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Museum & Gallery
ARTH 5170 3.0
Winter 2005
Fridays: 10:30 - 1:30
Room: CFA 322
Anna Hudson, Assistant Professor, Department of Visual Arts
Telephone: 416-736-2100 ext. 77427
Email: ahudson@yorku.ca
Office hours: CFA 256E
Fridays 2 - 5pm, or by appointment
Museum & Gallery: Should Canada have a National Museum of Aboriginal
Art?
We Indians spend much time contemplating and affirming our Native identity.
And we do this not only because of the terrible assault on our way of
life after 1492, but because we discover in our sense of ourselves as
Indians a world we love inhabiting. The Native universe does not extend
only backward into the past, nor is it one marked by unrelenting suffering.
We move backward and forward in time, mindful of our history, but optimistic
about our future.
It has been gratifying for me and many others to have lived long enough
to witness all the old stereotypes stood on their heads: Indians are not
vanishing, we are multiplying; we are not stoic, but abound in humor and
play. Our universe is no longer defined by others, but by our own scholars,
artists, and seers. That power to define ourselves is enormously significant
and liberating….
We feel strongly that the opening of our new museum building in the National
Mall is an event of great moment in the Indian world and in the cultural
life of our hemisphere….
W. Richard West, Jr.
(Southern Cheyenne and member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma)
Founding Director, National Museum of the American Indian, 2004
The completion and opening in September 2004 of a National Museum of
the American Indian in Washington, D.C., marks a turning point in the
history of museums. Such a momentous ideological shift in cultural representation
will surely effect broad changes in the museum and gallery practice. Will
Canada follow with a National Museum of Aboriginal Art? The question is
more complex than it might seem.
Class readings, discussion, assignments and presentations will examine
existing Aboriginal representation in Canadian public museums and galleries.
Our exploration of the potential role of a national gallery of Aboriginal
art will embrace basic issues of museum and gallery operation: collection
building, cataloguing and attribution methods (accession catalogue, exhibition
catalogue, catalogue raisonné), art works preservation (conservation),
permanent collection and temporary exhibition development, and the ethical
and legal implications of the art trade.
Goal
To perform an informed and engaging in-class debate on the question:
Should Canada have a National Museum of Aboriginal Art? The results of
this debate will be recorded in a class document for potential publication
and/or submission to Ottawa outlining our recommendations.
Student Debate
Academic Policy
Students are expected to conform to the standards of academic honesty
as specified by the Senate. A clear sense of academic honesty and responsibility
is fundamental to good scholarship. Every student has a responsibility
to abide by these standards and, when in doubt, to consult with faculty
members in order to determine a proper course of action.
In the event of illness, please provide a note from your doctor or clinic
detailing the period during which you were unable to attend class. This
note will be required for missed class presentations or assignments to
avoid penalty.
Accessibility
York University is committed to making reasonable accommodations and
adaptations in order to make equitable the educational experience of students
with special needs (physical, learning, and psychiatric disabilities)
and to promote their full integration into the campus community. Please
let me know if you have any concerns or require assistance with regard
to class participation or the completion of your course assignments.
Course Assignments and Evaluation:
1. Question and rationale #1 15% due Friday January 14th
2. Question and rationale #2 15% due Friday January 28th
3. In-class debate 30% Friday March 4th
4. Class presentation 10% schedule to be set in class
5. Essay 30%, developed from class presentation, due April 4th
Late papers will be subject to a penalty of 5% per day
Course drop date: March 4
Required Readings
Please complete assigned readings in preparation for each class. Your
voice is important for discussion and will be noted. The reading list
is comprehensive and will function as your basic bibliography for class
assignments. We will select out or divide the readings amongst ourselves
to reduce the individual reading load. All readings will be drawn from
two sources:
1) Class text: Robyn Gillam Hall of Mirrors: Museums and the Canadian
Public. Banff, AB: Banff Centre Press, 2001. (available at the York University
bookstore)
2) Course kit: available at the Keele Copy Centre (416-665-9675) 4699
Keele Street.
Seminar Schedule
nb. This schedule is subject to revision
January 7
Introduction
Aboriginal Representation in the Canadian Museum and Gallery
Case Study: The National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.
January 14
History
Issues in the evolution of Canadian museums
Case Study: Transformation AGO
Robin Gillam,
Chapter 1: “The Genealogy of the Museum I: From Temple Treasuries
to Revolution”
Chapter 2: “The Genealogy of the Museum II: Museums Are Life Are
Art Are Politics”
Chapter 3: “A Brief History of Museums in Canada: Before the Second
World War”
Chapter 4: “Museums in Canada: From 1945 to 1993”
Hall of Mirrors: Museums and the Canadian Public, pp.1-99
www.ago.net/transformation/home.cfm
Transformation AGO: New Art New Building New Ideas New Future
January 21
An institutional perspective:
Matthew Teitelbaum, Director and CEO, Art Gallery of Ontario and President,
Association of Art Museum Directors
Art Gallery of Ontario * Please meet at the AGO at 10:15 am
317 Dundas Street West, Toronto
January 28 First discussion of in-class
debate (teams, rules, and topics) and essay
Late Colonial or Postcolonial?
Learning from our museological mistakes, and a few successes
Robin Gillam,
Chapter 5: “The Spirit Sings: A Sour Note in the Museum’s
Halls”
Chapter 6: “A Display of Nationalism: Who Framed George MacDonald
and the
Canadian Museum of Civilization?”
Chapter 7: “Fear and Loathing at Bloor and Avenue Road: Into the
Heart of the
Royal Ontario Museum”
Hall of Mirrors: Museums and the Canadian Public, pp.101-202.
Lissant Bolton, The Object in View: Aborigines, Melanesians, and Museums,”
in Museums and Source Communities: A Routledge Reader, eds. Peers and
Brown (London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 42-54.
Wendy Brady, “Framing Aboriginal Art at the Museum of Sydney,”
in On Aboriginal Representation in the Gallery, eds. Jessup and Bagg (Hull,
Que.: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2002), pp. 27-36.
James Clifford, “Four Northwest Coast Museums: Travel Reflections,”
Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 107-145.
Richard Fung “After Essay – Questioning History, Questioning
Art,” in On Aboriginal Representation in the Gallery, eds. Jessup
and Bagg (Hull, Que.: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2002), pp. 37-42.
Trudy Nicks, “Introduction: Museums and Contact Work,” in
Museums and Source Communities: A Routledge Reader, eds. Peers and Brown
(London: Routledge, 2003), pp.19-27.
Gloria Cramner Webster, “The U’Mista Cultural Centre,”
in Obsession, Compulsion, Collection: On Objects, Display Culture, and
Interpretation, ed. Anthony Kiendl (Banff: Banff Centre Press, 2004),
pp. 232-237.
February 4
An Aboriginal Perspective:
Jeff Thomas, Iroquois/Onondaga photographer, curator, and cultural analyst
Richard William Hill, “Jeff Thomas: Working Histories,” in
Jeff Thomas, A Study of Indian-ness (Toronto: Gallery 44, 2004), pp. 8-19
Jeff Thomas and Anna Hudson, “Edmund Morris: Speaking of First
Nations,” in On Aboriginal Representation in the Gallery, eds. Jessup
and Bagg (Hull, Que.: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2002), pp. 127-148.
Jeff Thomas, “Intersection,” in Jeff Thomas, A Study of Indian-ness
(Toronto: Gallery 44, 2004), pp. 21-57
http://www.cbc.ca/artspots/html/artists/jthomas/index.html
http://www.oakvillegalleries.com/jeffthomas/links.html
http://www.ago.net/www/information/exhibitions/no_escapin_this/thomas.cfm
http://www3.sympatico.ca/onondaga11/intro.html
http://artengine.ca/scouting/index.htm
February 11 Second discussion of in-class
debate (teams, rules, and topics) and essay
Positioning Aboriginal Art
Ideals and their implementation
Miriam Clavir, “First Nations Perspectives on Preservation and
Museums,” and “Appendix B: Conservation Code of Ethics,”
in Preserving What is Valued: Museums, Conservation, and First Nations
(Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2002), pp. 69-97, and
253-262.
Robin Gillam,
Chapter 8: “Is there a future for Museums in Canada?”
Hall of Mirrors: Museums and the Canadian Public, pp.203-225.
Association of Art Museum Directors, Professional Practices in Art Museums
(New York: AAMD, 2001), pp. 1-32.
Canadian Art Department, Departmental Guidelines (October 31, 2000 and
September 12, 2002), Art Gallery of Ontario, pp.1-22
Richard William Hill, “Getting Unpinned: Collecting Aboriginal
Art and the Potential for Hybrid Public Discourse in Art Museums,”
in Obsession, Compulsion, Collection: On Objects, Display Culture, and
Interpretation, ed. Anthony Kiendl (Banff: Banff Centre Press, 2004),
pp. 193-206.
Gerald McMaster “Our (Inter) Related History,” in On Aboriginal
Representation in the Gallery, eds. Jessup and Bagg (Hull, Que.: Canadian
Museum of Civilization, 2002), pp. 3-8.
Molly H. Mullin, “The Patronage of Difference: Making Indian Art
“Art, Not Ethnology,” in The Traffic in Culture: Refiguring
Art and Anthropology, eds. Marcus and Myers (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1995), pp. 166-198.
Trudy Nicks, “Expanded Visions: Collaborative Approaches to Exhibiting
First Nations Histories and Artistic Traditions,” in On Aboriginal
Representation in the Gallery, eds. Jessup and Bagg (Hull, Que.: Canadian
Museum of Civilization, 2002), pp. 149-162.
Jolene Rickard, “After Essay – Indigenous is the Local,”
in On Aboriginal Representation in the Gallery, eds. Jessup and Bagg (Hull,
Que.: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2002), pp. 115-124.
Clive Robertson, “[Aboriginal] [Representation] [in the Museum]
Articulations of the Creative, the Organic and the Instrumental,”
in On Aboriginal Representation in the Gallery, eds. Jessup and Bagg (Hull,
Que.: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2002), pp. 283-292.
February 18 no class READING WEEK
February 25 Final discussion of in-class
debate (teams, rules, and topics) and essay
Reprise: National Museum of American Indian Art
www.nmai.si.edu – please review website in advance of class
Deborah Doxtator “The Implications of Canadian Nationalism for
Aboriginal Cultural Autonomy,” Curatorship: Indigenous Perspectives
in Post-Colonial Societies (Hull, Que.: Canadian Museum of Civilization,
1996), pp. 56-76.
Margaret Dubin, “Museums and the Politics of Cultural Authority,”
Native America Collected: The Culture of an Art World (Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press, 2001), pp. 83-99.
Andrew McClellan, “A Brief History of the Art Museum Public,”Art
and its Publics: Museum Studies at the Millenium, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
2003), pp.1-49.
Donald Preziosi, “The Limit(s) of (Re)presentation,” Brain
of the Earth’s Body: Art, Museums, and the Phantasms of Modernity
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), pp. 137-151.
Ruth Phillips, “Introduction: Community Collaboration in Exhibitions,”
in Museums and Source Communities: A Routledge Reader, eds. Peers and
Brown (London: Routledge, 2003), pp.155-170.
Ruth Phillips, “The Collecting and Display of Souvenir Arts,”
Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the
Northeast, 1700-1900 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998),
pp. 49-71.
Nancy B. Rosoff, “Integrating Native Views into Museum Procedures:
Hope and practice at the National Museum of the American Indian,”
in Museums and Source Communities: A Routledge Reader, eds. Peers and
Brown (London: Routledge, 2003), pp.72-79.
March 4
In-class debate: Should Canada have a National Museum of Aboriginal Art?
March 11
Recommendations: Should Canada have a National Museum of Aboriginal Art?
- in-class preparation of a document for potential publication and/or
submission to Ottawa outlining summarizing our debate and setting out
our recommendations.
March 18 Class presentations begin
March 25 cont’d…
April 1 conclusion of class presentations
Assignment descriptions and rationale:
Question and rationale #1 – in preparation for our visit with Matthew
Teitelbaum at the Art Gallery of Ontario, please submit one question you
want to ask. Your question should demonstrate an awareness of Matthew’s
role as Director or the AGO and President of the Association of Art Museum
Directors. Your question should be accompanied by a 400-500 word rationale
in which you explain the significance of your question in relation to
current museological practice and issues.
Question and rationale #2 – in preparation for Jeff Thomas’
guest lecture, please submit one question you want to ask Jeff. Your question
should be accompanied by a 400-500 word rationale that demonstrates an
awareness of his artistic practice and curatorial work and, above all,
your appreciation for differences of cultural perspective.
In-class debate – based on class readings, discussion, and independent
research, each student will be assigned to a team to debate for and against
the creation of a National Museum of Aboriginal Art in Canada. We will
follow formal debating rules and each student will be assessed for their
preparedness, polish and persuasiveness. Further information to follow.
Class presentation – a 15-minute (maximum) presentation followed
by class discussion. Class presentations should develop your contribution
to the in-class debate to make explicit a museological challenge you see
as key to evolving a document for potential publication and/or submission
to Ottawa outlining our recommendations for a National Gallery of Aboriginal
Art. Further information to follow.
Essay – based on your class presentation. This essay should be
2500-3000 words in length. All students are required to discuss their
topic with me in advance of their presentation and submission of their
final paper.
Additional Resources
American Association of Museums
www.aam-us.org/
The mission of this not-for-profit Association is to represent the museum
community, address its needs, and enhance its ability to serve the public.
Association of Art Museum Directors
www.aamd.org/
The purpose of the Association of Art Museum Directors is to support its
members in increasing the contribution of art museums to society. The
AAMD accomplishes this mission by establishing and maintaining the highest
standards of professional practice; serving as forum for the exchange
of information and ideas; acting as an advocate for its member art museums;
and being a leader in shaping public discourse about the arts community
and the role of art in society.
Canadian Museums Association
www.museums.ca/
The Canadian Museums Association is the national organization for the
advancement of the Canadian museum community. We unite, represent and
serve museums and museum workers across Canada. We work passionately for
the recognition, growth and stability of our sector. The Canadian Museum
Association was established by a small group of people in Quebec City
in 1947. Today, it has nearly 2,000 members. Our members are non-profit
museums, art galleries, science centres, aquaria, archives, sports halls
of fame, artist-run centres, zoos and historic sites across Canada. They
range from large metropolitan galleries to small community museums. All
are dedicated to preserving and presenting our cultural heritage to the
public. Our members are also the people who work in and care about our
museum. They include professionals, volunteers, students, trustees and
interested friends. Our membership also includes foreign museum professionals
as well as a growing list of corporations that support museums and the
CMA.
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/index_e.html
In Indian and Inuit Affairs, the department’s primary role is to
support First Nations and Inuit in developing healthy, sustainable communities
and in achieving their economic and social aspirations. INAC negotiates
comprehensive and specific land claims and self-government agreements
on behalf of the federal government, oversees implementation of settlements
and promotes economic development. It is responsible for delivering provincial-like
services such as education, housing, and community infrastructure to Status
Indians on-reserve, and for delivering social assistance and social support
services to residents on-reserve with the goal of ensuring access to services
comparable to those available to other Canadian residents. The vast majority
of these programs and services are delivered in partnership with First
Nations, who directly administer 85 percent of Indian and Inuit Affairs
Program funds. INAC is also responsible for ensuring the honourable fulfilment
of the Crown’s obligations in lands, revenues and trusts, as well
as for matters relating to First Nations governance. It serves as the
delivery agent for training initiatives specific to administration of
land and resources and as a compliance body for a number of legislative
regimes including the Indian Act.
Index of Native American Museum Resources on the Internet
www.hanksville.org/NAresources/indices/NAmuseums.html
This site is constructed primarily to provide information resources to
the Native American community and only secondarily to the general community.
The information is organized, insofar as possible, to make it useful to
the Native American community and the education community. The information
presented here is the product of much cooperative work.
Indianer
www.indianer.de/
This is a German website on North American “Indians” that
maintains a mystique around First Nations culture.
International Council of Museums
www.chin.gc.ca/Resources/Icom/
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) is an international organisation
of museums and museum professionals which is committed to the conservation,
continuation and communication to society of the world's natural and cultural
heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible. Created in 1946,
ICOM is a non-governmental organisation maintaining formal relations with
UNESCO and having a consultative status with the United Nations' Economic
and Social Council. As a non-profit organisation, ICOM is financed primarily
by membership fees and supported by various governmental and other bodies.
It carries out part of UNESCO's programme for museums. Based in Paris
(France), the ICOM Headquarters houses both the ICOM Secretariat and the
UNESCO-ICOM Museum Information Centre.
National Museum of the American Indian
www.nmai.si.edu
The National Museum of the American Indian shall recognize and affirm
to Native communities and the non-Native public the historical and contemporary
culture and cultural achievements of the Natives of the Western Hemisphere
by advancing-in consultation, collaboration, and cooperation with Natives-knowledge
and understanding of Native cultures, including art, history, and language,
and by recognizing the museum's special responsibility, through innovative
public programming, research and collections, to protect, support, and
enhance the development, maintenance, and perpetuation of Native culture
and community.
Native Web
www.nativeweb.org/
NativeWeb is an international, nonprofit, educational organization dedicated
to using telecommunications including computer technology and the Internet
to disseminate information from and about indigenous nations, peoples,
and organizations around the world; to foster communication between native
and non-native peoples; to conduct research involving indigenous peoples'
usage of technology and the Internet; and to provide resources, mentoring,
and services to facilitate indigenous peoples' use of this technology.
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