museums multiply their locations to different countries, some use loans; overall, museums pursue the goal of expanding their collections and resources. Along with that, they sometimes are looking for new ways of interpretation, while also aiming to raise the museums’ reputations. Supplemental SSE platform is suggested to expand museum collections along with interpretations as informative resources that will be available not only to the populations of the cities with large museums, but also in locations distant from them to foster cultural development and increase access to large museum collections. Christine Sylvester (Art/Museums. International Relations Where We Least Expect It, 56) comments on the situation of the Guggenheim’s expansion as parallel to the politics of contemporary international relations. She also says that: “Guggenheim museums can generate considerable enthusiasm and affection
abroad, as well as cynicism, and it is said that the museums can contribute to local economic development and give a cosmopolitan boost to an area”. Such relations, museums internal structures and goals should be examined in-depth when choosing participating museums and locations for satellites. SSE follows the goal of creating access to museum collections in areas that do not have it and supporting the development of contemporary ways of interpretation. SSE does not aim to promote the institutions themselves, but the information museums can provide for learning and pleasure and the ways it can be engaging and memorable. It is important to consider national and international relationships between various organizations that support cultural development and may help museums reach their goals. For example, Christine Sylvester explains the appearance of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. She says that both the Guggenheim in New York and in Venice were looking to expand their gallery spaces, use the Venice collection better and incorporate international operations. “It does not take a rocket scientist to determine that we are living
29
in a world that is becoming increasingly international and transitional. There are more and more projects that benefit from audiences in different locations”. (Thomas Krens 1999, 17). However, the Guggenheim’s goal was “to grow museum’s finances, collection, and reputation through international expansion”(Christine Sylvester 2009, 121), while this thesis primarily looks at promoting museum collections as a resource for information and enjoyment in cities and underserved areas of Russia. And even though the Guggenheim aimed to promote itself as an institution, it positively influenced the city of Bilbao revitalizing areas.
30
D. Satellite Exhibitions: Creating Access for Underserved Locations
Underserved locations are the ones that are remote from the cities with large museums or that lack cultural enrichment. Populations of those locations need to travel to explore museum collections; regional museums are usually didactic and boring as stated in the survey answers. It is important
for SSE to deliver museum resources to multiple underserved locations to encourage personal cultural enrichment and artistic development of the area. Sylvester writes that Bilbao was the unexpected and improbable candidate as a location for a new art museum
31
and that Thomas Krens, the director of the Guggenheim Museum, was less interested in it. Bilbao was a provincial European city in the disputed Basque region of Spain with minor standing in art, a rundown and depressed city, which had produced steel in the middle of the twentieth century. However, the decision to build the museum in Bilbao was supported by the Basque government, which had already started to invest into the infrastructure of the city. Hence, this thesis application seems likely to have more success in the cities in which infrastructure is being changed from, former rundown and manufacturing locations to places of blooming culture and ideas of the twenty-first century generation. How can one be sure that establishing new museums in underserved areas will be profitable, successful and will bring in old and new local audiences? The satellites will not only spark curiosity by bringing culture to remote areas, but will also test the quality of interest of the local population. If, after an introduction to the arts through satellite locations, people’s interest increases, the area might consider collaborating with cultural organizations to keep promoting culture and access to it or invest in re-thinking
32
the structure and approaches of local museums. There are many examples of such cities, which rebuild themselves through the impact of the arts on their infrastructure. One of them is the depressed English seaside town of Folkestone; “it aspires to rebuild itself around an arts theme and is actively recruiting artists to live, work, and display their art in the town” (Baggini, 2004). Many cities are looking to develop their infrastructure through incorporating the arts and bringing public’s attention to it. Considering all of the above, the launch cities for the project must be chosen carefully. Sylvester mentions that locations should be ready to think about culturalenterpreneual strategy for regeneration.
Case Studies
III
III. Case Studies This chapter examines the art festival features and the projects that museums create outside their walls that are important to consider when creating SSE. The festivals features: internationality, temporality, social aspect, environment, and interpretation, are examined to trace how they affect the public and develop infrastructure of a city. The analyzed projects outside museum are the Inside|Out by the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) and Masterpieces of the Russian Museum in the Streets by the Russian Museum and outside curator Alexander von Busch. These projects are examined to understand how internal structure is influenced by the external needs of the museum and understand the current practice of providing easy access to museum collections for the public. Exploring and taking into consideration both museums that create outside projects to be more relevant to their communities and features of temporary Biennale festivals to create an effective application and considerations for museum field in Russia and to potentially expand its national and international collaboration. The national and
34
international exchange of museum collections proposed by this thesis aims to foster the connection or reunion of previously separated collections to inspire new stories that will arouse altered perspectives and interpretations. This thesis suggests a supplementary platform that will intersect with new and existing networks and collections, to provide alternative to the traditional art museum interpretation and experience. The application is not meant to interfere with the experiences that visitors already have in the art museums; it is meant to be supplementary and temporary, to appear, fade away and allow room for more and more new stories.
1. Temporality Festivals that are enjoyed by many people are temporary and thematic. Each festival is dedicated to a certain topic, celebration, anniversary or other event. People are often excited about the festivals because they only last for a certain amount of time and psychologically prepare one for a little “celebration” - it is an event, there is preparation for it and when it is finally prepared, it is ready to be used and explored. This temporary change of environment or addition of something new to a daily routine bring to the population activities that do not require attendance or special preparation and can be enjoyed without extra planning. The permanent collections of traditional art museums have usually been on display in the same framework for a long time; parts of their collections are stored and rarely appear on view. Traveling exhibitions are shown in different environmental and cultural settings, which local visitors of the museum usually do not experience unless they travel to see that exhibit. Moreover, traveling exhibits usually just relocate the artworks into a different museum, and the interpretation remains similar. The
audience has little opportunity to see a collection in a notably different setting. The different way of exhibiting the collection might draw visitors’ attention to elements or themes they have never noticed before. This thesis looks at permanent collections from a perspective similar to which Domela describes in his audio interview: “They (biennales) are sort of at an angle to collections, because they do not preserve. The greatest possibility that biennales have is that they can capture some of that familiarity, something that passes. There is a performance element in biennales. Not only in terms of performance art, but also in terms of commissioning something which exists for the duration of the show and then disappears. That experience, it can live in the minds of people without having to recourse to the object that has generated that experience.” The permanent collections at traditional art museums are considered historical, and much of the information about them might relate to general knowledge: for instance, eras and main decorative elements that dominated in a certain era. The relevant historical
35
backgrounds are something that school curricula usually include. The general information or preconceptions about the collection pieces are already wellestablished, and adding the element of temporality to permanent collections through the biennale model can enliven the stories from the past for a moment, tie them together through multicultural threads of content, and make them more relevant to the system/ of perception or habits of the twenty-first century visitor.
art in a wholly different environment challenges everything one feels about a museum visit. It also challenges the terminology with which we are familiar: museum versus “gallery” and whether they are meaningful distinctions,” says Freudenheim. Traditional art museums exhibit their collections most of the time in similar way and dictate the environment in which they are perceived. An opportunity to showcase permanent collections in a different environment and interpretation may challenge created pre-conceptions and birth new ways of looking at familiar.
Ownership
Not using the original artworks from museums’ collections gives museum professionals the opportunity to create a variety of different interpretational approaches and themes, which might have been impossible to create within the institution’s framework or if the art pieces had to be transported into a single location. It provides independence from the problems connected with loans and transportation. One of the examples of a permanent museum display with no original artworks containing only reproductions and supporting the content media is at the Vermeer Museum in Delft. The visitor did not have the opportunity to look at any authentic
Thomas L. Freudenheim makes an interesting point talking about the aspect of ownership in relation to permanent collections. He says that the permanent collections are always available but never fully grasped. Temporality opens the opportunity to expose and expand certain themes and motives of permanent collections on a deeper level in a non-traditional art museum approach, and explore the historical collections from different angles and perspectives of the twentyfirst century. “The opportunity to see
36
works of art or explore their techniques closely, but was provided with an insight into Vermeer’s painting approaches and techniques, both through the lens of his life and the historical and social aspects of the seventeenth century. Another example is the Gallery One of the Cleveland Museum of Art where all the content is digitally based. Digitalization allowed museum professionals to provide more information and let visitors use the collection as they prefer to. They can add artworks to create own collection, and share it with other visitors – this approach fits into and is similar to the pattern of today’s use of technology to make appointments, shop, share created documents, music, and video. Another factor is the problem of ownership after World War II. Collections were spread to different places from their original locations. Today, museums follow the laws of getting the objects of their collections back from where they were found after World War II, but sometimes these procedures are very difficult and time - consuming. While institutions settle the details of getting collection pieces back to where they belong, these pieces can digitally reunite a wide audience.
37
2. Multiple Locations This thesis suggests a supplementary platform that will intersect with new and existing networks and collections, to provide an open-accessed alternative to the traditional art museum interpretation and experience. The application is not meant to interfere with the experiences that visitors already have in the art museums; it is meant to be supplementary and temporary, to appear, fade away and allow room for more and more new stories. Multiple locations support SSE’s goal of simultaneous exhibitions to open new opportunities for the visitors and provide communication with the visitors in other locations. In the surveys, individuals mentioned lack of social activities. SSE suggests getting in touch with visitors from other places to get their insights on the exhibition topic. For example, locations in Russia and the Netherlands can be connected to explore the marine landscapes of the 17th century when the Dutch influence was strong in Russian Empire. Simultaneous connection also gives friends and family, living in different places, the opportunity to explore leisure activities together.
38
Paul Domela notices: “They (the biennales) do not need huge staff, they do not need huge infrastructure. So you can set them up in places where there is no contemporary art infrastructure, where there is a desire to seek communication with the rest of the world. You can change, be experimental, and biennales have the responsibility to seek that experiment continuously, this is the beauty of the format.” The important aspect of this thesis is to impact the audience through suggesting and encouraging them to seek out and connect with the rest of the world. There is an urge to connect in big cities; small remote cities lack exposure to the current trends in arts and a diversity of cultural backgrounds. Multiple locations will help small and removed towns to develop, offer more cultural exposure and make their populations feel more in touch with the world. This gives the opportunity to connect the visitors in different locations and, by connecting, help them understand how their life experiences fit into the context of both what they and visitors of other locations are experiencing. In remote locations, the appearance of an alternative to a regional museum may attract the attention of the population.
The study “Mapping Interpretation Practices in Contemporary Art” that Engage Scotland conducted explores the obstacles in visitors’ museum experiences. One of the obstacles was space: “Geographical and physical accessibility were noted as spatial barriers. So too was the layout of the space and the general perception of arts as uncomfortable, where people are unsure how to behave.” Earlier in this research the authors mentioned that art galleries are not evenly spread throughout the country, and are not geographically accessible for the populations of towns with little cultural life. The layout of the exhibition space is also important. Even though this research was conducted in regard to contemporary art, based on the surveys created for this thesis, visitors have a very similar feeling of discomfort in the galleries of different traditional art museums. To improve the spatial issue, the authors of Mapping Interpretation Practices in Contemporary Art suggested further research on how to make relevant connections beyond the gallery walls and push the boundaries of the gallery space. Additionally, they suggest developing partnerships among cultural organizations and communities to advance their interpretational approaches.
The impact of an international platform such as the biennial model can increase interest in global culture and help the growth of it in areas that are generally less exposed to this. Talking about Russia and its contemporary art, the Biennale Foundation states that there has been increase in the art scene in Russia after the establishment of the Moscow Biennale in 2005. The online magazine Russian Mind describes it in this way: “Since the first biennale started in 2005, evolution has been monitored and the inclusion of other Russian cities has been pivotal in Backstein’s (Joseph Backstein, the Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow) agenda: ‘It is not an exaggeration to say that since the 1st Moscow Biennale in 2005, Russian society’s interest in contemporary art and its culture has grown, and this culture now constitutes a significant part of Russian society’s value system.’ ” The growth of interest is related not only to the area of contemporary art, but also to a large international event that captures artists from various countries and creates opposed to the Russian traditional art museum environment.
39
40
Manifesta - the European biennale of contemporary art – “explores psychological and geographical territory of Europe, referring both to borderlines and concepts.”(manifesta.org). The festival is looking to expand and interlock the map of contemporary art, not only throughout Europe but also expand it to the neighbor territories: Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and north Africa. Even the biennales focus on contemporary art, the model is also applicable to the historical collections of art museums. “In a decentralizing world, networks within regions or continents have great significance and potential.” (manifesta. org). The round-table discussion on “Intra-continental Collaboration” in
Tokyo on the occasion of the Artist Residencies International Conference on October 26-28, 2012 addressed the potential and importance of projects which develop intra-continental dialogue and “stress the need for sharing a sense of values.” (manifesta.org). Unlike Manifesta, which connects European societies, this thesis application considers world-wide museum networking, which unites cultural currents that can broaden visitors’ worldviews and challenge cultural assumptions. Ranjit Hoskote finds value in the biennial as a place for collaboration among artists and professionals, and states that the biennial model has the ability to “amplify feedback” and activate the “search for engines” for new possibilities.
41
3. Environment SSE suggests different location to create a non-museum environment and to expand the perception of the traditional museum’s image. Freudenheim sees the design of space as “the opportunity to see art in a wholly different environment that challenges everything one feels about a museum
42
visit.” While he talks about museums, there is a little chance to realize this in St. Petersburg, where the museums have historical interiors and conservative approaches to interpretation and design. Of course, there are exceptions, but they happen when traditional art museums host the international festivals.
Just like festivals always create different environment, New Angles of Interpretation by the Denver Art Museum shared the outcomes of exhibiting in its new Hamilton building with atypical museum architecture. Apparently, the usual space had a positive impact on the visitors. “The unusual geometry of the architecture provided us with far more unexpected opportunities to think creatively than obstacles to overcome,” says Dan Kohl, the museum’s director of design. “The gallery designs were all positively influenced by the architecture,
which encouraged us to think about the visitor experience within a totally new spatial construct. The architecture sets up a visitor interaction where exploration - discovery...what a perfect environment for an art museum!” The architecture of the building contains of sharp multiangled shapes. Such configuration dictated asymmetrical and unusual design of the museum interiors. This environment reconstructs the traditional art museum framework of the galleries, dictates new display approaches and provides visitors with new perception of the art museum and its exhibitions.
43
4. Social Aspect Social aspect is important to SSE to encourage and increasecommunication and discussion around the topic of the exhibition as well as involve long-distance connection among the satellites to bring awareness of variety of perspectives on one issue. Such opportunity will show that museums encourage socialization (unlike the experiences of many surveyed individuals, refer to detailed Survey Executive Summary p. 110) to create comfortable explorative environment and also learn from the visitors. There is social interaction in all art museums, more in some than in the others. However, the very nature of a biennial is to assemble representations from different nations, and bring diverse cultures together. The union of collections from different museums and a feature allowing visitors long-distance communication can create cross- cultural dialogue and atmosphere. “The visitor experience is strongly influenced by the within-museum social interactions of the visitor’s social group... Since the museum environment itself is a socio-cultural one, all visitors, even those choosing to visit alone, find themselves quickly immersed into the socio-cultural milieu of other
44
visitors [...] Look even closer and you realize that much of the social interaction is a way for visitors to connect and find meaning.” (Falk 2009, 99). Intercultural reciprocity can create a broader and more tangible context, through which the visitors may become potential firstperson representatives of stories related to collections from their area. Not all the conversations among visitors are about the content of the collection, but social engagement is largely focused on sharing opinions about many things related to the overall museum experience. “These conversations can ultimately have more impact on a visitor’s memory of the experience than the objects and labels themselves.” (Falk 2009, 99). For some people it is important to see other visitors and experience the museum visit with them. For example, one visitor mentioned that he likes the social aspect. He said: “I am interested to see how people react in the exhibit. I want to know their story, culture, where they come from.” Satellite locations and visitor connections can create the foreign lens and the insight into the collection that can fulfill the interest in other visitors’ background.
5. Interpretation Interpretation is another key factor of SSE, because it is looking to provide nonlabel based explanations of the exhibited artworks. The survey of many individuals did not prove the label information to be the best way to learn from. However, they all learned mostly from labels, because it was the only choice to understand the contexts - audio and guide tours were paid and many visitors could not afford it in addition to the general admission. Based on the outcomes of the conducted surveys, the ways to encourage new and relevant interpretations to contemporary audiences should be created. “To someone outside the world of art criticism, there must seem an element of almost mystic faith in this belief in the power of great paintings to communicate abstract ideas of beauty to the uninformed spectator... When background is lacking - where there is no knowledge of what the artist is attempting to say in terms of time, place, or social meaning - the resulting impression is confused and is likely to be painful as well as pleasurable. Visitor’s interest and attention is determined not by an object’s inherent appeal but
its relevance to their own framework of knowledge and experience. It was but a small step from visitor-centered language to visitor-centered content, and label writers experimented accordingly.” (T.R. Adam, From Knowledge to Narrative. Educators and the Changing Museum, 63). The author states that objects and exhibit spark fantasies of some visitors, then the museum experience becomes a time machine allowing one to experience other cultures and eras. “Such involvement establishes personal connection, exploration of self-identity and engagement into introspection. When interpretation within the environment creates such experience for a visitor, that is interpretation that created a meaningful connection” (T.R. Adam, 63). Establishing guidelines for successful and meaningful interpretation of art is not easy; the authors of the book Interpretation and the Art Museum. Between the Familiar and the Unfamiliar suggest reconsideration of art interpretation in order to make it relevant to contemporary audiences. “The reexamination and reimagination will entail a radical critique of the discursive coordinates that have framed the museum’s understanding of its
45
interpretive responsibilities to the public. This critique must unravel the hold that a pedagogy of display has had on museum interpretation; it must question the ongoing use of schooling and educational theory as the primary rubric through which interpretation is conceived and constructed.” (Cheryl Meszaros, with Twyla Gibson, Jennifer Carter, 63) The Denver Art Museum (DAM) approached the interpretation from a different perspective – considering visitors’ engagement and tendencies of exploring. In its Interpretive Project, DAM identified four key factors for meaningful interpretation. They determined that visitors seek “human connection” to artworks, broader context, emotional response, and enjoy listening to experts’ personal opinions, which do not interfere with their own perspectives. Based on this research the museum’s staff suggested a theory for object-oriented learning, focusing on four aspects:
46
• seeing and perceiving visually • reacting—associations, thoughts, memories, feelings • thinking—a rational thought process that considers the object in cultural context • making judgments These factors should be considered when developing the story, and the layout for the story in satellite locations. “The interpretive options should never feel overwhelming or distracting to the point where they preclude a visitor’s ability to simply enjoy a work of art”. Adnrew J. Pekarik in the article “Moving Beyond Outcomes” of Curator 53/1 from January 2010 also considers visitors’ factors and suggests creating exhibits based on how visitors learn and engage with space. He sees the museum as a field for independent human growth that is alive and intriguing, “hyperreality – trackless realm to play in.” (Adrew J. Pekarik, 110).
Interview taken via email with Anna Zhukova, Conservator of Graphics, St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum In order to get a first-person insight into the setting (environment, social aspect, interpretation) of the Venice Biennale, Anna Zhukova, the Graphics Conservator from the St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum, was invited to answer several questions regarding her experience. Throughout the interview Zhukova mentioned the variety of environments she experienced. She also noticed that there was no tension in visitors’ behavior. Certainly national pavilions in Venice biennale are different, because each represents a different country. However, what is important is the experience visitors go though. Variation in the design of exhibition spaces is valid especially since most of the people surveyed said
that museum environments are boring and elitist. In the question about what museums could borrow from biennales, she suggested that there could be diversity in exhibition spaces, because usually all rooms are too similar in design and layout. The interesting fact was that Zhukova was surprised to see the works of Titian there, since the Venice Biennale is a festival for contemporary art. Creating such varied environments of interpretation for historical art collections can be unexpected for the audience, and that is what, according to the survey results, they are looking for.
47
48
1. What drove your intention to go to the Venice Biennale? Well... One month before going to Venice I had a chance to visit biennale in Moscow. That was quite interesting and it was a new experience, but Moscow is definitely not a big center of contemporary art. It had some foreign artists represented, but they were just a few. I saw Venice as a place to see world art trends, it is like a chance to see more or less the whole picture of today’s art in one place and to get that feeling that you know “what’s going on.”
the exhibition place and artworks. For example one room with photo project from some third world country was divided in several sections with some corners of acute angles, and walls were covered with wallpaper, which looked quite well and was creating some special mood. But I do not know if it was a part of project or just a part of interior.
2. What else besides the artworks and installations drew your attention and why? Were there any intriguing exhibit spaces? Please describe what and why. The conception of different pavilions for each country is already exciting. It is a nice feeling of moving not from one room to another but from building to building, you have time to get ready to perceive something absolutely different. It is all about changing of sizes, colors and interiors, so I can’t choose one in particular. It was quite difficult to see the border between actual interior of
4. Could you just talk about the exhibit pavilions not the art itself? Please describe how people behaved there and what caught your attention to go visit them. In France’s pavilion I saw a girl sitting in the corner and reading a book, people were really relaxed, there was no feeling that art and spaces are oppressive. Combination of different spaces and rooms: dark and light, small and big, new and beaten down.
3. Was there something unexpected or surprising to you? The works of Titian presented there.
5. The Venice Biennale is temporary, very condensed and international. It is different from the traditional art museum experience. Do you think there is something here that museums could apply in their practice? I think it is just a different kind of exhibition, so far I do not see many ways of how things that make it special could be applied in a museum space, maybe bring variety to exhibition spaces, because rooms usually look the same. 6. Would you like to have a similar experience, not in the framework of the biennale and if there were no famous names? Yes, it was a good experience, so no matter where, it would be nice to have it again. However, it would be great not to travel to another country.
49
B. 1. Pop-Up Exhibitions: The Detroit Institute of Arts project Inside | Out As mentioned earlier, one of the current practices that some art museums use to impact public’s daily life and attract them to visit the art museum is to bring reproductions of artworks outside museums into the city. This thesis explores this current practice to understand the impact it has on the public, how it benefits the museum and how it can be expanded. Museums such as the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), the Russian Museum and the Museum of London started to use this method in order to integrate art into the community’s everyday life, and to evoke a love for the work in order to establish stronger relationships between museum and the community. “The program began when DIA Director Graham Beal visited London in 2007, and he was inspired by works of art hanging around the city. The opportunity came three years later for the DIA to display their own works of art in different communities”. (Inside goes out: art institute creates open air galleries outdoor city walls. Times-Herald. May 5, 2013). The DIA project Inside
50
Out brings reproductions of artworks outside the museum to connect with the community and provide people with an opportunity to enjoy the artworks on a daily basis. In this case to factors are important for this thesis research: to trace how the internal goals of the museum meet external and how the context influences the perception of artworks. Kathryn Dimond, the Director of Community Relations at the Detroit Institute of Art, gave an insight into the Inside Out project and explained its birth and impact on Denver community. Since SSE is a project that aims to connect communities to collections outside the museum framework, Inside|Out and Masterpieces in the Streets were important to consider. Similar in reaching the public, but slightly different in the mission, intention for creation of both projects is examined in these two case studies.
Inside | Out
51
Interview via email with Kathryn Dimond, the Director of Community Relations Detroit Institute of Art 1. In some way a similar project, which excluded programming around the reproductions, but offered cell phone tours, was created by collaboration of the Museum of Russian Art in St. Petersburg with an independent curator Alexander von Busch. The reproductions were hung on the walls of the buildings around the museum area. Soon after they became a part of graffiti art. Unfortunately, there is no open-access to the outcomes of the project, but the curator said that museum evaluation showed positive project outcome and increased the Russian Museum visitation. The goal of that project was to bring art to citizens’ everyday life for enjoyment and to promote great art of the past. Did Inside Out connect non-museum goers with the artworks in a meaningful way and raise their interest in visiting the collection at the Institute (if there is a report about the project outcome that you could refer to)? The goal of the project, initially, was to
52
share the collection with the community on the celebration of the DIA’s 125th anniversary. At that time, there was no programming involved at all. The images were hung in various locations (40) around the community. Each work had a label that was very lightly interpreted. The second year (2011) we made a key change to the project. We installed the objects within walkable areas and clustered between 5-8 works in each community. This enabled both the community, and the DIA to develop programming around the installations, which then led to further engagement with the community. Another key component is that these are temporary installations of only 3 months. Enough time for community members to get to know them, find them and connect...but not long enough for them to be lost in the mix or to become “common”. We would rather go back to a community the following year, than leave them up too long.
There has been anecdotal evidence that people who have seen Inside|Out in their community have come to the DIA. We host a “community free day” which now will be a “Community weekend”, and many of the participants coming on those days have stated it was their first visit or at least first visit in a long time. We have not been able to measure a significant uptick in attendance as a result of I|O. One very important point about Inside|Out this past year... I|O was a key piece of our overall community outreach strategy leading up to the successful millage campaign that we ran last summer (August 2012). The millage was passed in all three counties in which the majority of our visitors reside. Much of the success was attributed to having the DIA in over 50 communities over the two summers leading up to the vote. Residents were able to see, touch and feel the value of the DIA to their communities, which translated into support for the millage.
2. The programming around the reproductions sounded very interesting (the bicycle and midnight tours). Was it one of the goals to create different context for viewing the masterpieces? Not necessarily. After having just the images in the communities in the previous year, we determined that by grouping them in a gallery-like setting, we were able to offer some innovative programs to help connect people with the installation. It was an extension of our visitor centered mission statement: “Create experiences to help people make personal connections with art”. Essentially, we were looking for the opportunity to extend our mission statement beyond the walls of the museum. We could not be more excited about the fact that communities have found that this helps them meet their community engagement and economic development goals as well.
53
3. In this project or its further development, is community considered to participate in interpretation or everything is curated by departments of the Institute? The way the program has been set up currently, the interpretation and curatorial responsibility for the installations fall to the DIA. As we move forward, we continually reassess the environment, community needs and impact and anticipate more community engagement in the project in the future.
4. Did the institution change or reconsider its mission/ internal goals that influenced this external project Inside Out? No, in fact, it is the other way around. As I mentioned previously, the DIA’s visitor centered mission is to create experiences that help people make personal connections with art (and our collection). We used that same approach to take our art beyond the walls and into the community. Our Community Relations strategy is to continue to seek and create opportunities to build on this visitor/ community centered approach.
Inside|Out
54
It is interesting that the project started to fulfill the museum’s mission by placing the artworks outside the museum for its 125th anniversary. And the next year it was approached in a more thoughtful way: the reproductions were grouped in certain locations to be accessible to several communities of the DIA, and programming around those pieces was created.
Inside|Out
55
2. The Russian Museum project The Masterpieces in the Streets
A similar project “Art-Tour: The Masterpieces in the Streets” launched in St. Petersburg and Moscow in 2008 and 2009, in collaboration with the Russian Museum and the Pushkin Museum of Art, curated by Alexander von Busch, the founder of Art-Tour. The goal of that project was to “enter into the daily life of citizens and remind them about the classical art, which exists next to us”. The
56
The Masterpieces in the Streets
project took place throughout the whole city; reproductions of the most famous artworks were placed on buildings, on boulevards and squares. Citizens could see familiar, and not familiar, works of art from collections of the main art museum. The project aimed to enliven both of the cities with art, and to be an informative resource for historical events and memory about them.
The Masterpieces in the Streets
Installation and interpretation of the reproductions were approached the same way as inside the museum. The art was framed and supplemented with short descriptive labels; additional information was suggested through
text messages. The project aimed to integrate art into people’s everyday environments, creating an artistically charged part of the city and promoting the value of classical art, traditions and cultural heritage.
57
“Instead of people looking for art, the art will look for people. It will integrate into their everyday lives and remind about the treasures, which exist really close. The most important is that people need to notice the artworks and stop,” says Alexander. This raises the question of how he and his team found the effective ways to encourage people to stop and notice the change in the city, be impacted, enjoy or use the art as a historical resource. Alexander said that finding effective ways for citizens to notice the artwork is an on-going process. The outside nature of the project lets the citizens experience art
58
in their everyday, dynamic environment. Mobile programming is created around this project. One can look up a map of the artworks and head to explore them or follow the route suggested by the curator. St. Petersburg (2009), Moscow (2008), Barcelona, London (2007) and Belgrad hosted the project “artworks under the open sky”. As Alexander states in his description of the project: “The new modern museum form breaks the borders of perception, the art harmonically enters the everyday life of a person of any city whether it is a remote location or megapolis”. Art-tour is a “tour-guide” through world art that
leads people from reproductions to the originals. Alexander says that it is important for people to know the national and world history; and the ethical aspect is very important (implies knowing the art history and understanding the aesthetic part of it). The technology allows us to expand museum resources to remote areas for those who cannot visit actual museums due to their geographical location or lack of time. He says that all museums perceive this project as a marketing tool; however, it is more than that. “The museum thinking in Russia is very conservative and holds to conservation of cultural heritage, the exhibitions are boring, low visitation, poor marketing and huge interest in traveling exhibitions”. This project is one step towards breaking the traditional format of display and reaching out to the public to show that the museum field in Russia just begins to advance. However, one thing that this thesis suggests to exclude is the pin-point perspective to remind the public about great artworks of the past and their high value. This thesis suggests to consider all collections as informative resources, pieces for enjoyment while eliminating artwork highlights that are considered
to be of a very high value and that everyone should know about them. This pin-pointing perspective that still exists in curating practices in Russia should be re-shaped, because that brings elitism to the image of an art museum and dictates a specific foundational knowledge for the visitor, which they do not necessarily have. For SSE it is important to create an experiential environment for viewing the artworks, and incorporate fresh interpretational and viewing approaches, which an “Art-tour” with its mobile application does not offer. However, it shows that a proper parthership should be established between participating museums and SSEsto agree on one mission and goal to avoid misunderstanding such as between “Art-Tour” and Russian Museum in regard to the marketing.
59
C. Satellite Exhibitions: The Guggenheim and BMW Group This is an example of an impactful project that engages the public in reshaping their city environments by bringing them together in an artistically designed location to attend programmed events. The Guggenheim, in addition to its international expansion to Bilbao and Venice, launched the project BMW Guggenheim Lab that took place in various locations. This is a co-initiative of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the BMW (Automobile) Group. This month-long lab is an urban think tank created to gain insight into current trends in different cites (by far New York, Mumbai and Berlin) and discover ways to accommodate them. The project raises awareness of important urban challenges in the cities and around the world. The BMW Guggenheim Lab project is focused on activating local citizens in participating cities and working towards urban change. The Guggenheim project approaches the conversation about
60
citizens’ needs through collective thinking, approaching problems as challenges and a developing a track for development. It is not a gathering-place where people might most likely complain and share they thoughts about the needs of their city. This project has very different goals from this thesis application and is based on programming. However, it is a case of a satellite location launched by a museum in order to improve citizens’ experiences in their cities. Involvement of a cultural institution into infrastructural issues merges the borders of fields and encourages the public to think and approach the challenges in their environments creatively. The BMW Guggenheim Lab does not include art; still the pavilions are places of destination for people. Those pavilions create spaces for the publics’ shared experiences and thoughts.
Project in Mumbai, Dec 9, 2012–Jan 20, 2013
61
New York, Aug 3–Oct 16, 2011
62
Project Berlin, June 15–July 29, 2012
63
Conclusion
IV
V. Conclusion For creation of SSE, it was beneficial to get the insight of the Inside|Out and The Masterpieces in the Streets projects to trace why and how they were established and their potential for further development. The Inside|Out project came out of the museum’s mission statement: “Create experiences to help people make personal connections with art” unlike the The Masterpieces in the Streets project, proposed by the independent curator. Both of the projects aimed to reach broader audiences and to remind the public about their community museum collections. Both projects increased museum visitation, but did not necessarily establish meaningful connections. The conducted surveys identified the public’s need for stronger connection with museum collections. The surveyed individuals described their experiences inside the traditional art museums, not outside, but both of the projects mentioned above used the same ways of interpretations that are used in the museum: mobile tour, guided tour and labels. Due to the freedom of museum setting, the DIA guided tours suggested an unusual way to experience the
66
Inside|Out project. They created a bicycle and night tours. The curator of the Russian project created a mobile art tour of the collection. The DIA approached the tours in an interesting way, allowing people to experience familiar in a different environment that created an overall provocative experience. Thus, taking a familiar element out of its regular environment and placing it into another familiar environment results in new unexpected and memorable experiences. This aspect is considered in the case studies in Chapter IV, section Environment. Based on the conducted surveys and research of several museums, most people seek fresh, engaging, unexpected experiences and stories of collections that they can connect to. Even though the people shared their museum experiences, creating meaningful interpretation about museum collections is independent from location, such as the DIA that managed to contribute to meaningful experiences of the communities. In this thesis, the Biennale model and the Guggenheim Lab project are considered in terms of delivering the culture with the tool of pop-up exhibitions. In both,
Biennale model and outside projects, the temporary and outside nature attract high numbers of visitors, because temporary exhibit locations offer something that will be gone in a certain period of time. The Biennale additionally attracts diverse communities, because it is an international festival, unlike the DIA or the Russian Museum projects, which targeted local communities.
Benefit to the museum field: The international feature of the satellite may both increase exchanging ideas related to the content of potential exhibitions among professionals, as well as discussing issues, and sharing expertise, project outcomes and visitor evaluation. The reuniting of collections and collaboration of professionals with their diverse expertise may birth new perspectives and create more effective and meaningful interpretation.
Suggested features of the biennale outcomes to consider: 1. Provide a platform for connecting collections (without the need for transportation in this thesis application case) 2. Support a global network of professionals 3. By reuniting ( if ever separated) collections, develop closer relationships among museum institutions across Russia 4. Develop connection of Russian museums with museums in other countries 5. Foster information resources and expertise exchange 6. Acknowledge cultural background, as a context for learning
67
Cases that SSE should consider before participating: Museums that do not have in ther possession large collections might not be interested in participating in SSE project; however, it is not a restriction. If the museum has small but digitized collection, it can become a member of the SSE project. Another factor may be the board or staff’s resistance to exhibiting their digitized collections in a non-museum environment and non-traditional approaches.
68
1. The benefit of temporality to SSE is that it is a good way to prototype new approaches, evaluate outcomes and advance the project for the next prototype unless is ready to fully function. 2. Multiple locations and international exchange of collections can brings diverse perspectives to interpretation and build multi-layered background for the visitor. The international factor was also mentioned by the surveyed people in Russia by expressing that they would like to see more foreign art exhibitions, and get exposure to fresh exhibition approaches and environments. This cultural enrichment is especially essential in underserved areas where museums are more didactic and traditional than in Moscow and St. Petersburg and the public is not provided with experience and interpretation that sparks curiosity.
Through engaging populations of several locations simultaneously and collections of several museums, SSE aims to ignite curiosity about art, concepts and stories beyond the everyday experiences and encourages the public to think about art museums and concepts broadly and openly more often. Using digitized collections frees SSE from loans, transportation and conservation issues. Some remote locations are unable to host original artworks due to lack of security and proper conservation environment that provides sustainability. Digitized collections can be available at several locations simultaneously to give visitors the opportunity to connect through similar experiences across the regions and explore each other’s perspectives and thoughts. Moreover, digitized collections can be used in different dimensions, and various sizes, while the details from one artwork can be zoomed in on to better see the technique or a detail. This method offers variety of ways to approach the representation of the artworks to better emphasize the message.
69
Further Research Further research considers using museum programs, which regenerate cities’ well- being and cultural exposure for their populations. The research should examine the potential to develop and sustain the art field that provides citizens with learning opportunities as well as provide more options for leisure and entertainment. This research will have to examine current and potential, internal and external political and cultural collaborations when choosing certain participating museums. “Art museums reflect, frame, and shape complex and often hidden aspects of international relations”, says Christine Sylvester; that is why it is vastly important to consider the context in which this thesis application impacts the city, and its citizens as well as strengthens international relations. Based on personal interviews with museum professionals, it was identified that some museums are not interested in expanding their collections further than their community, because their community is where they get most feedback. However, some museums and independent museum professionals
70
are highly interested on working towards expanding their collections to reach broader audiences and share the resources. Again, when choosing a participating museum, it is important to take into consideration museums’ goals and the potential for resources expansion.
Simultaneous Satellite Exhibitions
Project
V
Simultaneous Satellite Exhibitions
72
VI. Project - Simultaneous Satellite Exhibitions This thesis project suggests creating Simultaneous Satellite Exhibitions with digital content or reproductions of artworks from permanent and stored collections, united by common themes, where experimental or non-traditional interpretation is encouraged. The Simultaneous Satellite Exhibitions will be located in both cities and underserved areas to connect communities and provide access to culture. It will take art outside the museum walls, raising the profile of the local participating museums, and demystifying the experience of viewing fine art. These outcomes will result in increased museum attendance for the participating museums.
Goals:
Expected Outcomes:
2. Provide access to museum collections in underserved locations
to regenerate culture in the location
3. Expand collections outside of a museum and reunite collections that are no longer together or items from different collections that can be part of one story
to generate fresh approaches, new contexts and novel stories
1. Create meaningful, relevant and informative interpretation
As mentioned earlier, museums typically exhibit up to approximately 10% of their collections, usually including the most outstanding works from their collections. The majority of their collections is stored and rarely on
that enhances visitor enjoyment and inspires using collections as an informative resource
view. Learning opportunities are missed because stored collections are not used enough as an informative resource tool to learn about past and present.
73
Socially engaged target audience
Create open access to stored collections Develop the field of culture and arts in underserved areas
Local Communities of geographically remote locations from large museums Communities that lack cultural enrichment 18 to 44 years old
Who
Why
Delivery
Consider art as an informative resource not only as aesthetic pleasure
Satellite locations for exhibitions New interpretations and stories Reunited collections in a non-museum space
74
Considerations
1. Participating Museums Traditional museums currently collaborate with other traditional museums through travelling curated exhibitions and through the loan of specific art objects for scholarship and exhibition. These traditional collaborations can be reliable revenue-generators and are able to attract many visitors. The information and resource exchange among traditional museums mostly happens in the geographic areas where cultural streams are strong and able to attract and impact high numbers of visitors.
Participating museums might consider: 1. Expanding their collections nationally and internationally 2. Discovering new exhibition approaches and interpretations 3. Creating new, more experienctial context for their web-based digital collection and expanding its affordances 3. Choosing based on reputation: well-known and unknown museums should be in one participating group to attract moreof the public to familiarize them with the collections of unknown museums through the reputayions of more well-known museums
MUSEUMS LOCATION COMMUNITY INTERPRETATION MUSEUM PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION
MUSEUMS LOOK TO SHARE WITH DIVERSE COMMUNITIES EXPAND BEYOND PHYSICAL LOCATION AND WEB READY TO ALTERNATIVE EXHIBITION APPROACHES
75
2. Selecting Satellite Locations for Exhibitions Expanding the space of traditional museums to temporary satellite locations will allow museums to exhibit their digitized collections in many locations. Moreover, these new, temporary spaces will allow and may encourage alternative interpretations not possible within the framework of the traditional museums. This project suggests starting to prototype in the locations within a certain distance from the participating museums where populations are familiar with the museum’s collection. After the prototype within the range of “familiarity”, the project will progressively expand to the areas located further from the participating museum and reach most culturally underserved populations.
UNDERSERVED GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS 1. Familiarity based
Remote locations within a certain distance from participating museums, where the community is familiar with that museum, but does not have easy access to it 2. Start with the closest to participating traditional art museums to: a. expand further after the project meets the required outcomes b. gradually familiarize areas and spread the word about this project 3. Determine opportunities for further cultural development
76
OR
Hidden threads
Mutual historical or current connections of the locations that are reflected in the themes of artworks For example, famous artwork is located in the participating museum, but the event represented in that artwork or the artist is from that potential satellite location. And the community of that location might not know about that connection, because the artwork was privileged to be displayed in the museum.
Example Moscow Participating museum
Fam i
Bryansk Second expansion
liar
ity
Novgorod First expansion
Roanake Second expansion
it Familiar
s
an
Exp
Ex
pa
ns
io
n
Orienburg Second expansion
y
Trenton First expansion ion
Ex
pa
Philadelphia Participating museum
Some traditional museums and arts funders have begun to recognize the art and culture gap for people that live in underserved communities. For example, the funding project Challenge America Fast-Track by National Endowment for the Arts offers support to arts projects that extend the reach of traditional
on
nsi
a Exp
nsi
on Potsville Second expansion
museums to underserved populations – “those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.” This grant supports the strengthening of communities through the arts.
77
POPULATION CARTOGRAMS
78
These maps show the intensity of population in Russia and in the United States. Moscow and St. Petersburg are densely populated and generate the income and exchange of cultural resources with other countries. Sometimes the large cities spread their resources to some other locations. The United States are more evenly populated in cultural hubs, such as New York, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, that are evenly located throughout the country.
79
COMMUNITY of chosen locations 1. 18 to 44 year olds 2. Interested in cultural development of their city 3. Socially engaged 4. Isolated from art museums and lacking cultural enrichment
INTEREST to determine opportunities for further development of culture and the arts in that community
DEMOGRAPHICS FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
3. Developing Collaborative Interpretation Museum staff
80
+
outside emergeing professionals
1. Inside in-depth understanding of local community (in case there is a regional museum to incorporate their expertise) 2. Detailed information about the selected artworks from participating museum
1. Bring new perspectives that lay outside thinking of museum staff 2. Explore the boundaries of novel ways of interpretation that is relevant to target audeinces 3. Possess external knowledge that museums might not have or take into consideration
Not limited by the framework of traditional art museum, emerging museum professionals will have more possibility to create new various interpretations. Lisa C. Roberts (Changing Practices of Interpretation, 222) notes that there is debate within the art museums to determine which
collections to exhibit and which museum professionals will curate them. For these Simultaneous Satellite Exhibitions, emerging museum professionals will be called upon to curate them in unconventional ways and to collaborate with other
traditional museums in developing content and narrative. Especially in Russia, where museum departments are not strongly connected in working on an exhibition, engaging educators, curators, conservators, marketing managers and public relations managers is an important goal.
Inviting consulting emerging museum professionals into the established collaborative process within the museum will bring an outside perspective that will potentially help inside museum professionals expand their perception of their museum.
MUSEUMS
Curators
Conservators
Educators
Marketing Managers
Public Relations Managers
Work closely togeher
+
If located in the area Regional Museum Professionals
+
Emerging outside Museum Professionals
81
For example, the Tate Museum supports curatorial collaboration, runs professional exchange program, and collaborates with other institutions and professionals, which share research in the museum field. One of the highlights from collaboration of the Tate Museum with the Pushkin Museum of Art in Moscow was “William Blake and British Visionary Art.” This exhibition was held in Moscow; it showcased 110 works and attracted 238, 000 visitors. It attained high visitation because the show was exhibited in the biggest art museum in the city with easy access to citizens.
82
PROJECT OUTSIDE PROFESSIONAL
collection information
outside expertise concepts
provides
provides
PARTICIPATING MUSEUM
topic goals + objectives outcomes Primary Responsibilities in Collaborative Work curating providing information about the collection
developing concepts design study demographics and interest in a chose location
Considerations for a proposed project for a satellite exhibitions
83
Developing Interpretation 1. Connect participating museum’s internal expertise with external vision of outside museum professionals
4. Museum staff should provide outside museum professionals with thorough information about selected artworks
2. Connect internal and external viewpoints to develop several themes for interpretation (see 6. Creating Exhibition Topics)
5. In the concept stage both parties develop interpretation
3. Choose one to make it an exhibition topic The permanent collections of traditional art museums are a valuable public resource that reflect both the past and present. Through these collections, people may find enjoyment, inspiration, learning, and a deeper understanding of culture and diversity. The sharing and connecting of collections contributes to their interpretation and increases the benefits they can provide to the public. Collaborative exhibits can help to generate renewed interest in collections for the visitors who are familiar with the collection or had a chance to see it live.
84
6. When the story is developed, outside museum professionals take over designing satellite locations
The collaboration of several traditional museums working together on new interpretation of their collections will benefit all participating institutions by enriching collections interpretation with diverse viewpoints. Bringing pieces of different collections together in one space encourages the creation of new stories, open perspectives and viewpoints, and “marries” collections, making them more global. Ongoing research behind the scenes can be partially accessed by the public through this type of international and national collaboration, and will become public’s knowledge faster, creating greater impact from the exhibition interpretation.
For example, in the museum collaboration such as between the Hermitage Museums in St. Petersburg and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, those simultaneous satellite exhibitions could be a faster and cheaper interpretive method to create or address current topics through collection objects that are ordinarily not on view.
Additionally, the Hermitage Museum and Rijksmuseum network will be ab-le to reach wider geographic areas than their respective central traditional museums, creating much more access to art and its interpretation for both citizens of those cities and tourists who come to experience different cultures.
4. Satellite Exhibitions High Budget
Low Budget
1. Pop-up pavilions in the central location of the city
1. Existing space in central location
2. Last for one month 3. Mobile structures that are easy to put up and take down
2. Design those spaces to make them look unfamiliar to what they originally are while visually communicating the story of an exhibition
4. Developed and designed by the outside museum professionls who are working with participating museums
85
Simultaneous Available in the areas of each participating museum 1. to provide the community of each museum’s region an access to explore collections of their national museum in a new framework
2. to attract higher number of visitors at a time when investing into creating exhibitions in several small locations for rapid developing of the satellite concept
Visitor engagement in connected satellites Today’s society widely use digital communication media to interact with each other and browse information. Online platforms that opened opportunities for people to eassily connect to the world also shaped their habits of perceiving information. Now these platforms are applied in the museums to provide additional interpretation in the digital format and allow visitors to use the museum resources to create, share and save their own collections (for example, the Rijksmuseum, Cleveland Museum of Art).
86
3. enable visitors in different locations to instantly connect through digital communication media -to share first-person cultural perspectives related to the exhibition topic -possibly visit an exhibit with a friend/ family who lives in a different country to share cultural and leisure experience
A couple of the examples of such interpretation is Gallery One in Cleveland Museum and online resources of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum provide expanded information about their collection online, while Gallery One digital feature is expanded to the museum space. Both museums use technology that allows showing extended information about their artworks. However, both places also took a step towards community curating by suggesting that users create their own exhibits/ collections, by compiling the artworks by category or any topic they are interested in. Hence, visitors use provided information and create their own favorite collections
based on how they connect that information and what their interests are. In addition to that ,the process and the features that the visitors use are very similar to what is available on social networks. One can “like” a painting, as mentioned, put the “liked” paintings together and then share them with others, just the way one does when using Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or any other digital platform. Visitors can explore someone’s collection in a way that is similar to looking through someone’s photo album or reading their status posts. This brings the museum experience much closer to our everyday life in terms of using a very similar system and doing the same processes that we are already doing every day.
87
5. Creating Cross Cultural Exchange of Intellectual Access to Collections 1. Exchange will be created through the satellite nature of the project that unites pieces of collections
BY NATURE OF THE PROJECT
2. Exchange will be created through collaboratively developing an exhibition topic by museum staff of participating museum and outside museum professionals, which will bring their diverse perspectives to the table (p. 75)
BY CREATORS
3. An opportunity to be a first-person representative of cultural perspective related to exhibited art piece
Intellectual and cultural exchange is essential to traditional museums and other cultural organizations. Developing new global stories through international and national exchange will connect diverse visitors with diverse backgrounds. International engagement of socially active target audiences, energized by common interests and public projects across national and regional borders, will keep the art museum field up-to-date on the needs of the modern visitor.
88
BY VISITORS
Traditional museums lend their collections to increase public benefit, to promote intellectual access, to increase general knowledge and understanding of art, to raise their own profile and prominence, and to support other museums. They collaborate to optimize access and engagement with globallydriven contemporary audiences. Izzy Mohammed (Developing the Inclusive Model, 93) points out the need to engage with social diversity
and create room for meaningful crosscultural understanding and participation in traditional art museums. “Given the difficult challenges we face, museums need to adopt a more advanced social role where cross-cultural understanding and participation need to be viewed as fundamental objectives. Any exhibition comparing and contrasting a number of cultures – or further still, drawing on common traits, experiences and shared histories”. Mohammed says that the new cross-cultural approaches offer a chance to develop cross-community dialogue, with institutions well-positioned to develop a body of knowledge reflecting diversity. This project suggests taking these trends a step further by creating open-access, simultaneous satellite exhibitions that will capture parts of various museum collections at the same time.
89
6. Selecting Exhibition Topics The topics for the satellite exhibits may be based on factors such as: 1. Museum storage collections’ thematic relevance to current events 2. Recent findings in research on a particular topic that refers to the collection 3. Pieces that have not been on view. The number of combinations is endless and should be selected based on traditional museums’ stored and permanently on-view collections, current needs in research, or time-sensitive For example, a theme of “The Merry Society” related to leisure time spending in the seventeenth century might consist of artworks from the Hermitage (St. Petersburg), the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY). A recent finding related to the topic of Circus Arts might be represented through the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum d’Orsay and the Museum of Circus Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia.
90
publics interest. Usually, only museum professionals and academics are familiar with the complete stored collections of traditional museums and are able to use them for personal or professional development. This application of Simultaneous Satellite Exhibitions has the potential to expose hidden traditional museum collections to a wider and geographically underserved public as a resource for information, inspiration, personal development, or enjoyment.
Another example could be the exhibition “Math in Art” containing pieces from stored collections that would unite artworks from different eras and areas, in which the artists applied mathematics. That exhibit, for example, could include “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat (the Art Institute of Chicago), “Memo” by Staurt Devis (Smithsonian American Art Museum), “The Piazza San Marco in Venice” by Canaletto (Museo Thyssen).
on
A
Outside professionals
18 to 44 year olds
Collaborative work process
Lack of culture and art in their locaion
Accessible (geographically, not didactic in content)
Sp
Work particularly relevant, socially, politically, culturally, etc
r In t er p
e ac
Alternative to museum
Collaborative interpretation by outside professionals and local museum staff
Too ls f o
Temporary
Addresses viewers needs
i on tat re
Emerging museum professionals
ce ien ud
Pro fes si
als
91
Audience Not interested in cultural and art exposure Not interested in cultural develoment of their city
Professionals
Only curators
Didactic Difficult to undersand or formal (date, location, brief info) Too much text
Not collaborative
Interpretation only through labels Similar to the regional museum layout Gallery like Traditional
Space
92
for Interpretati on
Only museum staff
s Tool
Not specific demographics
Further Research While there are two options for choosing the locations based on themes and familiarity, the target community of a location should meet the following requirements: be interested in cultural development of their city, prevalent 18 to 44 year olds and socially engaged. It is important to examine each point of guidelines of Participating Museums, as well as Selecting Satellite Locations guidelines in-depth before creating a project. Detailed information gathered through official museum reports about their work, goals and missions, surveys and personal interviews of both museum professionals of participating museums and cultural organizations of potential satellite location will validate the assumptions. This information may also help in selecting the most effective approach for an exhibition topic.
Another step, in which further research is principal is creating satellite exhibitions. The approach of an exhibition will depend on the amount of funding. Museums, cultural or grant organizations might fund the project. In Russia, the grant organization will most likely sponsor and develop the project. The amount of funding varies, thus there are two approaches for satellite exhibitions: pop-up pavilions and space rental. Based on the grant, the team creating a satellite exhibition will create design approaches for adesigning in existing space or building of a pavilion.
93
Herm ge ita
Rijk
us eu sm
m
Tate
Project Example Goals:
1. Small details are important and can be a clue to understanding a broad concept effectively 2. Exploration of unfamiliar cultures and concepts can be alluring and enjoyable though ordinary things 3. Other visitors first-person opinion about their culture can bring authentic insight into the exploration of the topic
ZO OM I N THIN K IN G This exhibition explores broad concepts through the details that showcase ordinary and alluring things. The exhibition is developed by the Hermitage (St. Petersburg), the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam) and the Tate (London). These museums contain collections of Dutch art of the seventeenth century. Both Russia and Britain had strong connection with the Netherlands in that time; St. Peterburg had a lot of Dutch influence in architecture, style, and infrastructure of the city.
ZOOM IN THINKING Objectives:
1. Aims to encourage a visitor to consider and translate details to find interesting facts about Dutch society of the seventeenth century 2. Stimulate search for clues 3. Motivate visitors to connect easily through ordinary things
These three museums are well-known, and this satellite project is based on familiarity of museums among the communities in the area. The chosen locations for these satellites are located in the regions of participating museums. Delft (Netherlands) - student city; important manufacturer of tiles in the seventeenth century Nottingham (the UK) - small, with large student population Novgorod (Russia) - medium student population, close to St. Petersburg, lacks cultural events for youth population
95
The satellite location of this project is placed outside in a designed structure. This structure is made of mobile, opened industrial umbrellas. This pop-up structure looks complete from exterior and has a function in the interior. This design can be used in the case of low budget project (p. 77, 4. Satellite Exhibitions) in an existing space and still create a similar interior atmosphere, because of the use of umbrellas. In this project the umbrella structure
96
symbolizes the story and the context one enclosed structure from outside. When the visitor walks in, this whole context splits into the puzzle’s pieces, which created the context. Detailed pieces of the artoworks with the explanations are projected onto the parts of opened umbrellas. The visitor can choose which detail of the artwork to see and get information about the artwork’s detail on one of the umbrella’s sections.
Possbile outside environment: center of a town or park
97
Exit Artowork Artowork
Artowork
Artowork
Entrance
98
“ZOOM in thinking” satellite exterior
99
The artworks from the collections of participating museums are represented digitally. Suggested by the creator team zoomed in details are projected onto one the sections of the umbrellas and are supplemented with the story about it. The visitors can pick the detail they are interested to learn more about it. This detail will be projected on to the other parts of the umbrellas while the visitor is exploring it. The annotation to the chosen detail will appear next to its image, and will also be available in audio format.
100
ZOOM in thinking blows up the details of the artworks that showcase trivial things and activities in the 17th century. Choosing such details from the 250 year old captured environment, will open to the visitors a different and relevant way to look at the artworks. The exhibition provides visitors with the option to check for participating visitors of other two locations available and interested in communicating through the mobile application. This opportunity allows visitors to connect with each other to explore the exhibition together, and ask questions related to the exhibition topic.
Inside the satellite
101
Digital representation of an artwork
Projection of the detail
Projection of the detail
102
Digital representation of an artwork
Avercamp, Barent Digital representation of the artwork and its details as well as details of other artworks related to the theme of ice-skating
103
Appendix
VI
Survey Executive Summary U.S. Online surveys promoted via social online platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn) in St. Petersburg, Russia and among American population and international program exchange visitors throughout the U.S. were conducted to compare visitors’ experiences in traditional art museums and identify meaningful ways of interpretation, while finding the similarities and differences. The surveys’ content was focused on tools through which visitors get accessible and interesting interpretation, and what they dislike about the traditional art museum setting. Both surveys anticipated 100 respondents, mostly among 18 to 35 – year old audiences. The U.S. survey includes responses from international students living in the U.S., while the survey focused on St. Petersburg includes only citizens of this city. There is a distinction in Russia between BA/ MA and Specialist degrees, because the country recently switched to the Bologna System, which consist of four years of BA program and two years MA program instead of total 5 years of Specialist program.
106
18-24
20%
25-34
65%
MA/ MFA
45%
BA
30% St. Petersburg 18-24
49%
25-34
31%
35-44, 44-64
7%
45-54
2%
MA
27% Specialist BA
40% 21%
Labels as a Resource of Information about the Object The results of the survey in the U.S. showed that museum visitors would like to be more engaged in the story behind the artworks and artifacts. However, surprisingly, while expecting lower percentage, the most effective way for 49% of these people to learn about the artwork is from labels, while other answer choices suggested more engaging way of getting information, such as through lectures, talking to friends, listening to audio-guides. Only 23% of the people surveyed in the U.S. learned something from socializing with friends. The rest for both audio-tours and lectures were 32%. Museum visitors in St. Petersburg also rated using labels for information as high as 64%, while guided-tours were 41%, learning by socializing with friends 33% and audio-tours 20%. The low percentage that identified the usage of audio-tours is impacted by the cost of this tool in St. Petersburg’s museums. And, just as surprising as in the U.S. survey, one of the main dislikes of Russian participants were the labels. People referred to the labels as very didactic, long and hard
to understand – “The labels require patience to read. They are so long that by the end of it I lose the connection and narrative thread.” Learning through labels is the most common way of getting information about an artwork; even though it is not enjoyed by most of the surveyed individuals, it is still the most usable resource. Labels are one of the first associations related to traditional art museums, because they are so ingrained and highly used in exhibitions. Since labels are one of the main sources of information in art museums, will they evolve to serve the visitor better? Digital information provided through the “apps” functions: similarly, will this become the more dynamic and informative way for the visitors to get information? In some way it might be, because the way of getting information about an artwork or collection through the “app” is similar to any type of search one does through the cell phone and the format of information one obtains.
107
The results of the survey in the U.S. showed that museum visitors would like to be more engaged in the story behind the artworks and artifacts. The majority of the Americans mentioned lack of storyline behind the pieces, saying they missed “a thrilling story, passion in the narrative, a context for understanding, and intriguing facts.” There were also several comments about the density of the artifacts in the museum. People mentioned that there are too many pieces in the space, which sometimes cause crowds, especially next to the most famous artworks and disable them to view it on their own pace and in calm environment. The participants in St. Petersburg gave very similar answers; they also mentioned the lack of thrilling storylines People also referred to monotonous and formal ways of interpretation – basic facts about the artwork conveyed through the labels as well as audio- and tour-guides. Another interesting comment in the U.S. survey was that the artifacts “are not rotated enough”, and the display is very predictable. That can relate not only to the actual display of objects, but also to the overall display layout Many surveyed people both throughout the U.S. and Russia, St. Petersburg
108
mentioned lack of different physical activities. “I like going to the museums. However, if the museum is 200 years old and all the exhibitions there feel like they are ancient, then it is boring. Often small museums in removed towns are terribly boring and didactic. Nothing new, and all the rest have old approach we have seen many times.”
Q. “What do you dislike about traditional art museums?” was posed as an open question The majority of the Americans mentioned is very predictable. That can relate not lack of storyline behind the pieces, only to the actual display of objects, but saying they missed “a thrilling story, also to the overall display layout. Most passion in the narrative, a context for of the gallery space is long, square or understanding, and intriguing facts.” rectangular, and most of the artworks are There were also several comments hung on the walls, while other objects about the density of the artifacts in the are displayed in cases along the walls. museum. People mentioned that there are too many pieces in the space, which However, some visitors do enjoy walking sometimes cause crowds, especially next along the corridors at their own pace and to the most famous artworks and disable looking carefully at the collection. Such them to view it on their own pace and in a two-dimensional layout was created calm environment. to give visitors the chance to come upon each work of art, and in turns look The participants in St. Petersburg closely at it. There is still a need for this, gave very similar answers; they also but a visitor of the twenty-first century mentioned the lack of thrilling storylines needs the fresh approaches and threeand crowded museum spaces where dimensionality in a display. other visitors irritated them. People also referred to monotonous and formal ways Three-dimensionality, as brought up of interpretation – basic facts about the in the answer to the question about artwork conveyed through the labels dislikes, also means a more immersive as well as audio- and tour-guides. In environment, where visitors’ emotions the opinion of St. Petersburg visitors and physicality are engaged and are an there are not enough exhibitions with important part of experience. interesting topics and design. Many surveyed people both throughout the U.S. and Russia, St. Petersburg Another interesting comment in the mentioned lack of different physical U.S. survey was that the artifacts “are activities. They described their physical not rotated enough”, and the display patterns as walking, looking at the walls
109
and sometimes resting on the benches. 62% of those surveyed in St. Petersburg mentioned that the exhibition spaces are not designed; all the exhibitions are displayed in the same special setting. Because traditional art museums in St. Petersburg are in former palaces, to which interior and architecture often drives the intention of a visit rather than the collection, St. Petersburg survey had an additional multiple choice question:
1. Why do you usually visit the art museum? 13% interior/ architecture 25% stories about objects in the collections 51% to see favorite artworks 8% other: -modern tendencies in the art field -search for something interesting -atmosphere -overall feel of the museum -emotional and intellectual fulfillment -favorite -artworks and interior
110
Architecture and interiors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are essential factors for art museum visitors in St. Petersburg. People visit the museum to, in some way, experience the atmosphere of old times; nonetheless based, on their dislikes, as indicated in the survey they do not enjoy the exhibit
Q. What is usually the purpose of your museum visit? The remaining percentages were split among those visiting museums for a lecture and to attend an opening. The expectation of this question was that “temporary exhibit” and “leisure time” would dominate. However, the interest in visiting the museum to see temporary, permanent exhibit or to spend leisure time were split almost equally. Analysis of this data shows that people are seeking new experiences and information as their main reason for visiting the museum. They also use museums’ permanent collections as a resource of information and aesthetic pleasure. A smaller percentage of people visit art museums for leisure, which in this case might include socializing with friends or family in an unusual environment.
St. Petersburg
the U.S.
61 % to see temporary exhibits 47% to see permanent exhibits 37% to spend leisure time with friends/ family 34% to see temporary exhibits 28% to see permanent exhibits 24% to spend leisure time with friends/ family
Q. If you don’t like going to museums, why not? And what could possibly make you interested in going there? The surveyed population in St. Petersburg, despite all their dislikes, loved going to art museums. And the factors that would interest the majority of people in visiting museums were mostly seeing temporary exhibits, hearing about artworks or exhibition theme from outside (movies, lectures, news), meeting with friends, observing display of the stored part of their collection, an original way of representing or dynamic display, and location outside the city center. One comment reflected the exposition in traditional art museums very accurately: “I like going to the museums. However, if the museum is 200 years old and all the exhibitions there feel like they are ancient, then it is boring. Often small museums in removed towns
are terribly boring and didactic. Nothing new, and all the rest have old approach we have seen many times.” The question “Would you be interested to see the collection you are familiar with outside the museum, in an alternative form of display? Not containing original artworks of collections” complemented the visitors’ need to have more options for temporary exhibitions and various design approaches.
111
Q. Would you visit an exhibit, which takes place in different locations at the same time, if there was an opportunity for visitors to communicate across locations? St. Petersburg interested 72% The U.S. interested 88%
112
Q. Would you be interested in seeing museums’ collections in an alternative way (in terms of interpretation) outside the art museum? These exhibits will not contain the original objects of the collections? St. Petersburg interested 83% The U.S. interested 78%
Survey Data Executive Survey Summary Survey Data, the U.S. Survey Data, Russia
Survey Data
114
Online survey targeted for 100 people in the U.S.
115
Other: 1. Learn more about artwork
116
Other: 1. Artistic value and inspiration 2. Inspiration 3. I’m curious about art in general. See stuff i would never have come up with myself. Just for curiosity influences the way I see the present/live objects
117
118
Other:
1. Guided tours 2. Guided tours with a living person as tour guide 3. As well as supplemental support materials, print, video, audio 4. Videos 5. With a guide 6. Documentaries 7. Group tour 8. Guides 9. Other visitors who might be very helpful and engaging 10. Interactive equipment 11. Qr-codes 12. The viewing experience 13. Live friendly guide, but also ipad museum apps. 14. Guides 15. Guided tours and interactive displays 16. Personal tours 17. At the Guggenheim, there were people with “Ask me about art” tags, so I asked them. I prefer to learn from a real person, but I don’t like traditional long boring dissertations. I prefer something for begginers like me, like what should I look on a specific piece of art, or the historic context that helps you understanding why the piece of art made sense at that time. 18. Interactive elements with multimedia
119
What do you dislike in the traditional art museum experience? 1. Too many people, screaming kids, people eating their chips. I miss my peace and quiet to think about the art and to feel it. 2. Too many pieces of bad art... just because it’s from the same era doesn’t necessarily mean you have to show it 3. I don’t dislike but I am neither fond of it 4. Topics of exhibitions incompletely disclosed in the information about them that provided in advertising 5. Crowds, and rude people that ruin the experience for others (me) 6. Lack of context for the art and sometimes the crowds, the sterility of the space, lack of interaction between viewer and art 7. Few or no information cards about specific artifact 8. Complementary information. Target prices for items. 9. It is often so quiet 10. Limited information about authors’ life and artworks. Usually, there is no chance to deepen the knowledge of details. 11. I don’t know what to look... I am not educated in art so I see that the whole picture is nice but I don’t know where to pay attention to appreciated
120
completely. 12. Sometimes they are not engaging, all the information is about the pieces are written on a label on the wall. 13. All is fine except maybe that you in very large facilities you have to pay entrance for the whole thing when it is clearly impossible to manage everything within one day. 14. I cannot take photo. 15. Bad art 16. Sometimes too little explanation about the meaning of the art and how to put it into context 17. Lack of engaging information - I prefer the info they usually provide with special exhibitions, explaining the work and context in which it was created, unlike the usually very sparse info on permanent exhibitions. 18. Not enough passion in the telling of the story behind the artwork. 19. Few places to relax and do slightly different things with your body. 20. Confusing set up. 21. Not touching the artworks, and the emphasis on artworks in the museum environment. I mean the emphasis on ‘high arts’. What is inside the museum gets suddenly important. In the classical museums 80% of the works are made by Privileged White
Males. This makes me sick! 22. Lack of access to detailed information about the art. 23. Not enough information (freely available, at least) 24. Too much info to read instead of audio tours. 25. It is a dead place 26. Short periods of display, intense traffic. Very difficult to find quite time for reflection with crowded gallery spaces. 27. Lots of tourists 28. Sometimes is boring, when you can´t figure out the meaning of the art. 29. The monotony and the lack of interaction. 30. I cannot engage with the art, the atmosphere is not immersive, it’s very sterile. A lot of times I don’t understand the art as well. 31. Huge line into the cash and wardrobe 32. Rules The amount of people around the same work of art. 33. One cannot talk, run, ... 34. Could be more innovative 35. I find them boring, I’d like to see more interaction activities. 36. Lack of interactiveness 37. The presentations are not always attractive for those who are not specialized, and does not, most of the time, address the basic info about the artwork.
38. None 39. The presentations are not always attractive for those who are not specialized, and does not, most of the time, address the basic info about the artwork. 40. Too many artworks in one space! 41. Lack of late nights/more flexible opening hours. Poor lighting. Lack of correlation between works. 42. Lack of interactive methods of giving information 43. Nothing 44. Nothing specially 45. I dont know 46. It’s boring 47. Nothing in particular. 48. I miss thrilling or very exciting parts to keep the tension while gathering information as well as in comparably “boring” areas throughout hours. 49. No dislikes 50. Nothing that I can think of now. The experience varies from one museum to another so I cannot generalize my dislike to all traditional art museums 51. No compelling story behind individual pieces or exhibits 52. Too little information is provided to the common people to understand art 53. Having to pay for audio tourssometimes 54. A lack of information presented in an accessible way, instead of a pretentious one.
121
55. The pieces of art aren’t rotated enough. 56. Not being able to spend enough time with the art work & most of the time not understanding the artist meaning of the piece 57. Nothing 58. Entrance fee 59. The amount of things to see makes me dizzy. 60. Crowded visitors 61. Contemporary art 62. It could benefit some of them to be less snobbish and to develop some programs for younger visitors. 63. Traditionality 64. Lack of interactivity 65. It is just a set of art pieces, with boring description, no reference to the life of an artist and his or her painting style, no interesting tips about the way the piece is done or the story it has. 66. I don’t feel I’ve grown enough as a personality to appreciate the classic way of displaying works. 67. Maybe little angry grandmothers, which are sitting in halls in Hermitage. =) 68. Entrance fees. These Organization can and should find an alternative way to fund expenses so they may offer free education 69. The nonsense in some text
122
labels, mostly when they are about modern art. 70. Don’t know 71. Dome thingies 72. Strict timetable. Should work until midnight. 73. Tourists 74. Price for tickets 75. Crowds and empty spaces 76. Can’t touch anything 77. That there are not a lot of free tours and when there is, then it usually is very short and superficial. 78. Passive presentation 79. The lack of the use of modern technology. The use of mobile applications and online content can greatly increase the visitors experience during their visit but is largely lacking in typical art museums. 80. Some are really over rated 81. Many art museums just display the title of the work, the artist, the mediums, and the year it was created. I would prefer if there was more information available if I wanted to find out more about the art: it’s context, meaning, interpretations, etc. 82. You are left on your own to figure the art. It would be nice to have people who know their stuff to guide you. 83. Too little information
84. It’s sometimes difficult to remember the importance of the art within the larger art history context/ how it fits in and why this matters 85. The tours should be more interesting and creative. 86. Not enough back-story to the pieces. Going through the exhibit with a facilitator is so much more interesting, because they can put so much more context to what I’m seeing. 87. I like art museum. However, some museums avoid to include more areas related with art. Also, the information look special designed for expert more than general public. 88. Long Lines, and Expensive Entry Costs 89. N/A 90. N/A 91. Nothing. 92. Nothing really. 93. – 94. Art changing and new shows take a very long time 95. The lack of information on paintings labels. 96. Expositions usually are represented in a very traditional ( a very predictable) way, I would prefer to see traditional art from the different, absolutely new perspective. 97. Sometimes I feel lost in space.
98. Nothing. 99. Sometimes the way art pieces put together 100. Boring guides, boring labels, very difficult to learn even if you are interested in. Beginners like me need context before jumping into art. Don’t explain me that “studio painting” if you haven’t explained me why that’s important, and what’s a “studio painting” in the first place!
123
124
125
126
Online survey targeted for 100 people in Russia Usually the purpose of your museum visit is to:
See temporary exhibit Leisure time with friends/ family
See permanent collection Leisure time/ date
Other: 1. Overall museum experience 2. Usually temporary and permanent exhibitions 3. Current trends in architecture, graphics, design 4. Atmosphere 5. In case there is something interesting 6. Temporary, permanent and leisure 7. Paintings, architecture, interior 8. Atmosphere of the building
127
What is the most effective way for you to learn about the artwork?
Labels Discussing with friends
128
Audio tour
Guided tour
What do you dislike in the traditional art museum experience? 1. Don’t touch and abstraction of the exposition from the visitor 2. ... 3. No photo of temporary exhibits. This is very silly. Payed audio tours. If there is an entrance fee, then it would be fair to make audio tours free and allow to use your own cell phone as an audio guide. Only 5% of museums incorporate audio tours on visitor’s own device 4. 5. Monotonious space 6. Museum guards (old grannies in Russia) 7.Easily get tired from amout of information. Reading labels with really small and volumous text is difficult, after five minutes I forget what I read about. Maximum I remember 1-2 objetcs 8. “Don’t” - for example “don’t walk on this part of the floor” 9. Expensive tickets, rude guards 10. Open hours 11. Hot and nowhere to sit down to get rest 12. Often monotonious and boring space 13. Angry granny guards, fee for taking pictures 14. Crowded, rude guards 15. People 16. Lack of seats to rest and discuss
exhibits with friends 17. Lack of interpretive information. Audio guide is not always available 18. Crowded spaces 19. Closed one or several days a week 20. Cannot look closely at the artwork, explore technique 21. Unhappy granny guards 22. The feeling of being constantly watched by the guards, uncomfort 23. Most of the museums are expositions, unfortunately, are just boring. Maybe because I come there without the background knowledge and don’t understand the meaning of the objetcs 24. Crowded 25. Crowded 26. Boring without the tour guide 27. Lack of seating and audio tours 28. Formality in interpretive approaches, sometimes difficult to find connection betwee the exhibited objects 29. Rude staff, lines to get in, expensive tickets for ftraveling exhibitions, museum closes early, boring exhibitions 30. Opportunity to get some rest 31. Low cultural level of visitors and staff 32. Like everything 33. LIke everything related to expositions, but tiresome to walk around, not enough seating
129
34. Like it: well-done exposition, however often the bad exposition spoils the good artworks 35. Learning something new 36. Need lots ot patience to read long labels, if not to read them, then there is no understanding of what is going on 37. Lack of good lighting 38. Guards are annoying 39. Very small long text of the labels 40. Lines 41 Lines in the coatroom 42. LInes 43. Boring and trivial tours, not enough really interesting objects. The experience is not worth the time and money 44. Ticket price 45. Ticket price 46. Prices 47. Prices 48. Don’t like lighting 49. Hours of opening. Lines, staff is not competent about the artworks in the area where they guard 50. I rarely go to museums not because I don’t like them, but because they are not interesting to me. If the topic of the exhibition is intereting to me, I like it 51. Atmosphere, history, enjoyment of masterpieces 52. Old staff working in the cloakroom 53. Accessibility 54. Not enough information about the
130
objects, very brief descriptions 55. Get tired easily 56. Different disliked in different museums 57. Conservatism, guard staff, lack of seating, lack of bilingual labels and educational elements. If you don’t know anything, you won’t know anything - no interactivity, poor navigation and design 58. Boring, monotonious way of providing information 59. Lack of seating to relax and enjoy the interiors 60. Hours of work.high ticket prices even for a small student exhibition 61. Like everything 62. Lack of facilities, lack of space in some museums, boring expositions 63. Expensive tickets, inconvenient location 64. Other people :) 65. Lack of seating, price to take pictures 66. Limited open hours and ticket price 67. Bad lighting 68. Other visitors 69. Hot inside 70. Smell 71. Rude staff 72. Interior 73. Get tired after walking around and find no seating to get rest 74. Terrible shoes to wear not to damage the floor
75. Not enough social engagement with other visitors, interesting exhibitions are rare 76. Strict rules 77. Monotonious 78. Not equipped for visiting with a small child 79. I am satisfied with traditional art museums, however , contemporary art exhibitions are usually not interesting 80. Small text 81. There no always an opportunity to take a guided tour. 82. Crowded, artworks are too close to each other 83. Crowded, hours of work, prices 84. Can be confusing to use the museum map, quiteness 85. No photo, no fee tour guides and audio guides 86. Guides don’t tell something interesting about the arworks that would help me understand art 87. Monotonious and similar design of exhibitions 88. No music, lack of seating, crowded 89. Lines 90. Lines 91. Staff 92. Staff 93. Strict rules 94. Boring 95. Lots of tourists
96. Crowded spaces, cannot see the artwork and come closer 97. Depressing atmosphere 98. Inconvenient hours of work 99. Feeling of tensity, because of the museum staff who watches visitors 100. Lines
What can possibly attract your interest to visit an exhibition ? 1. 2. ... 3. 4. :) 5. Free cakes (joke) 6. New exhibitions 7. Temporary exhibition 8. There are many museums in St. Petersburg. The outside information may attract my attention (documentry films) 9. Temporary exhibit 10. Temporary exhibits of stored collections from museums of other cities 11. Meeting with friends 12. Exhibition of stored collections 13. Exhibition on the topic of my interest 14. Really interesting information 15. Special mood. Only an exhibition on topics of my interest would attract my
131
attention 16. Friends, plans 17. Famous objects, exhibition design, ability to take (free) pictures 18. Interest in to artist’s work, unique exhibition design 19. Interesting temporary exhibit and traveling exhibitions with famous artworks 20. Interesting artists or well-known masterpieces, new topics of exhibitions and new approahces in exhibition design and interpretation, interactivity, ususual design approach and interpretation of classical art 21. Interesting/ well-known/ original artist or concept 22. Lecture at the opening of the temporary exhibit 23. Interesting marketing 24. Enjoy 25. Enjoy and visit when I can 26. Like going to museums. I like to learn knew things, so pretty much any exhibition will attract my attention 27. Like going to unusual exhibitions 28. Like 29. Interactive programming or unusual theme 30. Interested in anything 31. Interactivity in the exhibitions 32. More free time 33. Information in the musems are
132
boring, prefer to browse it on the internet 34. Private guided tours with a very professional guide 35. New trends in art 36. New pieces in collections 37. Science exhibitions, where I can touch everything, play with it - participatiry experiences 38. Specific colletion I am interested in 39. Special topic of the exhibition, moving objects, participatory 40. New approaches! 41. Feeling of a different world, like a time machine 42. I am a designer and a painter, so I am interested in techniques 43. Background information about the exhibition prior to the opening so I know what I am going to see 44. Rare collections, something I have not seen before 45. Marketing 46. Marketing, friends recommendations 47. Good marketing 48. Friends recommendations or marketing 49. Contemporary exhibition 50. Price 51. Theme of the exhibition 52. For exmaple, looking at the artworks and listening to live music 53. My friends works
54. New exhibitions with promotion about how I will rest my eyes from the images of everyday life 55. I like museums anyway 56. Like museums, good marketing 57. Just like museums 58. Moving objects, interactivity 59. Friends recommendations and interests 60. Like museums 61. Something new, extraordinary 62. Modern and fresh marketing 63. Recommendations, references 64. Like museums 65. At this time of my life I enjoy everything and happy to discover various exhibitions 66. Mix of old and new, 67. Unexpected, new masterpieces 68. Military thematic, smething unusual related to engeneering, low prices 69. Temporary exhibit 70. Temporary exhibit 71. Famous artists 72. Interactive exhibitions 73. New location 74. Artist and a certain topic, for instance - impressionism 75. Book, movie, recommendations 76. LIke museums 77. When museums impact the visitors and satisfy their needs in providing them with interesting information and new
approaches 78. I like when the reason to see the permanent collection is temporary exhibition 79. Sports topic 80. Contemporary approaches 81. Something unique 82. Certian mood 83. Exhibition that lasts less than 6 month 84. Rare objects, topics related to my profession 85. Temporary locations in the geographically distant locations of the city 86. Sales for books about the exhibition 87. Participation in creation of an exhibition 88. Something new 89. I like museums 90. I like visiting different types of museums 91. LIke going to museums 92. When I am going with somebody 93. I like museums 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. -
133
Would you agree that in the traditional art museum:
Collections are not interpreted enough Other
Not enough variety in exhibition deisgn approaches
Other: 1. Museum staff constantly watches you 2. Lack of interesting topics 3. Lack of interactivity 4. Unexpected exhibitions 5. Lack of information about collections 6. Not enough spcace and uncomfortable layout of exhibitions
134
Age
more
135
Education
Hight school
136
Specialist
BA
MA
PhD
Would you be interested in seeing museum collections in an alternative way (interpretation) outside the museum? The exhibit will not showcase the original objects from collections
Yes
No
137
Would you be interested in visiting a temporary exhibit which takes place in different cities and countries at the same time? The exhibit provides the possibility to communicate with those people who are visiting at the same time
Yes
138
No
Bibliography “About the Community  | The Inclusive Museum.” The Inclusive Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . “About | Biennial Foundation.” Biennial Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . Anderson, Gail. Reinventing the museum: historical and contemporary perspectives on the paradigm shift. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 2004. Print. Baggini, Julian. “Folkestone Revisited.” Guardian 24 June 2004: 16-17. Print. Bedford, Leslie. “Storytelling: the real work of museums.” Curator 44.1 (2001): 27-34. Print. Bernstein, Fred A.. “Technology That Serves to Enhance, Not Distract.” The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . Blanchette, Sarah. “DIA program brings famous works of art out of the Museum.” oaklandpostonline.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Sept. 2012. . Caines, Matthew. “Museums of the future: providing the personal, collaborating with the crowd.” guardian.co.uk. Guardian Professional, n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2012. . Carbonell, Bettina Messias. Museum studies: an anthology of contexts. Second ed. Malden, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print.
139
Dawson, Ross. “Thinking about the future of museums: fourteen key issues | Trends in the Living NetworksTrends in the Living Networks.” Trends in the Living Networks | Ross Dawson on opportunities for business and society in a hyper-connected worldTrends in the Living Networks | Ross Dawson on opportunities for business and society in a hyper-connected world. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . Fabrikant, Geraldine. “Showcasing Archives, Museums Bring Out the Good Stuff - NYTimes. com.” The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . Falk, John H., and Lynn D. Dierking. Learning from museums: visitor experiences and the making of meaning. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2000. Print. Falk, John H.. Identity and the museum visitor experience. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Left Coast Press, 2009. Print. Farrell, Betty, and Maria Mevedeva. “Demographic Transformation and the Future of Museums .” www.aam-us.org. American Association of Museums, n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. . Freudenheim, Thomas L.. “The not-a-museum.” Curator 53.1 (2010): 45-49. Print. Genoways, Hugh H.. Museum philosophy for the twenty-first century. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press, 2006. Print. Grams, Diane, and Betty Farrell. Entering cultural communities diversity and change in the nonprofit arts. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2008. Print. Greenhill, Eilean. Museums and the interpretation of visual culture. London: Routledge, 2000. Print. Harman, Willis W.. Global mind change the promise of the 21st century. 2nd ed. Sausalito, CA: Institute of Noetic Sciences :, 1998. Print.
140
“Interview with the director of the Hermitage.” Hermitage. Hermitage Museum, n.d. Web. 18 June 2004. . Jerome, Weeks. “Bonnie Pitman: Expanding the Art Museum’s Reach | Art&Seek.” Art&Seek | Arts, Music, Culture for North Texas. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . Jones, Elspeth. Internationalisation and the student voice: higher education perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print. Keene, Suzanne. Fragments of the world: uses of museum collections. Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005. Print. Kendall, Geraldine. “Cross calls for new debate on stored collections | Museums Association.” Museums Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . Klonk, Charlotte. Spaces of experience: art gallery interiors from 1800 to 2000. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Print. “La Biennale di Venezia - Home.” La Biennale di Venezia - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . Lang, Caroline. The responsive museum working with audiences in the twenty-first century. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006. Print. “Levels of Engagement with Art.” Dallas Museum of Art. Dallas Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 1 Aug. 2008. . Lynch, Heather. “Mapping Interpretation in Contemporary Art.” Scottish Arts Council
141
. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . “MUSEUM PIECES: Collections great, small are hidden treasures : San Angelo Standard Times.” Standard-Times: Local San Angelo, Texas News Delivered Throughout the Day.. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . “MUSEUM PIECES: Collections great, small are hidden treasures : San Angelo Standard Times.” Standard-Times: Local San Angelo, Texas News Delivered Throughout the Day.. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . “Masterpieces of Museum of Russian Art in the streets of the city.” ART-TOUR. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2013. . Miles, Roger S.. Towards the museum of the future new European perspectives. London: Routledge, 1994. Print. O’Neill, Kathryn , and Emily Hiestand. “The art of being interdisciplinary.” web.mit.edu. N.p., 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. . Pitman, Bonnie, and Ellen Cochran Hirzy. Ignite the power of art: advancing visitor engagement in museums. Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art ;, 2010. Print. “Research & Reports | Denver Art Museum.” New Angles on Interpretation. Denver Art Museum, n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . Roberts, Lisa C.. From knowledge to narrative: educators and the changing museum. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. Print. Robertson, Kolin, and Mathewson Charles N.. “Can early museums matter.” futureofmuseums.com. N.p., 9 Oct. 2012. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. . “The Life of Art.” The Getty. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. . Townsend, Melanie A.. Beyond the box: diverging curatorial practices. Banff, AB: Banff Centre Press, 2003. Print. “Vermeer Centrum Delft.” Vermeer Centrum Delft. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. . “World Biennial Forum / Biennial Foundation | 1st World Biennial Forum Organized by: Biennial Foundation & Gwangju Biennale Foundation.” World Biennial Forum / Biennial Foundation | 1st World Biennial Forum Organized by: Biennial Foundation & Gwangju Biennale Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2013. .
143
Image Sources http://www.bmwguggenheimlab.org/where-is-the-lab/mumbai-lab http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/10/28/bmw-guggenheim-lab-ends-successful-new-yorkcity-run/bmw-guggenheim-lab-07/ http://www.bmwguggenheimlab.org/where-is-the-lab/berlin-lab http://www.bmwguggenheimlab.org/where-is-the-lab/mumbai-lab http://spinalcolumnonline.com/2011/09/21/dias-inside-out-art-now-in-full-view-at-milfordlocales/ http://www.urbaneapts.com/blog/2012/07/23/the-dia-brings-their-inside-art-out-doors/ www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/arts/artsspecial/19TROVE.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.knightfoundation.org/grants/20122043/ http://fromthekage.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archiv http://www.liveinternet.ru/community/petersburg/post109531505/ e.html http://gvardia.erdon.ru/index.php?newsid=235 http://www.5-tv.ru/news/23833/ fishki.net/comment.php?id=77611 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/shop/online-shop/category/835/product/6261 http://archinect.com/news/article/53302366/yale-assembly-pavilion http://gorod-pushkin.info/formula-skorbi-monument http://lighting.madeinasia.com/news/Kolonihavehus-When-A-Home-Becomes-A-GiganticPuzzle-Of-Light-6555.html
144
