Museums

Every once in a while (well maybe too often) I get a random thought such as ” what about museums?” What are they? Why do they exist? Why do I like them? And of particular interest to me, “why art museums?”

The easiest answer is to “why do I like them.” The huge and grand like the Metropolitan, Louvre, or Natural History are simply playgrounds for mind and body, with trickles to the soul. The little and strange are windows into universes of the way other people think. All of them help me place myself in society in a new and hopefully better way. 

Why they exist – well I hate to admit it – but I think an awful lot is pure vanity and exhibitionism. The wealthy get to show off their power and taste to a gigantic and envious audience. The curators get to display special knowledge and justify their own narrative. I do not say those motivations cannot be noble and even heroic _ being noble and heroic is also a kind of vanity, isn’t it? 

I’m happy to have access to museums. I wonder how long they can continue in an age of virtual satisfactions. Like public libraries they may have already had their moment in time. Like public bathhouses, they may fade into total irrelevance in our wonderful new age. 

Random thoughts, random reasoning, but fun to exercise the imagination once in a while.