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Comment by b0rsuk | Hacker News Reader

This is peculiar because it treats security guards as humans and challenges unspoken hierarchy. It also implies the museum doesn't save on security (17 guards is a lot) and there isn't a big turnover (unless there's a special type of security guard that mostly works in museums). It's borderline unthinkable in the 5th roundest country in the world where I live. They would hire students.

I was hoping it would be more about burglaries, stealing famous works of arts, selling stolen works etc. The law enforcement / security perspective. Instead it appears to be a pretty standard exhibition except with an unusual method of selecting curators.

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My dad used to be a security guard at the Cleveland Museum of Art. What's funny is that often guests would ask him and the other guards about specific pieces or artists as if he was a subject matter expert (although he has always been an art enthusiast, he doesn't have a professional art background). Eventually, he started doing his own background reading, because he really enjoyed these conversations.

After years of viewing exhibits (both permanent and temporary), many on the non-curator staff do end up with a substantially deep view of the art that they protect. This exhibit should be really fascinating.

> This is peculiar because it treats security guards as humans and challenges unspoken hierarchy.

I still find it a bit condescending / annoying. I read things like "offering a particularly human-centered lens through which to consider the objects" as let the plebs have their night out once in a while. They'll still get "mentored" by curators apparently, so it's not like they're just using their understanding to pick, they'll probably get brainwashed a bit.

One interesting experiment would be to put a button / ticket scanner near each artwork and ask the visitors to vote on what they liked. Maybe give them a theme and ask them to pick 2-3 pieces of art that matched that theme and put an exhibition on at the end of a month or so with the most picked works.

I don't completely disagree with what you're saying regarding the text, but as a person who loves the arts but doesn't work in it, I would appreciate speaking to a bona fide curator if I was asked to partake in an exhibition.

Sure, there is a chance of your so-called brainwashing (influence, in more generous terms), but an exhibition benefits from coherence and thought-out message.

I think their selection makes sense. The day-to-day experience of a guard at a museum is to tell people to stand a bit farther away and not take photos (in some galleries). What would be more interesting is if they channeled their long presence among artworks, and their ability to observe crowds and their transience.

Hello there in Poland : )

Indeed, in the US, there are museum guards who only work in museums. Sometimes, they are called docents. As with most things in the states, however, there is a lot of regional variation.

What's especially interesting here is that an organisation is treating its employees like human beings, as you said. It would be weird for any museum here to say, "I think people would like to know what our employees appreciate in art." Not weird in that it's unthinkable; weird in that it just never happens that way in the States.

> (17 guards is a lot)

and that's just the ones that wanted to partake

I would assume a place like that would have security 24/7. 24×7/40=4.2 Security Guards.

It's not much more than 1 watching cameras and 3 rovers.

They also need people to physically stop the more annoying visitors from touching/licking/poking the exhibits, among other things.

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