Museum Redesign

Museums will never live down the line from Bob Dylan: 'Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial.' An even greater problem is that they don't want to. A problem still greater is that, even if they wanted to, they wouldn't know how.

One way to is compare a museum to a sushi bar with a caravan of little boats linked together. Sushi is brought to seated customers by the boats passing in front of them in a small canal. In the museum, the patrons are the sushi. We must try to make museums places where people can really learn something or have fun or both, rather than merely places to see someone else's treasure.

When we think about the fun of learning, natural history museums compare favorably to fine arts museums because the patron can actually make the connection between the exhibits and the way people lived. The next stage is the ancient arts museum, which reveals something of the mentality of the our ancestors. Last in emotional accessibility and meaningfulness is a modern art museum, which is merely a presentation by a specific, rarified, and elitist social class.

In each case, however, the spectator continually verifies Dylan's statement. Who conceived of and continually repeats the pattern of making people stand when they are looking at art? Were seats tried in such places by our betters and found to fail their purpose? Hardly possible if one is to learn from art, which requires studying it. The room in the Zwinger museum in Dresden containing Gobelin tapestry reproductions of Raphael's Biblical paintings is also a small lecture hall with rows of seats. One can sit and study the works.

Museum galleries should not have merely one or two uncomfortable benches in the middle of a room, as they do now, but two rows of seats in front of every few paintings, or at least one chair in front of every work. Benches should not be in the middle of the room, as they are now, but close in front of the works, so people can look carefully at the colors and brush strokes or other details.

Hi

Exactly, then better decide what is on display inside museums , still there are many types of museums, still any piece is not just an artifact, but a part of a living culture,

If arts then could profit I agrea that culture shuld profit from displaying nice things to and the job pyramide attached , held in the air, by the single artist , The intire pyramide of profesional, academics, guides bookshops and papers )

I would like one , where you was told how to do your own Pyramide ;

You are not prepared for the architecture, for the design that set out a promise for a bright future. A Vision about jobs and progress , a trust in technology .

You are quite right, museums must focus your mind, museums is also where you look for beauty. Museums is often designed. Then a modern building method will provide whatever, as long as Digital projected.

P.C.

In regards to this message:

This reminds me of the design of the Gugenheim by Wright. With his propensity for dictating behaviour that limits flexibility ( fixed furniture etc ) he designed into the gallery a platform that rose from the floor to the wall , that you can't step on, where the paintings were hung to prevent folks from viewing the paintings at close range. Particularly, for artists seeing the work up close teaches a lot about brush strokes and layering of color. Also some things you will just never see unless you get your nose to the work, like in a lot of Van Gogh's self portraits there is a reflection from the mirror of his own face painted on the pupils. For sheer enjoyment of viewing art, my favorite is Louis Kahn's Kimbel in Fort Worth. Nice use of natural light and the structure doesn't over whelm the art.

Steve Coyle

I think you missed the point of the Guggenheim. It was designed so that you take the elevator to the top, and walk slowly down the ramp, being able to view the art close up AND from across the way. It does have some shortcomings, but it is still a pretty good museum.

I couldn't agree more that art museums need to do more to involve visitors with the artworks. And they are doing it mostly through programs. The N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh is a good example, with an outdoor amphitheater and art park. And most hold indoor events associated with shows. But as far as experience with art, there's a limit to what you can do with seating, I suspect. Some people want to move through a gallery like that sushi. But the point is well-taken. Something other than the typical gallery arrangement might work, something more like a path of various sized chambers through history or genres...

Very nice collection.

I left before they put that monster up. Suspect they could have used the money to buy art though.

Actually, the amphitheater is a work of art; Barbara Kruger was on the design team and it incorporates 80' letters in a variety of materials spelling 'Picture This.' FYI:

Yeah, so I've read.

Yeah, so I've seen.

there's a limit to what you can do with seating, I

The limit clearly has not been approached.

There is room for both the sushi and the meditators.

... something more like a path of various sized chambers through

This is already being done. The great museum in Mexico of history and anthropology, probably the best museum in the world, devotes each of several large rooms to a different subject.