In the foreground, a woman, Jane Castleton, is dressed in a conservative manner. Her white blouse is buttoned to the neck and her hair is pulled back in a tight bun. Addressing herself directly to the spectator, she begins a formal presentation of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She describes its various members and specifies her status as a voluntary guide. She thus describes her own conception of the role of a museum : as a "training ground for good taste", it must be accessible to those who have the desire but not the means of gaining access to riches.

Yet this museum visit soon takes a particular turn : like a brochure from a tourists' office, instead of describing the paintings, the voluntary guide starts to sing the praises of the city of Philadelphia. She then wanders through the museum, focusing her attention in a surprising manner on the men's toilets, then describing the attendant's stool in great detail, before launching into a diatribe about the museum as a site of education of the masses, building on her speech about fostering good taste and the importance of modesty and discretion. She then continues her digression against the "inferior" classes, which she accuses of being incapable of attaining goals. Here, Andrea Fraser denounces the strategic role of authoritarian discourses in the hierarchism of aesthetic values and morals in favour of the ruling class. Here, the museum becomes the reflection of the power struggles present throughout society. She then heightens the tone and describes a public water fountain passionately, establishing its equivalency with a sculpture. She continues her logorrhoea by embarking on an apology of her own role. She admits that she would like to live like an art object, which to her signifies the height of sophistication.

The end credits indicate the sources used by Andrea Fraser to construct her discourse : political texts and inauguration speeches, museum magazines, artists' writings but also philosophical works by Emmanuel Kant.

Laetitia Rouiller
Translated by Anna Knight