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ALAIN DE BOTTON’S HEALING ARTS ORIGINAL ARTICLE BY JOSHUA ROTHMAN SUMMARIZED BY MUSEUM HACK

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ALAIN DE BOTTON’S HEALING ARTSORIGINAL ARTICLE BY JOSHUA ROTHMAN SUMMARIZED BY MUSEUM HACK

There’s a familiar choreography to the way visitors approach art in museums: read explanatory text, and scrutinize arbitrary details.

A SUCCESSFUL MUSEUM VISIT IS WHEN VISITORS

FIND ONE OR TWO WORKS THAT RESONATE IN A

PERSONAL WAY.

Yet, museums often “suggest that our

approach to art should be impersonal and

academic.”

Visitors don’t need art-history lessons, they are looking for something to get their ideas flowing.

AND MORE LIKE THERAPISTS.

MUSEUMS SHOULD BE LESS LIKE PROFESSORS

ART CAN EXPLORE MANY THEMES:GRIEF, PESSIMISM, INNER POSSIBILITIES.

Organize around human-scale themes, like marriage and aging,

and address personal questions.

“Our world, for all its technological sophistication,

is lacking in certain qualities.

But this painting is a visitor from another world where

those qualities: tenderness, reverence, and modesty, are

very highly valued.

Use it to find the still places in yourself.”

“MY THEORY IS THAT MANY OF THE THINGS THAT MOVE US ARE THINGS WE

LONG FOR, BUT FIND HARD TO DO.”

In many museums, a history of acquisitive, moneyed splendor has hardened into a feeling of academic exclusivity, and has a chilling effect on the art.

“Don’t just love the artist. Don’t just love the work they produced. Love what

they loved.”

THESE IDEAS ARE CONTENTIOUS IN MUSEUMS,

BUT OUTSIDE… WHERE TREES WAVE AND CLOUDS GLOW

THEY ARE LESS SO.

“ALAIN DE BOTTON’S HEALING ARTS”

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SUMMARIZED BY MUSEUM HACK

Original article written by Joshua Rothman and appeared on The New Yorker website on November 19, 2013