Trying to take down the NEA, NEH, and CPB? Seriously bleak. Viva la culture wars.
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| Love. |
Monday, January 24, 2011
LA Times: House Republicans unveil plan to end federal arts and humanities agencies and aid to public broadcasting
House Republicans unveil plan to end federal arts and humanities agencies and aid to public broadcasting
Trying to take down the NEA, NEH, and CPB? Seriously bleak. Viva la culture wars.
Trying to take down the NEA, NEH, and CPB? Seriously bleak. Viva la culture wars.
Mining, and Other Scary Industries: Fun for the Whole Family...?
Fun for the Whole Family: Welcome to the Black Hills Mining Museum, located in the mile-high city of Lead.
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Underground Exhibit
Our newest major exhibit opened in 2002. This re-creation of a big part of a miner's life will leave you smiling — and shaking your head in amazement! [World Mining Museum]
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Welcome!
Join us for an unforgettable experience as we travel underground to explore the world’s oldest continuously operated anthracite coal mine! [No. 9 Coal Mine & Museum]
Do industrial museums have to have something inspiring, uplifting, or "entertaining" for their visitors?
A quick Monday morning Googling of "mining museum" revealed the above phrases from museum websites.
I have this thing where I get really bummed out when I think about coal mining. Maybe it's because I'm so completely removed in every way from the actual experience that it gives me the creeps -- the working conditions, psychological impact, corporate stuff, environmental impact, danger, health hazards, etc. I know that for plenty of people past and present it's just part of life, they deal.
Anyway: fun, exclamation points, unforgettable, amazement. These museums really want you to visit...and due to their subject matter probably aren't on every family's vacation itinerary. But the tone feels off. I'm picking on mines, but can industrial museums of all kinds connect to visitors emotionally without the "fun!!," while leaving them curious, empathetic, and active...rather than super depressed?
Check out the LOC's Lewis Hine Child Labor Committee Collection, subject heading coal miners. I find these to be some of the toughest historical photos ever taken to look at, and look in the eye.
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Friday, January 14, 2011
Art - Memory - Place
We're coming into an era of serious labor history centennials. 2011 is the centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, and the Grey Art Gallery at good old NYU just opened a really thoughtful looking exhibit dealing with the event through a somewhat unconventional mix of perspectives and media.
Art - Memory - Place: Commemorating the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (Great website.)Part I deals with the history of the fire itself, its human impact, and the immediate social aftermath. Part II takes us into mid-20th century reforms in workplace safety as an act of memorialization. (I am excited about the apparent abundance of 1930s mural art here.) Parts III and IV deal with the fire's 50th anniversary, and its enduring legacies in labor activism, memory, and large-scale tragedy today.
Historic photos! Artifacts! Artwork! Activism! Documenting! Interpreting! Memorializing!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Reposted -- "Big Tipper: 1910"
Very cool image from Shorpy today: http://www.shorpy.com/node/9682?size=_original
"Toledo, Ohio, circa 1910. "Brown hoist, Ohio Central coal dock." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company."
"Toledo, Ohio, circa 1910. "Brown hoist, Ohio Central coal dock." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company."
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Devastation from Above
Check it out: striking, gorgeous, horrifying aerial photographs from J. Henry Fair documenting contemporary industrial impact on the landscape. I could see these as a temporary exhibit in just about any good industrial history museum, looking at the ongoing environmental effects of industrialization in a unique way.
Worth looking through the whole set: Devastation from Above
UPDATE: The New York Times has more today. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/arts/design/14earth.html
Worth looking through the whole set: Devastation from Above
UPDATE: The New York Times has more today. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/arts/design/14earth.html
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| Bauxite Waste, J. Henry Fair. |
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
LABOR ARTS
How am I just learning about this website now? From the Rober Wagner Labor Archives at NYU (my own alma mater! Again, how did I not know about this...), and several other partners, LABOR ARTS is:
"a virtual museum; we gather, identify and display images of the cultural artifacts of working people and their organizations. Our mission is to present powerful images that help us understand the past and present lives of working people. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney has urged all international unions to cooperate in locating for display on Labor Arts 'the treasure trove of cultural objects that have moved workers into action from the very inception of our movement.'"
So far -- and have only scratched the surface of this resource -- loving the Scenes of American Labor exhibit:
It's a way cool site with an incredible variety of media. Check it out!
"a virtual museum; we gather, identify and display images of the cultural artifacts of working people and their organizations. Our mission is to present powerful images that help us understand the past and present lives of working people. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney has urged all international unions to cooperate in locating for display on Labor Arts 'the treasure trove of cultural objects that have moved workers into action from the very inception of our movement.'"
So far -- and have only scratched the surface of this resource -- loving the Scenes of American Labor exhibit:
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Taos Diner, Jack R. Smith, 2005 |
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Indians Fishing Cielilo Falls - Columbia River, Millard Sheets, 1950 |
“If they want to strike, they should be fired.”
Call out the Pinkerton guards! The new governor John Kasich of Ohio on public employees, sounding like an incredulous early 20 century steel baron: "If they want to strike, they should be fired,” Mr. Kasich said in a speech. “They’ve got good jobs, they’ve got high pay, they get good benefits, a great retirement. What are they striking for?”
Saw this disheartening (to me) item in the New York Times this morning: Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions. Later found myself talking to a coworker about the difficulties of interpreting the history of organized labor. The incredible decline in union representation over the last half-century and an apparently increasing, politicized (although not historically unprecedented) suspicion of organized labor can make both radical and mainstream labor movements of the past 100 years seem too irrelevant, controversial, anomalous, or difficult to fully integrate into many museums' narratives of American industry.
As the modern structure of work and industry undergoes immense global shifts, maybe the history of organized labor's struggles, values, failures, and achievements is more important than ever. What does the past look like, and why is the present different? A couple organizations that are keeping real conversations alive about the past, present, and future of organized labor in the US:
Tamiment Labor Library at New York University
Labor Heritage Foundation
1912 Lawrence Textile Strike Centennial
Oh, and one more low point from the article -- the new governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker: "We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots."
That's a ridiculously misleading dichotomy. Divide and conquer. The idea that public employees are the "haves" of our corporate society is, in my estimation, ludicrous.
Saw this disheartening (to me) item in the New York Times this morning: Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions. Later found myself talking to a coworker about the difficulties of interpreting the history of organized labor. The incredible decline in union representation over the last half-century and an apparently increasing, politicized (although not historically unprecedented) suspicion of organized labor can make both radical and mainstream labor movements of the past 100 years seem too irrelevant, controversial, anomalous, or difficult to fully integrate into many museums' narratives of American industry.
As the modern structure of work and industry undergoes immense global shifts, maybe the history of organized labor's struggles, values, failures, and achievements is more important than ever. What does the past look like, and why is the present different? A couple organizations that are keeping real conversations alive about the past, present, and future of organized labor in the US:
Tamiment Labor Library at New York University
Labor Heritage Foundation
1912 Lawrence Textile Strike Centennial
Oh, and one more low point from the article -- the new governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker: "We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots."
That's a ridiculously misleading dichotomy. Divide and conquer. The idea that public employees are the "haves" of our corporate society is, in my estimation, ludicrous.
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