Freshman Seminar 61x
Soft Power: The 21st Century Art Museum
Ethan Lasser, Rachel Saunders
Tuesday, 1-3pm
What are museums good for in the twenty-first century? Should they be temples of scholarship or purveyors of popular entertainment? Are they places in which we seek contemplative refuge in the experience of “beauty,” or are they viable sites in which to work for social justice? Should we be investing public funds in museums, or are they a luxury best supported by private sources? To whom do museum collections “belong?” Art museums today are thriving, yet they have never faced so many contentious questions about their role and responsibilities. Co-led by two curators at the Harvard Art Museums, this seminar will consider the big issues facing art museums across the globe today. The course is intended for both long-time museum goers, as well as those who have never set foot in an art gallery. We begin with a primer on museum basics—the work of collecting, conservation, display, and research—and an introduction to the many resources of the Harvard Art Museums. In the second half of the seminar, we consider the challenges that face both august, traditional institutions—like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York—as well as younger, start-up museums like the private/ public collections being established across Asia