Samantha Newton: Two Places Research Exercise

The two places that I chose to research were: Gallery and Museum.  I wanted to try and break down the differences between two places that can seem interchangeable at first glance. I recorded all of my research in my sketchbook, of which I have included photographs here:

I usually begin any kind of research with definitions. There is often more than one way to define a singe word, and I like to browse through them and consider how they relate to each other, and from these many definitions I feel able to create my own, sort of selecting parts of each to create what is the clearest definition in my opinion. In this case I would define gallery as: a building or room in which visual art is displayed and sometimes sold, with the artist paying a portion of the sale to the gallery. 

And museum as: an institution devoted to the procurement, care, study and display of objects with lasting value or significance, interested in the education of the public.

Some key differences being: 

- galleries have the potential to operate like more of a business, displaying art to be sold

- more museums are a non-profit thing, though not always, and are viewed as an educational experience

- galleries display art, and so can museums, but museums can also focus on the collection of other objects 

- presenting a work of art in a gallery validates it to a certain degree, just as the placement of anything in a museum’s collection raise and secure its significance and value

- the interior space of a gallery is typically designed to be neutral, with white walls and even lighting, whereas museums (especially older ones) often present the building in which the museum is located and its history along side the contents of the museum's collection. If you think about historical houses turned into museums they don't strip the interior down to white blank walls like a gallery, the museum's collection of objects is viewed within the context of the building. Or the Louvre Museum; the collection is of art objects but the interior is not set up like that of a gallery. You are reminded that you are inside what was once a palace - you can even go into the basement and lean about the history of the building, viewing part of the original foundation exposed in an archaeological dig