I good vision of my disillusion

I found this quote by Paul Valery on entering a museum yesterday and need to reproduce it:

My pace grows reverent. My voice alters to a pitch higher than in a church, to a tone rather less strong than that of every day. Prenestly I lose all sense of why I have intruded into this wax-floored solitude, savoring the temple and drawing room, of cemetary and school... Did I come for instruction, for my own beguilement, or simply as a duty and out of convention? Or is it perhaps some excercise perculiar to itself, this stroll I am taking, weirdly beset with beauties, distracted at every moment by masterpieces to the right and left compelling me to walk like a drunk between counters.

This feeling is what I have often felt in a museum and I've liked it, I do like it, but it is cut off. The museum distinguishes itself as different as separate from the rest of the world. A place for peace and repose. I want museums to remain as an alternative sanctuary. It seems to be history has given this roll to museums, primarily art museums. It is also for this reason that I don't want to make my life within this structure. I really believe that art has a place in life, in a dynamic communication with the world. I have seen people, especially in Portland, who have made this a mission with fine art, but it's hard. Fine art's more recent (since the seventeenth century?) history has tied it so close to the elite educated classes that an attempt to bring it back into the world or to make the museum part of the world is always a struggle. It's a valiant and worth while struggle, but it's not what I would be best at. Even at Reed, where being educated was not the issue, it was difficult to get students to step into the gallery on the way to or from the library. At the time I thought it must be that everyone was too busy, but I think now that perhaps the Reedie deep seated fear of seeming like a moneyed elitist kept people out, though of all the museums I've been to, it certainly did not give that vibe. The history of association may just have been to strong.

I think that for me the best mode of bringing art into life is through architecture. This is a field that is inherently tied to the world as it is the creation of spaces that people must interact with. The opportunity exists to affect a person's movement and interaction with the world even if they refuse to acknowledge it's presence. It also has little problem accepting the necessity to bend to the will of the world because even without the will of the client, there is already great restraints placed by the material, location, use of the location and the public law.

Just thoughts.