文化開創： 從文化價值的觀點談博物館的藝術家駐館計劃

Abstract

The value of culture lies not only in the lineage; more importantly, it also consists in the making of culture, and in its ultimate cohesion and identity. As expected, the aim of cultural policies is to promote institutions and environments of cultural values in the civic society. The role and functions of museums today are being challenged by rapidly transforming societies. While safeguarding traditional cultures, it is also critical that museums reflect upon their "mission" and "value" in response to historic changes over time, and consider the role they may play in the development of cultures, as well as the feedbacks they may give in the context of certain socio-cultural conditions. Grounded in the principle of cultural re-initiation and considering the social demands made of museums of the new era, this paper examines museums’ artist-in-residence programs from the perspectives of cultural values.

In this paper, the aim of museum establishment, its present problems, the intended projects, patterns and outcomes of the museum’s artist-in-residence programs, and finally the significance and value produced in relation to the museum itself, are analyzed with evidence drawn from case studies on the collaboration between museums and contemporary artists at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (USA) and the Ohara Museum of Art (Japan). Faced with the whirling changes of time and demands for operational transformations, these museums forged new partnerships with artists in their idealistic intentions to re-initiate, pass down and identify culture. They also brought in new ideas of operations at organizational level, modified organizational culture, and showed operational efficiency.

Through the artist-in-residence programs, collections are given opportunities of re-interpretation, organizations and display spaces are re-thought and revived, and moreover, integration across fields works up the brand new features for arts and culture. Museum institutions are thereby able to renew their energies and horizons, while the production of new arts creates new cultural capital. Culture gets to be passed down from generation to generation in their re-creation, which reinforces the positive influences exerted by contemporary museums on culture and society. Museums become the activists of cultural re-initiation by playing a more active role in cultural heritage for future societies, constructing institutions of patronage for artistic production and embracing the heterogeneous coalition with contemporary artists.