"Ideas and Ideology: The Art Museum from 1851 to 2001"
This symposium was presented by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Harvard University Art Museums, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in conjunction with two exhibitions focusing on the history of one of the most influential musuems of the nineteenth century: A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, February 25 - May 17, 1998) and The Museum and the Photograph: Collecting Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum (Clark Art Institute, February 14 - May 3, 1998).
An international group of distinguished scholars gathered at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to evaluate the achievements of museums as evolving social and aesthetic institutions, exploring the potential of new social and cultural roles for museums around the world. Four moderated sessions of papers given by leading figures in academia and the art museum covered history, philosophy, sociology, and museuology while looking at the achievement of art museums in the past and the present.
Thursday, April 23
The Victoria and Albert Museum and the Art Museum Enterprise
Michael Conforti
Director, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
Creating a Museum: The Museum of Fine Arts and Its Models
Anne Poulet
Russell B. and Andrée Beauchamp Stearns Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Friday, April 24
Art Museum Collections: Definitions and Their Limitations
Moderated by Malcolm Baker
Deputy Head of Research, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Talks included:
- At Home in the Museum
Anne Higgonet
Department of Art History, Wellesley College
African Objects in Museums of Art
Susan Vogel
Independent scholar, New York
- Aestheticism and the Cult of the Original in the Turn-of-the-Century Art Museum
Alan Wallach
Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art and Art History and Professor of American Studies, Department of Art and Art History, The College of William and Mary
- Art for a Parish or Art for Eternity? -- The Municipal Art Museum in Britain
Giles Waterfield
Director, Attingham Summer School and Royal Collection Studies, London
Politics, Purpose, and Practice
Moderated by Andrew McClellan
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Art and Art History, Tufts University
Talks included:
- Art, Government, and the Social
Tony Bennett
Professor of Cultural Studies, Director, Center for Cultural and Media Policy, Faculty of Arts, Griffith University, Brisbane
- Aluminum and the Art Museum: The Practice and Practicalities of Corporate Sponsorship
Sarah Nichols
Chief Curator and Curator of Decorative Arts, Carnegie Museum of Art
- Art, Envy, and Exclusion
Mark O'Neill
Head of Curatorial Services, Glasgow Museums
- The Fading Ideals of French Museums
Dominique Poulot
Professor, Modern History, Institut Universitaire de France -- Université de Tours
Saturday, April 25
Are Art Museums' Aesthetic and Educational Roles Mutually Exclusive?
Moderated by Ivan Gaskell
Winthrop Curator of Paintings, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums
Talks included:
- Pushing the Boundaries: Assessing the Long-Term Impact of Museum Experiences
John H. Falk
Director, Institute for Learning Innovation, Annapolis
- Public Scholarship as a Vocation
Ivan Karp
National Endowment of the Humanities Professor, Institute of African Studies, Emory University
- Beauty and the Beast: The Challenges of Theory in the Practice of Museum Education
Danielle Rice
Senior Curator of Education, Philadelphia Museum of Art
- The Art Museum as Palace: Courtly Ghosts and Aristocratic Artifacts
Stephen E. Weil
Emeritus Senior Scholar, Center for Museum Studies, Smithsonian Institution
The Art Museum (For Now): The Challenge of the Contemporary
Moderated by Peter Nisbet
Daimler-Benz Curator, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums
Talks included:
- Curiousity as a Paradigm for the Contemporary Museum
Stephen Bann
Professor, School of Arts and Image Studies, Rutherford College, University of Kent at Canterbury
- The Ethics of the Museum after Duchamp: A Naive Theory
Thierry de Duve
Visiting Professor, Department of Art, University of Pennsylvania
- Musealizing Media: Media Installation in the Museum Context
Boris Groys
Professor for Aesthetics and Media Theory, Center for Art and Media Technology, Karlsruhe
- The Modern Museum as Collector
Richard Wollheim
Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley
For more information, contact the Research and Academic Program or call 413-458-0460.
