AMST 819 - From Decorum to Sensation:Varieties of Museum & Archive Experience

Institution:

Trinity College

Subject:

Description:

Decorum-or what is deemed proper to a genre, a form, a character-is a term most often applied to literary texts. But notions of propriety maintain an important place in museums and in the field of museum studies, as reactions to the "Sensation" exhibition at New York's Brooklyn Museum of Art, "Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art" at the Jewish Museum, and proposals for memorials in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 have demonstrated. In this course we will trace the evolving concept of and pressures exerted by "decorum" in 19th, 20th and 21st century museums and their constituencies, an inquiry which will generate questions about governing bodies, societal and cultural norms, censorship, free speech, memory and tolerance. We will look at cabinets of curiosity in America's earliest museums, controversial exhibitions in our own time, innovative exhibition venues, including Exploratorium in San Francisco, Dia Center for the Arts in New York City, and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum in Connecticut, and the evolution of "virtual museums"/museums on the web. American Studies 825 is recommended but not 1.00 units, Seminar

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.Trincoll.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 297-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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