Free Essay About Community-Based Art Museums

An art museum is a mall used for display of art normally perceptible arts. A community-based museum is a conglomeration of community, social service organizations and schools aiming at offering educational space and programs that relate to different communities plentiful collections and materials by the museum (Nina 59). The museum uses the art to lay foundations and back community-based inventiveness in arts education. Community engagement and partnership with social, cultural and educational institutions to create a platform of encompassment and civic obligation are the foundation of a museum obtaining a community-based institution status.
The quality of art rests in exchange between public and the institution. Community involvement introduces new suggestions and interpretations that help the institution to expand in the field. It introduces new social conceptions challenging field of an art form in response to actively involving the public well-being and a feeling of purpose in the social order. Community-based artists attempt to generate an art piece that has some relevant connection with the public thus accrediting and educating them ( Davis 62). Community-based schemes are crafted in such a way they fit the demand of the community art and more and thus include the public in contributing in designing of the artifact. The art performs better in the environment of the community rather than just introducing a strange sculpture in the exhibition. This participatory and collective art promotes creativity in producing of the art piece.
Art museums are the interpreter of historical visual art and the emerging developments in visual culture to the public. One of the main functions of art museums is to provide opportunities for relevant encounter between visual arts and the community (Peter 63). They are the origin of a powerful social change in culture and class in the community at large. Many cultural practices that define the modern day society were established in the past centuries. Museums have taken the role of interpreting these facts to present generations. However, the need to uphold some local aspects of these practices has negative impacts on the progress of the community in relation to integrating with the outside world but has a unifying purpose to the specific community. Community art programs usually comprise of the fewer privileged persons in the community with an aim of improving or educating them about the need to uphold different cultures for their well-being and advancement in their respective communities.
Art adventures are origins of pride for the inhabitants both contributors and non-contributors in the community raising the sense of togetherness among the residents (Nina 66). Art museums through the community-based artists have provided a platform for providing an experience to the participants by providing technical and communal skills as well as raising the opportunities of personal interworking among the residents. This helps in motivating individuals to civically involve and has effective organizational building abilities thus improving the economic and social impacts in the community.
Having hands-on displays helps the public to interact and connect freely with the artifact. For instance, The San Francisco mobile museum has its displays at the back of a car providing an opportunity for the public to dig into their confined community by means of personal narratives and pass them to the successive generations. In New York City a display by Guggenheim BMW lab in the center of an engaged city park in 2011 attracted a large crowd who interacted and participated in the art in exhibit and provided a thrilling experience. Short temporary, accommodating exhibits away from museum galleries can offer opportunities for invention and revolutionize the activities of art in the museum (Peter 65). It provides a chance for the directors to make relevant decisions founded on the wishes of the audience and the project. This could also be an added advantage for newly established art museums as they are relatively inexpensive, and involve fewer risks as compared to setting up a permanent infrastructure.
Strengthening ties with the community has helped some museums that are there to help the public in realizing the importance of appreciating art as part of their day to day lives rather than being business enterprises. In recent hard times of financial recession, some of these museums have turned to the public to raise funds for their survival (Peter 66). They have come up with sites in the internet pleading for financial support ranging from expansion of infrastructure to obtaining of exhibits. In what would look like a twist of the intended purpose, this has amounted to a kind of advertisement where people who might not have heard about the said museum may come to its rescue and later participate in its exhibitions. In addition, these art museums are using technology ranging from social media like Facebook and twitter, blogs and websites in taking their role in the community. They post educative materials as well as providing descriptive information for specific arts in their possession.
Art museums have taken the role of giving back to the community through established programs for the less privileged. For instance, The Museum of Modern Art in New York has introduced a program for persons with Alzheimer disease and their caretakers (Eilean 51). The art program arouses the memory and boosts self-assertion. It also gives a relief to the caretakers by giving room for the patients to socially interact among themselves. They have also established special programs to raise the number of old visitors within the community by introducing an elderly-friendly carrier network. This provides an opportunity for comparison of the aging museum approach to modern technological museum thus giving a continuous learning process to generations.
Art museums have greatly contributed to improving the education sector. The adoption of group learning rather than confined individual classroom studies has helped students to have opportunities to experience real lessons. Some museums are turned into classrooms to adapt to this new era of practical learning. Assimilation of ancient and modern technologies in project-based exercises in workshops helps the students to have hands-on skills in crafting and arouse invention in them (Eilean 49). Museums are partnering with community-based organizations to facilitate learning providing new chances for the public to get enlightened on the importance of art education in the community. Strategic location easily accessible to learners, for example, nearness to schools is a vital factor, and most museums have adhered to that.
Museums are encouraging participation of the community through crowdsourcing on the internet providing relevant content and resolutions from enduring participants in the entire community (Nina 67). Participation does not limit sharing of ideas but encourages taking part in the selection of exhibits and identifying the identity logo of the museum. This provides an opportunity to the public to actively participate and strengthen the ties between the two entities. The Museum of Modern Art in New York is a good example of an art museum that has met the mentioned participatory criteria to warrant the title of a community-based art museum.

Works cited

Davis, Peter. "Place Exploration: museums, identity, community." Museums and their
Communities (2007): 53-75.
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. Museums and their visitors. Routledge, 2013. Print
Simon, Nina. The participatory museum. Museum 2.0, 2010.