From Period Rooms to Public Trust: The Authority Debate and Art Museum Leadership in America

A recent lecture series at the Harvard University Art Museums titled “Art Museums and the Public Trust” marked the eightieth anniversary of the founding of Harvard's famed Museum Course. A graduate seminar begun in 1921 by the Fogg Art Museum's associate director, Paul J. Sachs, the Museum Course became the primary training ground for art museum leadership in the first half of the twentieth century. The 2001 commemorative lecture series was intended to foster a healthy debate on the place of the art museum in Anglo‐American culture. Instead, the speakers, veteran directors of America's and England's most prestigious art museums, invariably returned to one concern: authority—theirs and that of the art museum itself in contemporary society. Authority was at the heart of the Museum Course decades earlier, tellingly explored in annual debates around two significant topics. The first debate involved the pros and cons of including period rooms in American museums. In the second, students argued about whether America's established art institutions should collect the work of living artists. Questions of how museums should respond to the interests of audiences and communities, their responsibility to contemporary artists, and the meaning of a public trust trouble America's museum leadership now as then. This article explores the common ground between the Museum Course debates of the 1930s and Harvard's recent commemorative “debates” by America's contemporary museum leaders and comments on its significance for today's museums.     

“Art Girls”: Philanthropy,Corporate Sponsorship,and Private Art Museums in Post‐Communist Russia

Russian art sponsorship is dominated by women of the oligarch elite. Rather than dismissing this phenomenon as a faddish diversion of new money, this article takes a broader perspective on the motivations of these “art girls” along a trajectory of Russian women's involvement in patronage, philanthropy, and sponsorship extending back to the late eighteenth century. It considers how socio‐political circumstances have shaped philanthropy directed at the arts in Russia, and uses interviews to explore the reasons behind this recent focus on the contemporary in the sponsorship of exhibitions, art centers, and private museums in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Siberia.     

Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model and the circulation of journalism in the digital landscape

ABSTRACT

Notions of circuitry are central to Stuart Hall’s conceptualization of how communities, cultures, and media constitute each other. This is very explicit in his encoding/decoding model from 1973. Hall here reserves the term “circulation” for a delimited process within a broader argument for a circular movement, or a “reproduction” of culture through media. In this broader view, however, Hall sees circulation as both technological and hermeneutical processes through which meaning and/or ideology move into and out of discursive form. The encoding/decoding text(s) refer on several occasions to “current affairs” but later applications of this model have somewhat neglected the sphere of journalism. This paper consequently situates Hall’s notions of circulation in relation to new modes of circulating journalism on participatory digital platforms. Given the status of Hall’s model, the overall goal of this re-reading is twofold: seeing Hall through contemporary issues puts into perspective key aspects of Hall’s thinking, while Hall’s framework in turn helps illuminate important characteristics of how journalism is ascribed meaning in a digital landscape. The paper ultimately argues that while Hall’s insistence on seeing the circulation of journalism within a broader circuit of culture is as important as ever, some of his main tenets and assumptions need to be rethought and supplemented in light of newer developments.     

Mobil's epideictic advocacy: “Observations” of Prometheus‐bound

Among “corporate rhetors,” none has been regarded as more creative and aggressive than Mobil Oil. This essay examines Mobil's use of “Observations"—half‐page Sunday newspaper magazine section ads—during the years of 1976–1980. The first focus is upon “Observations” as epideictic discourse developed in response to Mobil's 1975 rhetorical situation. Attention is then turned to examples of the discourse itself and a summary of 149 “Observations.” Following the analysis are treatments of the identificational strategies used by Mobil and the Promethean myth which gives those strategies universal appeal. Finally, Mobil's “epideictic advocacy” is evaluated by the standards of effect, ethics, and art. Through “Observations” Mobil intends to be—like the Sunday newspaper—a part of America's afternoon.     

The Right Stuff in the Right Place: The Institution of Contemporary Art

Abstract A long walk in the “world” of contemporary art gives multiple views of interlocking ecologies that, in their particularities, contradict the stereotypes suggested by language, invert “north” and “south,” question what is “traditional” in artistic practices, reflect on the intermix of society and art, glimpse the colonial mind in postmodern dress, and illuminate a restless subculture of professional migrants. What does our ramble reveal about the institution of contemporary art? “Diversity” hardly seems an adequate word.     

Frictionless Sharing and Digital Promiscuity

This article analyses the recent Facebook innovation of “frictionless sharing”, a term which describes a smoother and wider distribution of content by individual users and a less overtly acknowledged but more efficient instrumentalization of users' immaterial labour within a structure of corporate monetization. It builds on my recent work on “the sharing subject” of contemporary digital media, in which I argue that current online social networking practices, in their emphasis on “sharing” content with networks of contacts, construct and validate the networked subject according to a version of neoliberal individualism. Moreover, the construction of this subject position implicitly recalls the heteronormativity of AIDS panic, through an unlikely rebranding of promiscuity as a desirable and successful mode of interactivity. If the new rhetoric of “sharing” erases the riskiness of circulation previously encoded in dominant images of virality, notably behaviours associated with HIV, then what is the relationship of the projected potential of “frictionless sharing” to existing normative frames of ethics and morality? In approaching this question, I revisit significant queer interventions into concepts of community and risk that emerged in the post-AIDS context, notably Tim Dean's recent examination of the barebacking subculture to which mediations of an idealized frictionlessness are also central.     

Becoming Extra-Textual: Celebrity Discourse and Paul Robeson's Political Transformation

During the 1930s, news media constructed celebrities as individuals whose public lives naturally reflected (or expressed) their private lives. Paul Robeson, however, offered an intriguing challenge to such seamlessness, foreshadowing contemporary evocations of celebrity that highlight the fabricated nature of public personas. I posit that during the 1930s, the discursive formations of scandal and movie stardom challenged celebrity seamlessness by constructing Paul Robeson as a site of extra-textuality: Paul Robeson “the artist” became detached from Paul Robeson “the man.” Although mired in essentialism, Robeson's extra-textuality was crucial to his activism, for it ultimately created the space from which he voiced his most impassioned political polemics. Thus both regressive and liberatory, the discourses of scandal and movie stardom mediated Paul Robeson's transition from spiritual-singing aesthete to outspoken political activist.     

At Hospitality's Threshold: From Social Inclusion to Exilic Education

Abstract Describing actual museum‐wide events developed for the culturally charged arena of the Brooklyn Children's Museum, this article explores the philosophical and pedagogical double binds that have brought multiculturalism to a political impasse. Museums have strived to be valued resources in an increasingly diverse society. In aspiring to broaden their audience base, their work has shifted from developing educational policies that are “object‐centered” to those that are “community‐centered” — a change of strategy affecting everything from programs to exhibit design. Children's museums — distinct (if not marginalized) from the serious work of the traditional art or ethnographic or natural history museum — know and indeed say in their very name — “children's museum” — that they are for the sake of someone and not about something. They have always already been attuned to the visitor at the threshold.     

Digitally Empowered

In January 2013, Peter Bradshaw, a film critic for The Guardian, said that Twitter users had become the favourite “critics” of the film industry. The implicit concern in this article on a subject dear to cultural journalism—“Would be criticism bankrupted when we are all ‘critics’ on the Web?”—became evident in the following years. It is pertinent, then, to explore the media answer not only to this subject but both to sourcing and expertise in general in the culture section. Did they embrace these new news sources (and which) that emerged in the digital environment, such as the reader, blogs or artists tweets? Assuming the first hypothesis, how did they include them in their editorial model, alongside with the “traditional” experts and sources? We conducted a content analysis to the culture section of an international media—The Guardian—between 2014 and 2016 (n?=?992), identifying the role of what we would like to call digitally empowered sources and the presence of new “experts” in cultural criticism. We concluded that these digitally empowered sources play an important role in the overall editorial, business and engagement media's strategy and are deeply engaged with a new digital feature: hypertextuality. New patterns of expertise also reflect an editorial positioning supported in an engagement strategy and in the recognition of the readers’ added value to content.     

Interpretation and the Role of the Viewer in Museums of Modern and Contemporary Art

Abstract What does the term “interpretation” mean when it's encountered in museums of modern and contemporary art — and is something missing? Studies conducted by the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the University of Leicester in England reveal that visitors want more information about art. In this article, interviews with the directors of the Phillips and the Walker (as well as other museum professionals and academics) examine interpretative practices today and suggest plans for tomorrow. When preparing future interpretive materials, the author advocates that museums expose visitors to the idea that they make their own meaning when viewing art.     

IMAGINARY DARKROOM

What are the current working conditions and future prospects of Latino journalists working for any type of news media outlet? This question has not been addressed in any national study since Federico Subervi's 2004 research on behalf of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. This paper revisits the same subject matter seven years after (2011) the original work was produced, updating the figures and expanding the study by incorporating Latino journalists working for ethnic media, as well as those working for general market media. The results indicate that the dominant “motivation” factors present in 2011 that influenced US Latino journalists' job attitudes were work itself, advancement, and growth. The leading “hygiene” factors that influenced US Latino journalists' job attitudes were salary and relations with peers. Survey respondents agreed that opportunities to obtain professional training would significantly increase the likelihood of keeping their job and their preference for a training topic was digital/multimedia reporting. Journalists suggested three elements to assure a better coverage of the Latino community—a Hispanic/Latino supervisor, an educated supervisor, and media owned by Hispanic/Latino person/family. Additionally, news staff feel underpaid and dissatisfied with promotion opportunities as well as opportunities to increase their salary. They have felt job discrimination based on race.     

Child‐centered Practice in Museums: Experiential Learning through Creative Play at the Ipswich Art Gallery

Over the past two decades, museums and galleries have significantly expanded the scope and diversity of programs and exhibitions offered to children, families and schools. Parents and teachers are increasingly interested in curated public play spaces for children in the early years (from birth to eight years old), and they actively search for accessibility, affordability and quality when planning young children's excursions. In 2013, the Ipswich Art Gallery (in Queensland, Australia) developed and presented Light Play, an interactive exhibition designed especially for children up to the age of eight. Light Play promoted the use of light as a creative material for making ephemeral art through collaborative play, experimentation and discovery‐based learning. As part of the exhibition, a formal research project was run as an integral component of Light Play. Our research documented the qualities that lead to successful creative play experiences for young children in art museums by examining three key aspects of the exhibition: the participants, the environment, and the program. This paper discusses the findings of that research, in relation to making financial and human resource investments in interactive and immersive exhibitions and play spaces for children in the early years.     

Telling Presences: Witnessing,Mass Media,and the Imagined Lives of Strangers

In most traditional accounts, to be a witness is to be physically present at an event and report it to those who are absent. The ontological principle that authorizes testimony is the individual's corporeal presence at the event, a presence often vouchsafed by the suffering of the witnessing body. The logical extension of this is that media audiences are not the witnesses of the events they see, but the recipients of someone else's testimony. I take issue with such an account, claiming that contemporary witnessing has become a general mode of receptivity to electronic media reports about distant others. Replacing the ontological primacy of the witness with the interpretive encounter with “witnessing texts,” I focus on these texts’ world-making properties and the imaginative demands they make of their addressees. Mass media witnessing situates this imaginative engagement with others within an impersonal framework of “indifferent” social relations, creating a ground of civil equivalence between strangers that is morally enabling.     

Communication research and the idea of process

The term “process” admits of two definitions in the philosophy of science: one based on a 19th century mechanistic view, the other consistent with quantum relativistic notions. Scholars in speech communication have misused these essentially contradictory definitions. Methodological notions have often been based on a deterministic view of cause while, at the same time, definitions of communication have been based on Whitehead's view of reality as “becoming.” As a result, theory and research have been inconsistent. To implement the contemporary notion of “process,” ideas of methodological rigor based on causal determinism must be substituted by notions of carefulness based on acknowledgement of the observer's involvement in his own observations.     

Participatory media new and old: semiotics and affordances of museum media

The move from “old” to “new” media centrally involves a shift in participatory possibilities, through which individuals and communities differentially access and populate the public sphere, assume voice, and partake in open discussion and debate. This paper offers a rich ethnographic case study of new participatory media in the shape of commenting systems in museums. By portraying the similarities and the differences in communicative affordances between two museum media—traditional visitor books, on the one hand, and a digital and immersive interface, on the other hand—light is shed on how media invite and intervene in possibilities for public participation. Furthermore, with their emphasis on visual design and display, studying participatory public media in museums helps highlight the semiotic construction of the public sphere as such, and how the notion of the public and laypersons’ contributions are materially displayed. Analysis of communicative affordances reveals the politics of remediation, and supports recent hesitations with regard to the promise of newer and “smarter” media: digital media affords more interaction than their analogue predecessors, but participatory content-production via analogue media is found to be discursively richer on a number of grounds.     

Fakes on Display: Special Exhibitions of Counterfeit Art

Since the mid‐twentieth century, special exhibitions of art forgeries have appeared in many museums in the United States and Europe. These exhibitions have displayed artworks of many kinds, and have been structured around a variety of objectives and methodologies to engage the public. Fundamentally, they inform that public about an uncomfortable reality: that artistic deception is more common than they may think. The collective phenomenon of these forums displaying faux art has reached a point at which it is a topic worthy of study. This article draws upon representative examples of exhibitions of fake art to present an overview of their “what,” “why,” and “how” in light of commonalities and differences among them. It furthermore traces a loose historical pattern in these exhibitions that shows change over time as well as continuity.     

Management of core resources: The case of media enterprises

Abstract

For media firms, convergence is a strategy for value creation. However, the concept of convergence belongs to a field of media research and practice that still is in a pre‐paradigmatic stage (Kuhn). The aim of the analysis is to contribute to the process towards “normal science,”; where the paradox of conceptualisation is solved and the outcome is guiding research as well as business development. The article introduces the concept of “value creation convergence,”; and discusses its potential as a sixth dimension of the convergence concept in relation to Miège's typology of traditional media firms (editorial, press, and flow) and Stabell &; Fjeldstad's typology of value creation configurations (chain, shop, and network).     

Defining Fair Use in Visual Art Research Sources and Strategies

Abstract

This guide offers extensive resources on the intersection of intellectual property law and contemporary visual art and on the application of the doctrine of fair use within this context. It is designed to assist attorneys, museum administrators, art collectors, art dealers and artists in handling litigation involving copyright litigation. It is particularly focused on copyright claims arising out of the art movement known as “appropriation,” which has emerged as a litigation target due to its use of familiar images and image genres drawn from public and consumer media. The guide strives to aid artworlders and attorneys new to art litigation in developing an understanding of the limitations and extent of fair use protections for visual artwork.     

Cultural Journalism and Cultural Critique in a changing Media Landscape

This special issue addresses a topic of journalism studies that has previously been somewhat neglected but which has gained increasing scholarly attention since the mid-2000s: the coverage and evaluation of art and culture, or what we term “cultural journalism and cultural critique.” In this introduction, we highlight three issues that serve to frame the study of cultural journalism and cultural critique more generally and the eight articles of this special issue more specifically: (1) the constant challenge of demarcating cultural journalism and cultural critique, including the interrelations of “journalism” and “critique”; (2) the dialectic of globalisation’s cultural homogenisation, on the one hand, and the specificity of local/national cultures, on the other; and (3) the digital media landscape seen in terms of the need to rethink, perhaps even redefine cultural journalism and cultural critique.