"David E. Haberstich" <[log in to unmask]> schrieb:
 
Actually, this is an article I wish I had written!  I think he gets it 

right.  What do you think he got wrong?
 
David Haberstich

Dear David, dear all,

I have to agree with you: for a journalist writing on museums, this is
an excellent article. I agree not with any remark, but in toto he seems
to be absolutely right. He expresses exactly what I am trying to
communicate not only in this list since years. He is able to see the
underlying changes in values and the dangerous philosophical statements
which are going to destroy our western culture (f.e. by the new role of

truth in philosophy). 
I would say, for a usual reader this essay is maybe too long. So, some
of the readers just read parts of the article and try not to understand
the message, just getting fixed in words like *brats*. Hold on, hold
on! Brats? There is no doubt that many parents and teachers nowadays
are
unable to educate their children. Just remember the chewing gum on the
picture? Drinking and eating in the gallery rooms and disposing the
rest around the visitor chairs? 

Delingpole did not receive an award writing on brats. Maybe he was
uncautious forgetting the asterix. He was dealing on SOME English and
American MUSEUMS. Not all, but probably a certain trend. As we are not
informed about the quality and quantity of essays by others, it is
against
scientific and journalistic rules to maintain he wrote the only one.
Pamela Silvestri also constructs a relation between the winning of the
award
and the fact that Delingpole is a regular contributor to the TIMES
online. This is ridiculous. Why not giving a prize to a regular
contributor? Why asking sarcastically if this medium is *highly
regarded* admitting ironically that she is not informed at all? For me,
this sounds like trying to avoid the real battlefield but shooting the
deer from the rear.

It is very important for the development of scientific revolutions, to
ask and answer simple questions from time to time. Delingpole refers
obviously to the ICOM description of the functions of museums. For me,
this is not enough, for this answers only their functions, but it is
neither a scientific definition of "museum" nor the answer on the
question "what are museums for?". To answer this question, it needs
more than a reference to the actual ICOM description. For example, the
relation between entertainment and education has to fixed. Or the
relation to "society" (what ever that means) and visitors. 

Millions of tourists from GB and the US are coming to visit, by the
way,
the museums of "old Europe". Most of them are simply overwhelmed. Up
to now, I did not hear the argument "But museums at home are better
because...". In many museums in GB, the US and Canada I felt at home
because of the same underlying traditional viewpoint. So, if some
museums absolutely have to be transformed by the will of some
short-term engaged directors or politicians into hands-on centers and 
kids places, why not? It may take some time, but then tourists
interested 
in real objects, in art, culture, truth and serious work of the curators

will shift to the rest of the institutions. 

Cheers

Dr. Christian Müller-Straten

Verlag Dr. Christian Müller-Straten / MUSEUMS AGENTUR
Kunzweg 23, 81243 München, T. 089-839 690 43, Fax -44
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