Why Do People STILL Go to Museums?

"Art offers something else--depth, involvement, a new way of looking at the world that we live in, a fresh approach to what we take for granted, a chance to experience freedom of the imagination."
-Meredith Monk, composer, singer, director, choreographer

(image by René Magritte via artchive)

I regularly visit online museums all over the world. I take virtual tours of The Louvre.  (click here.)  The Metropolitan Museum of Art (click here) The Art Institute of Chicago. (click here.)

But the computer screen cannot replace the experience of visiting an art gallery or museum. Here’s why.

Newly renovated after moving the collection off-site, MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) in New York City features a newer, larger lobby and open, spacious ----photo_by_shamash:_View from floor three Museum of Modern Art, New York

rooms that facilitate the easy flow of traffic. Though I miss the old sculpture garden and the special room made just for Monet’s Water Lilies, the new design is, overall, an improvement.

Over the years, I’ve come to believe that the people who visit famous museums usually fall into one of the following categories: 1. The Paparazzi  2. The Serious Art Student 3. The Vacationers  4.The Cool European  5. The Cynical Browser

The Cynical Browsers are usually wearing scowls or  looks of faint disdain. They make disparaging comments about each piece they come across such as "I could have done that!" or "Can you believe this is in an art museum?" They often criticize loudly, rarely taking time to sit with a piece, or offer it more than a second or two of their attention. Though the Cynical Browsers are annoying, the group of people who make me fume the most are The Paparazzi. They are the ones who visit museums with the sole intent of snapping pictures of themselves in front of famous paintings so that they have evidence to show their friends that “they were there.” They then move one,  rarely pausing to appreciate a piece of art without a digital camera glued to their right eye. An example of this would be the tall man who blocked my view of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” so that he could get a good picture of his wife who stood grinning before the painting, her badly-permed hair but centimeters from the surface. After The Paparazzi get their multiple shots, from multiple angles, they move on. Their ---photo_by_shamash:_View from window at MoMA : Floor 4 Gallery

frenzied exuberance is infuriating, especially when they rudely block the view of other patrons or when they stop for their next shot before a well-known piece of art, posing before a painting as if they’d chanced upon Paris Hilton just released from jail.

Usually found in corners of art museums, The Serious Art Student is of a different breed all together. Serious Art Students walk slowly through the museum with somber, intent expressions reserved for funerals, weight gain, and tax problems. They can be seen drawing and contemplating, easily perturbed by noisy children or irreverent crowds.

Perhaps the more visible art-goers are The Vacationers. Like
The Paparazzi, The Vacationers consider the museum as “another sight to see.” ---image_by_shamash: Raindrops on MoMA skylight +71 Contrast (my own abstract art)

They push baby carts, feed snacks to the kids in the sculpture garden, and hold hands (especially if they are a mid-Western couple in post-nuptial bliss visiting the East Coast on their honeymoon.)  Perhaps the most hip of the museum-goers are The Cool Europeans who spend the most time with the pieces of art from their countries-of-origin. The Cool Europeans are the Spanish in expensive leather loafers,  the Dutch in their designer eye glasses, and the oh-so-fashionable French checking out their national treasures. (My personal favorite category is that of the Hill Billy / White Trash. They are so small in number that they didn't make the main list, but they certainly add spice to the museum experience.)

People visit museums for so many different reasons. Is there a single characteristic that we all share? Why do YOU visit art galleries and museums?

As for me, I’m curious about what makes “good” art “good” enough to be included in a museum collection. I’m especially curious about the lives of artists such as Warhol, Kahlo, O'Keefe, Pollock, and Lichtenstein and how their work developed over time. I’m curious about the composition and texture of a painting, the gloss of the medium, the “up-close and personal”, 3-D experience of seeing brush strokes, shadows, size, and perspective. These are all wonderful things  that I can’t experience in a digital image. I also like the social experience of visiting a museum: listening to the reactions of others who speak in multiple languages, chatting up the security guards (they're bored, so I feel it's my duty), and hanging out in the sculpture garden.

I’m sure that an art history major  would have a sophisticated definition of "good art" and a much more eloquent explanation as to why museums matter and why art is important to society. I once wrote about “What is Art and Who Decides?” here.

As for me, I'm not sure why I’m a patron of the arts. I certainly wasn't raised visiting museums; I'm the only person in my family who does so. All I know is that if I’m depressed or down-in-heart when I enter a museum, I leave inspired , my spirit uplifted, my soul revived, my creative juices all astir.

A friend's accomplished mother who suffers with suicidal thoughts once told me this: “I’ve promised myself that if I ever seriously think of taking my life, I will first go sit for at least a half an hour in front of Monet’s Water Lilies. I know, that after 30 minutes, I will leave with a reason to live."

Perhaps this is what art is all about: reminding us that we are not alone in our sorrows and, in its beauty, giving us a reason to carry on.

Comments

[Jeff Hess]

Shalom Shamash,

I visit museums, particularly the Cleveland Museum of Art, for a regular whack on the side of the head.

I like to look at art and ask the questions: why this view; why this medium; what did the artist see; what did the artist want me to see; what does this piece of art tell me about the artist, the time the artist lived in and the time I live in; how does this piece of art change the way I see the world?

There are a lot more questions, but that's a good start.

And I owe this all to my dad who every summer took me to the art museum in Pittsburgh and taught me how to look at art.

B'shalom,

Jeff

[shamash]

Hi, Jeff.

I haven't yet been to the museum in Pittsburg.

The questions you ask yourself when viewing a piece of are are certainly good ones to consider when visiting a museum.

I think I'll pose these questions to my students when we view art in class.

Good to hear from you.

[datta]

I love your writing! Good writing does for me what art does for you, reminds me that I am not alone in this crazy world.
I do not visit museums or galleries. Around here it is all art of Indians or adobe houses and churches. I do take the kids to the museum's homeschooling program where the kids view exhibits and do a project inspired by what they saw. I do see great things at the harwood from very local people.
I guess art gets my creative juices flowing, reminds me that there is no point to living "in the box" and it gives my brain/self permission to be a little more unique in my own personal expression in the world.
Unfortunately, I am one of those cynical browsers when I do happen upon art like the Taos Open show where Fatima has her art. Something happens to me when I am faced with so much art. Being a natural cynic and judge, I just watch the critique come rolling almost off my tongue, stopping myself just before I actually say anything with the countless others around.

[Julie Baugnet]

Love your insights on the observations of people in a museum. The next time I go to the museum...well, that will be this afternoon. I'm going to the Mpls. Institute of Arts and I'll look things over with your "eye and insight." Great wiriting! Most importantly, I go to the museum to keep in touch with creativity and global issues. I believe that in this frazzled world (of media hype and bad journalism), there is a need as humans to look at beauty, and to be reminded the magnificent things we can do when we challenge ourselves. Art evokes thought, reverie and shows us the profound.

[Princess Haiku]

I like the Asian Art Museum in SF. Thanks for the virtual links.

[marcus monenerkit]

I have been asking why people visit museums for some time. I think they visit to gain insight, whether it is trivial or important. People need information and they feel that museums offer such.

[reading glasses]

People are made of art. People goes to museum to know more about history art and life!

[Shar]

I think it's great when people get interested in art, even if it IS just to snap a picture or themselves in front of it. Who cares? Anyone who takes time for art is taking time to enrich their lives...weather or not they spend an hour staring at a painting, weather or not they have kids, weather or not they are holding hands... etc. Art is for everyone to appreciate in their own way..... no one should impose rules of who can or who should or how they can or can not approach art or a museum. Why do people always want to take beautiful things and turn them into something pretentious?