The Aristocracy of Culture


The common idea that an art museum is an exclusive and elitist experience is old. In his 1980 article, Pierre Bourdieu describes cultural capital as an acquisition of stock. These cultural ideals, preferences, and standards inform the individual and their social capital. Freeland writes that Americans try to ignore that social class exists (62) compared to Western Europe and many countries that openly acknowledge the disproportion of wealth and the resulting factors of societal needs.

The contemporary context of high society and aristocracy is rooted in Western practices and prevails from historic English and French standards of culture. Instead of being derived from an individual and what they appreciate, Bourdieu argues that taste and art appreciation are determined mainly by their social status and what they are exposed to. The Aristocracy of Culture includes learned behaviors, interests, standards, and etiquette, reinforcing social stratification and the distinction from lower classes.

Western art institutions have always been exclusive. The British Museum and the Ashmolean at the University of Oxford opened in 1683 to house the collection of antiquarian Elias Ashmole.  From its inception, it has served a very narrow society, despite being open to the public and the first of its kind. “The Ashmolean initiated a long tradition of Westerners laying claim to objects from exoticized locales and building impressive galleries for their safekeeping.” Artsy

The Ashmolean at Oxford University, England.

This institution served only white men and didn’t permit women to enroll as full-time students until 1920, nor did it allow black students until 1873.

Museums are the primary contemporary institutions upholding the classical standards of artistic values. (Freeland 69) Every aspect of how they are designed and arranged, from the atmosphere and mood, to which artists are featured, to the collections archived and those on display, matters to a perception of artistic value.

Generally speaking, the typical collector is the typical capitalist, for evidence of good standards in higher culture. (Dewey, 1934) Freeland writes that the earliest North American museums were founded in the 1870s by wealthy individuals in the centers of culture, industry, and government, partly to enlighten working classes and immigrants to their cities. (Freeland 65)

Although it’s hard to escape capitalism and the need for wealth to uphold artistic values in our current society, the contemporary art museum can make ethical collecting practices.

The most Avant-garde museums worldwide are known for pushing boundaries and showcasing innovative art by focusing on temporary art and many forms and genres. The MoMA’s vast collection of late 19th-century art to the present spans everything from architecture, design, drawing, painting, and film to sculpture and helped define the contemporary themes in art we know about today. Along with the exhibitions, the MoMA and similar institutions such as MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul) digitized many collections and maintain an extensive website database. These in-depth online resources limit exclusivity and provide a continuous remote learning opportunity to a broad audience. 
The Broad Museum, Warhol exhibit

The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, is known for its commitment to showcasing the work of African American artists and people of color and includes a broader selection of traditional art forms. Freeland references Arthur Danto’s “Balkanizing the Museum” term when she writes that recent museums made for specific groups can seem partisan and have been called ‘tribal museums.’ However, minority groups argue that they help champion culture as they are needed precisely because mainstream museums do not represent their tastes, values, or collect works by their minority artists. (Freeland 61)

The Studio Museum at Harlem: https://www.studiomuseum.org/history

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