Night at the Museum

I study Political Science. Themes of domestic political choices/policies were present throughout many of the artworks, even if not explicitly: the westward expansions, the incorporation of slavery’s existence into Constitutional population considerations, the legal acceptance of unfair or coerced contracts with indigenous leaders over territory, and so on. It seems that the works in the American exhibit lie on the palimpsest of choices made by institutions of political power, especially on the national level. I noticed that I could connect almost every piece of art to a socioeconomic situation or political status brought upon by the laws and status quo at the time. My specific field of study is policy. This exhibit was a case study in how those policies translate and proliferate into social expression. It is also indicative, however, that policy has the power to institutionalize equity just as it has historically institutionalized power-struggle.