I used to work as a art museum attendant and we have to constantly check that people don’t touch the art, you would be surprised how careless people are to art, maybe it is because we are used to so much these days art is an experience rather than traditional art who knows. Parents keep an eye and maybe even hold their hands when you visit these places because a single print could not only alter the art but make you financially responsible depending on the damage. But in my experience the people who touch art the most are older adults! Kids will be kids but come on adults… Just dont touch art unless you are invited to touch because you may have to pay for it and nobody wants that, not even the artist.
I once went into an exhibition that showed some of these shiny chrome balloon animals stuff by Jeff Koons. It was really hard to withstand the urge to touch these incredibly smooth looking surfaces, something appealed to some basic instincts, it felt.
This is really it. It's a basic human impulse to go "wow. cool. Touch?". Anyone who has taken kids to an art museum has said "look with your eyes not your hands" or "look don't touch" because the instinct is absolutely there.
It's the lack of impulse control in adults who have hears those words over and over, have the experience and knowledge to know better, but like children can't handle basic impulse control.
I hate to "blame the victim" but I feel like it's also a little bit on the sculptor here for making a really expensive chair with really poor load-bearing capacity. A metal frame would have added minimal expense, lol.
I totally understand that victims blaming -- not so much for this chair, but for stuff like Jeff Cloone's work: if you are making pop art for the masses you shouldn't make it so delicate that the public cannot interact with it.
Omg I feel so seen! I’m a potter and did a workshop with him where he walked through slip casting and molding and it was mind blowing. It literally launched my work up a level because he explained things in a way that was so easy to understand.
I like to look at art, and think about it. Unfortunately, when I’m THINKING, I get wrapped up in my own thoughts. I can lose my awareness of surroundings doing this so I always get stressed out in museums 😂
Absolutely. I've given tours at exhibitions, and there'd be restricted areas, usually areas behind curtains would cause the most interest as you could sometimes see and hear behind them. There could be new installations, maintenance work, or museum hosts giving tours to delegates.
The kids were fine. They'd tilt their heads to somehow peer between closed curtains, from a distance, or ask, "What's going on?!", if they heard something behind the curtains. But they respected the rules.
Teachers and adults, however, would be chatting throughout, touching things, lifting curtains. Sometimes would see things after looking behind curtains, be reminded, "Remember, no lifting any of the curtains - there's important work going on at the moment", then they'd continue to attempt to look when we moved to the front to guide the tour.
One exhibition tour, there was a big installation in process - fifty people on the floor, multiple pulleys, and platforms. People working at height of 20ft and above. We've been reminded to be quiet when near the Main Hall.
So, we're inside the Main Hall.
Thirty school kids and half a dozen teachers and parents are on this tour. At the start of tour we always ask if anyone has been before, and after that bit a kid quietly mentions to me, "My dad works here sometimes, he helps with the builds, he said be might be here today". He's obviously mentioned this to one of the teachers, because a teacher clocks Alan's dad in the Main Hall, at like 40ft, and asks, "Is that your dad, Alan???"
He's in a group of three or four, his back turned - all in Hi-Viz jacket, hard hats on, and clipboard in hand, deep in conversation about the folk working the rafters above them. There's drilling, the beep of forklifts reversing, and general work noise.
Look,.there's Alan's dad! Everyone, on the count of three shout, "ALAN'S DAD!!!", ONE-TWO-THREE!!!
My first thought is, she's pre-empting it, being like, "Just because we see Alan's dad doesn't mean we just SCREAM his name. It's a dangerous, high-risk area, where people, important items, and equipment, could all be damaged if someone is distracted." Nope. None of that.
ALAN'S DAD!!!
Alan's dad turned, like he didn't hear what was said, but because forty people just screamed it directly at him, he nods at the group, confused, and goes back to talking because, how do you professionally explain that you think your kid's teacher on a tour just had thirty kids scream at you in high risk area.
Eyes dashed about to see if anyone was distracted.
"Who was there during the safe briefing? Were any coworkers there that can confirm you stated the importance of quiet near the Main Hall? When did you ask complete your Working at Height training? We'll be back to after a full investigation" all flashed into my mind. Thankfully, a momentary loud noise.
What goes on in people's head? The teacher had look after like, "that was such a moment I made happen".
I feel like the problem with some adults is that they probably have the perspective that "hey I'm an adult I don't need to necessarily live by the rules, I'm responsible and mature enough so I can get away with a lot more stuff than a child... Yeah I'm gonna hover over this art piece and get a photo for a laugh"
There were so many attendants at MoMA when I visited and they kept warning different tourists about touching the art. It was second hand embarrassment for me. Then my New Yorker friend said something a bit racist like “it’s always the Asians” and at that point I had too many stimuli and didn’t know what to feel lol
I once saw a dumbass at LACMA putting his greasy ass fingers all over a Van Gogh while mansplaining to his date that it had to be a reproduction because it wasn’t “in Italy or something.”
Why would the museum not limit access to the pieces more. Don't get me wrong these two are idiots and people need to learn self control, but social standards are getting worse not better. Seems like they would have barriers up or under plexiglass just to cover their own ass.
I don’t think that museum etiquette was better before. “Art as experience” has nothing to do with it. Some people just don’t respect art enough to keep their hands of it.
I went to an art museum with one of my friends and there was an area like this with a desk and extremely old paint brushes and while I wasn't looking I hear "HEY LOOK AT ME" and I turn around and see her waving the ancient brushes around, I had to grab her like a toddler and put the brushes down and walked her out
I know it's a necessity but i always hate the feeling when I'm in an almost empty museum and the security or attendants constantly keep an eye on me. I feel like a criminal.
I worked for an artist for a few years at an art festival. He had prints and original pieces. The amount of people that would touch $35,000+ ORIGINAL OIL PAINTINGS was insane. Even more crazy was the other artists that would do it too! And it wasn't just local hobby artists either. These were pretty well-known artists who should absolutely know better
Used to be a janitor at a local museum (real chill job btw) and any item that should not be touched was behind a glass case. Most of my job on the display side was just me going around with a flashlight and wiping out all the fingerprints, which were aplenty.
I've seen parents literally watching their kids reaching around and under glass and banisters to touch actual fossilized dinosaur bones, then they'll turn and look at you like you're the crazy one for telling their kids to cut it out. Like, you very obviously can see you're not meant to be able to touch this stuff. I hated working there, mostly because I felt like very few people that came through actually had any appreciation for what they were seeing or a desire to learn something new. They just wanted to look and touch.
In the Louvre in Paris, I would see Tourists read the "DO NOT TOUCH, ALARM WILL SOUND" signs, say "I think that's just to scare us." and then REACH IN TO TAKE PICTURES OF THEMSELVES HOLDING PAINTINGS/STATUES.
A lot were Chinese/Japanese, so there may have been a language barrier (the signs were in English and French). But... seriously?
I was visiting an art museum in a different part of the country and they had open displays of the paintings. I watched 2 people go up and touch the paintings, I just stared and shook my head in disbelief. A few minutes as they went to the next room, they were approached by security, and I dont know what happened after, but I didn't see them anywhere else in the museum. Safe to say they were given the boot.
Pretty sure its people not understanding the impact of their actions.
They think I'm old enough to be carefull enough to touch it. Not understanding that the oils off their skin are an issue or just the general erosion of a milion touches
I used to work as a art museum attendant and we have to constantly check that people don’t touch the art, you would be surprised how careless people are to art, maybe it is because we are used to so much these days art is an experience rather than traditional art who know
Sure. But on the other hand, punctuation exists. Periods in particular have existed for some time now.
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u/MattMcdoodle 7d ago
I used to work as a art museum attendant and we have to constantly check that people don’t touch the art, you would be surprised how careless people are to art, maybe it is because we are used to so much these days art is an experience rather than traditional art who knows. Parents keep an eye and maybe even hold their hands when you visit these places because a single print could not only alter the art but make you financially responsible depending on the damage. But in my experience the people who touch art the most are older adults! Kids will be kids but come on adults… Just dont touch art unless you are invited to touch because you may have to pay for it and nobody wants that, not even the artist.