Taxidermy at the Morbid Anatomy Museum

Here at the Ministry we are all about London – but on the occasions that we do get to travel, we obviously have to report back about our museum adventures. On a recent trip to New York we finally had the opportunity to visit the place we like to think of as our spiritual home in the US- the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn. We arrived, unannounced, on the eve of the opening of the Museum’s new exhibition Taxidermy: Art, Science and Immortality, featuring the famous Kitten Wedding tableau by English taxidermist Walter Potter. Despite the spontaneous nature of our visit, Creative Director Joanna Ebenstein took some time out to speak to us about the exhibition and the work of the museum.

As we walked in the door it was immediately apparent we had not come at a good time. With the exhibition opening shortly, install was not quite finished yet, and an impending courier arrival was the focus of the staff. Possibly because she is one of the most generous and kind people working in the field, Joanna decided to take some time out to take us through our first visit to the museum and even into the as yet unopened exhibition space. With the museum all to ourselves, Joanna told us more about the exhibition, the Library and some of the ins-and-outs of running a small museum.

The dream for the Museum had arisen from the original Morbid Anatomy Library- a resource centre created by Joanna using her own books and object collection which she has amassed through her own research and curatorial work. She explained how, unlike us lucky sods in London with our Wellcome Collection, our Science Museum, our Hunterian, there wasn’t any space in New York to have academic discussions about art, death, science and beauty. The Library still forms the heart of the Morbid Anatomy Museum – an inviting space on the second floor where people can come to read, chat and explore through Ebenstein’s ever growing collection. Unlike a traditional museum, you can actually handle any of the items on open display in the library room – from votive candles to bottles, artificial teeth and medical x-rays. The space had been transformed in honour of the exhibition to have a special natural history twist.

The star of the show however is of course the exhibition space, consisting of two hall-ways and a large central display area which showcases the Taxidermy exhibition. The display seeks to delve deeper into the many different aspects of taxidermy - the strange, the funny, the scientific, the familiar and the uncomfortable. Although the art of taxidermy can trace its origins to the ancient Egyptians, it wasn't until the nineteenth century when the practice came into its own. Wide spread interest in the natural world, and arguable the connection between the amateur scientist and the wealthy elite, prompted a craze for taxidermy so it became ubiquitous with the English, and indeed American, middle class home. In the world of ever expanding knowledge which characterised the Victorian era, this method of preservation was ideal for bringing home to the West specimens of exotic animals never before seen by the majority of the population. But taxidermy could also be funny (such as the anthropomorphic spanking frog, or a bear who served as a tray bearer), strange (from the world of carnivals and freak shows), exotic (the wall-mounted specimens of fierce predators from Africa, Asia and beyond), or very close to home (as in the display of a beloved pet). Today taxidermy continues to fascinate and repulse us (see Crap Taxidermy) and has become the subject of a renewed collecting interest. 

As we chatted, the staff waited patiently for the Kitten Wedding to arrive. It’s custom case prepared, it was a countdown to the courier’s arrival. While we have generally worked in larger museums and all the protocols that entails, the Morbid Anatomy Museum works largely with private collectors. Although it might lead to slightly harrowing moments when things don’t go according to plan, working closely with the private sphere allows Ebenstein and her collaborators to access untapped resources typically hidden away in the homes of their owners. The lion’s share of this exhibition had come from just such a collector, J.D. Powe, who also curated the display and wrote much of the text. The unique interests of people like Powe and others is what allow Morbid Anatomy to display things like a large collection of stuffed domestic dogs- a focus probably too niche for any museum.

While we weren’t able to see the Kitten Wedding in person, Taxidermy stands alone as a strong exhibition. Of course, the story of Kitten Wedding and Walter Potter, particularly his amateur but loving attempts at the art of taxidermy, fits perfectly with the exhibitions themes. However, from anthropomorphic frogs to elephant’s feat, sawfish tusks, conjoined calves, and even an anteater there is plenty to see. Potter, while perhaps particularly appealing to the average visitor due to his cache as an English folk artist, might be a draw, to overlook the collection of fascinating objects surrounding Kitten Wedding would be to miss the heart of Taxidermy. It is a show about the multifarious ways in which we are fascinated and repulsed by death, and the clever art of preserving life indefinitely. From the show’s earliest examples in the early nineteenth century through to the present day, taxidermy has proved to be an enduring interest for specialist and laypeople alike. If we really had to pick a favourite piece, it would be the Victorian taxidermy bird fireplace guard. Recalling a time when taxidermy birds were a must for any fashionable home, this extraordinary piece mimics the elaborate natural styles of the period in actual preserved animals. Displayed together with a fireplace for effect, we are reminded that taxidermy was once a part of everyday life.

In the end, Kitten Wedding arrived and the exhibition opened seamlessly to glowing reviews in the New York Times and elsewhere. Needless to say, if you do find yourself in the New York area a trip to Morbid Anatomy now (and in the future!) is a must. But as we poked through the gift shop and sat at the large communal table, we were reminded that the Morbid Anatomy Museum is much more than just the exhibition space. It’s a hub which provides a home for anyone interested in the strange and unusual – a conversation starter and a study space. While London has plenty to offer, we think the world needs a few more places like Morbid Anatomy. 

If you can't get to New York to see the show, the Museum has helpfully provided a Youtube tour for all their virtual visitors. Check it out!

#Museumtweetup and the Social Media Manifesto

Hey everyone- we are so incredibly excited to be heading out of our normal stomping grounds and out to visit the Essex County Museums this coming Monday for their Tweet-up event! As you well know, there's nothing the Ministry enjoys more than a cocktail and the chance to natter about everything museums. But we are doubly pumped because we are going to talk more about our Social Media Manifesto. Developed during our workshop session for the MA Conference in October, writing the Manifesto was a great collaborative experience in figuring out how to do social media better. We can't wait to hear what the Essex crowd thinks! (or have your say using #museumtweetup)

Prepping for the tweetup has got us thinking about the Manifesto, the workshop, and how we arrived at the actual finished product. There were so many more discussions we had over the day which we just didn't have space for or we felt hadn't been generally agreed upon by the group. In the run up to the event, we posted these controversial Ministry proclamations to try to challenge the way people thought about museum social media. Going into the session, we didn't really have any particular outcomes in mind. We hoped that maybe just by rejecting some of the more cliched aspects of social media practice we would be able to get at something fresh and different.

The results of these conversations are what ended up in the Manifesto, but now maybe before we head to Essex is a good time to reflect on what those starting points were that brought out the most debate amongst our participants. We think some of these things just have to be said in order to get to the bottom of what we think about them. Two of our favourite contentious issues were:

Do we by making social media fun and cheeky, trivialise our jobs and the value of heritage?

If only young people use social media, does it really matter if we tweet things that would offend older demographics?

To us, these are just really fantastic questions that are a bit offensive but maybe we need to think about. In the session we used a lot of images from flyartproductions and LACMA's snapchat account which showed them, hmmm, engaging with art in a different sort of way.

Are these funny? Engaging to a younger audience? Or do they degrade the works of art and really the reason why we pay so much every year to look after them?

Maybe this isn't the case because this is how young people use social media. But are they the only ones following our twitter, instagram and snapchat accounts? Again, its a tricky question that begs some genuine thought. We gear our exhibitions for specific audiences, so why would our social media streams be any different. In fact, this is what the Brooklyn Museum has done with its social media strategy. 

This is why events like tweet-ups are so crucial for the museum industry. Of course it would be difficult to bring up these difficult questions in a formal institutional meeting. But that doesn't mean they don't need to be spoken about, and actually that informal sharing process can be the most informative way of tackling the issues. As one of our participants wrote to us after the session:

I think the main thing that struck me about this process was actually that social media has a much bigger reach and potential than I initially anticipated. Furthermore, I think that museums’ use of social media in particular has shown that social media isn’t solely for ‘young people’ but that actually it has the potential to be interesting, inventive and self-reflective for all ages rather than a self-aggrandising promotional tool for teenagers which is, to some extent, how it is often seen. In a strange way I think that museum’s use of social media has given social media a good name by making it something that is both fun and educational, both powerful and subtle.