"A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world," Edmond de Goncourt once quipped.
Too bad the 19th century French writer never experienced today's blog culture. If he had, he'd know that what transpires between you and a masterpiece doesn't have to stay at the whisper level anymore. Thanks to the appearance of museum-hosted blogs, many of them featuring visitor comment pages, you can proclaim your opinions, ridiculous and otherwise, to all of cyberspace.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday August 06, 2006 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part E Page 2 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 34 words Type of Material: Correction
Museum blogs: An article about museum blogs last Sunday misspelled as Brian the first name of the Science Museum of Minnesota exhibition developer who manages its Science Buzz blog. His name is Bryan Kennedy.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday August 06, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 0 inches; 34 words Type of Material: Correction
Museum blogs: A Calendar article about museum blogs on July 30 misspelled the first name of the manager of the Science Museum of Minnesota's Science Buzz blog. His name is Bryan Kennedy, not Brian.
As many as 60 museum blogs exist today and the number is growing, says Jim Spadaccini, a consultant at the design firm Ideum, which develops museum exhibitions and websites and from which Spadaccini runs MuseumBlogs.org, a directory of museum-related blogs.
Within this small community, blogging can assume many guises. Some museums have dedicated staff who collectively write the blog entries and review visitor comments. Others entrust their blog to one person -- an artist in residence or a curator -- who uses the site as an official diary or journal.
Whatever form they take, museum blogs provide a space where ideas and opinions can circulate, more or less openly. But for the museums hosting them, that very openness can prove problematic. Unlike personal blogs, where anything goes, museums must weigh institutional objectives, such as promoting new exhibitions, against the populist pressures of the blogosphere -- like being independent and snarky.
"Museums see themselves as experts, and blogs are almost the opposite of that. They're completely informal and unauthoritative," says Spadaccini.
As a result, museum blogs suffer from a kind of split-personality syndrome. Are they civic forums or glorified marketing tools? Should they humanize the museum or enforce an authoritative distance? Perhaps all of the above. For museums, walking the thin blog line often amounts to an improvised balancing act.
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Forums for debate
CONSIDER what happened at the Science Museum of Minnesota when Gunther von Hagens' controversial exhibition "Body Worlds," a display of more than 200 human cadavers and body parts, arrived in May. ("Body Worlds" was at the California Science Center in Exposition Park in 2004-05.) The museum's online staff invited the public to submit comments on its Science Buzz blog (www.smm.org/buzz/blog). With more than 100 posts to date, the open thread has become the longest in the blog's nearly two-year history.
