I've been tied up with the typical duties of any E.D. of a museum...
long executive committee meetings, courting donors, struggling with human resources issues, making collection decisions, etc, etc...

I've often described my job to my staff as "simply trying to keep all the marbles on the table...".  So, I've been away and only now caught up again with some of the posts.  Interesting turn of events....

When I first wrote the piece on our professional culture for AAM years ago, I started with a simple internet search of two words:museum & humor.  I did not get ONE hit back in the mid-1990s.   The observations I made back then are still true (in my mind) today.  I remember sitting in my home office writing...and then turning to my wife at the other desk to share a joke or funny observation.  She's say, "Honey that is good, they'll love it."  But I knew better..I imagined facing a room of 400 silent museum professionals with disapproving looks on their faces.  Sadder still, was the thought that some may not even get it.

As it turned out, it was a huge hit...loud, raucous belly laughs filled a room packed to capacity.  I was later told by an attendee of a session in the next room that the laughter was loud even through the walls...and the speaker in the other session stopped to say, "At least we are doing IMPORTANT work in here!"

Please understand, I do not mean for that story to sound egotistical...only to provide an example of something I've seen so much of in my 25 years as a museum professional.  Great dedication, enormous effort, smart inquiry and a crusade of passion for what we "museum people" do...that seems to, for some folks, almost completely kill their sense of humor...or even place outside of a museum.

I know this much:  I love museums...as much as anyone else here.  But, when my life ends- I refuse to be only a "museum person", I am also a Dad, a son, a husband, someone who treasures the outdoors and great music...  The list goes on and on with museums only filling a portion of my life.  

I take WHAT I do very seriously...I do not take ME so seriously.  As I get older I know with more certainty that this life truly is "but a blink of an eye"...I'll be glad museums were a big part of it...but not all of it...  I want to look back on my life and realize I spent a good deal of it laughing...the whole time I was doing "important work".

Once again, thank you for ALL the comments.

D. Neil Bremer
Executive Director
Elmhurst Art Museum
***********************************************************
D. Neil Bremer
Bremer Communications
(708) 848-5945
(708) 848-6011 FAX


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