A museum is a lot more than just a building full of old stuff. It’s a not-for-profit, permanent institution that is in the service of society and researches, collects, conserves, interprets, and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Museums operate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, and they contribute to human dignity, social justice, global equality, and planetary wellbeing.
Museums can be found all over the world, in countries both rich and poor, and with wildly varying collections and missions. Despite this variety, they all share some core qualities: they are democratising spaces for critical dialogue, and they hold artefacts in trust for society. They are inclusive, polyphonic, and participatory; they work in active partnership with diverse communities to collect, preserve, research, exhibit, and enhance understanding of the world’s cultural heritage, contributing to sustainable development and planetary well-being.
As museums become increasingly serious about independent learning, deep audience engagement, and participation, they are finding new ways to fulfill their potential to inspire. Some do this by connecting with a visitor’s passions, helping them to find their voice, and encouraging them to be creative and solve problems. Others do it by helping them to connect with the past, creating historical context that brings a sense of meaning and resonance to their lives.
Another way museums do this is by promoting a new model of education. In their article “Museums and the Future of Education,” Scott Kratz and Elizabeth Merritt argue that as traditional educational models shift towards self-directed, passion-based learning, museums will need to offer a more robust set of skills and resources for their visitors. They point to a few examples of this, such as the National Building Museum’s curriculum for schools that teaches students how to identify problems, experiment with solutions, and evaluate results, or the way that the Art Institute of Chicago helps its visitors find their artistic voice by providing them with inspiration and guidance on how to interpret an artwork’s meaning.
In addition, many museums are addressing the challenge of how to deal with collections that were acquired through colonialism and power struggles. This can be seen in the work of institutions like the Met and the National Museum of Brazil, which are trying to address their ties to colonialism by making the story of these connections transparent. Others are working to change the culture of their institutions, with the hope that this will lead to more inclusive practices in the future. And yet others are using pop up museums to prove that a museum doesn’t need to be a permanent space in order to make a significant impact on its community.