The Museum of the 21st Century
Jul 14
I stumbled across an amazing podcast of two cultural powerhouses - Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, and Nicholas Serota, director of Tate - discussing the future of museums. The two were filmed during a London School of Economics presentation in June 2009 and discussed some interesting themes:
- the museum as publisher
- the museum moving online and jobs such as editor becoming more important
- greater communication between curator and visitor
- opening up collections to all audiences - across the world including China and Africa
Nicholas Serota had one of the best lines of the discussion:
The museum is a repository of world knowledge and has a place in civic society.
If only politicians thought that way and the population voted that way!
The discussion is long but worth it - and surprisingly funny in places. The Guardian also did a piece on it, as did the Social Media and Cultural Communication blog, who also attended.