Notes on the Art Museum I

Since about 1965 a shift has occurred in museum finding, 1992, almost $700 million was given by corporations to promote culture and the arts. The shift to corporate sources coincides with the rise of the “blockbuster exhibitions”. These exhibitions aim at a broad public appeal and middle-class taste

In the article written Brian Wallis entitled, Selling Nations: International Exhibitions and Cultural Diplomacy, he explains, “Individual nations are compelled to dramatize conventionalized versions of their national images, asserting past glories and amplifying stereotypical differences”.

Curator Susan Vogel of the Center for African Art in New York arranged an exhibit in 1988 entitled Art/Artifacts using varied display techniques to provoke visitors to ponder distinctions between art and non-art.