Look Who's Talking About Museums

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but recently there seems to be a lot of museum coverage in the media. It hit me yesterday afternoon, as I was reading the New York Times. Right there, on the front page (although below the fold) was an article about a new museum and some of the controversy surrounding it.

The article -"Civil Rights Sins, Curated by One of the Sinners" by Campbell Robertson - is about the new Civil Rights museum in Mississippi, which is scheduled to open in Jackson in 2017. The controversy surrounding the museum is not the content or the location of the museum, but the fact that it will be run by the state of Mississippi. It seems that many of the museum's critics fear that the state will attempt to sugarcoat the subject, especially concerning the state's role in this painful part of history. The article also talked about the museum's struggle to build a large collection, because many potential object donors do not trust the state, because of their experience or their family's experience during the Civil Rights Movement. It is an article that illustrates the complexities of creating and curating a museum devoted to telling a violent part of recent history. It is a complex subject, that for some is remains a part of life and not quite history. And it is a narrative that needs to be preserved and told. For all of those reasons, I was so glad to have come across the New York Time's article.

The other article I saw recently was in the April issue of  Martha Stewart Living magazine. Among the articles devoted to Easter decorating and spring cooking was one devoted to a great museum - The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

Its a fairly short article that gives a brief overview of the museum, the history of its eclectic founder, and newly completed expansion that will provide much needed room for the museum's vast collection. And while the article does mention that the museum has remained exactly the way she left it following her death, it did not go into one of the most famous stories related to that: the empty frames. If you don't know what I'm referring to, check out the story here.

If you have the chance to read both of these articles, you should. Despite the fear of many that museums will someday be a thing of the past, these articles show that there still is interest in museums. People want to know the stories behind objects and it the role of the museum to tell those stores. I am so glad that these two media sources (and many others) are helping share these stories with a national audience. 

If you have seen any other good articles about museums recently, let me know in the comments section. I would love to see what else is going on in the world of museums.