“The question that’s slightly more radical is the social role of museums. To what extent are they there as a catalyst for change? Are they prepared to fight for some sort of social justice? Do we have a responsibility to reach all sides of society in what we offer? That means working hard to bring in people who wouldn’t normally visit. And leading on from that, should we have a workforce that reflects the community that are paying for us? People who work in museums sometimes say, ‘I didn’t train to be a social worker, I trained to be a curator.’ And of course we don’t want to go too far and lose the object in the middle. But the younger generation of curators is not happy for museums to be places where people come and worship in silence. They want them to be more like town halls, where debates happen, you can speak the unspeakable, and there are things going on. But a museum’s credibility is rooted in the objects.’”
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Mark Taylor, Director of the Museums Association, UK. (via museumsandstuff)
I would amend the last statement to: A museum’s credibility is rooted in the way it collects, presents, and interprets objects.
Also, I have never heard anyone say “I didn’t train to be a social worker,” but maybe that’s a curator thing.