I really haven't been able to get back to my reading, yet. I took off for a few days out of town,and took my laptop. I got up at 3 one morning and applied myself to writing a cover letter I intend to use to ask philanthropic foundations for money to help with school. I'd say the chances of them sending me anything are remote, but I think I'm a good cause, so I'll be sending out some packages this week.
Already it's Monday, but at least I got the letter composed. I can work on the rest over the next day or two.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Coach House Museum
Okay, so I've started two blogs on two topics, but naturally (since they have the same author, at the same time) they're starting to bounce off one another. This blog is about museology, or the 'science' as it were of museums, and that's got to mean collecting stuff. The other blog Garage on Azure Street http://azuregarage.blogspot.com/ has as its point of origin a cluttered garage that is mostly filled with a collection of things that either no one uses, or uses only seasonally.
So, the garage museum is filled with lawnmowers, bicycles and lawn chairs, plus snow shovels, bags of road salt and ice chippers and, as I like to tell my husband, "five perfectly good pieces of drywall". I would call its style of collections management, 'eclectic'.
The other kind of museum, like the one in which I work, houses only objects of treasure. For some reason, these objects have been given a value outside of their inherent or literal composition, and they have been set aside, reserved, carefully moved, restored, displayed etc. That kind of museum has many associations, I think, with a temple or church.
But I think my garage could be considered a perfectly good museum, and I'm wondering about the differences in these collections of objects.
So, the garage museum is filled with lawnmowers, bicycles and lawn chairs, plus snow shovels, bags of road salt and ice chippers and, as I like to tell my husband, "five perfectly good pieces of drywall". I would call its style of collections management, 'eclectic'.
The other kind of museum, like the one in which I work, houses only objects of treasure. For some reason, these objects have been given a value outside of their inherent or literal composition, and they have been set aside, reserved, carefully moved, restored, displayed etc. That kind of museum has many associations, I think, with a temple or church.
But I think my garage could be considered a perfectly good museum, and I'm wondering about the differences in these collections of objects.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Evocative Objects
Just started reading this book, a collection edited by Sherry Turkle. It was recommended to me by my excellent friend, Margaret Haupt, the head of conservation at Art Gallery of Ontario. I have only read the first few pages, but already I've had to reassess ideas about the power of objects - I discovered I had an unrecognized bias against them.....hmmmmm. More later.
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