Learn more about the themes for In Their Time on exhibition at the Brunnier Art Museum August 27–December 20, 2024.
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Taste & Time
Taste is cultural, subjective, and intrinsically tied to time. What was once considered the height of style, quickly falls from favor. Yet taste is also cyclical, as is evidenced in fashion and art movements, what was passé is often revitalized through new generations and new iterations.
When it comes to the subject of decorative motifs, taste has a role, but also modern perceptions are less forgiving than with fashion. Subjects for decoration or representation that were considered appropriate or even stylish become problematic, racially insensitive, and have recognizable cultural appropriation. Within many museum collections are works of art that are no longer tied to the aesthetics of contemporary society.
Does this make these works of art less acceptable to exhibit only because they are no longer considered to be in “good taste”? Is it appropriate to exhibit certain objects to examine and discuss problematic imagery? How can museums work to ground these objects within the time they were created, yet also use the objects to delve into modern concepts of beauty and highlight significant contemporary issues?
Care & Conservation
The continued care and conservation of objects housed within a museum collection is a never-ending project and yet one of the most important aspects of museum work. Many museums have a diverse range of art that runs the gamut of time, material, and size. In University Museums’ collections there is everything from ancient Egyptian sculptures to large-scale sculpted limestone fountains to an entire historic house.
There is always something that needs attention from cleaning with Q-Tips to complete reconstructive conservation. It is imperative that museums constantly evaluate the safety of their collections while caring for the art through preventative measures, proper storage, and safe object handling. With the diversity of University Museums collection, how do we maintain our responsibility for the care of the objects? How do contemporary conservation practices differ from just a few decades ago? What does it mean to care for an object and how do we continue to maintain that care within a changing environment?
Cultural Context
Museum collections hold works of art from all over the world and many different cultures which allows for dynamic exhibitions that can connect humanity across continents. This diversity is also a place where questions can surface about provenance of collections, along with appropriateness for contemporary audiences. With the initiation of laws such as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) enacted in 1990 and a more concerted effort in the 1990s by European and American authorities to return Nazi era stolen art to the rightful owners and heirs, the call to repatriate plundered art has grown increasingly louder in the past decades.
It can be a divisive topic, many of the donors who gave the objects, and museum staff who accepted these works of art, are no longer living, but that does not remove the onus on present museum directors and staff to initiate the work needed to understand the provenance of troublesome objects.
Another area in which conversations around cultural context develop are the historic depictions of imagery or people that today are considered inflammatory, racist, and dehumanizing. A sacred symbol for thousands of years that is later used in modern history to proclaim hate and comes to signify genocide has a lot of context that needs to be unpacked in a museum setting. The depictions of people of color as barbarians and servants, rather than humans with their own cultures and beliefs, needs to be acknowledged and examined. The conquest of land and removal of historical cultural art and objects for another culture’s gain is often easily glossed over.
These are just a few of the topics that today are important touch points for museums to discuss and ask questions of themselves and their viewers in contemporary installations, rather than treated with outright obliviousness of their existence.
Collecting Over Time
The responsibility of museums to their collections remains as staff and tastes change over time. Those works of art and objects brought into a collection over the years may include significant issues from problematic provenance and imagery to dated styles that are no longer popular. The process of formally accessioning into a collection places a responsibility on museums to care for works of art accepted into the collection.
Whether later generations of curators like the art is certainly not grounds for deaccessioning, which is the process of legally removing an object from the collection, but there are occasions where deaccession is deemed appropriate. Objects that have been damaged beyond repair, are no longer able to be cared for or maintained, duplicate works of art, and categories of art that are no longer emphasized within a collection are a few acceptable reasons for deaccessioning.
Works of art subject to repatriation or provenance inquiries also need to be considered for removal from a collection with the understanding that best practices to return the objects to the rightful owners is attempted. As museum staff, we may not enjoy every work of art in the collection, but it is important to understand the history of those objects and examine that context in exhibitions.
Resources & Donors
All museums rely on donors to provide funds for the care of their collections and for the donation and acquisition of art. Without donors and those resources, most museums would not be able to exist, thus they become incredibly important assets for the health of a collection and often supporters of all a museum undertakes within its mission.
As museums grow, the ability to take entire collections or even estates becomes more of an issue. Storage is very often at capacity and museum directors and curators must be judicious in their ability to accept these often generous, but large donations. This leads to a change in acquisition policies over time, but certainly does not diminish the importance of donors as critical resources.
How do museums continue to engage future donors of art with considerations of space and needs that later staff may encounter?
Trade & Provenance
Provenance has become an increasingly important area of research and open conversation for museums in the last few decades. Stories of prominent museums both knowingly and unknowingly accepting objects into their collections with problematic provenance have played out in the public eye. The provenance, or the history of an object’s ownership, can be difficult to fully trace with art that entered collections early in their history.
Before a concerted effort to understand where objects came from and who had the rights to sell or give away a work of art, there was limited information provided outside of the galleries, dealers, or auction houses that sold the art. As a museum that holds grave goods and objects considered sacred, it is imperative to be open about the limited knowledge of where many of these works of art came from. The rise of claims of ownership by families and foreign governments have led to the creation of provenance departments who undertake extensive research to document and piece the puzzle of origin together for museum collections. This has led to museums returning entire groups of objects of cultural heritage to their countries of origin, along with looted art to families who successfully claim ownership.
The long history of trade, looting, and “winner take all” attitudes has irreparably damaged our ability to fully understand provenance, but today it is more important than ever to be cognizant of that history and open to the many questions that need to be asked.