Museums as Sites for Democratic Engagement

Made a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan today and while there spent extended periods looking at special exhibits about two artists - the 20th century French master Henri Matisse and the 20th century American realist George Bellows. Both exhibits were wonderful and in both occasions there were opportunities to study the working methods of these two highly accomplished artists. Specifics aside, my time there also made me think about the role museums can play in honing its patrons' observational skills and developing their capacities for critical reflection.

Being in an art museum is above all about close and intense looking. It is at the very least taking the time to examine what curators consider to be works of art and making some assessments of one's own about what is appealing or powerful or emotionally moving. Whether one goes alone or with others, the expectation is that visitors are absorbing the works of art they see, thinking about them, perhaps talking about them, in rare cases, sketching or even writing about them. In any case, conclusions are being drawn as to which works were especially interesting and might be worth revisiting in the future. In other words, some process of discrimination is going on between works that might merit a second look and those that elicit little or no reaction. Being conscious of this process of deciding what one likes and what one doesn't and what the basis for these decisions might be is a form of deliberation that has great relevance for democratic engagement.

Art museums are a public setting where likes and dislikes are being constantly weighed. As it happens, so are town meetings and democratic discussions. The comparison is especially apt when visitors to art museums and participants in democratic deliberation get in the habit of considering the pros and cons of a perspective by citing reasons, examples and evidence.  Without practice, we have a tendency to identify our likes or dislikes without offering persuasive support for our point of view. In many cases, this is understandable. For instance, it may be impossible to give reasons for why one prefers a particular color or a favorite food. But when it comes to our experiences, if we dig down deep enough, there are almost always reasons we can offer, stories we can tell, emotions we can recount that provide some basis for our preferences or our decisions. And the better we can get at articulating the basis for our preferences, the more likely we are to make sound, grounded decisions in the future. Which is, after all, one of the foundation stones of democracy. That is, by coming together with others to think through what we believe is best for our communities, we not only make better collective decisions, we also become better at processing with others what we want to advocate for and thus what we really want to see happen in our communities.

In this sense, then, art museums can become a site for practicing democratic deliberations, for working out with others what our commitments are and why. In fact, if I could make one recommendation to any museum that would also help to promote democratic practices, I would suggest an attractive room furnished with comfortable furniture and simple refreshments that is set aside for guided reflections about what patrons have witnessed. Such a room could be administered by trained volunteers who invite visitors to share what they have seen and to encourage them to recapture the experience of viewing an art object and what went through their minds during the viewing. It would be a chance to hear what others have experienced and think and to gain practice in stating one's opinion in an informed and grounded way.