Undoing Hierarchy
Site: MFA, Boston
Fall 2023 Advanced Studio
Instructor: Stephanie Choi
Partner: Emily Lo
A Universal art museum, originally referred to as encyclopedic, is a museum with collections of art and other cultural items from around the world, not just from the nation where the museum is located. The MFA in Boston is a well-known example of this typology. These types of museums tend to push a narrative of being spaces devoted to serving the public and making art and education accessible to all. However, they end up promoting misguiding stereotypes about different cultures, in the way they organize their collections. Within the existing walls of the MFA, we proposed a designated gallery that would allow visitors to experience the museum's permanent collection in a space that removes the temporal and spatial hierarchy that is present in their existing curation. This will allow visitors to engage in the work in a more thought-provoking way, giving them opportunities to explore a wide range of work without the sense of an overarching hierarchy creating biases towards specific cultures.