Prompt: Some people think that museums and art galleries should concentrate on the history and art of their own country rather than the works of art of other parts of the world. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Museums and art galleries play a significant role to educate the public about their home country and other cultures. However, some people hold the view that exhibitions should focus on their own nation's showpieces rather than other countries' ones. I totally agree with this statement because the displays on other countries can worsen foreign relationships and mislead people's understanding of other cultures. Ċ Firstly, the reason why museums should only show their own land's items is in part because this exacerbates foreign relationships. Some products' exhibitions are controversial since they are collected during or after wars by force. For example, in the British Museum, many ancient remains collected from colonised states have been solemnly placed. One of my flatmates from India said it was not a pleasant experience to see her mother country's beautiful artworks because it appeared that the UK got these by power. Thus, exhibitions of other regions' cultures can offend other countries' citizens' feelings. Ċ Secondly, the display can bring about individuals' misconceptions due to the limited knowledge of the background. Owing to insufficient resources, descriptions of works from other societies tend to be superficial and shallow. These guidances can lead to the viewers' misunderstandings. For example, when I went to a museum in the UK, finding one Japanese bookmark in the corner of Asian culture. Although it was just a plain bookmark, it was situated with plenty of explanation, which seemed that bookmarks were the representations of Japan. As this example illustrates, the lack of knowledge of nuance and background causes an erroneous exhibition. Ċ In conclusion, I utterly agree with this statement that art museums and galleries should have more focus on their countries because there is a possibility to threaten foreign relationships and unexpected mistakes in displays can bring misunderstanding of the population.