+ Transcript
in the years since I was an intern here at the mfah in 1975 and 1976 uh the museum world has changed tremendously there's been a seismic shift in the way museums see themselves and the way they serve communities when I was a young man, museums were places for Specialists they were run by Specialists and they were conceived for Specialists kind of like a research Library that's what museum used to be no longer now they're community centers now they attract and rightly so the most diverse audience that they can and they see themselves as places of self is Discovery where anyone can walk off the street without any previous knowledge or training come in and see what other human beings before them have made and learn from these objects and as I like to think discover themselves I think of works of art as mirrors in which you look at this object and you see aspects of your own interests personality upbringing culture beliefs values reflected back at you sometimes all these things are challenged by the object that's there in front of you but I see that as uh as a mirroring imitative experience sometimes it's attraction sometimes it's repulsion but it's always when it's working an engagement between a viewer a visitor and a work of art an installation and environment and when you multiply those works of art and those visitors you get a community and that's what museums have become community centers not for basketball or sports teams but for intellectual growth for Spiritual sustainment for a place to ponder the big existential philosophical questions who are we where do we come from where are we going why are we here this museum has all the ingredients for anyone to come in and discover themselves and to actually answer those questions.
Explore the blog by Rebecca Carlsson in MuseumNext which provides great information on why we need museums in society for many reasons including:
