WHY are you here?
Why ARE you here?
Why are YOU here?
Why are you HERE?
The House Museum wants to know.
The House Museum (THM) is a multi-media art installation in Gillams, on
the North
Shore of the Bay of Islands. Created to mimic a typical "house museum"
where visitors
might be invited to learn about the life of local family from an
historical point
of view, THM instead turns the tables and asks each visitor, "why are
you here?"
It presents local culture for and by the locals and it examines culture
from an
outsider's perspective. The visitor becomes both audience and
participant, expected
to contribute to the exhibits (or perhaps even become one) while
offered gifts
of food, hospitality and souvenirs in exchange.
THM was created to help answer the question:
How does increased tourism affect local culture?
THM started as a vague idea in the summer of 2001 and, five years
later, became reality with a grand opening in the summer of 2006. It
has offered
itself to the residents of Gillams and the other towns on the North
Shore, as
well as to tourists, as a place where typical boundaries fall away,
topics can
be discussed openly, areas of confusion between locals and tourists can
be looked at, and perhaps resolved or
perhaps allowed to remain confused. THM fills many roles for many
people: a genuine
archive of artifacts from the House family, a repository of history of
the North
Shore, an art installation, a venue for music and literature, a place
for kids
to make things and hang out, a home to four people from away who have
turned their
life and their attempt to understand Newfoundland culture into a
tourist attraction.
In its first season, THM had over 100 visitors, most were from
Newfoundland and Labrador but others came from around North America.
The reality of transforming the "museum" experience from one of a
passive viewer to active participant was challenging. Sometimes people
asked where the art was, sometimes they froze in an uncomfortable
silence when I acknowledged that yes, this was our house as well as a
museum. Other times, people boldly walked into our bedrooms despite my
children's handmade signs of "Keep Out" and "Employees Only." Most
times, however, people relaxed as we talked about the objects on loan
from my neighbors, objects they had selected as being important to
their history. The object collection started small as I explained to
my immediate neighbors what I hoped to do. As the summer progressed,
the collection grew as other residents saw what was happening and
suddenly remembered their nan's old spinning wheel or the chamber pot
that had always been on hand when they were children. Into the mix of
objects, I placed some pictures of my grandfather's family who moved
from Newfoundland to the Boston area in the early 20th Century.
Visitors from Newfoundland found connections with the family names
that are part of the complex,
intertwined family trees that constitute the living room wallpaper. Sometimes
tourists were coaxed to talk more about themselves. We would examine
their lives
and what they hoped to get from their experience in Newfoundland. This
often occurred
when a neighbor would stop by. They were a neutral third presence not
"of the
institution," not an official visitor to it, but in some way belonging
to both
categories at once, creating just the right dynamic to get the
conversation flowing.
The tourist season starts on July 1st this year. There will be a new
special project:
a collaboration between Corner Brook artist, Marlene
MacCallum, and a self-selecting group of North Shore residents, the
results
of which will be installed throughout the museum. Visitors will be
offered the
option to experience an audio guide to the museum (rather than having
me lead
them around). They will have more opportunities to engage in hands-on
activities
that will actually shape the look of the museum. The experience of the
summer
of 2006 revealed that the issues surrounding my question, how does
tourism affect
local culture, can not be summed up in an easy couple of sentences, or
even with
a one-time exhibition, concert, or poetry reading. These are complex
issues that
need to be looked at again and again from many angles. The House Museum
is one
place where those issues can be taken up in a manner equal to their
complexity.
There is room for many more.
To see photographs and discussion about the
2007 project, please click here: The House Museum project
Why Are You Here?