You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
Museums and art galleries should concentrate on local works rather than showing the cultures or artworks from other countries. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer 1: [Partial Agreement]
Museums and art exhibits have long been at the forefront of preserving and representing cultural values and histories, being utilized by almost all countries throughout the centuries. However, whether they should mainly represent local cultures or display an international collection is open to dispute. I personally believe that traditional museums should focus on outlining the cultural aspects and artworks of the country while having separate museums with items from other countries does not hurt the national feeling.
Educating people about the history and traditions of a country is the primary reason we have museums in the first place. They conserve important cultural specimens, artefacts, artworks and other items to boast about our past and help researchers dig deeper into history. Such museums, which primarily signify our tradition, should comprise things we, as a nation, can be proud of, rather than having internationally acclaimed artworks or sculptures. For instance, many national museums in Europe solely focus on preserving artefacts and artworks from the country and they are quite popular among international tourists.
Having said that, the concept of a museum, in the modern era, has changed to a great extent. We now have aviation museums, war memorials, motor museums, computer museums, archaeological museums and the list goes on. To make these types of museum popular and useful, we have to have international collections. For instance, the Motor Museum in Australia has a collection from more than 20 countries and they serve their purpose just fine. Museums with international compilation often attract tourists and can be a great way to promote tourism.
To conclude, national and traditional museums should focus on nurturing national history and heritage but we also need museums with international collections to make them more functional and famous. One does not necessarily diminish the necessity and usefulness of the other.
Sample Answer 2: [Disagreement]
Museums and art galleries help visitors better understand the role of history and important artworks, and preserve important collections at the same time. But many people opine that the collection should showcase only the artefacts and artworks of the host country. I disagree with this opinion since art is a medium to express thoughts and ideas beyond boundaries and the history of nations are interconnected.
Admittedly, museums and art exhibits exist to foster a better understanding of the importance of historical artefacts and arts in our lives and that is why national pride and archives should be emphasised to teach people their national history.
But art is an important medium of free expression and history extends beyond the border. So the collection of a museum should not be confined to geographical boundaries. For example, “Mona Lisa” is a legendary artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci who was an Italian artist in the 15th century. Despite being an Italian, Da Vinci is an iconic genius for the whole world. Mona Lisa is now preserved at the Louvre Museum in France, and having this artwork and many other famous international paintings and sculptures, France can only boast of its fine collection that showcases masterpieces, great artworks and world history to the global audience.
Moreover, history is not confined within boundaries and if this was the case, we would have taught our students only our national history. The fate of nations was interconnected throughout history and it still is. So when we want to teach our children about our history, we must teach them about international events. Since one of the primary objectives of museums is to teach people about history, they must have artworks and collections from the international arena. Finally, when we display artefacts and works from foreign countries, we are connecting nations all over the world. Each culture has something new to teach and the cultural richness of a nation depends on how they accept a new culture. From this perspective, having museums that comprise collections only from the host country is a bad idea.
To conclude, museums and art galleries that have national artefacts and artworks besides having international collections are far rich and practical in exchanging cultural aspects.
Sample Answer 3: [Agreement]
Museums and art galleries essentially showcase significant histories and artworks to the general audience both to educate them and to preserve important artefacts. Though some people advocate for an international collection in such important places, I firmly believe that local works and national history should always get the highest priority.
To begin with, a single museum can not represent all the important histories of the world due to space and budget issues, and the organisers of public art galleries need an exorbitant amount of money to display famous foreign artworks or sculptures. Thus, a museum should focus on becoming a place where people would learn about their own history and culture rather than being a place where they would wonder what the collections are all about. Visitors of a museum or an art gallery, which even include schoolgoers, should able to relate the items they see so that they get inspired to foster nationalism and learn about their country, heritage and culture.
Moreover, museums and art exhibits are frequently visited by foreigners who want to get a glimpse of the local culture and history rather than seeing items that they have already seen in other museums perhaps in some other countries. So museums and similar other places become more acceptable when they conserve local culture and present national history. For instance, most of the tourists in my country find the national museum more interesting than other museums we have because our national museum offers a true insight into our past and heritage. Finally, preserving national history and artefacts in a museum and encouraging aspiring local artists makes more sense.
To conclude, museums and art galleries have significant roles in teaching people about their past and nurturing the talents of enthusiastic artists. It is more important that they have local collections and not foreign relics and arts which have little or no meaning to people who visit them.
Sample Answer 4: [Disagreement]
Some people insist that museums and art exhibitions ought to focus on showing local works to visitors instead of artefacts and artworks from overseas. I, however, disagree with this notion and believe that exhibitions of a wider range of artworks, including foreign ones, are quite beneficial to local people and culture.
The primary reason I disagree that museums and art centres should concentrate mainly on displaying local artworks is that it restricts the opportunities of spectators and artists to watch, enjoy and learn about diversified global artworks. The diversification helps citizens learn and appreciate various artworks which eventually enrich the culture of a nation. Since local museums are perhaps the most accessible venues for residents and aspiring artists to learn about arts, their collection should be as rich as possible.
Another rationale behind my view is that art galleries would offer more benefits when they display artworks created in other regions. This is because exhibitions of galleries could thus let children comprehend brilliant aspects of different nations and their cultures. Art galleries are one of the most common destinations of school trips and the impressions that students get from these galleries may broaden their horizons. Thus, displaying diversified arts is imperative to develop children’s knowledge and understanding of other cultures.
To conclude, a variety of artworks and artefacts in museums and art galleries would have more positive influences on cultural advancements and to develop global perspectives of children and people alike. It is expected that museums and art centres would focus on these important issues when deciding the type of collection they are going to have.