Has anyone read this issue? Summer issue of "Daedalus": Crossroads for American museums American museums are more popular and more controversial than ever, according to a series of articles in the journal. Authors -- a mix of scholars, curators, and museum administrators -- explore the history of American museums, and their financial and cultural status. "The American museum is being substantially reshaped," writes Stephen E. Weil, emeritus senior scholar at the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Museum Studies. "In place of an establishment-like institution focused primarily inward on the growth, care, and study of its collection, what is emerging instead is a more entrepreneurial institution that ... will have shifted its principal focus outward to concentrate on providing a variety of primarily educational services to the public." Several of the articles deal with how the new outward focus opens up museums to controversy. William L. Boyd, president emeritus of the Field Museum and of the University of Iowa, for example, looks at debate over how museums have collected and displayed objects. For many of the authors, a central issue is how to handle the numerous and inconsistent demands being placed on museums. Neil Harris, a professor of history at the University of Chicago, notes that museums have been called "racist, revisionist, hegemonic, elitist, politically correct, mercenary, greedy, and self-serving." Yet, he notes, they are at "a historic peak of institutional power and influence." The challenge, Mr. Harris writes, is to make sense of "this apparent paradox -- triumphant public achievements coexisting with sternly issued warnings." The contents of the journal are not on line, but information about it is available at http://daedalus.amacad.org/daehome.html Copyright (c) 1999 The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. 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).