Quiet is one of the things I like about art museums. Call me a snob, sure. But I enjoy being able to stand still before a Rembrandt, a medieval reliquary or a mark rothko and take the time to take it in without music playing out of someone's phone behind me.
This was a really interesting read - I work in a community role in heritage, and quiet is both a barrier and a facilitator. I’m often the one running engagement programmes which make a lot of noise, and I love it, but as you say that way of engaging is very much not the norm and is confined to my remit.
I see this as widening access, mitigating barriers to just get people over the threshold, but this is only the first step and sadly is where much of the effort stops. We need to democratise our cultural spaces and show up in a similarly respectful way to spaces which belong to the communities we try to “target” with audience development etc.
Reverence and the ability to lose yourself in thought are natural responses to art and we should seek to elicit them as often as we can. This means really working with others to get to the meaning and value, rather than imposing silence upon them without first opening up the avenues for critical thought, and preparing to be challenged!
Interesting read, and really liked the way you walked us through the argument : although I don't know if you walked us the full length of it.
I think what we are expected to be is focused on the Art in the art gallery - it is hard, for example to have a gallery walk or a guided tour of the gallery without some convresation or murmur.
Or even seeing the pieces and not talk about what we see or experience.
A demand for (absolute) Quiet-ness can be a problem - of lack of understanding of Human reaction to Art.
Now, thinking back to my own happy visits to galleries, I would argue that what we are looking for is not necessarily Complete Quiet but Consideration of/towards others. (which rules out singing songs / cellphone calls)
It could also be a function perhaps of how many "people" are in a given room or space of the gallery perhaps? Maybe?
*Aside: Seeing hospitals mentioned as "quiet places" my mind did do a double-take! The ones I have had the unfortunate occassion to be visiting - some of the noisiest human inhabitations, I would say.
Thank you for your comment! An opinion piece inevitably has its limits. Mine has the following: I didn't actually define a reasonable degree of quietness for the artistic space (of course I didn't mean monastic silence), and the non-artistic spaces I mentioned don't always benefit from said quietness; I was referring to places where it was socially/morally expected. The aim of this piece was to respond in the manner of a mood piece, one that would be provocative enough to make people think. The philosophical reflection would have to be extended to human society as a whole to really to go to the full extent of the argument.
Quiet is one of the things I like about art museums. Call me a snob, sure. But I enjoy being able to stand still before a Rembrandt, a medieval reliquary or a mark rothko and take the time to take it in without music playing out of someone's phone behind me.
This was a really interesting read - I work in a community role in heritage, and quiet is both a barrier and a facilitator. I’m often the one running engagement programmes which make a lot of noise, and I love it, but as you say that way of engaging is very much not the norm and is confined to my remit.
I see this as widening access, mitigating barriers to just get people over the threshold, but this is only the first step and sadly is where much of the effort stops. We need to democratise our cultural spaces and show up in a similarly respectful way to spaces which belong to the communities we try to “target” with audience development etc.
Reverence and the ability to lose yourself in thought are natural responses to art and we should seek to elicit them as often as we can. This means really working with others to get to the meaning and value, rather than imposing silence upon them without first opening up the avenues for critical thought, and preparing to be challenged!
I *wish* courteous quiet was better observed or enforced in my current library, among other places.
That’s very sad. Yes, unfortunately, courtesy is losing ground in human society at large.
Interesting read, and really liked the way you walked us through the argument : although I don't know if you walked us the full length of it.
I think what we are expected to be is focused on the Art in the art gallery - it is hard, for example to have a gallery walk or a guided tour of the gallery without some convresation or murmur.
Or even seeing the pieces and not talk about what we see or experience.
A demand for (absolute) Quiet-ness can be a problem - of lack of understanding of Human reaction to Art.
Now, thinking back to my own happy visits to galleries, I would argue that what we are looking for is not necessarily Complete Quiet but Consideration of/towards others. (which rules out singing songs / cellphone calls)
It could also be a function perhaps of how many "people" are in a given room or space of the gallery perhaps? Maybe?
*Aside: Seeing hospitals mentioned as "quiet places" my mind did do a double-take! The ones I have had the unfortunate occassion to be visiting - some of the noisiest human inhabitations, I would say.
Thank you for your comment! An opinion piece inevitably has its limits. Mine has the following: I didn't actually define a reasonable degree of quietness for the artistic space (of course I didn't mean monastic silence), and the non-artistic spaces I mentioned don't always benefit from said quietness; I was referring to places where it was socially/morally expected. The aim of this piece was to respond in the manner of a mood piece, one that would be provocative enough to make people think. The philosophical reflection would have to be extended to human society as a whole to really to go to the full extent of the argument.