Can a bird curate a museum?
Let me explain.
Male bowerbirds work their tail feathers off to attract mates.
These birds sing, they dance—and most impressively, they build what ornithologists call "display courts," where they show off the objects they collect: shells, bones, the keys you lost last year.
And these displays aren't random: the objects are arranged in patterns to draw the female bird's eye to the coolest stuff.
So... is the bowerbird's display court a museum?
Making him their collection's caretaker, or "curator"?
What actually is a museum anyway?
And who gets to decide what counts?
Hi! I'm Sarah Urist Green and this is Crash Course Art History.
