The British Museum was our first real museum, the property of the public rather than the monarch or the church.
The 19th century became the age of the museum. Objects were scrambled for, specimens seized, and friezes and antiques grasped.
The museum spreads its surfaces everywhere, and becomes an untitled collection of generalizations that mobilize the eye.
The British Museum was our first real museum, the property of the public rather than the monarch or the church.
I bought a year's production of flax from a single field owned by a Dutch producer. That's 10,000 kilograms of flax, enough to enable industrial level production. Now, I'm weaving it into tablecloths, tea towels, and other items at the Textile Museum in Tilburg. I'm producing hundreds of grown-up products!
Many visitors to Chicago know the Loop, the shops on the Magnificent Mile, and the Museum Campus. Meanwhile, much of the bustle is in the developing neighborhoods around the Loop: North, South and West.
A museum's meticulous presentation - exhaustive captions, hushed lighting, state-of-the-art armature - creates an institutional authority that is constructed to seem impregnable.