Will Sherman

Period 1, Kaplan
AP Lang
2/29/16
Museum Synthesis Final
As I walk through the historic halls that have promoted history and dispersed
knowledge for the past 3 centuries, I cant help but notice how the atmosphere created by
those who wonder and contemplate beside me serves to promote the very purpose of the
monument in which they gather. I see how the presence of curious explorers allows the
exhibits to blur the line that differentiates the past and the present and how observers are
consequently thrown into a wild ride through history. I see how while they carefully
inspect and admire the different artifacts around them, the crowds of people that surround
me fail to recognize that they are the ones that make their own experience possible and
decide inadvertently how they will experience history. Curators invest extensive time
and consideration when choosing artifacts to display, and I can clearly see as I soak in the
wonders and sights of this museum that while many factors may be important to consider,
none are as important as what allows the museum to remain open and lets it to acquire its
maximum potential. Funding and the presence of a crowd are quintessential parts of
keeping a museum open, and while historical education is the main objective of
museums, attraction and money should be most heavily considered when acquiring new
artifacts.
Preserving history and educating the public is what museums serve to accomplish,
but it is impossible for museums to achieve these goals when they are closed or
unappealing to the public. The point of all museums, no matter how entertaining they are,

is to allow the general public to learn something they didnt know about history, or world
culture, that will allow them to live fuller and more appreciative lives. The managerial
staff in charge of selecting the collection of artifacts for the National Museum of the
American Indian agrees that museums should primarily strive to educate, as their
national museum [is] dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life,
languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans [C]. Museums have always
been about preserving and remembering the past, since they were first introduced into our
society, and if we shift the purpose of museums to encompass and reflect a more
commercial and marketable environment, we are destined to loose the ability to pass
historical knowledge from generation to generation. Society will consequently loose the
insight we currently carry when making decisions about our future, which will result in a
repetition of mistakes made in the past. Mary Miley Theobald explains, Commercialism
has nor place within the scope of museum activities because it draws from the true value
museums have and is creating a shift in societal values [D]. [While it may be hard to
continue the pure and original purpose of museums when worrying so much about money
and attraction, it is impossible to continue the benefits museums hold for humanity if we
do not attempt to ensure they remain intact and visited.
Museums that acknowledge the inevitability of attraction and entertainment
within exhibits will be more successful in educating the public not only because a larger
portion of the population will visit, but also because crowds will be more involved and
attentive of the information when they are engaged. Attempting to amaze and impress
and cater to the interests of the public will attract large numbers of people to museums,
which can allow information to be spread on a significantly larger scale. Museums

should, as successful museum founder Charles W. Peale did, be devoted to, and reliant
upon, public patronage [B]. Peale knew, as all curators should, that while he could make
his exhibits extremely educational- yet boring- it would result in no societal gain or mass
cultural enlightenment, simply because nobody would waste the time and energy required
to become immersed in a uninteresting topic. So, instead of relying on his museums
ability to relay dull knowledge, he relied on the crowds that his intriguing exhibits would
attract, and then attempted to educate the masses more efficiently and with greater overall
effectiveness. Other museums saw how this model of attraction first and education
second allowed for effectual flow of information throughout society and followed suit.
Many continuously collected the work of emerging contemporary artists while carefully
culling the collection of its less outstanding holdings [A]. There is no possible way for
museums to achieve their goal of educating and preserving history when they way they
attempt to do so repels the very people they are trying to inform. Simply put, knowledge
and history cannot be spread and conserved when nobody is willing to receive, carry and
relay the information. Museums need crowds in order to accomplish their goal and
diminish societys ignorance.
While attraction embedded into exhibits increases a museums ability to educate
the public, without money to keep a museum open and functioning, there is no possible
way for a museum to entertain or inform. Many museums, such as the Museum of
Modern Art, have recognized that money must be the most heavily considered factor
when considering artifacts selection, and as a result, Influential trustees often aligned
themselves with the curators of departments in which they had special interests and for
which they become strong advocates and financial backers. Since no one wanted to

antagonize important trustees, exhibitions and acquisitions were often approved [A].
Because those selecting the artifacts to be displayed in this museum and others recognize
that the ability to generate revenue is the most essential part of the exhibits, museums like
these have not only remained open to spread knowledge to society, they have thrived and
have helped maintain a future in which the spread of such historical knowledge is
continued. Many argue that a museum must consider how an artifact will promote
education above all, a museums ability to make money is just as important as its ability
to inform, because even though it mainly serves to educate the public, a museum is a
business, and it needs money to run and achieve its goals. Mary Miley agrees that in a
successful museum, A work is chosen for reproduction, not because of its place within
an educational context, or because of its intrinsic aesthetic worth, but because of it
marketability [D]. Museums must focus on their ability to make money because, as do
all businesses, they cost money to maintain, and without some sort of positive cash flow,
they will close down and will not be able to effect positive change within our society,
which is what they serve to do.
Although it is hard for us as a society to accept, sometimes the key to achieving a
goal is to approach a problem from a different angle. Often times a criteria must be
satisfied that varies from the one directly connecting to an overall goal, but that criteria is
the most important factor in the entire process. Museums need to inform the public, it is
what they are made to do, but without enough money or people, this goal cannot be
fulfilled, which makes funding and attraction the most important criteria to fill when
selecting an artifact.