Akash Garg Assignment 1

Assumptions List

The National Museum of Women and the Arts:

-I assumed that most of the workers at the museum would be female.

-I assumed that most of the paintings would be of women.

-I assumed that because it was a museum for women’s art that the color pink would not be there at all.

-I knew that a woman founded the museum, but I assumed that she wouldn’t be very ‘womanly’.

-I assumed that the museum would be bigger and would have more art.

-I assumed that the museum would be a feminist institution

-I assumed that all of the artists would be feminists

-I assumed that only women would be visiting the museum

The National Museum of the American Indian:

-I assumed that the museum wouldn’t be very big.

-I assumed that there would not be a lot of people visiting the museum

-I assumed that the people who worked there would be Native Americans

-I assumed that all of the art would be Native American art

The National Gallery of Art:

-I assumed that there would be tons and tons of artwork in the museum

-I assumed that the museum would be in one building

-I assumed that out of all the museums, this one would have the most visitors

-I assumed that this museum would take the longest to visit

-I assumed that this museum would be the biggest

Hirshhorn:

-I assumed that the artwork in this museum would be more different and abstract than in other museums

-I assumed that the museum would be in a standard museum-type building

“The Trip”

Taking the metro down to D.C. couldn’t have been easier. We took the green line from College Park down to Gallery Plaza and then switched to the red line to get to the Metro Center. From there, we walked up 12^th street and made it to the National Museum of Women in the Arts on New York Avenue. It was surprising to see that the museum wasn’t a lone standing building like most museums are; it was part of the block. Overall, there was a sense of smallness about the museum. After receiving a few brochures from the information desk, my friend and I proceeded to the next floor, the Mezzanine, to begin our journey through the museum. After walking down a short hallway with various paintings on the walls, my friend and I proceeded to the elevators where we then went to the 4^th and 3^rd floors as the 2^nd floor was closed. These two floors contained the permanent collection of the museum. It was on these floors that we noticed that almost all of the museum staff were female. We explored these two floors and examined every piece of artwork we could find.

After the National Museum of Women and the Arts, we walked back down 12^th street to the metro center and took the metro down to L’Enfant Plaza. Upon getting out of the metro station, my friend and I walked up 7^th Street to Independence Avenue where we laid our eyes on the Hirshhorn museum. Both of us were taken aback by its unusual, circular shape. We were also confused as to where the entrance was located, and ended up walking around the entire outside garden and seeing all of the sculptures before finally making it to the front entrance of the museum. We made our way up the escalator to the 3^rd floor where we saw most of the artwork. The second floor was closed due to the fact that the museum was adding a new exhibit. The artwork that we saw was very simple and was made up mostly of various shapes arranged together in different colors. There were also main stretches of hallway filled with photographs.

After Hirshhorn, our plan was to see the National Museum of the American Indian, so we came out of Hirshhorn and walked east on Independence Avenue until we got to 4^th street where the museum was located. This museum was, unlike the National Women’s Museum, a separate building standing alone. It was also extremely big. Outside there were Teepees and other things and when we entered the museum, we were in a vast, great hall at the center of which were long, real Native American boats. This museum had an especially large gift shop, which was on two floors. My friend and I, after looking at the boats, went up to the upper floors where we saw the newest exhibit and other exhibits as well. The newest exhibit was the Identity by Design exhibit which was a showcase of various Native American Women’s dresses. Unfortunately we weren’t able to spend a lot of time at this museum as we had another, larger museum to. We walked around the whole museum rather quickly, but we were fortunate enough to see almost everything, and afterwards made our way to the National Art Gallery.

To get there, all we had to do was go north on 4^th Street. We both got confused because we couldn’t figure out which building was the actual museum. Neither of us had expected that the museum was so big that it was divided into two buildings. When we entered the museum, after walking up the long front staircase, there was a security desk. There hadn’t been a security desk in any other museum that we had visited so it was a bit unusual. The entrance hall was much bigger than any of the other museums. We were not able to see nearly everything in the museum because the amount of artwork housed in this museum was phenomenal; it would take multiple days to see everything. After staying until the museum closed, we made our way back to the metro so we could take the green line back up to College Park and begin writing about our trip into D.C.

“Feminism in These Art Venues”

I believe that feminism is all about making women and men equal to one another. Sometimes feminism is seen as a bad thing because of the anti-male mentality that some feminists have. This anti-male mentality stems from men who are reluctant to view women as equals. One of my friends and I went to Washington D.C. to visit various art venues in order to further understand our own personal assumptions about art and feminism and to explore whether or not these institutions were feminist. We On my visited the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), the Hirshhorn Museum, and the National Art Gallery.

After visiting the NMWA, it was clear to me that this venue was quite feminist. One of the main reasons I thought so was because of the fact that one of the ladies at the information desk rudely asked if my friend and I were a couple. We were outraged that just because we were two guys visiting the NMWA that she thought that we had to be gay. I feel that this helps prove that the NMWA is feminist because it shows the anti-male mentality that some feminists have. The woman clearly felt that there was no way a guy would walk into the museum genuinely interested in women’s art without being different in some way. Another reason why the NMWA is feminist is the various tidbits of information about different feminists and feminist movements. As the museum was an art museum, most of the feminists described were artists and their movements were related to art in some way. For example, the animal painter Rosa Bonheur frequently dressed as a man in order to paint in public areas. Another example is the problems women faced when attempting to study nude figures. The concept of nude figures was very popular in the art form, but women learning about this concept were constantly looked down upon. The fact that the museum so frequently displayed information such as this about various feminists helps convince me that the museum is a feminist institution. It is clearly attempting to gain sympathy for some of the hardships women faced and to show that women can make a difference, which is a very important part of feminism.

Feminism did not find its way into the NMAI. This museum was specifically center upon Native Americans, both male and female. The museum was much larger than I expected it to be and was more full of visitors than I thought it would be. The reason I feel that this museum was not feminist is that it did not specifically focus on women. Yes the new exhibit was called Identity by Design and was all about Native American Women’s dresses, but this was not something that they had all the time; it was a limited time exhibit. The other parts of the museum were split equally between male and female art and artifacts. Therefore, because the museum didn’t specifically support mainly women and did not attempt to make women and men equal, the NMAI is not a feminist art venue.

I had never heard of the Hirshhorn museum, so I did not know what to expect. The shape of the building was a big surprise for me. I had expected the museum to be a typical museum type building but it ended up being completely different. The artwork there was very simple and abstract. The majority of what my friend and I saw was collages of various shapes and colors. I was very surprised that such work made it to a museum and was considered to be art because I felt that I could have made some of the designs myself. The issue of feminism was not present in this museum either because there was no real focus that I could see. Because my friend and I were not able to see the 2^nd floor as it was closed, we were not able to get a broad sense of all of the work in the museum. From what we saw, most of it was of the shape-filled collages. There was no attempt at the advancement of women and no attempt to make men and women more equal. Therefore, this art venue is not a feminist institution.

The last museum we visited was the National Art Gallery. My friend and I both knew that this museum would be huge given its immense reputation. We were not however, expecting it to be split into two very large buildings. The amount of artwork that the National Art Gallery contained was phenomenal; it would take many days to see it all. After walking through the museum until closing time, and examining as much of the art as we could, I came to the conclusion that this art venue is not a feminist institution. Being the National Art Gallery, (a very broad name) means that this museum could not focus on any one specific thing. It contained a very broad collection of artwork and did not focus on any specific group, let alone women. The museum did not attempt to promote women in any way, which therefore means that the venue is not a feminist institution.

Taking this trip to D.C., and visiting all of these art venues, really helped me to see more clearly the assumptions I had about feminism and art. Some of these assumptions turned out to be true while others did not.