PrepTest 142, Section 2, Question 5
Vandenburg: This art museum is not adhering to(80 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(14 more words not shown)
- AAn art museum(14 more words not shown)
- BAn art museum(14 more words not shown)
- CAn art museum's(11 more words not shown)
- DAn ethnographic museum's(9 more words not shown)
- EThe intentions of(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A smaller collection doesn't necessarily get less attention. Maybe the museum puts its few contemporary works in its most prominent galleries while leaving many older works in storage.
That's one gap in Vandenburg's complaint. Another is the assumption that the founders' intentions still define the museum's purpose. Maybe its purpose has changed. Either possibility would be worth exploring if we were challenging Vandenburg directly.
Simpson takes a different approach: the small collection is appropriate because the curators think little contemporary art is high quality. That doesn't settle our questions about attention or the founders' intentions. Instead, Simpson wants the curators' quality judgment to justify the collection's size.
What we’re looking for
Why should that judgment control what the museum acquires? That's the missing connection for the principle question. A rule telling an art museum to collect only work its curators regard as good would make a small collection reasonable when they judge very little of that category worth collecting.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
If the museum should collect only art its curators consider high quality, their judgment that little contemporary art meets that standard supports keeping the contemporary collection small. They shouldn't acquire work they consider poor merely to increase the count.
We don't have to decide that contemporary art actually is poor. Simpson's evidence concerns the curators' assessment, and A gives that assessment a role in deciding what the museum should collect.
- B
This restricts acquisitions according to the founders' purpose. Simpson needs a reason why collecting relatively little contemporary art is appropriate despite Vandenburg's complaint about that purpose. A rule against collecting works that violate the founders' wishes doesn't explain why the small contemporary collection is justified by the curators' quality judgments.
- C
Not having to collect every style from every period leaves the museum some freedom. But Vandenburg hasn't demanded every style from every period; the complaint is about the relative attention given to contemporary art. C doesn't connect the curators' low assessment of contemporary art to the appropriateness of this small collection. A supplies that direct connection.
- D
This gives curators a role in defining an ethnographic museum's purpose. The institution under discussion is an art museum, which Simpson explicitly distinguishes from an ethnographic museum. D supplies a rule for the other kind of institution and doesn't justify this art museum's collection.
- E
Simpson relies on what the curators think is worth collecting. Telling us that their intentions should not determine acquisitions doesn't support that reliance. It would instead push us away from using the curators' preferences to defend the collection's size.
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