HNUH268V

Despite the great variety of art museums in the world, these institutions share a common goal: to preserve and interpret cultural consciousness through objects or other material facets of human agency. While these collections often feature the cultural heritage(s) of their lands, in many cases, they also hold objects that have been taken away through illegal or morally questionable practices from their original context. Thus, they prompt discussions about who these holdings really belong to, how they should be displayed and interpreted, and whether they should return to their places of origin. This course explores a number of these issues by asking some fundamental questions: why do art museums matter? How have they evolved over time? What can they become in the future? Students will debate these questions to gain a finer understanding of the complex role of these institutions as custodians of cultural heritage.