A Piece of Braxton's Life and Mind

Museums have always been an important part of almost every culture. A collection of artifacts and ranging from paper to stone, and everything in between. A collection that effectively represents the creative and expressive side of cultures throughout many generations, while organized to be an intricate yet effective timeline for those vast and varied cultures. Museums have been around for numerous years, all sharing the same structure and purpose, and all being equally and important to keeping culture alive and keeping others well informed of cultures from our past. The problem that persists today though, is how today’s generation is getting too modern, fast-paced and interactive that people are getting less and less interested in museums and in turn are learning less and less about history and its varied cultures throughout.

In the article, “Museums Can Change—Will They?” Michael O’Hare Poses the argument that museums are dying both in a financial and popularity or social aspect. Despite this, the government along with the workers for those respective museums have the power to change their system to be more welcoming and sustainable than it is currently. O’Hare’s main ideas revolves around the belief that museums and the general museum experience can be fixed by being modernized and driven by today’s generation with technology greatly influencing the way people perceive the world and their behavior in general.

According to the text, many museums are keeping minor art pieces, and even duplicates of those pieces in warehouses instead of presenting or even selling them. This is damaging in many ways to these museums by having them suffer financially as a business and socially as a culture. One of the biggest factors that acts as a cause to this downfall of museums is the government and its lack of collaborative efforts or even approval for outside sources’ efforts to these facilities. Many museums are being denied the ability to sell these duplicates, which denies a way for patrons to interact with the art, and denies a way for the museums to make a profit.

Another issue revolves around the visitors, rather than the staff or government being set to blame for the need in change in museums, fault also falls upon the patrons or visitors. Those who visit museums usually don’t spend much time appreciating the pieces and can either rush by each piece, with only 5 second glances between each one, or just walk through the museum without even looking at the art set on display, or at least a small percentage of it. A supposed way O’Hare believes this can be fixed is through having a more hands on approach with the visitors, he believes making them part of the art will leave a bigger impact and might bring a bit of a personal or individual revival of culture.

A method that can potentially fix the issue of finance and audience is to sell the minor and duplicate pieces that are, as O’Hare said, “locked up in the basements and warehouses of a handful of our largest museums.” Modernizing the experience to new visitors with smartphone apps and other modern tools can attract and captivate a younger audience, via the use of virtual assistants to guide you through the museum with the app, and to also provide the history in speech similar to an audio book, while any customers are exploring the new sights and sounds to these revamped establishments. If done right, these changes will fix the issue of these future generations having an inconsistent and weakened culture, by reconnecting them with older cultures and making them more aware of their own in turn.

I believe that Michael O’Hare makes many strong and inspiring arguments in his article, “Museums Can Change—Will They?” More importantly, I agree with his argument of how museums and the forces running it, including the government, has the potential to change the system and improve the overall museum experience, but it’s either through stubbornness to hold on to the past or a genuine belief that the current system either isn’t flawed or is at its peak performance. I do believe that museums should sell their duplicates for both promotion and profit, although i disagree for the minor pieces that don’t have duplicates, I believe that even the minor pieces of artwork should still have their own space in the museum to be presented and appreciated.

 

In the article, “Museums Can Change—Will They?” Michael O’Hare Poses the argument that museums are dying both in a financial and popularity or social aspect, but the government along with the workers for those respective museums have the power to change their system to be more welcoming and sustainable than it is currently.

According to the text, many museums are keeping minor art pieces, and even duplicates of those pieces in warehouses instead of presenting or even selling them, which is making these museums suffer financially as a business and socially as a culture. One of the biggest factors that acts as a cause to this kick-started downfall of museums is the government and its lack of collaborative efforts or even approval for outside sources’ efforts to these facilities.

Another issue revolves around the visitors, rather than the staff or government being set to blame for the need in change in museums, fault also falls upon the patreons or visitors. Those who visit museums usually don’t spend much time appreciating the pieces and can either rush by each piece, with only 5 second glances between each one, or just walk through the museum without even looking at the art set on display, or at least a small percentage of it. A supposed way O’Hare believes this can be fixed is through having a more hands on approach with the visitors, he believes making them part of the art will leave a bigger impact and might bring a bit of a personal or individual revival of culture.

A method that can potentially fix the issue of finance and audience is to sell the minor and duplicate pieces that are, as O’Hare said, “locked up in the basements and warehouses of a handful of our largest museums.” Modernizing the experience to new visitors with smartphone apps and other modern tools can attract and captivate a younger audience and that will fix the issue of these future generations having an inconsistent and weakened culture.

I believe that Michael O’Hare makes many strong and inspiring arguments in his article, “Museums Can Change—Will They?” More importantly, I agree with his argument of how museums and the forces running it, including the government, has the potential to change the system and improve the overall museum experience, but it’s either through stubbornness to hold on to the past or a genuine belief that the current system either isn’t flawed or is at its peak performance. I do believe that museums should sell their duplicates for both promotion and profit, although i disagree for the minor pieces that don’t have duplicates, I believe that even the minor pieces of artwork should still have their own space in the museum to be presented and appreciated.

For many people, Art, within all of its different kinds, can be viewed as a second language. Especially with how it can be used to send a message, convey emotion, and even be therapeutic for some. Art holds a great strength within one’s personal and community culture and identification. For me especially, this viewpoint on art is extremely prominent, especially with how am more of a reserved, heavy-thinking type, Where I usually only talk or express myself with those i’m comfortable with or when I feel like I need to. This leads most of my thoughts and feelings to go unnoticed, and are more likely portrayed and effected by different kinds of visual art and music that I either produce or view.

This effect that art has had on my life has started with me at a young age, for what I remember, as young as 5 or 6 years old. The earliest of these memories that I have of art having an impact on my life and how I view it starts all the way back to when I was in kindergarten. From what I can recall, there were these sheets of paper that seemed to be straight out of a coloring book, with thick black outlines of many things for the students to color in, such as flowers, cats, dogs, houses, mountains, butterflies, and the one I chose; Dinosaurs. I grabbed a piece at random from the Dinosaur pile because I’d always had an interest in creatures that either didn’t exist or haven’t for a while, basically anything you can’t just find at a zoo or outside. Drawing was also something to do on my own, because everyone else had already been talking or playing with their own friend groups that they’ve made. I had always been the odd one out in my classes, usually quiet and only talk to one or two people, This still in true to this day with, I may have many little friends groups, but it’s only the ones I’ve gained throughout life that I haven’t lost contact with.

After getting my sheet of paper to color I took a seat at one of the circular desks in the corner of the class, which being occupied by only 2 people at the time, one of them I don’t remember, but the other was William St Pierre. After sitting down I looked around and realized I neglected to grab any markers to color with, luckily William had some at the desk already, and so I asked to borrow some from him, he agreed and slid the box over to me. After I had my “work” and my “tools” I just jumped straight into it. As I was drawing I was being filled with a feeling not far off from adrenaline, just watching with every stroke of the marker, drop by drop of ink, I was not only filling the page, but my mind with color. It was like something I’ve never experienced before, as if I was in my own little world on that page, building it in my head as I fill my eyes with the pallet I was building of greens, blues, and oranges.

I finally completed it after a total time of 20 minutes, which the new excitement of coloring made it feel like 2 minutes and yet a year at the same time. The final product, a dinosaur, which i colored orange, in a jungle filled with trees, and lush green leaves, with even mountains and a great blue sky in the background. I was extremely careful when coloring in order to have the colors I chose be in their respective outlines, even if it meant not being so careful when it came to my fingers touching the tips of the markers. After finishing I went up to my kindergarten teacher, Ms. Shay, and show her what I had made. Her eyes lit up with pride in my work and said, “This looks really good Braxton, good job. Did anyone help you make this too?” I replied, “I did the coloring all by myself, but Will let me borrow his markers.”

From that moment, the power of creating had always been a great driving force for most of my personal ambitions, mostly from making drawings and also music, which I later discovered I had a talent and love for when I joined my school’s orchestra in fourth grade. Nonetheless, art, from this very moment onward from what I remember, had always been the most important impact on my life. From then on, I’ve done nothing but practice and expand on my skills to where I can say that I’m proud of what I’m able to make. I plan on improving my skills even more in the future to the point of making a career out of it, either as an animator or concept artist for a video game or animated show, an art therapist to where I can help people cope with their issues through the use of art in all of its forms, or even an art or music teacher so maybe I can make the same impact on others my giving the same opportunities to explore many different art forms as I did.

I found your memoir to be extremely strong, in terms of its contents, and strength as a writing piece. Your personality seeps through the wording, as well as it being well written and presented. They way you structured the memoir, having the general topic of art and your experience with it be introduced, and then giving a past, present, and future with art in your life really made this stand out as a strong writing piece. This is such a strong start, especially for a rough draft. The only things I would say in terms of improvement is that you could add what you’ve done to get back into drawing and/or what you are doing to remain into it or to keep up practice, and maybe mention what kind of future you want with art in mind, be it a concept artist, animator, ect. Also, another way to help better this rough draft is to go back and fix some small grammar mistakes, for example, saying “Writing and* drawing” or maybe find another way to elaborate without using the word “drawing” as much to give your wording some more variety. Other than that, it’s a very strong piece, and I can’t wait to see what you make in the future, both of writing and of your artistic career.

Art, in all of its forms, can be viewed as a second language, especially seems how it is a form of expression and/or communication. For me especially this viewpoint on art is extremely prominent, especially with me being more of a reserved, heavy-thinking type. Most of my thoughts and feelings are either portrayed or effected by different kinds of visual art and music that I either produce or view. Art has had an important role on my life, as far back as when I was in kindergarten. I remember there were these sheets of paper that seemed to be straight out of a coloring book that was on a table nearby to the teacher’s desk. I grabbed a piece at random just because it was something to do and everyone else had already been talking or playing with their own friend groups that they’ve made. I had always been the odd one out in my classes, usually quiet and only talk to one or two people. After getting my sheet of paper to color I took a seat at one of the circular desks in the corner, which being occupied by only 2 people at the time, one of them I don’t remember, but the other was William St Pierre. after sitting down I looked around and realized i neglected to grab any markers to color with, luckily William had some at the desk already, and so I asked to borrow some from him, he agreed and slid the box over to me. After I had my “work” and my “tools” I just jumped straight into it. After about 10 minutes or so, I finally completed it, a dinosaur, which i colored orange, in a jungle filled with trees, leaves, and even mountains and clouds in the background. I was super careful when coloring in order to have the colors I chose be in their respective outlines. After finishing I went up to my kindergarten teacher, Ms. Shay, and show her what I had made. Her eyes lit up with pride in my work and said, “This looks really good Braxton, good job. Did anyone help you make this too?” I replied, “I did the coloring all by myself, but Will let me borrow his markers.” From that moment, creating art, mostly from drawings but then music would also be included later down the line, and doing what’s fair had always been an important part of my life, even to this day. I always make it a point to create something out of my talents every day, and to give credit where credit is due, either for my own creations, or with interactions between people, be it friendly or aggressive, I’ve learnt that fair mediation and treatment solves many problems.

Welcome to my Edublogs page for my College Writing course here at Bristol Community College. I’ve decided to customize it in order to put myself out there a little and to spark an interest of me as a person, and for my works that I will create and post on here. I hope to encourage others, like my classmates for example, to express themselves as well with their blogs or with any other works that they create.