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4. Paul Thistle - 2009-08-28 14:36:27 |
| This futurist initiative overlooks a serious issue for museum workers I think. That is the impact of exponentially rising expectations from all stakeholders in the museum field combined with stagnant or declining levels of resources available to meet expections. In order to meet the growing gap between the two, museum workers find ourselves working harder and and harder to meet continually expanding demands. I believe this puts us in the position of fully loaded camels standing in a rain of straws. In Bunting’s (2004) terms, we become "willing slaves." In order to maintain our physical, emotional, and spiritual health in the future however, museum workers will have to find ways and means of dealing with this widespread yet unrecognized problem or we will burnout to a crisp. Only museum workers can deal with this problem. Every other stakeholder continues to expect that we add "just one more" straw to our workloads. Popyeye was right; "Enough is enough, and enough is too much!" |
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3. James Chung - 2009-02-17 11:02:23 |
Tina,
You’re absolutely right, there are a number of critical pieces that will shape the future of museums that are not covered in this trends paper, and educational trends is among them. Trying to narrow down the topics to cover in this process was a beast of a process, and we know we left a ton of stuff on the chopping block during the process of boiling it down into a digestible document.
But as this process proceeds, we are looking for ways to use this platform to push further into how we can all think more effectively about the future. (I shouldn’t speak for the Center for the Future of Museums, although given our conversations, I’m pretty sure they will wholeheartedly agree.) We’d love to hear more thoughts on how we can push this conversation about the future from the perspective of educational trends too.
There is one final note that I thought might be worth pointing out. In our survey work, we’re finding out that as much as we would like, not all museum visitors are first and foremost learners. For some segments, there are other motivations that trump learning, and for some, learning isn’t even among their motivations. But . . . that’s exactly what we need to try to address in order to increase the relevancy and public value of museums, so we’re looking forward to swapping further thoughts on this point that you flag! |
" target=_blank> 2. Tina.Nolan - 2009-02-13 11:24:19 |
| This report has sparked great discussion among my colleagues. Museums have most certainly reached a "tipping point" of sorts where mental models must shift and organizational change must occur. But there is a critical piece missing from the trends explored in this report. Nowhere does it discuss educational trends. Visitors to our museums and other cultural institutions are, first and foremost, learners. Without a clear understanding of what lies ahead in terms of education, museums will continue to struggle with issues of relevancy/public value. |
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1. Phil Katz - 2009-02-09 16:22:36 |
Welcome to the discussion of part I of "Museums & Society 2034." We appreciate your comments about this section -- or any other section -- of the paper.
Phil Katz
Assistant Director, Research
American Association of Museums |
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