In Steven Dubin’s Displays of Power, the issues and controversies surrounding present-day museums are clearly expressed. From descriptions of picket lines in front of museums to the unresolved conflict between museum staff members, it is obvious that the creation of museum exhibits is more than just show-casing artifacts and expecting record number visitors. Instead, Dubin views the formulation of a museum exhibit as a “process” that eventually results in a finished “product.” (11) It is also during this process that various issues arise, and museum organizers and staff attempt to resolve them. Throughout this process, describes Dubin, is when a museum truly “displays [its] power” and ultimately decides the outcome and message of an exhibit. While he provides consistent evidence to his argument throughout the book, it is also clear through various examples and sources that the media is another powerful entity during the creation and end result of an exhibit.
According to Dubin, museums have featured displays of power through “great men, great wealth, or great deeds.” (3) Throughout each chapter of the book, the power of museums and their organizers is noticeable when dealing with the concerned public. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the “great men” behind the Harlem on My Mind exhibit in 1969 exercised their power by refusing shared authority between themselves and African Americans living in Harlem. In response to the racial controversies over including African American art in the exhibit, among other issues, P.F. Hoving and Allon Schoener stayed with their predominately white-influenced exhibit, ignoring the concerns of the public. (28) Hoving even went so far as to leaving the state when picket lines formed in front of the museum and paintings in the museum were defaced by the upset public, further avoiding the issue at hand. (37)
Within this same chapter, Dubin’s describes the influence of the media on the Harlem on My Mind exhibit. Even when the exhibit opened to the public, the media continued “stirring the pot,” allowing the unstable relationship between the museum organizers and the African American public to worsen. (49) According to Michael Kammen’s review of the book, the tone that the numerous news articles provided are essential in expressing Dubin’s underlying message that the media tends to “blossom” a dispute into a “much larger struggle.” (Dubin, 112) By just flipping through the “Notes” portion of the book, it is apparent that Dubin’s depended on newspaper and magazine articles to support his argument of the incessant controversy surrounding museums.
As the title describes, museums truly have Displays of Power. Whether it is an organizer finalizing a component of an exhibit or a committee agreeing on a certain point of view of an exhibit, Dubin’s depicts the museum as an ultimate power. Although controversy is bound to occur in today’s museums, says Dubin, it is only part of the process; especially when Americans possess the need for individual and cultural representation. Unfortunately, the process of creating an exhibit is further complicated once the media displays its power during and after the exhibit process. To Dubin, once the media is mixed into the controversy, the less chance there is for true progress and overall satisfaction from both the museum staff and the public.
2 comments:
The role the media played in blowing up small struggles into larger battlefieds was really interesting to learn; and also quite annoying. It really is a shame how large of a role the media played in these (and I'm sure in current) exhibitions. It doesn't give the public a chance to formulate their own opinion or come to their own conclusion on the subject matter. And furthermore, I can only imagine how frustrating that is for the museum workers who have to scale back and essentially censor their exhibits in some of these instances because of the premature backlash they receive due to the media's interference, and pot stirring of the issues at hand.
The role the media played in helping to fuel the controversy of the museums exhibits was not surprising to me. The media always seems to try to make more out small issues than truly needs to be covered which are annoying to me. I agree with Nichole that the media did blow up small issues making them into a type of larger battlefields as she called it was really interesting to learn. A good example Dublin presents in the book was at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. It was shameful how large of a role the media played in the controversy at the museum. In many case it was the museum that keep the controversy alive. It gave a large negative voice against the museum’s exhibition. The controversy got so large that then Mayor Giuliani got involved and threatened to pull the museum’s finding.
This type of media coverage in always bad because it does not give the viewing public a chance to formulate their own opinion or time for the museum to defend it exhibit. If the media want to cover museum exhibits there is nothing wrong with it but the media needs to show all sides and hear all voices before displaying any coverage. Nicole brings up a good point of how frustrating it has to be for the museum workers who have to scale back and censor their exhibits. The workers get pressure from all sides. Pressure is given for showing the exhibit by some in the public and pressure is given for giving into the media. It makes one wonder why anyone would want that type of job because of constantly being in a lose-lose situation brought on by a small group given a large voice.
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