Looking at Art, Regarding History: Gallery Teaching in a Gilded Age Mansion

Abstract

ABSTRACT As museums strive to become more welcoming and accessible, house museums occupy complex positions. The Frick Collection’s scale is more intimate than that of many art museums; the general stability of the installation renders the collection more familiar, and the taste on display is personal and idiosyncratic rather than authoritative. As educators, we seek to extend this welcome to the broadest possible audience, while also acknowledging that our site was built for the lives and leisure of a very few, very wealthy individuals. This article explores what prompted us to deepen our understanding of the circumstances, motivations, and cultural values from which the Frick emerged, and how this engagement has informed our teaching practice. We believe that by honoring visitors’ curiosities about how our institutions came to be, what constitutes their collections and why, museum educators make possible rich and complex interpretations of both artworks and the museum itself.