Poll: What Age of Museums is this?
Posted in Presentism on 03. Jun, 2010
I’m wanting to do something of a weekly poll in the vein of my Most Important Function of Museums and Role of the Curator posts from a while back.
This week, something about just how we choose to define the time we’re in now.
What Age of Museums is this?
Use whatever word from whatever terminology you wish. I would say something like this being the Supermodern age of museums, which shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Also, becoming intrigued by Nowdernity.
Answers in the comments, or @ me on twitter.
Difficult to qualify an age when a market is in the maturity stage, as I view it. I was introduced to the term ‘paradigm shift’ several years ago by Professor Jay Rounds and his belief that the US museums needed this shift to develop into the future. The problem is nobody can tell what that will look like. In the UK my opinion is that this shift will result in a more fragmented marketplace that will be meeting the needs of very different users. The term ‘museum’ will no longer simply be about musing or looking and will manifest by organsiations using increasingly diverse action-type names to market what they have to offer. They will still be offering what we currently view as museum output. The power of knowledge will no longer sit with the curator but the public, leaving the curator with the job of being more facilitator and mediator rather than teacher and influencer.
Socialism?