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Lots and lots of questions over the last 24 hours. I really enjoyed the person asking for museum recommendations whilst visiting London as well as a Welshie who thought I was a real life Brit. Ha! Anyway, I’ve decided to publish one…
silverthorninbloodyrose asked: What exactly does the job of a museologist entail? Would anyone hire a museologist?
I’ve answered this question before and I’ll do it again, because I feel it is my museological duty. So here we go:
Sarcastic answer: A bunch of academics were desperate to come up with an excuse to not have to go out into the real world and get a real job so they created another bullshit program that would let them write more dissertations no one would read. Shit like “Curating Cities as Text: Contesting Art using Literary Narrative, Visual Practices and Narrative” and “Museum Displays and the Five Senses” (I didn’t make that last one up, believe it or not). If you have about $20,000 to $30,000 to spare, expect to receive a degree, hardly worth the paper it’s written on, providing it’s cheap, useless paper.
Serious answer: Museology is the science of collecting, arranging and managing objects for museums as well as the cultural study of their establishment and development within society. There are definitely some “great” graduate programs out there, probably the most famous one is at the University of Leicester. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong one in another part of England. But if luck is on your side and you know the right people, you can work in any department of a museum as a museologist - museum history, archives/collections, education programs etc. A museum wouldn’t necessarily hire someone to work specifically as a “museologist” but they’re definitely interested in someone who has studied in that particular field. Cheerio!
Completely slipped my mind that today was International Museum Day, but thanks to an old blog entry of mine on tumblr’s radar I remembered. After thousands of likes and reblogs, I’d like to know when I’ll be getting my free ticket on an international airline to the Louvre? I’ll be waiting…
As much as I can say I’ve been to nearly every museum in the Chicagoland area, one that was always on my to-do list looks to be permanently closed (as you can see from the sign in this photo). We’ve covered museological shut downs here before (the Madison Museum of Bathroom Tissue still breaks people’s hearts) but the Museum of Holography was a place that existed for almost forty years and was so under the radar I didn’t think it’d be going anywhere. Containing the world’s largest collection of holograms, which included giant tarantulas, naked women and Michael Jordan (of course), the museum was established long before Oprah moved in across the street. Consisting of four galleries, small and large holograms were arranged without any attention to theme or subject, even though one of the rooms had a number of works by the late mathematician and holographer Art Freund. One image within an image, binoculars that revealed a parrot perched in a tree, was a particular favorite of Michael Jackson when he visited the museum in 1988. Loren Billings, who ran and lived in the museum, used extra space to host lectures and teach holography classes, but that was a long time ago. The basement, which used to house a printing press, has an abandoned lab where Billings and her late husband once made holograms. In recent years, the museum had become eerily quiet with a somewhat outdated appearance (something I studied as a museologist…how does a museum, even a small one, not become a dusty, forgotten collection of random old things?). Even though the art of holography was making a comeback with a 3-D Tupac and appears to live on in an Allentown, Pennsylvania collection, it is always sad whenever a small, random museum shut its doors. Peace out, hologram lady!
Barack Obama may be a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln” but no one beats America’s 21st President Chester Alan Arthur in the metrosexuality department. Known as Elegant Arthur because of his expensive taste in clothing (he owned over eighty pairs of pants), he was the first chief executive to have his own valet (you know the guy in charge of taking care of your wardrobe…you watch Downton Abbey, right?). But his extravagance went beyond his closet. Upon becoming President, he refused to live in the White House until it was completely renovated to his liking. He hired designer Louis Comfort Tiffany at a cost of $30,000 (that’s over $700,000 in today’s inflated word). Unlike Lincoln, who has museums up the wazoo (Did Lincoln spend the night here? Save this building, please!) Arthur does not command the same respect and joins a long list of forgotten U.S. Presidents, who are represented at the National Presidential Wax Museum. Sitting next to Andrew Johnson and Millard Fillmore, Arthur looks quite dandy with his top hat, tie and trimmed whiskers. You go, Chet!
P.S. LBJ was really into pants too, especially lightweight blue ones, you know, where “your nuts hang” (his words, not mine).
The Angel of the North, located in Gateshead, England, is a contemporary steel sculpture designed over fifteen years ago by artist Antony Gormley. The thing is as tall as four double decker buses and has a wingspan as big as that of a jumbo jet. It is also seen by 90,000 people in cars every day on the A1 (here is the angel’s view…don’t look like heaven to me). Every time a car horn beeps a freakin’ huge angel gets his wind-resistant wings.
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Final drawing for “Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be More to Life”, 1967.
Part of the Maurice Sendak Collection at the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadephia, home to over 10,000 Sendak objects, including original drawings, preliminary sketches, manuscript materials, photographs, proofs and rare prints of his books. R.I.P. 1928-2012
Our ancestors were lucky if they had a single photograph of their wedding day, if they had any at all. That’s nothing compared to the brides and grooms of today who have thousands of pics (and changed facebook statuses) to prove to the world they are married, are important and indeed exist. My favorite story about a modern day bride is an old school friend of mine who had three photographers document every single moment…she even had a separate photo album of her make-up and hair sessions. It’s like everyone thinks they’re a celebrity posing in some magazine.
Did you know white did not become a popular option for wedding dresses until 1840, when Queen Victoria got married? She wore a white gown because she was really into lace and everyone likes to follow a queen’s lead. So think of that next time you go on about traditions and shit, especially when the color red is most popular in Eastern cultures. What’s right and what’s wrong?
Speaking of Victoria (and Albert)…at their little museum in London you can see the above dress, and believe it or not, it’s from an actual 18th century wedding. This mantua, a type of court dress, is associated with the wedding of Isabella Courtenay to Dr. John Andrew in Exeter Cathedral on 14 May 1744. She might not have worn it during the ceremony, we will never for sure (remember no photographs, people) but it was most likely part of the reception, you know where everyone double fists during the open bar.