Interpretive Splat!... So build your historic house museum on a different Rock...
Foundations are important. Wise people build houses on rock foundations. Foolish people build theirs on sand. Sometimes, because foundations are often invisible once the construction is finished, it is impossible to tell whether or not a house is built wisely. However, when a hurricane comes with its wind and waves, sands shift and fool's houses collapse. I think that the sand has been shifting for some museums so now the relevance of some, like the American historic house museum, is being challenged.
I am talking about the museum's foundational, philosophical approach to interpretation. As Eilean Hooper-Greenhill writes, "in the museum, interpretation is done for ... or to" the visitor. This kind of museum interpretation grew out of the assumption that the museum is an educational institution. It presumes that the museum is the expert, the knowledge broker and the teacher of lessons that the visitors need to learn. It sets up an us/them hierarchy between the museum and its visitor-audience. In this context, the museum views its visitors as its beneficiaries.
However, "a story is only half told if only one side has been presented" (Medawar 2013). At least, that is what they say in Iceland which is why, I think, that the educational foundation for museum interpretation is sandy for historic house museums. Because the museum generally presents just one side. Usually, it is the side of the "dead white guy" (Moe 2002) and victor for which the house was named.
Even when incorporating "other" voices, as long as the museum retains its identity as educator, its more inclusive narratives may not succeed in disrupting, interrupting or confronting old stereotypes. In their critique of Colonial Williamsburg after that site added the story of enslaved Africans, Handler and Gable said, "As we see it, new characters and topics have become vehicles for an uncritical retelling of some old American myths" (Handler and Gable 1997). So, when the visitor represents, or mirrors, an untold side of the story, but does not have an invitation to tell it with honor in their own voice revealing or concealing what they feel is private or sacred, they may choose to repudiate rather than respect the authority of the museum. So, is the problem that the museum does not know what to do while its interpretive foundations are being destroyed? Perhaps it is, rather, that the museum lacks foundations for its interpretation and, as our socio-cultural climate changes, the sand has begun washing away?
My point of view is that if the museum puts on a new humility it can adopt a different identity from which it can possibly build on a very different theoretical hermeneutics-inspired philosophical rock of interpretation. I believe that this opens the possibility for reciprocal humility and honor to flow between the museum and its visitors which will juxtapose each story without prescribing how to derive meaning or take away conclusions.
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean, 2000. Museums and the Interpretation of Visual Culture. Oxion, New York: Routledge.
Medawar, 2013. Icelandic Proverbs. Proverbicals.com.
Moe, R., 2002. Are there too many house museums? Forum Journal, 16 (Spring), pp. 4-11
By Lesley Barker c. 2017
I am talking about the museum's foundational, philosophical approach to interpretation. As Eilean Hooper-Greenhill writes, "in the museum, interpretation is done for ... or to" the visitor. This kind of museum interpretation grew out of the assumption that the museum is an educational institution. It presumes that the museum is the expert, the knowledge broker and the teacher of lessons that the visitors need to learn. It sets up an us/them hierarchy between the museum and its visitor-audience. In this context, the museum views its visitors as its beneficiaries.
However, "a story is only half told if only one side has been presented" (Medawar 2013). At least, that is what they say in Iceland which is why, I think, that the educational foundation for museum interpretation is sandy for historic house museums. Because the museum generally presents just one side. Usually, it is the side of the "dead white guy" (Moe 2002) and victor for which the house was named.
Even when incorporating "other" voices, as long as the museum retains its identity as educator, its more inclusive narratives may not succeed in disrupting, interrupting or confronting old stereotypes. In their critique of Colonial Williamsburg after that site added the story of enslaved Africans, Handler and Gable said, "As we see it, new characters and topics have become vehicles for an uncritical retelling of some old American myths" (Handler and Gable 1997). So, when the visitor represents, or mirrors, an untold side of the story, but does not have an invitation to tell it with honor in their own voice revealing or concealing what they feel is private or sacred, they may choose to repudiate rather than respect the authority of the museum. So, is the problem that the museum does not know what to do while its interpretive foundations are being destroyed? Perhaps it is, rather, that the museum lacks foundations for its interpretation and, as our socio-cultural climate changes, the sand has begun washing away?
My point of view is that if the museum puts on a new humility it can adopt a different identity from which it can possibly build on a very different theoretical hermeneutics-inspired philosophical rock of interpretation. I believe that this opens the possibility for reciprocal humility and honor to flow between the museum and its visitors which will juxtapose each story without prescribing how to derive meaning or take away conclusions.
Works Cited
Handler, R. and Gable E., 1997. The New History in an Old Museum. Durham and London: Duke University Press.Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean, 2000. Museums and the Interpretation of Visual Culture. Oxion, New York: Routledge.
Medawar, 2013. Icelandic Proverbs. Proverbicals.com.
Moe, R., 2002. Are there too many house museums? Forum Journal, 16 (Spring), pp. 4-11
By Lesley Barker c. 2017
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