The Museum and Representation of the Other     “Exhibitions, and museums have come to be criticized as hegemonic devices of cultural elites or states. They distort and hence mask the oppression of the cultures they supposedly represent; and their ideological messages appear as 'truth' because museums do not or cannot reveal to their publics the actual choices and negotiations through which cultures are (mis)represented in particular objects or displays.” Brian Durrans, Deputy Keeper in the Department of Ethnography of the British Museum This course is an historical and theoretical examination of the museum and gallery spaces as sites where cross-cultural representations of the “Others” are shaped, constructed, negotiated, and/or resisted. It starts with an historical overview of the formation of museums in the West in the late 18th and early 19th century as public educational institutions and the development of ethnographic exhibitions. We will look at the cultural maps that define the boundaries and contact zones between cultures in order to understand how the reception of non-Western cultures is framed by the way that Western museums classify and display the art objects belonging to those cultures. The study will also re-pose the same question in regards to gender identity formation, as well as the complex process of overlapping and conflicting identities as part of the museum experience.This study is designed as an upper division AH-144 non-Western art course. It also takes advantage of Bay Area’s singularly rich museum and gallery exhibition opportunities for research and writing assignments.

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