To the readers who have enjoyed my museum reviews in the past, thank you! I am happy that there have been so many opportunities through The Justice that have allowed me to talk about art in a way that I usually wouldn’t. However, in my time going to many of these museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I have found a particular trend in the structure and the purpose of the museum that I find interesting. I would like to define my meaning of worship in this paragraph. When I say worship, I am describing the actions of the devout museum goers. When I went to see an exhibition at the Met in December 2023, I saw many people standing and ambulating around the art, but I saw even more with jaws wide, hands over mouths and speechless “ohs” spilling from their mouths. Yes, art is beautiful, important and meaningful and I would probably be very upset in a world without art, but museums inspire us to look up at art, placing it beyond us in a way that is to separate us and the art.

I am not advocating against museums; I am just cautioning the impressionable student who is looking for something better to do on the weekend. Second, everything I say in this article is my opinion. I simply hope to make you think critically and to show a different perspective of the places we all know well. Third, my credentials in this area are very slim — I am an Art History student, but I am in no way an expert on architecture, I mainly just wish to share my thoughts and opinions moving forward.

Museums as a western concept have existed since the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The genesis of the museum in 530 BC was in modern day Iraq under Princess Ennigaldi. To our understanding, this museum held artifacts from previous civilizations in the area including the Mesopotamians. Ennigaldi-Nanna’s museum sets the precedent for our modern notion of a “museum” — a place to house objects of the past,from our culture and others. This system exists now across the world, but how did it develop into enormous buildings with thousands of visitors every day, and why do we flock to them as a bunch of Catholics on a Sunday morning?

Museums have developed over the millennia into multistory buildings with massive acreage. But there are still galleries throughout the world whose buildings are small, and less gaudy. There must be something inherently different about the museum that makes it so revered. I believe there is something to be said about this difference coming from the patronage of the art that has been seen across European history. From marriage portraits, the Medici’s, the Salon, and even horse racing, art had been for a long time serving as property of the upper middle class and upward. There have been some incredible works of art meant for the people in recent centuries, but for the majority of European history, art has been reserved solely for those with the time and capital to enjoy it. 

Some may argue that the museum counters this perspective — that it is offered as the center of learning for the underprivileged — but I would argue against this. The museum as a space may be open to the public, but with member statuses and ticket prices jumping, the gap between the museum and the working class widens. Moreover, the museum is positioned as a space for “cultured” people, rather than a space for education. This all culminates into my personal feeling of “belonging” that can be compared to being at the popular table at lunch.

Many other art-historians have described this feeling as well, but no author writes it better than Carol Duncan. Written in 1995, Duncan’s work “Civilizing Rituals: Inside the Public Art Museum” describes how the museum as a space of ritual and reverence are interconnected with the western concept of a museum. This work describes the differences between the museum and other secular buildings, mainly in architecture and attitude.

Duncan describes the architectural similarities between museums and ancient Greek and Roman temples, citing their formal similarities.

Above is a Doric temple from modern day Sicily, Italy. The friezes and columns reflect how they were in antiquity, yet the infamous British Museum uses the same friezes and columns to reflect the same reverence. Duncan argues that the museum could share this architectural similarity on account of tastes at the time, but it is far more likely that there is a desire to encourage worship in a museum, as there is in a temple. 

Duncan writes how the museum has a “popular crowd.” This is a group of people who perform “the museum ritual,” Duncan’s description of the worship, habit and attitude in a museum. They are the people who have been within the echelons of society for long enough to have the disposition for a museum and perform it dramatically. For all intents and purposes, they are the dudes on dates “mansplaining” art history to their partners whenever you go to the MFA. While it is more serious than that, the point remains clear: The temple-goers perform the ritual of the museum and congregate in groups.

I believe that museums use this relationship with religion in a way that may seem harmless, but in reality it is potentially damaging. The idea that art needs to be revered to be viewed is one that I personally don’t agree with, and it conjures up the idea that the “great” artists had some skill that the average person does not. As a result, I believe that the average person, then, devalues the art they themselves can produce. It is a theme with attitudes towards modern art of, “Oh well, I could do that!” has been said a million times looking at an Ellsworth Kelly. I would like to encourage everyone to look at every piece of art — Giotto, a Rembrandt, a Manet or anything and say, “Oh well, I could do that!” because you can. These artists, while they are culturally important and their work deserves to be appreciated, were people with time. Devote enough time and you could be as skilled as Rembrandt. Anyone can make art; it is not something meant for the high class that belongs in the museum.

I would like to conclude this article by saying I will still go to museums every weekend. I love museums. They are definitely a little cultish, but art is important to appreciate. I will still write about museum exhibitions around Boston in hopes of getting more people to go to them. But I want to encourage everyone to consider their place in the museum, how this institution expects you to feel and if it matters that you don’t sit at the popular table. In my opinion, none of it matters. Keep in mind that art is by the people and for the people and not some deity in front of you.