He finds an especially poignant example of this in the collection of American Aboriginal art. While the collection of art and artifacts from these cultures is important, it is not nearly as important for Hill as the discourse that can be brought about in society as a result of these collections. The most valuable attribute of a collection, and the most valuable service of a museum, is the ability to "cause productive trouble" in the form of human conversation and reflection (195). In the case of Aboriginal art, the collection should, if offered sensitively and intelligently, instigate public discourse on the inequities between the honor and respect heaped upon the artifacts of Aboriginal cultures and the neglect and disrespect offered to the cultures themselves.
While Clifford offered a highly analytical examination of the interconnectedness of art and culture, and the value of the art-culture system in understanding collections themselves as artifacts, his system in the end is only a system -- a method for observation, rational understanding, and categorization. Collections for Clifford are a product of culture only, and therefore offer value only to the present and only as a vision of the past.
For Hill, however, collections have the power to be not only a product of culture, but a producer of culture. By stimulating "a lively and potentially untidy public discourse" (194), collections and the museums that house them have the power to shape the society that creates them, beyond just reflecting that society. In this way, Hill's vision of collection is one that takes an active interest not only in the past and present of human endeavors, but in the future as well.
Perhaps Hill would read the poem by Fenton differently than Clifford....
Perhaps Hill would invite us to enter that "forbidden woods" (Clifford 51) of intimate personal engagement with collections, breaking through the "taboo" and opening up not only new ways of seeing ourselves but also new ways of engaging with each other.
Outline
I. Thesis -- Clifford analyzes the past and present value of collections in his "art-culture system," but does not extend the value of collections into the future.
II. Clifford shies away from the individual experience of collections and instead focuses on the cultural and even metacultural existence of collections.
a. Clifford's reference to Fenton's "taboo" personal experience.
b. Clifford's map of art-culture interactions.
c. Clifford's vision of collections as specimens of a chronotope.
III. Some, like Hill, see a more active and far-reaching potential for collections.
a. Hill speaks from experience, and takes a more engaged approach.
b. Hill sees the ability of collections to stimulate public discourse not just as a potential but as a moral duty of public museums.
IV. If one takes an analytical approach like Clifford, one is limited to seeing collections as artifacts of past and present. If one takes Hill's more engaged view, the active potential of collections is revealed.
Culture and the Work of Lahiri Focusing questions: After looking at three or four definitions of culture from different dictionaries, what do these definitions have in common? In the United States, some members of ethnic groups who have been in the country for several generations or more may feel distant from their cultures or even without a culture. What are the various factors that account for these feelings? The Four Definitions of
It is perhaps for this reason that Natalie Rogers' person-centered approach to art therapy is the preferred approach, as it allows for artistic expression in a multitude of ways -- art, dance, drama, etc. -- and it is the patient or "client" who decides what works best for them. Said Carl Rogers of his person-centered techniques, and also his relationship with his clients: the relationship with I have found helpful
Art "Any brief definition of art would oversimplify the matter, but we can say that all the definitions offered over the centuries include some notion of human agency, whether through manual skills (as in the art of sailing or painting or photography), intellectual manipulation (as in the art of politics), or public or personal expression (as in the art of conversation). Recall that the word is etymologically related to artificial
It should be noted here that the culture/nature dichotomy is just as important to Butler as it is to Mendieta. Early on in Bodies That Matter, Butler asks the following question: "Is sex to gender as feminine is to masculine?" Nature has traditionally been associated with the feminine; thus, culture or some agency thereof will often "act" upon nature, interfering with it. Nature is thus considered as a passive
Art Cimabue's late Byzantine painting Madonna and Child Enthroned is on the surface and in many respects similar to Giotto's early Renaissance painting Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints. In fact, only a generation or two separated these two painters. Cimabue painted his Maesta from 1280 and finished in 1285, whereas Giotto worked between 1305 and 1310 on the Ognissanti Madonna. Within this 40-year time span, great changes were taking place
Art In "Burial at Ornans," the brightest and most colorful figures are various figures in the church. An altar boy, a priest, a man carrying a staff of the crucifix, and bishops are in the forefront. They direct our eyes to the left of the painting and create a movement towards the right where the majority of the figures are in the painting. Our eyes gravitate to their area first