Some random ruminations on the museum education thread and some of the
implicit themes:

First: Far be it from me to criticize (!), but please forgive me for a
friendly FYI--it's "MEA maxima culpa".

I agreed with most of Matthew White's recent comments, but hope his last
paragraph won't lead to another futile debate about what is or isn't a museum.

As far as what museum educators do vs. what curators do, there should be no
conflict of goals or programs.  The curatorial and education facets of a
museum should be complementary.  It bothers me a bit when I occasionally see
museum education programs that appear to veer off onto independent tangents
that don't seem closely related to the exhibitions, collections, and
resources of the museum.  This doesn't mean that exhibits and collections
always have to drive the education programs; good education initiatives could
influence collections and exhibits, just as an exhibit concept is a useful
way to drive collecting, filling in the gaps, etc.

I'm a museum collections-oriented type and consider collections the core of
what we usually regard as a museum, but that doesn't mean I discount the
importance of audiences, whether they're visitors to popular exhibits,
specialized researchers who use study collections behind the scenes, or
children who attend museum education programs.  Occasionally someone will
contend passionately that visitors or audiences, education or "the
experience" in a museum are more important than the collections or individual
artifacts (the "people, not objects" rhetoric), but to me that's analogous to
insisting that restaurant customers are more important than the food.  It's
rather pointless to try to set up a dichotomy or conflict that doesn't really
exist.  Ultimately the chef needs to be concerned about whether or not the
customers like the food, certainly, but then has to return to the kitchen to
concentrate on the intricacies of collecting the ingredients, preparing them,
and presenting them.  I can't think of very many lines of work that don't
involve trying to satisfy some audience.  Museums aren't unique in that
respect.

David Haberstich

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