Museums are the Absolute Truth!!!

Woman sleeps in a glass box in a modern museum.
Performance exists in museums, too!

I tend to think of museums as nothing more than the absolute truth—neutral representations of what is or what was. This is a common assumption to have; museums are often considered the closest we can get to replicating actual events, so we tend to trust their portrayals. However, I have found that museums relate heavily to performance. In trying to replicate "the absolute truth," museum curators assign greater meaning to certain objects, inserting both their own biases and the biases of the actual museums into the mix. The museum is the stage, the exhibit items are the performers, and the curator is the invaluable director.

One of the best examples of performance at museums is seen at Colonial Williamsburg. This is more of "surface-level" performance, as museum actors quite literally re-enacting the everyday life of colonials. However, the site is not capturing the whole truth. It is performing—choosing which aspects of colonial life hold the most relevance and meaning in a modern setting. Is this wrong? Should small kids (the site's target audience) be exposed to the more gruesome realities—such as slavery and Indian conflict—of the colonial era? This becomes a question not of whether the "absolute truth" is obtainable, but rather if we want to obtain the absolute truth at all.

In more traditional museums, the same dilemma arises. Our English class has been studying the crucial role of the curator as the intermediary between reality and museum visitors. The power of the curator surprised me, as we often think of educating the public as museums' ultimate goal. The optimist in me would like to agree, however the pessimist in me knows that there are countless other factors to consider. Although a majority of museums in the US are non-profit, that doesn't mean that money is not a concern. In order to draw people (a.k.a. money) in, curators must adjust their plans to accommodate the knowledge and interests of the public.

All museums put on some type of performance. Some portrayals are more accurate than others, but effectively showcasing a historical event, culture, or idea in its entirety is nearly impossible by all standards. Performance is inevitable, and it is up to museum curators to balance performance and reality. Like my theatre director Ms. Robinson, they have a great burden to carry. A performance can be misleading, be it on the stage, in a discussion, or in a museum. We must remember that museums are not the absolute truth.