Sir John Soane

This museum reminded me of the Fric Museum in New York City. Which is an incredible mansion right next to central park. Mr. Fric collected art and organized it in a very interesting manner. It is appealing to see different objects people have accumulated over the years and how they have organized them. Although it is striking a a strange kind of beautiful, yet I do not consider it a work of art. Since Sir John Soane's old house has been made into a museum his objects have now become classified as artifacts. The way in which we display objects also determines what society considers them. If some of the taxidermy objects were displayed at The Telling Tales exhibition at the V&A some may consider it a piece of art. But it one were to put it on their desk in their office or hung it on a wall it would be an object they owned. But when you put it behind glass it becomes more official, an artifact. It is funny too to see how peoples' mentalities change towards the objects. I am sure Soane's students who went into his home while he was teaching them, we not scared or intimidated to walk over to a shelf and pick out a book. But now since it has been classified as a museum, we are scared when we walk in to touch things in what used to be someones home. Since it is now a museum I do not consider it to be a piece of art but more of a tangible documentation of something.
Sir John Soane was an architect and built his library not for own joy but for the benefit of his students. It is referred to as "an academy of architecture."