Help for an assignment

[timtim]

Hi everyone, I was hoping those of you with a few spare seconds, or minutes, depending on how fast you type, could help me. For an assignment I have, I need to talk about the difference between an Art Gallery and an Art Museum.

The reason I need your help is I'm doing kinda like a survey, on what people think is the difference between an art gallery and an art museum...

So if anyone wants to share their opinion, that would be great!

[Gutter Monkey]

Gallery = live artists, museum = dead artists.

[hails]

museums make me think of 'different' art - sculpture, jewellery, furniture, gardens, installations, film, stuff like that. more tangible types of art i guess.

galleries just make me think of paintings. which are cool, coz i love paintings. but installations are awesome. but then again, the only installations i've seen have been at galleries, so...i don't know

if you get a proper answer, can you post it? i'm curious!

[op shop girl]

hmm... I quite like GM's response, but in addition:

'Gallery' implies things are being sold, so the artwork is presented for commercial/financial reasons. 'Museum' implies that the artwork is being presented for its cultural significance.

[timtim]

these are great guys! thanks heaps... and hails, im slowly coming to an 'actual' answer! it sounds like a pretty easy thing to answer, but then its not really when you think about it!

[Mythor]

I think much as hails does. Museum seems more suggestive of artworks other than just canvas paintings. Also, a museum in general often indicates historical archive, as in dinosaurs and such, so in the art context it makes me think more of artworks that were created more than a couple of decades ago. A place where "Blue Poles" wouldn't be given wallspace for being too new.

Galleries are much more canvas on the wall kind of affairs, to me. Can still have some of the "museum" about it, if the gallery features mostly older artworks, but it's much more likely to host a range of work, perhaps seperated into themed rooms, etc.

I wouldn't really pay a lot of attention to what the place was called, more to the style of work contained within. "The National Gallery of Australia" I'd think of as more of a Museum than a Gallery. And even then, they do have a very wide variety of styles on show at any one time...

[Gutter Monkey]

I'd consider the Louvre to definitely be an art museum - they don't display works by living artists. (As far as I know.)

[timtim]

yeah GM, it is a museum, the cutoff date for aquistions is 1848, so i dont think any of the artists would still be alive!

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by Mythor

I think much as hails does...

*Is amused by taking that quote out of context*

According to the New Shorter Oxford, a gallery is:

Originally Posted by The New Shorter Oxford

a room or building devoted to the exhibition (and sale) of paintings, sculptures, etc.

While a museum is defined as:

Originally Posted by The New Shorter Oxford

a building or portion of a building used for the storage, preservation and exhibition of objects considered to be of lasting value or interest, as objects illustrative of antiquities, natural history, fine and industrial art, etc.

So there you have it. Museum - like a library but minus the heavy emphasis on books. Gallery - like a bookshop, minus the heavy emphasis on books.