Art or Craft: American Museums and the Shaping of Perception

Art or Craft:
American Museums and the Shaping of Perception

Contents

Introduction 3
Craft in America 6
Jewelry as a Transitional Model 9
Introduction to Case Study 11
The Museum as Ritual 13
Institutional Titles 16
Collection, Exhibition, and Work Titles and Labels 18
Display and Presentation 21
Conclusion 25
Visitor Interviews: Museum of Fine Arts Houston 27
Visitor Interviews: Houston Center for Contemporary Craft 39
Staff Interviews 46 Bibliography 57

Introduction:
Museum professionals and art historians often refer to museums as shapers of perception. This is a rather apt label, assigned for a myriad of reasons. Exploring how museum practices have changed, and how museums construct perceptions that affect individual works of art, genres of art, and the contemporary art world as a whole provides insight into why museums were assigned this label.
Jewelry is a genre of art whose reception and perception by the American public has been changing rapidly. As museums are understood to inform and alter the way viewers perceive objects, a study comparing exhibition practices within a fine arts and a craft museum respectively may contribute to an understanding of how American museums constitute the cultural status of contemporary American jewelry. This study analyzes the development and progression of jewelry from craft to fine art within the American art world, with the intent of examining the role the museum plays in shaping our perception of what is or is not art, and how we interpret and understand art. This study also explores the complexities of the distinction between craft and fine art, analyzing the difficulties and complications faced by many craft artisans as they attempt to be perceived as both artists and producers of craft objects.
In order to determine the role of the museum in representing jewelry as art or craft, a case study

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