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Yesterday, my old roomies Ann and Gretchen were visiting, and J. and I took them to the Peabody Essex Museum to see the Chinese house.
If it weren't for the Chinese house, the fact that J. and I, as Salem residents, can get in free, and the related fact that Ann is a member of a professional museum association and, by means of her membership card, could get herself and Gretchen in free, well, we wouldn't have gone; we really don't like encouraging the PEM. It used to be a unique and interesting historical/anthropological museum, but now has become yet another Pretty Things On Pedestals joint -- "world-class," to be sure, and a stand-out in a city otherwise full of cheesy wax museums and haunted houses, but disappointing nonetheless. They have a poster-ad campaign that shows people looking at art while ghostly images of other people in related-to-the-art native costumes rush by; J. says it captures the new PEM perfectly: the cultural context for the objects is quickly fading away.
( Read more... )
If it weren't for the Chinese house, the fact that J. and I, as Salem residents, can get in free, and the related fact that Ann is a member of a professional museum association and, by means of her membership card, could get herself and Gretchen in free, well, we wouldn't have gone; we really don't like encouraging the PEM. It used to be a unique and interesting historical/anthropological museum, but now has become yet another Pretty Things On Pedestals joint -- "world-class," to be sure, and a stand-out in a city otherwise full of cheesy wax museums and haunted houses, but disappointing nonetheless. They have a poster-ad campaign that shows people looking at art while ghostly images of other people in related-to-the-art native costumes rush by; J. says it captures the new PEM perfectly: the cultural context for the objects is quickly fading away.
( Read more... )
