Sometimes we'd rather be drinking . . .

I spent the holiday season this year in London (England, not Ontario) and visited a few of my favourite museums. To be honest, however, I spent far more time hanging out with my friends and telling myself I should be visiting museums than actually visiting them. But on the occasions that I did actually make it to one of these hallowed halls of learning and culture, I couldn’t stop thinking about Tony Bennett’s "History and Theory" (in The Birth of Museums: History, Theory and Politics) which we read in our public history class last semester. In his historic discussion of museums, fairs and exhibitions, he argues that they “regulate the performative aspects of their visitors’ conduct” and are “instruments capable of lifting the cultural level of the population.” [1]

London is full of world-class museums, but also of other tourist attractions like the London Eye and Madame Toussaud’s that exist purely to entertain (or, as the more cynical might say, to make money). In the past decade, most of London’s best museums have waived their entry fees and so, in theory at least, welcome every segment of the population. But the brutal truth is that most people who live in London will never make it to the V & A or the National Gallery. I know – I worked in Hackney, one of the roughest areas in the city, for a year and met many people who barely knew these places existed, let alone had the remotest interest in visiting them.

The tone in these museums is very definitely one of high-brow elitism. The guided tours are led by genteel retired women who, if they don’t exactly take on an attitude of superiority, assume a considerable general knowledge base that is probably beyond the scope of many of their visitors. Said visitors walk around slowly with their hands clasped behind their back, high heels echoing through the marble halls. Maybe Bennett is on to something – our behaviour is regulated once we enter a museum. This is not the real world.

And many of us are guilty of a certain sense of superiority when we visit one of these institutions. There is a sense that is it is a far better use of our time than shopping or gossiping with friends at lunch. There is a sense that we are better people for exposing ourselves to “high culture”, whatever that is. I’m guilty of it myself. Several times during my trip as I lay on the couch watching tv or sat in the pub with a pint I felt a certain stab of guilt that I wasn’t out lapping up all the best that London had to offer. But in the end, I enjoyed my trip just fine. And I spent a total of about three hours in museums, most of it in gift shops.

Do museums really lift the cultural level of the population? Sometimes they most definitely do. During the year I spent in London, I honestly did visit museums quite often, sometimes returning again and again, and some exhibits I saw introduced me to new information and schools of thought that have remained with me to this day.

But let’s stop faking it. Sometimes museums are great. And sometimes there’s nothing wrong with just going down the pub instead.

[1] Tony Bennett, “History and Theory,” The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, and Politics
(London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 6-7

Image of Henry VIII courtesy of http://www.npg.org.uk/live/index.asp

Image of the Tate Modern courtesy of me