Evening star., 1923-09-30
BUSINESS TO GET AID
BY MUSEUM EXTENSION
Revivified Institutions Will Play Greater
Role in Educational Activities
of Nation.

the field of industrial art. Take any
| commodity. the production of which is
established. The manufacturer, say
OF carpets, wants to study designs
! from other ages and other regions
and the museum furnishes the ma
terial to be studied. Thus the mu-
scum exercises a strong influence on
applied Cor industriaD art; especial
ly on the designs of such things as
textiles, costumes, housefurnishings
wallpaper, silverware, jewelry, and
In fact anything that has to be de-
signed from the standpoint Of appear
ance as well as strength.
Manufacturers of all these com
modities have to depend upon in
spiration for new designs. They can
not sit In dark room and evolve
some new design. They have to go
! out and see, and based on what they
see they create new designs. In this
is necessarily a large element of in
spirational artistic work-not mere
copying. Consequently, the thing that
can inspire best is most useful and
| this Is. the actual creation of some
other artist-not a picture of 1t. So
the museum can suggest to and in
spire designers, whereas mere pic
lures of them might only suggest
Designers Aided I'm Work.
Realizing that, hundreds of design
ers are studying museum materials
all over the country. Two museums
which are doing notable work for de-
signers are the Metropolitan Museum
of Art and the Newark IN. J.) Mu-
scum. but, of course. excellent work
| is being done by scores of others
| throughout the country. Museums to-
day are also influencing motion pic
lures.
Third. The museums educate the
public. concerning products and pro-
duction. making them more familiar
and this Is directly advertising.
When two or three persons coop
crate each has to get something out
of it; each has to put something in.
| The result is useful to third party.
Consider, now. the application Of this
principle to commercial or industrial
exhibit:
The commercial house cooperating
with a museum puts in something of
real value and cost, either the value
of the product, the time or labor of
employees, etc. Before the CONNER
cial house can be persuaded to take
on that expense it must see that 1t
is going to get something in return.
The best thing it gets is advertising.
| The exhibit in the museum brings the
manufacturers product to the atten-
tion of the people.
| From the standpoint OF the mu-
seum-every exhibit installed costs
the museum a lot of money, even II
( the exhibit is contributed. IL must
be housed and cared for. The mu-
scum puts in one other very impor-
tant thing in this piece OF co-opera-
tion. It gives that product prestige.
IF is not interested in one product as
n enters into competition with an
o+bar or what the manufacturers get
ont of II. All the museum is inter
,+aa IN Ia the real worth of the eX-
hibit. While no museum can give i.s
stamp of approval to a product stiil
n does automatically give presuse'
for no product that is unworthy can
noLa fts entrance into a museum.
The museum gets out OF TINS coop
grafton the educational value ina
the exhibit gives to the ihs'i'u'ioA
the eyes of the public.
| Education for Pubiic.
| From the standpoint of the third
Ir.r+v"-the public-the public gets
ont of an industrial or commercial
/ exhibit education. Modern euuoa
/ ton is not merely the massins OIL
ideas in ones head, but also II is
the acquiring of ability to use IDEAS.
So when the public comes In 10 see
an industrial or commercial exhibit
lit learns something about the product,
and then goes out and applies the
Information either by purchasing or
by talking, and so influencing some
one else to purchase. And the least
the public can do Is to tell the next
| ifellow-which is the very best kind
| of advertising.
The museums are glad to have this
| reaction on the part OF the puohc,
because If the public does not ret
| on what it learns in the museum the
| museum would soon be useless.
This education of the public by an
| exhibit in a museum, which Is real
advertising - concerning production
! methods and products-is done large
ly by museums of science. as, for
example, the United States National
| Museum, the Carnegie Museum in
Pittsburgh, and the American Museum
of Natural History, New York. Al
though little out Of their field, they
are doing this. perhaps unconsciously,
! hiding their time until industrial
4, museums will spring UP all over the
country to carry on and forward this
| work.
Now lets see-"What of it?'
Industrial Museums Assured.
There is bvund to come day when
a new order of museums win spring
up-industrial museums-which set
out with the prime purpose to serve
business (and the public through
business).
This involves fundamental change
in museum thinking. and that change
is already beginning to be in evil
dence. The curator in putting piece
of art or rare furniture or beautiful
mineral in his museum has gloated
over the thing itself. admiring it's in
trinsic beauty, value or associations.
But the new line of thought, that of
the coming Industrial museum, will
place utility first and intrinsic beauty
second, It will vision how that ex-