OK, What Is It?

Today was a visit to the Art Museum of the Americas. I was very conflicted after this visit. Anticipation was tempered with disappointment. Mission and vision were tempered with a lack of focus and resources.  Inclusiveness of a broader audience experience was tempered with a lack of clear, understandable pedagogy.

I have to qualify my blog by fully admitting I come from a history museum background and although I worked in an art museum for four and a half years I would not consider myself an art museum connoisseur. There is so much museum debate on what art museums should be (and should not be) but the visit today confirmed some of the issues that bother me. I believe those issues harm art museums quest for broader audiences and greater understanding for those outside the art community.

When I walked into the museum, there was a small lobby. There was one guard at a desk, and he was completely unhelpful. He seemed more concerned about who we were and how many of us there were…more than smiling and welcoming us.  I figured out on my own that the museum was free and went upstairs to see the exhibits.  There were no gallery organizers, no docents, no audio tour option and small, sparse labeling almost hidden on the walls. The first gallery was pink with a piano and two large screens with shoes dancing on the screen. I tried hard to get the concept but I could not. Even the Director, who gave us a tour, later on, said at first he “didn’t get it.” Within ten minutes inside the museum I was put off by the experience except for a part of me that appreciated the art for art’s sake. I had no sense of what the paintings were about. Since I am also outside Latino cultures, it made it even more difficult in places.

There was extensive information about the artists’ biographies but absolutely nothing about the stories behind the art. I discussed this with several of my other students. There was a feeling by some that that is what modern art is about. You are supposed to make up your own mind about what it means to you. To that, I say I indeed will form my own interpretation, but the essence of that art’s deeper social purpose and its understanding could be lost. How do I know this? Because it wasn’t until the Director put a connection of the paintings to the stories behind them and the museum mission that I even understood half of it.

So what if I don’t get it? Modern art needs no explanation, right? If I don’t get it it’s because I lack the training or social values to understand it, right? I thought back to Lauren at the Capitol Visitor’s Center who talked about making everyone feel welcome and connected. I chuckled a bit to myself thinking back to her demonstration of “interpret-torture” when she held out the old juicer and refused to share anything about the object. That is precisely what I thought today’s museum was doing to me. It could have been a much more valuable experience for me.  Art museums have to get past the old avant-garde attitude and be willing to tell stories about the art in some sort of welcoming pedagogy. If they don’t, I firmly believe they will continue to suffer from smaller groups of visitors.