PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES IN EXHIBITING TRADITIONAL ART: TOTEM POLES OF THE NORTHWEST COAST
PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES IN EXHIBITING TRADITIONAL ART: TOTEM POLES OF THE NORTHWEST COAST
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Issue Date
1981
Authors
Feeley, Jennifer
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Abstract
The aim of this paper is to examine and compare totem pole exhibitions at four museums: 1) the Anthropology Museum of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; 2) 'Ksan, a reconstructed totem pole village near Old Hazelton on the Skeena River; 3) the Provincial Museum, Victoria; and 4) the N.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco. The study is undertaken from the standpoint of museum education. The objective is not to redesign the exhibitions or exchange the objects, but to explore the ways in which these displays endeavor to communicate the various levels of meaning of totem poles to the public. The totem pole exhibitions under discussion in this paper are illustrative of different ways in which interpretive materials can be used, both to enhance objects and to supplement what they do not say on their own.