Fake Field Trips

I'm conflicted about this trend. I recognize that these outreach trips might likely be the only museum exposure many kids ever have. That still doesn't mean that this practice is the best solution. The only thing that can capture the wonder of walking into a cavernous exhibition hall filled with fascinating artifacts is actually doing it. In addition to sacrificing the visceral excitement of being around museum artifacts, there is a risk that a poorly-executed outreach trip could permanently turn students off from future museum visits. This is yet one more area where the encouragement of curiosity is being eroded from our society.

Texas

A must-see:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
I's on Edjukashun - Texas School Board - Eric Foner
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care reform

Brain Food

The V&A has so many great talks coming up! How I'd love to be in London right now...

Deacce$$ioning

An extremely disturbing article about loosening deaccessioning regulations to allow the sale of museum objects to finance operating costs and new construction: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/opinion/02dobrzynski.html?scp=2&sq=deaccessioning&st=cse

No good will ever come of this.

Thomas Hoving

A trio of articles about Thomas Hoving's contributions to museums and civic life:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/arts/design/12hoving.html
"Mr. Hoving also believed that art museums were public repositories of wonderment, and in a sense his most revolutionary idea was that everybody should be able to see what he thought was great art, as he saw it... It was about somehow democratizing knowledge and feeling, which remains the big difference between him and so many of the bean-counting bureaucrats who have turned our art museums into malls."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/arts/design/11hoving.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/opinion/13prochnik.html?ref=opinion
The lovebird sign is a great detail.

Object of the Week

Image from Colonial Williamsburg

Charles Willson Peale's 1775 portrait of Benjamin Harrison features a detailed depiction of a room inside the plantation Brandon as well as a view of the land outside the window. The full catalog record is available here.

Object of the Week

Image from the Met

Such gorgeous decoration. I wonder what the tunic's original owner was like?

The full catalog record is here.