: In a recent interview with the Arts Newspaper (April issue),Ronald de
: Leeuw, director of the Rijksmuseum discussed his revolutionary changes to
: integrate the departments of fine and decorative arts. His plans includes
: displaying a mixture of art and history objects together telling the story
: of Dutch culture.
: I am wondering, if there are any other examples of how history and art
: departments in larger - or even smaller- museums have worked together to
: integrate exhibitions. What approaches have been taken? A thematic or
: chronological approach? What dangers and problems are there in showing art
: and history together? How does one confront others with issues such
: nationalism, colonialism or taboo's within that society's culture? How does
: one avoid creating stereotypical displays and perhaps even run the chance
: of glorifying its nation's history? ( And perhaps even run the chance of
: creating of its nations' ultimate and one side story to history... The public might therefore think: it-is- true because it is the museum!) Is there still room
: to explain the more abstract and political ideas to the public? And how? Or by taking by trying to integrate its displays the Rijksmuseum is becoming a
: more marketable to a larger non museum public and is just shaking off its
: elitist armour? And perhaps nothing to worry about at all.. and in fact just moving towards an accessible museum and in the right direction
: I guess.... I am just looking for good and bad examples around the world or
: perhaps even literature of how museums deal with history and what are some
: of the more current practices when showing its nation's past...
: Michele Jacobs
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I know two good examples of musea who do this:
1: Amsterdam Historic Museum
2: Scheepvaart museum Amsterdam
So contact them to find out more, or better, come to Amsterdam.
Gerrit Heemskerk
