Quality: D.C.'s Museum of the Bible and Aesthetic Evaluation (original) (raw)

Jewish children's museum: a virtual roundtable on material religion

Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, 2007

Tarter is Aj.fisi 'if .•\fitfi.T-.fv';[> ^.' in 'n BicoWyri, Ntr// VorK. n, CofinecllciK iritwGiH .iscjt ot Scxiiology al Qtioens iiJntvtirsitvof t^iw'tbrt*.-L:ijra KtrehenWati-CilrTitiletl s UiilvGraily Professor and Prafesseif of ParioirnaoKe SiinAss at (he Ttach Schooi cl Ihu Arts. '^<)v:^!''iMvi) is a 'MTIW ariO constiitant, aixl has lussum fifi>graf(is iw •Arilien last lor •^w&ily&!(iHt3«ta<vs l-te is the author ol '<^ boote, I '••«>'Isoturw oo wittixi li' :!'JfiwnshG^il•• •• He : '.-rate The Jewish Children's Museum in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, which opened in December 2004, is a project of the Lubavitcher Hasidic community. In the process of adapting museological techniques-cutting-edge multimedia, environmental installation, gigantic rituai objects, hands-on and interactive activities-to the materializing of religion, the museum has developed a distinctive museology. The nature of that museology-precisely how it materializes religion and addresses the dilemmas that arise in the slippage between showing, demonstrating, and doing-is the subject of this roundtabte.

Experiential design and religious publicity at D.C.'s Museum of the Bible

The Senses and Society, 2020

This article examines the sensory dimension of religious publicity, focused on the case of an evangelical museum in the United States. Washington D.C.’s Museum of the Bible (MOTB) was envisioned and funded primarily by conservative Protestants, and is a revealing case of religion in public life because most of the creative labor of design was conceived and executed by secular firms who do not typically work for faith-based clients. The professional expertise of these firms, “experiential design,” informs a sea change in contemporary museology and the expansion of the experience economy in late modernity. Ultimately, I argue that MOTB’s engagement with experiential design indexes the power of entertainment in late modern life, as the sensory repertoire at play operates with largely unquestioned legitimacy and presumed efficacy. By mobilizing the cultural capital of design, an evangelical museum makes a claim for diverse audiences in a deeply public setting.

Whose Museum Is It? Jewish Museums and Indigenous Theory

Whose Museum Is It? Jewish Museums and Indigenous Theory, 2021

Abstract: Are museums places about a community or for the community? This article addresses this question by bringing into conversation Jewish museums and Indigenous museum theory, with special attention paid to two major institutions: the Jewish Museum Berlin and the National Museum of the American Indian. The JMB’s exhibitions and the controversies surrounding them, I contend, allow us to see the limits of rhetorical sovereignty, namely the ability and right of a community to determine the narrative. The comparison between indigenous and Jewish museal practices is grounded in the idea of multidirectional memory. Stories of origins in museums, foundational to a community’s self-understanding, are analyzed as expressions of rhetorical sovereignty. The last section expands the discussion to the public sphere by looking at the debates that led to the resignation of Peter Schäfer, the JMB’s former director, following a series of events that were construed as anti-Israeli and hence, so was the argument, anti-Jewish. These claims are based on two narrow conceptions: First, that of the source community that makes a claim for the museum. Second, on the equation of Jewishness with a pro-Israeli stance. Taken together, the presentation of origins and the public debate show the limits of rhetorical sovereignty by exposing the contested dynamics of community claims. Ultimately, I suggest, museums should be seen not only as a site for contestation about communal voice, but as a space for constituting the community. Key words: exhibitions, genocide, Holocaust, Indigenous, Jewish, memory, museums, origins, rhetorical sovereignty, source community

Curating Conflict: Four Exhibitions on Jerusalem

2020

Th is article compares four Jerusalem exhibits in diff erent geographical and political contexts: at the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Jewish Museum Berlin. It examines the role of heritage narrative, focusing specifi cally on the question of the Israeli-Palestinian confl ict, which is either openly engaged or alternatively avoided. In this regard, we specifi cally highlight the asymmetric power dynamics as a result of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem, and how this political reality is addressed or avoided in the respective exhibits. Finally, we explore the agency of curators in shaping knowledge and perspective and study the role of the visitors community. We argue that the diff erences in approaches to exhibiting the city's cultural heritage reveals how museums are central sites for the politics of the human gaze, where signifi cant decisions are made regarding inclusion and exclusion of confl ict.

Understanding Religious Conflicts through Framing: The Mormon Site in Jerusalem as a Case-study,

The paper's aims are twofold: first to present framing methodology as an approach which provides insights into conflicts stemming from the construction of new religious sites. Second, to analyse the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center, using framing in order to understand the spatial-religious conflicts involved in its establishment. The findings fall within three frame categories ('super-frames') identified in the research: 'process', 'values', and 'issues'. The findings reveal that the discord surrounding the BYU Center had to do primarily with process and the values, and not around the issues themselves. The methodology provides a typology for understanding and analysing the different stories told by stakeholders involved in spatial-religious conflicts where the decision adopted might be perceived as endangering identity and 'sense of place'. The typology may be helpful in the analysis of similar disputes elsewhere, and shed light on ways to reframe conflicts over sacred place

"Narrating Religion through Museums"

In Narrating Religion, ed. Sarah Iles Johnston, MacMillan Interdisciplinary Handbook, pp. 333-352. Museums narrate religion through objects, words, and space. Using many examples from a wide range of museums from North America and Europe, I discuss how museums are sites for both the curation and the contestation of what makes an object religious or spiritual. Focused on questions such as how museums engage with audiences that continue to venerate objects in their collections and respond to repatriation claims from nations and peoples who demand the return of their objects, the essay also considers museums founded explicitly by religious groups who seek to narrate religion on their own terms.