One hundred years ago museums experienced their first great period of transition from being “wondercabinets” – collections of art and artifacts amassed by wealthy individuals for viewing by wealthy individuals – to becoming institutions with a seriously democratic educational mission. It’s no secret that museums today are in a second state of transition, moving beyond education toward an intense focus on serving as an essential element of their communities.
In their quest for survival, museums have discovered the need to stay relevant. And their quest for relevance requires them to become engaging and magnetic. An educational mission alone cannot do that. Museums are evolving into institutions of caring, involved with their audiences on multiple, meaningful levels.
Evidence of this transition can be found in the health and wellness programs adopted in museums. This summer NEMA polled its membership about these programs (read a summary of the survey here) and found that increasing numbers of museums are focusing on the well-being of their communities. Whether it’s offering passive recreation on walking trails or more actively reaching out to specific populations such as Alzheimer’s patients or families with members on the Autism spectrum, museums are realizing that connection with communities is enhanced when they care about their health.
Of course, it is debatable whether these types of programs fall within a museum’s mission. Some of our survey respondents, in fact, note that while health and wellness programs may be popular, there are real dangers when museums become distracted from their core missions.
But I would argue that if museums are truly evolving into institutions of caring, then they have a duty to care about the overall well-being of their audiences, not just during the museum visit. To be relevant, museums have to engage their audiences on multiple levels: intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, at the museum and after the visitor returns home. While traditional education programs address the intellectual component, health and wellness programs speak to the emotions and spirit of an audience in unprecedented ways. If museums want their audiences to care about them, they must care sincerely about their audiences.
About a hundred years ago the legendary John Cotton Dana of the Newark Museum famously stated that the purpose of a museum is to enrich the quality of its visitors’ lives, not to accumulate masterpieces. His was the philosophy that guided the first transition of museums becoming educational institutions, but it is also the philosophy that is guiding the second. Enriching the quality of visitors’ lives is a tall order, one much more complicated than simply displaying art and artifacts for education and enjoyment. But it’s an order we can and should fulfill.
Dan Yaeger