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. > >