Here is a re-posting of the message on museums as a "safe place" in which
community members can congregate and reflect on their collective
past/future.  The message was originally sent by Elaine Heumann Gurion at
<[log in to unmask]>.

>Here is something I am thinking and writing about and wonder what
>people's reaction to this is and if anyone knows of programs that
>foster this kind of behavior in museums intentionally.
>
>-- If we believe that congruent behvior is part of human need, then one
>of the things that all museum locations offer is an opportunity for
>people to be with and see other people.  Why not make that a virtue?
>Why not introduce program that capitalizes on human interaction?
>
>-- There seems to be a growing if intuitive feeling that in order for
>civility to predominate, we, as citizens, must blance individualism
>with group adherence and independence with compliance.  We must
>celebrate diligence and discipline as we celebrate spontaneity and
>individual creativity.  We must not allow repression but neither can we
>condone chaos.
>
>-- Museum will have to change a great deal if they are to be truly
>welcoming to all.  Yet museums have a core purpose inherently important
>to our joint survival.  It is not (as you might automatically think)
>that museums have collections, but rather that museums are one of our
>acknowledged "institutions of memory" and we all need to be rooted in
>our collective past as well as willing to face our collection future.
>
>-- Museums can capitalize on their place in the community.  They can,
>if they wish, enhance, foster and celebrate the congregant behavior
>that happens within its walls.  Museum in making a safe space for all
>will then be adding to the safety of the whole community.
>
>