Museums!
Before I earned an MA degree in Museum Studies, I would have told you that I love museums because they are are sanctuaries for art and culture. They are the nexus of archaeology, history, visual art, cultural production, education, community, modernity, the past - they are simply wonderful institutions which offer everyone, from children to adults, a place to think and wonder.
Post degree, I say something more along the lines of 'civic value' and 'community forum' and whatnot, for in the non-profit world, even art has to be conscious of it's symbolic economic value. It's been a fascinating journey.
Useful links:
Center for the Future of Museums
Museum 2.0
AAM
The Smithsonian Institution
Museum Education Monitor
The Getty Museum
My 2010 Master's research... focusing on museums, international law, and cultural heritage repatriation.
Museums I Love:
The National Portrait Gallery of London
And the National Portrait Gallery of Washington DC (where I interned!!)
The Louvre.
National Museum of Ireland
Tate Modern!
The Smithsonian's Hirshorn
The US Holocaust Memorial (most moving/important museum I've ever visited)
National Museum of Women in the Arts (yey!)
The Folger Shakespeare Library (kind of a museum...kind of totally rad.)
Library of Congress - yeah, amazing exhibits!!
National Museum of the American Indian
The Phillips Collection
Musee Cluny
Musee d'Orsay
Museo Nacional del Prado
Museo Nacional de Catalunya
Musee des Augustins
And of course, Portland Art Museum... and the Museum of Contemporary Craft.
