The Contextual Approach in Museums

When I think about the contextual approach to understanding that developed in museums, a few things come to mind. In my opinion, I think what is meant by a contextual approach is to view a single object in a museum as a single part of a much larger picture and to try and understand how that single object fits into the bigger picture and the role it plays in that picture. I also think that what is meant by the contextual approach, specifically in museums is that when you are viewing an object you try and view it as it was viewed during the time period that it came from. By viewing an object like this it is easier for the viewer to see how the perception of the importance of the object and what part of the bigger picture the object played. In addition to this, I also think that the contextual approach means grouping objects together based on the broader activity they were used for the environment they were used in, rather than just grouping objects that are the same type as other objects together. An example of the contextual approach that I have personally experience was at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. I viewed an exhibit that was about Native Americans who were taken off their land and forced to go to American boarding schools so they would become more Americanized. In the display were pictures of Native American’s in dormitories dressed in slacks and sweaters, there was a band uniform from one of the schools. In addition to this, there was a pennant from the school along with textbooks for various classes such as English, math and history. All of these objects would seem somewhat different form each other if I were to have viewed them individually but because they were grouped together, the display allowed me to see the bigger picture of what life at these boarding schools for various Native Americans was like.

I think the contextual approach differs from other approaches because it has the viewer look at a grouping of objects that are different form each other but yet they are all related to each other because they were all part of the same big picture. For example, a butter churn and a quilt don’t seem to be very similar. However if you view these objects from a contextual approach you can see that the objects relate to each other because they were used everyday in the frontier days to name a specific time period. I also think that the contextual approach is different from other approaches because it combines the small specific details such as what the object is with the bigger picture ideas such as when was the object used, what other objects were used along with it, and what is the common tasks that relates the two objects.

In my opinion, I think the contextual approach is likely to found at museums today, especially natural history museums, history museums and anthropological type museums. This is mainly because the contextual approach works the best in these types of museums. I think we see some contextual approach in art museum displays but not nearly to the extent that you see it used in natural history, history or anthropological museums. I also think that the contextual approach is very likely to be successful in museums because it helps people see the broad picture of how the objects relate to each other. The contextual approach in display design also provides the viewer with a snap shot of sorts, showing them various items that at first glance may not seem to be related to each other but when you look more closely at the context in which they were used you can see how the objects relate to each other. In addition to this I think the contextual approach will be successful in museums today because people generally want to see the whole picture, such as what all was involved in a certain activity such as daily life on the frontier or how people did certain activities such as mining for gold during the gold rush.