Dave --

Fascinating debate!  And again, not something we are likely to resolve.
Greater minds than our (well, mine, anyway) have wrestled this to a
stalemate.  I would simply ask us all to consider the following rubric:

1) Does your organization have COLLECTIONS?

YES -- then you may or may not be a museum (private collectors have
collections, but are not museums)

NO -- then you may or may not be a museum (children's museums and science
centers are often collection-less)

2) Does your organization have EXHIBITS?

YES -- then you may or may not be a museum (aiports, shopping centers, etc.
sometimes have exhibits, but are not museums)

NO -- then I'm sorry, but you are not a museum.

Years ago, someone figured out that if you took an average, 150-pound
person, broke them down into their constitutent chemicals, and tried to
sell those chemicals on the open market, you'd get about 98 cents.
Inflation has, no doubt, altered that figure.  The point, however, is that
simply having 150 pounds of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, etc. does not give
you a person.  Only when the atoms and molecules are put together and used
in a certain way do you get this wonderful creature that can think, love,
inspire and be inspired, form pots and democracies, and write long,
rambling, incoherent posts.

So too the relationship between objects, exhibits, and museums.  A bunch of
objects is a bunch of objects.  Only when you put them together in an
exhibit do you get this wonderful thing called a museum.

It is true, we are all upset over the loss of Iraqi objects.  (Some of us
more upset than others.  ;-)  )  No one is upset over the loss of the
exhibits.  I would argue that this is due, at least in part, to the fact
that there weren't any.  I have read that the Iraqi National Museum had
been closed for five years.  (Even when it was open, it was clearly part of
the regime's mantle of power.  It was not a people's palace, a place for
public discourse.  Such discourse was not possible under Hussein.  But I
digress...)  In the eyes of the people, this was not a museum at all.  It
was another government warehouse, full of wealth the regime had looted from
its people.  Now the people were taking their heritage back.

Admittedly, an extreme reading of recent events.

There have been many eloquent posts lately about the power of objects.  I
am in complete agreement with them all, and believe in that power as
passionately as any.  However, if the object is not available, then its
power is not available.  An object in collections storage, or in a closed
and shuttered museum, is not powerful.  It may have the potential for
power.  But until it is made available to the public -- until it is on
exhibit -- then it, and the museum, are mere ciphers.

Therefore I would argue, with nothing but the greatest respect for Jim
Volkert and his wonderful staff, that the National Museum of the American
Indian is not a museum.  Not yet.  It is a museum under construction, a
museum to be.  But until they open their doors to the public, and the
resonance and wonder can begin, then no, they are just a room full of stuff.

-- Eugene "Ugly Ties" Dillenburg

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).