Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The American Museum


The American Museum
Background
The Simpsons
The Simpsons are one of the best examples of American Culture. The show has been on for over 21 years. It started on the Tracey Ullman show which aired from 1987 until 1990. Marge and Homer have three children, name Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Homer is the bread winner in the family; his occupation is being a safety engineer at the local nuclear power plant, while Marge is the stay at home mother. Bart is the oldest of the children he is 10, Lisa is 8 years old and Maggie is 2.
Walt Disney
He was an innovator that was born to two immigrants in Chicago in 1901.  In 1928 the most infamous cartoon character was released to the public, Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie. Today the Disney corporation is one of the most well known throughout the world. In 1932 the first Disney classic was created, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was the first animated full length movie. It lead to other creations like Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). Walt Disney died in 1966; his last movie that he is acclaimed for creating was The Jungle Book.
To Kill a Mocking Bird
To Kill a Mocking Bird was written by Harper Lee, which discusses the topics of racism among the people in the Alabama in the 1920’s and 1930’s. This story is based on a true event that happened in the author’s life, when she was growing up a group of African American men were accused of raping Caucasian women. The people who lived in her neighborhood knew that the trials were full of prejudice against these men and thought that the women were lying. In 1957 To Kill a Mocking Bird was release and this story and this told through the eyes of a young girl name Scout Finch. She tells the story of how her father, Atticus Finch, defended an innocent man that was accused of rape. Racism was apparent in Alabama at that time in history. Scout’s community knew that, Tom Robinson was innocent and didn’t rape the Mayella, the woman accusing Tom of rape. Since Atticus chooses to stand up for Mr. Robinson and his identity, Atticus’s children were ridiculed.  

 Old Exhibits
The Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom is such an important part of Walt Disney and “American History”. The first idea was to create an experience museum like the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.   Disney has a big impact on American culture. One of the main messages that is convey throughout Disney and America is that “A dream is a wish that comes true”. In the endings of most Disney movies the main characters live “Happily Ever After”. I did not want that to be the main message that was convey in this museum. Instead of making the Magic Kingdom an experience museum, I decided to borrow an idea from Henry Ford and create a museum with that building.  Today in the Museum there is an exhibit on the history of the building and people get to experience it like it was, but with a twist.
Science of the Simpsons
The exhibit shows the audience through the beginning credits how the main character Homer, evolved from a bacteria, and became the human being he is today.   The tourist would go on a visual tour and experience what Homer experienced.  Also within the exhibit there would be a painting of Homer as a non human primate to what he is now, a homo sapiens.  This did not quite fit with what the Museum message was going to convey, so it had to be removed from the plans.
The Arts and Banksy
In the Simpsons, Bart is known for being a graffiti artist. So in the opening credits, they creators of the show pay tribute to the British Artist.  In this exhibit there were going to be pictures/paintings of Bart’s art work and Banksy. The main problem with this was that Banksy was a British artist who is well known and inspired many Americans, but he was not from America. Also there was a huge controversy that went along with the Simpsons and Banksy being in the opening credits. Many people thought that the opening credits were grim. People did not respect the Banksy graffiti over Krusty’s face. They saw it as vandalism. I thought it would have been a great piece in talking about how diverse the US is and how we are influenced by our British friends. The curator of the Museum wanted it pulled; she said it was too controversial.
The Mission
The mission of the American Museum is: to show the aspect of diversity; the importance of it; and how it affects Americans today.
The Present Exhibits.
Disney Princesses
There is an exhibit where all the Disney Princesses are displayed in a case. There is a dolls are in chronological order from when the movie came out, from Snow White to Rapunzel. Under each doll there is an “index card” displaying their name, the movie they were in, the year it came out. Since Snow White is the “first” princess, there are many dolls in the exhibit that portray her throughout the years and only one doll portraying Rapunzel since she is the last princess.

Different Religious beliefs and The Simpsons
There are many religions that are exhibited in this television shown. The Simpsons themselves and most of their fellow community member are of a protestant religion. Lisa Simpson is a member Buddhist Church.  The owner of the convenient store, Kwiki Mart, Apu is Hindu. Krusty the Klown, another important character in the show,  is of the Jewish Faith. This exhibit is shown as a visual tour and people get to experience the different religions that Springfield has to offer.  The visual tour consists of watching the episodes of the Simpsons that talk about these religions. An example is when Lisa decides to become a Buddhist. When watching these episodes of these shows people tend to form stereotypes about people who belong to these different faiths.  There is a sign and a disclaimer in the video saying that watching these episodes may think you to believe that people of these different religions act only one way but in reality that is not true. Then at the bottom of the screens there are index cards explaining the different religions and the rituals and practices. In this exhibit there are people that practice these religions as well to explain what the viewer should have taken away from the television episodes.
There are different paintings from the episodes as well that depict the different religions, like for example from the episode where the Simpsons join a cult and the Episode where Bart and Homer want to become catholic.

American History and the Road to Diversity
Throughout American history we learned about how many different groups of people came to America to be free. Everybody was not free while living in America. There was a lot of discrimination. One of the main messages that should be taken away from this museum is that everybody is equal.  People need to learn from the mistakes, a way in which the American Museum does that is have dioramas from the different Scenes in the inspiring book and movie To Kill a Mocking Bird.
Throughout this exhibit there are scenes portrayed in these dioramas. Towards the end of the exhibit there is a Simpson episode that people can watch called the Color Yellow. In this episode Lisa is has to do a project about her family history, and she discovers that her ancestors were slaves. Here the main message is that more of the population in America is bicultural and that diversity is very important to Americans.
There are many depictions of the Simpsons of throughout this portion as well, the Simpsons being depicted as Indian, African and African American are some examples.


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