Simeon's Thoughts

Joe,

Most excellent! Some random thoughts...

"This is not to say the museum's curatorial staff should be at all fascist when discriminating works for exhibition, only that it will work to judge from the same prompt as the contributors work to create, like the relationship between an editorial board and its writers."

It seems like it might be beneficial to establish some sort of mutual role in sculpting the prompt--in itself an aesthetic provocation and creation--for both the museum administrators and the artists who create the requisite raw material of the Museum situation(s). Perhaps some sort of Museum Committee featuring diversity-representing permanent seats combined with a number (the # wouldn't necessarily have to be fixed) of revolving, temporary seats. This way you could maintain a dynamic relationship with the society that the museum and its content both responds to and creates, compelling it to be other than it is.
(Note: Stocking committees (i.e. being in a position with the authority to do so) is a great resource. Not only can you choose the people for their expertise and/or strategic affiliation, but you can also choose committee members for more base, pragmatic reasons (Public relations, cultural and/or monetary currency, whatever).

"The central, unique quality of the Social Museum is the prescription of exhibition themes by the contributors to be featured therein."

I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. The question then becomes one of execution. How is this structure erected? How will it function on a concrete level? How will it sustain itself?
1)Appeal to the needs and interests of art/content-producing communities. As a social-networking hub, the Museum can offer numerous benefits and services to individuals and collectives. Some obvious examples include fund-raising, publicizing, physical space, communication-hub/idea-sharing resources, etc...the list is potentially huge.
2)Use works that are already out there, created independently from the Museum's prompts. While the goal of having prescriptive power is certainly important, it can take other, more subtle forms. For example, what if the Museum discovers a piece of preexisting art that it believes accords nicely with an already existing theme (alternatively, a discovered artwork could itself serve as a provocation, inspiring a new theme that it is obviously always-already a part of). In this sort of instance, the Museum is using its prescriptive powers to create an assemblage of art/ideas/information regardless of the intentions or in-advance involvement on the production side of things.
----this type of activity is, I believe, a solidly-concrete initial step for the fledgling museum to take. a) Find a series of divergent particulars b) fit them under a carefully worded, suggestive theme/prompt c) publicize the upcoming Museum events based around the theme d) put out a call and offer opportunities for people/groups to create, promote, and display their own responses to the theme e)arrange and announce the specifics of the Museum Presents "....." events. Simultaneously, the Museum can be exhausting the various avenues for publicity, fund-raising, future-oriented networking, etc that each of these initiatives dovetails into...

My overriding thought is this: Based on the ideas you have laid out (or more accurately, the aspects of your proposal that really jump out and intrigue me) are those that seem to point in the direction of an entirely new concept of the museum: a "Social" museum. A Social Museum, it seems to me, has to create a new dynamic between the museum and the society it both speaks to and is simultaneously a part of-- the Social museum has to be "social" in an active--not just a rhetorical--sense.

Just some thoughts. I know it's really sloppy; I was trying to be concise so I could actually send you something. Let me know if any of this makes any sense. I am sure that much of it needs significant clarification. Also, let me know if there is a different direction you would like me to be thinking in, altogether.

Simeon