Categorizing at the Museum

Marabou wonders, can hierarchies of value be challenged or completely shattered if museums reconsider their methods of categorization? Why not tell the story of Africa, the entire continent, in one hall? Why not include all American objects in “The American Wing”?

How might we think differently about history when all the objects of a geographic location are together? When these objects share space, how might the narrative they create challenge the stories that are currently perpetuated?

met museum_categorizing_curatorial choices
Marabou looking at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first floor & mezzanine map and thinking about the physical and curatorial distances among objects that come from the same geographical areas.

Categorizing at the Museum

Space and Seating at the Museum

Marabou wonders, why don’t more museums offer ample seating and navigable spaces? Is it because of aesthetics (that benches and chairs don’t look nice), curatorial value choices that determine which objects should have more time focused on them, or an institutional oversight?

Hall of Oceania, Africa, Americas Slit Gong Bench
Admiring the Slit Gongs (1975.93) from Vanuatu, Ambrym Island, made by Tin Mweleun in the 1960s. Hall of Africa, Oceania, and The Americas at The Met, New York.

Space and Seating at the Museum