Museum Usefulness

Engagement has become synonymous with relevance and organizational livelihood. Glenn Lowry no less, director of the Museum of Modern Art, put it in these terms at a recent talk at the Art Institute of Chicago: The museum, which has depended on an art-centric definition that privileges the aura of the object (collect, preserve, etc.), must be reconsidered. “The aura of the object must engage the aura of the public and together create a powerful dynamic…If the 20th century in American museums was about collection-building, the 21st century is about using those collections.”

Unlike Lowry, Simon made it clear at the start of her talk that she’s not a museum lover by inclination. She finds herself frustrated by museums’ failure to realize their full potential. Among other things, she would like for museums to not just be “visited,” but to be “used.” Elaine Heumann Gurian, Lonnie Bunch, and others have also long argued for museums to become useful to audiences. A pragmatist and a doer, what Simon adds is a set of practical examples that show how museum and cultural organization folk can begin to treat our audiences as participants with us in a process of evolving together.

She asked (and I paraphrase):

What is it that you are trying to figure out in your organizations that your audiences can help you figure out? And what is it that you are ultimately are trying to do? What is your mission, your vision, your goals as an organization? 

Too often, participatory models are only so in name because the goal of the organizer completely drives the form and the outcomes, and/or the participatory program derails the organization by privileging audiences over mission. Unlike Gurian, who is not terribly concerned with mission creep as long as it increases the organization’s usefulness, Simon puts goals front and center. I appreciate these dimensions of Simon’s advocacy. They bring focus and purpose to participation.

The talk ended, I lingered, and then I left with many questions:

• How is it that we invite our audiences to engage? When are we unintentionally lecturing even before the person has arrived? And can the invitation more clearly set up the expectations about the nature of the experience?
• Can participation permeate an institution? Is that desirable?
• Does a participatory ethos in how we engage audiences require a participatory and reciprocal internal culture, or can active, participatory engagement emerge from hierarchical and rigid organizations?
• Is the current trend to embrace participation the result of a bias toward extroverts?
• Why present this program as a lecture, and why such a traditional Q&A?
• Is there a future for the lecture in this participatory world?
• Why do lectures persist, and why do we still show up for them?

Jackie Terrassa is Associate Director of Education, Public Programs, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Photo by Terry Gydesen.