Period room

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A period room is a display that represents the interior design and decorative art of a particular historical social setting usually in a museum. Though it may incorporate elements of an individual real room that once existed somewhere, it is usually by its nature a composite and fictional piece. [1] [2] Period rooms at encyclopedic museums may represent different countries and cultures, while those at historic house museums may represent different eras of the same structure. [3] As with the glamorization of luxury in costume drama, this can be considered as a conservative genre that traditionally privileges Eurocentric elite views. [4]

Period room entrance hall from the 18th century Van Rensselaer Manor House originally located in Albany, New York - now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection. Side Chair MET DT2511.jpg
Period room entrance hall from the 18th century Van Rensselaer Manor House originally located in Albany, New York - now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection.

In the 21st century, the focus has shifted toward using period rooms in new ways [5] or in diversifying them. [6]

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Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room is an art exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The exhibit, which opened on November 5, 2021, uses a period room format of installation to envision the past, present, and future home of someone who lived in Seneca Village, a largely African American settlement which was destroyed to make way for the construction of Central Park in the mid-1800s.

Michelle D. Commander is a historian and author, and serves as Deputy Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

References

  1. Craven, Wayne (2009). Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 119. ISBN   978-0-393-06754-5.
  2. "What are period rooms, really? –– Minneapolis Institute of Art". new.artsmia.org. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  3. "Reconsidering the period room as a museum-made object". OUPblog. 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  4. "Representing the Complicated History of American Interiors". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  5. Loos, Ted (2013-02-21). "Setting a Place for History". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  6. Migan, Darla (2021-11-15). "Period Rooms Usually Glorify the Aristocracy. With Its New Afrofuturist Room, the Met's Approach Is Different". Artnet News. Retrieved 2022-02-14.