#Black mesa research facility jacket how to#
#Black mesa research facility jacket free#

Of all the courses that IвЂ™ve taught recently, by far the most exhilarating was a class on the history, politics and future of museums. Whereas the left at times dismisses museums as bastions of elitism, relics of colonialism and representations of Eurocentrism, the right sees activist museums perpetrating attacks on traditional values.Д«ut perhaps the most serious challenge is a lack of clarity about what museums are supposed to do: To preserve, enlighten, educate, uplift, engage, stimulate, provoke or simply elevate people above the mundane?

#Black mesa research facility jacket how to#

There is also an audience challenge: how to attract a much more diverse audience and ensure that these institutions better represent the communities they serve.

#Black mesa research facility jacket free#

No longer can museums rely on the free or low-wage labor of volunteers or the scions of the wealthy. There is a financial challenge, as the cost of maintaining museums climbs while revenue stagnates. Today, there are more than 17,500 museums in the United States touching upon virtually every subject imaginable, from art to ice cream, from natural history to sex.Д«ut museums also face serious challenges from without and within. More people attended more museums than ever before. Prior to the pandemic, there was an unprecedented museum boom. On one side of the ongoing culture war are those who cast museums as instruments of exclusion and artworks and other museum artifacts as masks for power and privilege that вЂњactively sought to silence other artists and traditions out of a racist, colonialist impulse.вЂќ On the other side are those who consider museums guardians of civilization, sanctuaries for aesthetic contemplation and preserves for artistic and scholarly expertise.ДЇor museums, these are the best of times and the worst of times. She accused the Met of valuing вЂњracial consciousness-raising over scholarship and historical accuracy,вЂќ of interpreting paintings and sculpture on identity rather than artistic or historical grounds, and building exhibitions like its 2021 вЂњThe African Origin of CivilizationвЂќ around вЂњdiscredited theoriesвЂќ and вЂњdoctored quotes.вЂќ Conservative polemicist Heather MacВ Donald accused both the Art Institute of Chicago and New YorkвЂ™s Metropolitan Museum of redefining their primary purpose as antiracism and abandoning their вЂњcore mission of preserving historyвЂ™s treasures and instructing future generations.вЂќ Meanwhile, New YorkвЂ™s Metropolitan Museum of ArtвЂ™s leadership announced that the Met must вЂњaspire to be an agent of change.вЂќ To that end, the museum mandated вЂњanti-racism training for all staff, volunteers, and TrusteesвЂќ committed вЂњto a program of hiring Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) candidates to Department Head and senior leadership rolesвЂќ and promised вЂњa program of exhibitions, events, and publications that addresses complex and unfamiliar narratives, cross-cultural perspectives, and fosters a more diverse and expanded canon of art history.вЂќ Says the Art Institute of Chicago: вЂњMuseums like ours have long centered certain stories while marginalizing and suppressing othersВ вЂ¦ Firmly rooted in Eurocentric tradition, the founding objectives of our institutional history did not consider gender, ethnic, and racial equity.вЂќ SacramentoвЂ™s Crocker MuseumвЂ™s website states unequivocally that вЂњmuseums are the legacy of Western colonialism, serving as the products of straight, able-bodied, white, male privilege.вЂќ Yet even by historical standards, todayвЂ™s Kulturkampf is especially intense. If you want to see the culture wars at their most extreme, enter the museum world.ДЄs the cultural historian Michael Kammen demonstrated 15 years ago in Visual Shock, his history of art controversies, museums and exhibitions have long been flashpoints in the ongoing struggle over cultural values, civic and national identity, and the ways that the past is commemorated.