The Gallery of Pre-Columbian Art
In ancient America, a whole world prospered without any interaction from the traditional "birthplace" of civilization. From the highlands of Oaxaca to the Chilean frontier of the Inca empire, numerous cultures would rise and fall, leaving behind traces of their immense cultural legacies to their respective regions. Objects on display at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, AL give a glimpse into ancient America in their Pre-Columbian gallery. With objects such as the urn depicting the Zapotec god Cosijo from Mexico, and a Tumi from the Sícan culture of Lambayeque, Peru you are shown a great diversity in art styles that make up the tapestry of ancient Central and South American cultures. In this paper, the Birmingham Museum of Art's Gallery of Pre-Columbian Art will be examined for theme and understanding, placement and interpretation, and how it fits into the museums overall mission.
Exploring the halls of the museum, you come across a diverse array of objects from all over the world spanning many different times. Each hall has a distinctive theme. When exiting a more modern ceramic display, you are confronted by the stark contrast of tumbaga-based artifacts from Peru. This entrance to the exhibit is unmarked but it is clear that once you enter it, you are in Pre-Columbian gallery (Figure 1). There is no clearly defined label from afar, but one does state the purpose of the exhibit and is located next to the previously mentioned artifacts (See Figure 2). Dr. Emily Hanna, the current curator for the Arts of Africa and the Americas, has written that the purpose of the exhibition is to demonstrate the rich cultural traditions of major cultural groups in the Americas prior to European colonization (Andrews 2010: 63). While walking through the exhibit the theme is clear and well understood, with several artifacts that have been provided with greater context (specifically referring to Quetzalcoatl, Figure 3 & 4). Greater context was given to few key items and are referenced in expanded labels relating the objects involvement in world history.
The gallery of Pre-Columbian art has a somewhat restricted layout. It sits at the end of a hallway with display cases that jut out from the wall, limiting movement throughout the exhibit for groups of 2 or more people. Figures 1 & 2 provides some insight into the layout and expectation of the exhibit. Upon review, it did not seem to follow any kind of order, but rather just different groupings of artifacts based on cultural affiliations, without any regard for geographic placement. It is suggested that museum exhibit layouts contribute to a greater narrative, leading the visitor to engage with displays and ask questions based on the materials provided (Alexander, Alexander & Decker 2017: 262). Within the gallery itself it elaborates on several key artifacts, such as the Quetzalcoatl, which is further described (with a typo) within the context of a story (Figure 4) (Wall text, Pre-Columbian Art). The story does show how the item represents a key point in world history, but it doesn't actually refer to how they would really use this within their own culture. Walhimer recommends that during this process, the exhibit should be chunked out from an overarching script (Walhimer 2015: 65). In the exhibits original inception, it may have fit within a greater narrative, but it its current state it does not. Items are placed along a hallway with no real explanation as to why they are there.
The way artifacts are interpreted really does depend more so on how a museum sees and implements its mission. While historically art museums will exhibit for a wide variety of reasons, the Birmingham Museum of Art chooses to exhibit materials to provide meaning and experience to spark the imagination of their visitors (Birmingham Museum of Art 2018). As we see that the purpose of exhibition is to demonstrate rich native traditions, it does follow common practice of having exhibits that support the overall goals of the museum (Walhimer 2015: 64). If you wanted spark imagination and connect meaning to artifacts in the exhibit, it would seem to require a little more diligence. Meaning can be derived from a variety of ways in museums, but ultimately it can be ensured through proper labelling.
One artifact in particular stood out from many of the others. The exhibit is filled with absolutely beautiful pieces of pottery and tumbaga from cultures found between southern Peru to northern Mexico, but the Chancay mummy mask on display is perhaps the most intriguing (Figure 5). Centered around modern-day Lima, the Chancay were notable for their incredibly rich textile tradition which would inspire later cultures of the same region (Stone 2012: 187-191). With a rich textile tradition, you would assume an art museum would have been more interested in sharing that, not a mummy mask. Simple web searches suggest that there is a connection between these textiles and mummies but there is nothing definite unless the average visitor has access to archaeology and anthropology journals. Museums are becoming more and more responsible for creating knowledge and context related to their collections (Moser 2010: 22). Context provides a much more memorable experience for the visitor and allows for a lot more engagement because if it stands out and has a label, you could assume that the visitor would be curious in reading it.
The exhibit itself is a great assemblage of the museums' offerings; although, the ever-changing systems of exhibition show that there is room for growth within that exhibit. At the Museo Litico Pukara, they sought to better contextualize their pottery collections with collaboration from modern Pucareños (agro-pastoralists who are also potters) in part due to concern about how visitors engaged with and thought critically about the complexity of the regions past and present relationship (Klarich 2014: 121-126). When you engage with the Pre-Columbian materials at the Birmingham Museum of Art, you do not get that greater context, you would rather get an idea of the aesthetic with each period and location represented. Displaying for aesthetic purposes is not uncommon for art museums, although there is a growing movement recognizing exhibits and the displays associated as interpretive documentation showing the history of ideas and significance (Moser 2010: 22). The impact of good context can really change how people view museums. Rather than being a place to see these great odes to our ancient ancestors, they could see how culture and community was crafted throughout time and how that influences us today.
Museum exhibitions are constantly needing to be updated due to the great fluctuations in how to implement best practice. The Pre-Columbian gallery presents truly remarkable pieces from a great variety of cultures, and is a great exhibition for the Birmingham Museum of Art. While there is opportunity to have several improvements to the exhibit, it still does serve the museums mission. Many of the items were very memorable, several of which that will be hard to forget because of their contexts in world history.