At 08:23 AM 8/30/96 +0200, you wrote:
>>>> <[log in to unmask]> 30/August/1996 03:45am >>>
>The discussion about living, breathing politicos using museums should be
>a
>cause for great cheering -
>
>Surely that depends on the public's peceptions of the
>government/government structures. The low poll achieved in US
>elections might indicate complete indifference of real protest against the
>government so making the connection so blatant might be negative for a
>museum's image.
>
>Obviously I don't want to compare SA and the US but inthe bad old days
>one of the worst perceptions museums were struggling against was that
>they were just another government institution and obvioulsy not relevant
>for the vast majority of South Africans. It is interesting now to see people
>showing a curiosity in museums BECAUSE they are a government
>institution.
>
>I was horrified recently when I saw a rally on the the 'language issue'
>held at a museum on the television news. I suppose they thought that
>language was a cultural issue and, therefore, appropriate for a museum,
>except that the rally was a protest against the imagined discrimination
>against Afrikaans and was addressed by political party members and
>attended primarily by old SA flag waving crowds. That certainly did
>nothing for the image of museums here.
>
>Kathryn Mathers
>Pretoria
Kathryn:  Odd, I did not realize that all museums were government,
especially those who are non-profit, non supported by local, state
or federal funding (some do not accept government funds) and like to
be total nonprofit and non-controlled.

Wait a second, too, were not muses first intended to be "temples of
learning", forums for debate, places to learn?  A place people came
to learn and seek knowledge about all issues?

Maybe, certain museums are more worried about "image" rather than
doing their job of educating, providing learning opportunities
in all areas, just as did that first museum was intended to do.

Wait another second, wasn't that first temple of learning controlled
by the State?  So actually, museums have gone a long ways -- became
independent, worked to present opportunities for all to learn, to seek
wisdom and knowledge and to expand the horizon of growth and
knowledge about community and society to all.  Did not museum expands
from private collections and cabinets to allow all inside?
Now, all can enter to learn no matter their age, physical or
mental disadvantaged -- they all come to learn, to seek and expand
their own mind.

If museums do not offer that opportunity -- and take the risk to
deal with "all" issues (such as politics) -- they, the museums, are
not doing their job.  This should be true in South American, just
as much as in Russia, China, America or on the moon.  Museums, IMHO,
are there for others to come and learn.  It is up to us, the museum
folk, to provide that opportunity -- yes, no matter the issue.

Museums are growing, expanding and changing.  Government should not
control the museum, the issue, the topic or the concept of freedom
of thought and learning.  Nor should we cater to the local, state
or federal government (yes there are are laws, that is not the issue);
we cater to the public -- we are the preservers of history; we provide
true and acturate knowledge, without taking sides, without giving
personal opinion -- but only the facts and let the visitor learn and
make up their own mind.  That would be the purpose of a political
discussion at a museum.  To provide a learning opportunity about
political discussion, a way things were done in the past.

Hey, now wait one more minute.  Let me stay on my soap-box. [I just
heard Clinton talk last night---I'm on a roll, let us "build those
bridges into the future", we can take our past with us, not return
to the past]. With the growth of culture, society, travel and heritage
tourism, museums are now dealing with a wider range of visitors.  That
opens up musuems to expand their concepts of interpretation to a wider
array of subjects (within their scope of collection and mission
statement) to be able to interest and provide exhibitions and de-
monstrations that actually fit a national and international level of
visitor.  We cannot be tied down to thinking we cannot provide learning
opportunities, because that is our job.  When we do not, then we really
are not museums.

(Boy, I mean "person", what did I have for breakfast?  Wait a minute, it
is early -- I have not had breakfast!!!)  Give me food, give me food
for thought (IMHO, that is the role of a museum)!!  :-)

john
John Martinson
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755 Myra Rd
Walla Walla, WA  99364
(509) 525-7703 (Work)