Notes for Plenary, Museums Australasia Conference, Auckland 16-18 May 2016

It was my pleasure to participate in the final plenary session today at the Museums Australasia conference, Aotea Centre, Auckland. Here are my points:
  • Of all the things that can be said about the museum, the theme in my mind is the idea of the museum as a story telling institution – it creates and presents stories. 
  • We have to understand with great depth and clarity that the process for the creation of story and the story itself represents a series of decisions that we, as museum leaders, directly or indirectly make on the pathway toward mounting exhibitions and other encounter experiences audiences have with our collections.
  • This decision making process is a multidimensional 'space' involving a range of sometimes conflicting issues, urgencies, concerns and opportunities. Understanding what those issues and opportunities are and more importantly how to negotiate and address them is critical to our success.
  • Some of these conflicting priorities include:
    • the balance between the museum as a repository of culture and the museum as the enabler of the creation of new culture.
    • balancing the standing of the museum as an authority (full of experts and authorities) and the needs and expectations of communities and peoples to see themselves in the museum.
  • It is also important to understand that the museum of the future will not just be a physical centralised place - as important as the physical buildings are. Rather the museum of the future will also be an online digital space and presence which serves to both enhance the experiences occurring in those buildings as well as enable a range of experiences 'beyond the walls'. Additionally, as 'co-creation, co-production with communities' grows so museums will evolve to include a distributed series of innumerable interactions within our communities.
  • Finally, I was delighted to discover that the origin of the term 'museum' is found in the ancient Greek 'temple of the muses', a place where the muses have their way with people. A museum therefore is a dynamic, living institution, animated by the muses and where the productions created under their influence are both cared for and enabled.
Further notes arising in the plenary itself include:
  • All processes, projects or entities that seeks to tell the story of a people (a national history, for example) will always contain biases. It is not possible to create a 'neutral' narrative. The key, therefore is to be conscious of one's biases, to understand what they are and where they come from. Those entities that pretend to be neutral run the risk of, among other things, silencing others.

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