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Souvenirs and the Museum Store: Icons of Culture and Status to Go [Page 3] All objects selected for display in the museum have biographies, yet those of souvenirs are predetermined (Ibid. 163). These souvenir biographies are exist only insofar as they can be related to objects in the museum. The particular biography [the museum] constructs for these objects as justification for their inclusion in the collection or display results in an abstraction. The ensuing meanings are of necessity partial but, more importantly, they are an essential part of the particular claims for authority and legitimacy on which the museum’s whole status depends. It is after all through the object and the object’s membership of a collection, that the distinct character of the museum is achieved. (Ibid. 164) Like objects, souvenirs “are reinscribed into a personal culture of memory and experience” (Ibid. 165). There are often souvenir objects in museum stores that have nothing to do with any exhibits or display at the given institution. They merely possess some kind of interest in their representation of a culture and potential for revenue. In this, souvenirs and the museum store within and of themselves do retain some kind of value. They do provide capital for the museums, increase awareness of cultural features and the museum itself as an institution. Additionally, souvenirs can serve as a memory to remind one of a culture or an experience. These are merits undoubtedly, but it is important to fully explore the meanings constructed by the objects before taking them as pure and unquestionable truth or simply as entirely innocent goods. The museum store seeks to showcase its contents as well as promote a successful commercial enterprise. These institutions of art, history and culture have no illusions about the importance of profit. With the museum store, each museum must construct its function as a form of advertising and support for featured exhibits. The store does not serve the sole purpose of subverting, subordinating and misrepresenting culture. Indeed, the space is a form of general promotion. The museum store, with its commercial objective, is something that contemporary visitors and shoppers can relate to and be comfortable with, yet at the same time, the store’s relation to the institution elevates the perceived status of the goods it offers. Objects in the museum store are pre-validated as cultured and tasteful unlike those found in the public shopping spaces of department stores and other retail outlets. A Van Gogh Sunflowers mouse pad may be a clear incarnation of kitsch and purchased at Walmart, the object continues to be. Yet the same item, purchased at the Metropolitan Museum of Art bookstore, theoretically hosting the traveling Van Gogh exhibit, retains a sort of value and status not possessed by the same object at the retail outlet. Souvenirs in the museum store seem to personify a quality that Dean MacCannell describes in his book, The Tourist, as a kind of ‘staged authenticity.’ By their position in the museum space, the souvenirs in the store, albeit commercial goods, possess a sense of validation because of their ties to an educational and cultural institution. As Dennis Judd and Susan Fainstein write in their book, The Tourist City, there is something about buying an object at its site of ‘production’ even if it is available elsewhere. This ‘myth of authenticity’ begins to be compromised with new mediums of distribution and technological innovation. The space of the museum store has extended beyond that of a physical and tangible realm. With the Internet, the world’s most pervasive and gratuitous consumer marketplace; the museum store has found itself an electronic home in several incarnations. At the forefront is museumshop.com, ‘the first online museum retail collaborative.’ Over 75 museums proffer their goods on the site, over 3000 products in all. Purchasing from museumshop.com promises ‘the gift of culture.’ The organization of the site reveals much about the assumptions and prejudices concerning the classification, presentation and importance of ‘culture.’ At first glance, the layout appears to be pretty routine. Customers may browse the site by museum or product category but it is in the latter section that problems begin to emerge. Categories segment into ‘Posters and Mugs,’ ‘Gifts Under $50’ and ‘Asian,’ among other things. The taxonomy here raises several questions that I imagine the creators of museumshop.com would be loath to answer. By naming certain categories by some cultures or regions but not others, what is to be thought of those included and those excluded? What is the customer to insinuate about the importance of each? Why are certain products listed before others? How can the categories of ‘Asian’ or ‘African’ and ‘Gifts Under $50’ be placed in relation to each other? In addition to this general site, almost all of the museum web pages have links to their own private online stores. For many, with these online resources, it is no longer necessary to even visit the actual museum. Returning to the physical reality of the museum store but not to the museum itself is the satellite shop. This entity, while physically detached from the institution, represents it by retailing products emblazoned with the museum logo as well as souvenirs representative of the museum’s collections. The MOCA store for example, or at least one branch of it, is located on Main Street in Santa Monica, while MOCA the museum is located in downtown Los Angeles. The Santa Monica store seems to exist independent of the institution it is representing and supporting; one might visit the store without any knowledge of the relationship, especially given the range of non-relevant items for sale in the store.
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