“From being about Something to being for Somebody: The Ongoing Transformation of the American Museum” Original Author: Stephen E. Weil Summarized by Museum Hack Museums are expanding public services rather than expanding their collections. “The most fundamental change that has affected museums during the past half-century is the now almost universal conviction that they exist in order to serve the public.” - Kenneth Hudson Museums can play a powerful role in bringing about social change. The museum needs to be an tool for sustainable social advancement. In the modern museum every exhibition should appeal to the general public. What constitutes a good museum? - Its resources? The collection? The excellence of its staff? The credentials of it’s curators? - A large endowment? - A substantial building? None of those approaches took into account the museum’s external impact on either its visitors or its community. If museums do not have the goal of improving peoples lives, what basis can we ask for public support? “Museums must have relevance to present-day problems that affect the quality of life here and now.” -John R. Kinard Tomorrow’s museums cannot be operated with yesterday’s skills. Museum leaders need to articulate what they hope or expect their institutions to accomplish. Museum professionals need to focus and create new ways for the museum to interact with their communities. Museums workers generally must learn to relax their expectations as to why the public is visiting and what they may take away from it. The museum needs to be open-textured and adaptable as a destination. The emerging public service oriented museum must see itself not as a cause but as an instrument. Museums will find that being of service to their community will have benefits the old museum could not have imagined. “From being about Something to being for Somebody: The Ongoing Transformation of the American Museum” Original article written by Stephen E. Weil, Senior Scholar Emeritus at the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies. Twitter: @JSTOR Summarized by Museum Hack About, Company News, @MuseumHack on Twitter Contact us at [email protected]