Lesson - Why You Need To Visit An Art Museum
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Marina SenaLesson - Why You Need To Visit An Art Museum
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Marina SenaStudent:_______________________________
Teacher Marina Sena
Why you need to visit an art museum
1. Choose the correct op+on:
1. What is the current state of art museums in big ci+es?
x They are not doing as much for us as they might
a)
b) They are constantly popping up
c) They are doing a great job
d) They are struggling to a?ract visitors
2. What is the problem with the Art Museum?
a) It is too expensive
b) It is too crowded
x It has an ins+tu+onal inability to define what art is for
c)
d) It is too focused on contemporary art
3. What is the suggested purpose of art?
a) To entertain us
x To inspire and console us
b)
c) To make us feel foolish
d) To challenge our poli+cal beliefs
4. What are some of the challenges that art helps us cope with?
a) Our inability to focus on what's beau+ful and precious in life
b) Our tendency to caricature others and forget about their sufferings
c) Our frustrated longings to create be?er socie+es
d)
x All of the above
5. What is the healing func+on of art?
a) It opens our eyes
b) It returns us to a sense of crea+vity
c) It connects us with strangers
d)
x All of the above
6. What is the proposed defini+on of an art museum?
a)
x An ins+tu+on that displays and arranges art in ways that can heal its audiences
b) A place to store art history
c) A cavern that stays in+mida+ngly silent as to its real purpose
d) A place to display contemporary art
7. How should art museums be laid out according to the proposed defini+on?
a) Chronologically
x According to the dis+nc+ve troubles of the soul
b)
c) By ar+st
d) By medium
8. What is the main idea of the video content?
a) Art museums are not doing enough for us
b) The purpose of art is therapeu+c
c) Art museums should be redefined as drug stores
x All of the above
d)
2. Mark true or false:
1. Museums are doing a great job in modern society. ( F )
2. People visit museums because they genuinely enjoy it. ( F )
3. Recent art on display is easy to understand. ( F )
4. The purpose of art is to entertain people. ( F )
5. Art has no therapeu+c func+on. ( F )
6. Art museums are laid out chronologically. ( T )
7. Museums should be arranged according to the dis+nc+ve troubles of the soul they can help
us with. ( T )
8. There should be a museum for every emo+on. ( T )
9. Art museums are like cathedrals. ( T )
10. Art museums are cura+ng art in ways that link them powerfully to our inner needs. ( F )
3. Discussion:
1. What is your favorite form of art and why?
2. How do you think art can help us live be?er lives?
3. Do you believe that art has a healing func+on? Why or why not?
4. Have you ever visited an art museum before? If so, which one(s)?
5. In what ways do you think art can connect people who are strangers to each other?
6. Can you name any ar+sts whose work you admire?
7. How do you feel when you look at a piece of art that resonates with you?
8. Do you think it's important for society to support the arts? Why or why not?
9. How do you think art can challenge poli+cal complacency?
10. What do you think makes a good art museum?
Transcript
Things seem to be going really well with the ins+tu+on of the art museum. All the big ci+es
have one, new ones are popping up constantly, and the lines to get into blockbuster shows
can snake around the block. But despite the buzz, museums are arguably not doing as much
for us as they might. Their whole purpose and func+on in modern society has been le\ oddly
rather unexplored. Many of us show up at these museums more out of guilt than genuine
pleasure. The pres+ge of art, as opposed to any spontaneous enthusiasm, is what seems to
keep a sizable share of people coming through the doors. And a lot of the more recent art on
display can be deeply puzzling to behold, even if we don't generally reveal our confusion for
fear of seeming foolish. At the heart of the problem of the art museum is an ins+tu+onal
inability to define in simple terms what art might actually be for, and quite why it should
ma?er so much. We may be hear+ly convinced of art's importance, but we have a devilishly
hard +me pinning the significance down. Here is a sugges+on. The purpose of art is
therapeu+c. Art is there to lend inspira+on and consola+on in rela+on to a number of the
challenges of being human. Art helps us to cope with, among other things, our inability to
focus on what's beau+ful and precious in life, our tendency to caricature others and forget
about their sufferings, our inclina+on to lose hold of our inherent crea+vity and playfulness,
our frustrated longings to create be?er socie+es, and our need for s+llness, perspec+ve, and
solemnity in an angry, chao+c world. Even though it may be fashionable to say otherwise, art
is definitely not there just for art's sake. It is a tool to help us to live and die well. It opens our
eyes. It returns us to a sense of crea+vity. It connects us with strangers. It shakes us from
poli+cal complacency. It s+lls our agitated hearts. Art has a healing func+on. This gives us all
we need to define what an art museum should be, an ins+tu+on that displays and arranges
art in ways that can best heal its audiences. Such a stark and deliberately vulgar defini+on has
revolu+onary implica+ons. Currently, most art museums are laid out chronologically, as if the
most important thing about works of art was when they were made. But with a be?er focus
on the func+on of art, works could now be rearranged according to the dis+nc+ve troubles of
the soul they can help us with. There could be a gallery devoted to addressing the agonies of
love, another focused on helping us cope with anxiety, a third devoted to issues of envy, a
fourth to aging, and so on. En+re museums might bite off one part of a therapeu+c emo+onal
curriculum. There might be a museum for calm that would collect a range of works that help
to usher in this prized mood from across all centuries in media. There could be a museum for
crea+vity, a museum for friendship, and so on. Some might be very big, others quite small.
They might exist online or in a narrow space between a pub and a kebab shop. You o\en hear
it said that museums of art are our new cathedrals. In other words, that art can heal us as
religions once did. It's an intriguing and vital idea, but one which art museums sadly haven't
actually taken up. Because while they expose us to objects of genuine importance, they seem
unable to curate them in ways that link them powerfully to our inner needs. Our new
cathedrals are underperforming. We should give up on the idea of the art museum as some
kind of dead storage space for the history of the subject, or a whitewashed cavern that stays
in+mida+ngly silent as to its real purpose. The art museum deserves to be reborn as a kind of
superior chemist or drugstore that vividly signposts art and culture and uses it to bring
inspira+on, solace and meaning to our confused, anxious and troubled socie+es.
