The Role of the University Art Museum and Gallery Author(s): Anna Hammond, Ian Berry, Sheryl Conkelton, Sharon Corwin, Pamela Franks, Katherine Hart, Wyona Lynch-McWhite, Charles Reeve and John Stomberg Source: Art Journal, Vol. 65, No. 3 (Fall, 2006), pp. 20-39 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20068479 . Accessed: 17/05/2013 12:31 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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a round-table

convened

Art Journal museums sation

were

ences

from

with

the

challenges civic

their

of

pros

counterparts,

cons was

discussion

The

of

to and

differ of

and ways

collections,

by Anna

organized

conver

of

topics

similarities

organizations, and

the

Among

and

of galleries

leaders

eight

learning.

higher

to these

unique

constituencies.

various

involving

with

discussion

institutions

affiliated

in2006, the editorial board of

annual conference

At the College Art Association's

Hammond,

Deputy Director for Education, Programs, and Public Affairs, Yale University Art and

Gallery,

Assistant

John Ricco,

Professor,

of Toronto.

University

Hammond

the discussion.

moderated

Ideals and Reality Anna

Hammond:

and

as a

gallery

on

working

now.

to be

you

Sheryl,

recently

Anna

Wyona

Ian Berry,

Hammond, Corwin,

Lynch-McWhite,

Pamela

Charles

Charles, new.

and John Stomberg

Reeve,

Museum

you

didn't

institution

full-time

both

you

something

begin.

engage

We

and myself.

person

as the

much

an architecture

and

history, studio-art

programs.

studio

the

beyond

school, to my

Prior

programs.

one challenge for this very tiny facility with only

So it's a large and unwieldy other

art

education, as well

the

don't

to create

like

and,

them,

change

asked

estab

with

(Tyler School of Art, Temple : University, Philadelphia) My charge is to reflect all of the departments of Tyler School of Art?art

and Gallery appointment,

been

have

So why

to

them

through

is very

to work

have

are

actually

that

Sheryl Conkelton

The Role of the University Art

and

them

Sheryl Conkelton, Hart, Franks, Katherine

you

institution

so you

in its habits,

lished

Sharon

to an

to describe

of you

and what

ideally

moved

art museum

the university

to ask each

Iwant

thinking.

institution

like your

of

the role

by discussing

for

laboratory

you would

what

start

Let's

have

no

and

collection

is a host

there

of

it is logistical reasons for the small size of the exhibition program. The bulk of in a downtown

based urban

to attend

gallery are

me

the

around

Artist Fred Wilson speaks with members classes about of two Dartmouth College So of Art exhibition his Hood Museum It or Not Much Trouble in the World: Believe 2005. in September

going in

same

to move

Philadelphia

gallery more

at

where

of

join I'm

that

some trying

location

could

felt

school school

of

is

engaged

place

an array

the program. capital

there,

and

there will

downtown to attend

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and

of

issues

w to

It's |

campaign.

to the Temple

for people

the

*.

Park

a program

for

on

programs

in Elkins

the programs

sub to the

specifically

interdisciplinary

in its own

the

people

that focuses

consider

from

excluded

location

to build as a

on

focused

to get

challenges

a program

the community had

The

and

campus

in trying

challenges

to have

the faculty

its suburban

from to

the the

at the Temple

in the programs.

director

time,

Temple.

strongly

of

previous

that much

the

inherent

participate

desire

strong

art. The

the extent At

and

art and a place

of

value

There

campus.

Tyler

are

sites

it has

but

gallery,

be to

programs,

~

campus a new

identify to come

even to

exhibitions?and, more

than

to amplify the public programs,

hopefully,

simply

exhibitions

and

collateral

so that there is

lectures.

Having said this, because Philadelphia has such awell-developed ecology of arts institutions, I also have to figure out the right niche for our program. we

Because gram

are dedicated on what

specifically We

practices.

would

one

to present

of young

call

you might

like

we

them,

augment

to the education

two

our

focus

or,

rather,

We

program.

pro

emerging

exhibitions

original

an artist-in-residence

started

artists

emerging

or

we

artists,

each an

have

year. To

apartment

attached to the downtown

gallery. I did a really quick residency project with Phil Collins this fall. He was with us aweek; he did a project, gave a lecture, was in and was

residence, to

talk

people to see

grams,

to the

available

in the if we

as well

on

to work

begin

to that,

In addition

department,

art-history can't

students.

as some

collateral

I am

other

projects

to

starting

academic

together,

pro

something

that has not been done before. (Ontario College of Art & Design, Toronto) :Toronto's existing ecology has been central tomy thinking since I began working at Ontario College of Art & Design six months ago. The college is on the cusp of its 130th anniversary. It's a big school. With about thirty-six hundred students, it is Charles

Reeve

museum

one of the biggest art schools on the continent, the third biggest in North America. One of the advantages that I have, because I'm housed in this big art school in downtown

Toronto right around the corner from the Art Gallery of Ontario, is that I am very much in the midst of a community that is already convinced of the value of art and design. I have free rein to think about what we should be we

and what

to the experience

contribute

nity, aswell as people ple

in the college

kinds

of other

of members

of

the

commu

college

in the city and region. I spend a lot of time talking to peo

and

outside

of

the college?journalists,

these

people?about

artists,

and

dealers,

all

questions.

There are two things that people are really interested in; one is the idea of more. There's

always

more

in the world

happening

There could be hundreds of museums enough

exhibition

one

of our

into

question

deans,

space. Blake

people's

The

is to create

second

Fitzpatrick, expectations

put about

it),

"If the point

of

tenure

is that you

can

a

one

what

Geoff Waite, one of my mentors when said,

of

art and

contemporary

design.

and galleries, and there still wouldn't gallery

as a

right

from

the gallery

might

that,

Iwas

question the

be

mark start,

(as

calls

be.

in grad school at Cornell, once

say anything

you want

without

get

ting fired, then people who have tenure ought to be required, at least once a year, to say things thatwould get them fired if they didn't have tenure." I don't think thatwe should be provocative for the sake of being provocative, but I 3 do think that galleries and museums that need to sell tickets or need to sell art, especially in places outside of huge cultural centers like New York, Paris, or

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Phil Collins, projections,

they shoot horses, seven hours, two

2004, digital Installation School of Art,

Gallery.Tyler views.Temple Collection of CRG Gallery. Philadelphia. New York. (Artwork ? Phil Collins; photo Igler) graph by Aaron

of two different DVD consists each of which shows a daylong projections, inwhich a group of Palestinian session and selected by the youths, auditioned of artist, dance to the same compilation

The work

Western

pop songs until exhausted.These taken ?mages show views of the installation at different times.

London, we

might

tend to shy away from challenging be

able

to make

an

impact

or difficult art. This is an area where

as well.

(Colby College Museum of Art,Waterville, Maine): I love the idea of the gallery as a question mark. It goes back to something that Fred Wilson talks about, which is thinking of themuseum as a place of questions? Sharon Corwin

not answers. I think thatwhat, hopefully, distinguishes the college or university artmuseum is that it is a place with the potential for really radical critical think ing about not just objects, but modes of display and that kind ofthing. I think themodel experiment,

or the paradigm of the laboratory is perfect, because ask questions,

and

really

take

risks. There

it's a place to

is that potential

on

a

conceptual level, that I think we probably all want, but on a practical level it becomes much more difficult. I'm interested in other ways of pushing critical

3

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thinking in themuseum, again not justwith our interaction with objects, but our interaction with the whole infrastructure of exhibition and display. Hammond:

So thatwould

talk about theWilliams

be your vision for your space. John, why don't you College Museum of Art.

Massachu John Stomberg (Williams College Museum of Art,Williamstown, : our can idea is The of the what drives We engage in setts) laboratory thinking. 3 issues

that not

everybody

is

up right now that Iwouldn't

m>

ywq

tr

vfiiffiin

zi/

willing

to

approach.

We've

got

two

exhibitions

have been able to do if Iwas working

in a civic

mj&*-0

.Je**?&

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The Rotunda of theWilliams Museum of Art, Williamstown, setts. Center: Robert Morris, mixed stereo

media,

museum.

College Massachu

Hearing, three-and-one-half-hour

1972,

two tape, tape recorder, amplifier, and copper chair with water speakers, immersion heater, zinc table, lead-covered batteries in sand buried bed, and wet-cell in bronze 6 in. trough, on wooden platform x I2ftx 12 ft.(15.2x365.8x365.8 cm), with 24-in. (61 -cm) squares cut from each corner. Museum Kathryn Hurd purchase, Fund and Karl E.Weston Fund. Memorial (Artwork ? 2006 Robert Morris/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York). Far back: Winged Guardian Spirit, ca. 880 BCE, gyp sum, 83 x 39-3/4 x 3 in. (210.8 x 101 x 7.6 cm), and Guardian Spirit, ca. 880 BCE, 92 x 38-1/2 x 3 in. (233.7 x 97.8 x gypsum, 7.6 cm), both gifts of Sir Henry Layard through Dwight W. Marsh, Class of 1842.

We

to

like

that a lot of

about

questions

push

the civic museums

visual to sell

that need

for

culture, tickets

into

example,

can't

places

the

because

go,

objects either don't necessarily fit the criteria of art or have the recognizable that

appeal At wide

translates

on

motto

is

really

to take art

trying

how

culture:

to tradition

hidebound

but

life and

culture

intellectual and

just about art,

visually. us

not make

that does

a broader

engage

art, not

in the campus

ourselves

experience

people

can't

with

teaching

try to center

an art museum,

are

that we

into

we

Museum,

visual

is that yes, we

argument

Our

gate.

College

discussion

Our

into

the Williams

so

conversation. we

is where

that

are

the curriculum.

Ian Berry

(Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga New Springs, York): One of theways to accomplish these goals is to startwith the

the museum.

title of

ing museum we wanted Tang

It was

a bonus

in our

case

that we

didn't

an exist

have

at the college. So we did have new ground in which to plant, and to signal that right from the naming of themuseum by calling it the Museum

Teaching

and Art Gallery.

When

your

stated

focus

around

revolves

ideas, then the world of objects opens up. It's not only those designated as art or history, but any object. And it also opens up the idea of who can speak in the museum.

It's not

connoisseur or

mist, sure the

who

then or

a mother,

that

the

studio

the

only

of

feel

ideas,

an art

are accustomed

don't

artists,

or

five-year-old,

who

people

the art historian

in a museum

speaks a

or

specialist

or a

but

or

the art patron or

physicist, We

professional.

to the museum,

also

the

an econo

have

to make

the art historians

and

excluded.

Pamela

Franks (YaleUniversity Art Gallery, New Haven) : It seems as if other kinds of organizations might be more useful models for thinking about structur

Yes

Berry:

is, a think

activities?that

ing your

and

no. We and

deaccessioning,

haven't all of

tank or

given

up

of

some

that

things

kind.

formalism,

connoisseurship,

museum

those

a forum

structure

the

collecting, traditional

def

inition of what amuseum

is.We are still very much interested in immediate interactions with objects. We definitely still focus on that live experience with a combination of objects. We have the great freedom to do in gallery spaces what other

Stomberg: provoked.

University Hammond: municipal

Yes,

a

in their

do

can't

professors

teaching

classrooms. is a

museum

place

where

should

you

on

turn

and

be

?.

versus Let's museum.

Civic turn

to the

How

?L

Institutions relationship

do we

reflect

of and

museum

the university how

do we

influence

to the what's

happen

ing in themunicipal museum?

l?rf4T'h(*t>UK

A*?/?fr

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/j?

Corwin:

Are

I think

that's

all college a

Corwin:

are all museums Imean,

Exactly.

that

say

museums

teaching

now?

museums?

teaching

is that distinction?

what

Having been in both academic institutions and public institutions,

Conkelton: I can

art museums

university

question.

Or

Stomberg:

and

up

visual

incorporate

a

been

there's

to open

education

huge

experiences

culture,

more

people

in museum

started

Having

it is definitely

literate.

to

expertise,

that's

Everything

and watched

education

that university museums

something

beyond

visually

of museum

the

I've heard in public, civic, or municipal

been said is not any different from what institutions.

in all areas

the art object,

beyond

to make

a while

for quite

push

this

I think

trend,

can offer that is very specifically

different.

Can we define it?

Hammond: Stomberg:

To me,

there

The

realm

civic museum. is

to certain

prescribed

curricular Franks:

or

teaching.

In a university

studying,

learning,

and

are

We a freedom

not

in an environment that necessarily

we

programming that

base

I think

that's

that has my

the canon a

doing

It can be

visitors

a

great

about

'jfyTfcfa**

time, to be

advantage

in

activities of

that municipal the

or even

freedom,

museums

have.

whose

of

we

install

might

are not

is

which So

it helps

towork with, or the kind of

choose

the way

museums

success

academic

at other

teaching,

an exhibition.

but

It's

a different

there's

institution.

that

(Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New :Academic freedom hasn't come up very much for us.We just do what

give

access

faculty

to do

or

teaching

chronology museum,3

or other that

scholarly

And

exhibitions.

teaching exhibitions, issues.

is, to create

Our

main

a sense

goal

of visual

then we

getting

to the

art and helping

students

who

wouldn't

normally

go

them think visually.

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