![]() Today, museums are striving to relate not only to their current visitors’ lives and times but also to those audiences they aspire to attract. My earliest museum experiences were journeys to other places and about other people in the past. Other enlightening contexts for current museum discussions about diversity are that the Earth’s biodiversity comprises almost nine million species of which only about 6,000 are other mammals, human health depends on environmental health, and a mass extinction of non-human life continues. Climate change has become one of many needed contexts for bringing attention to the fact that we, Homo sapiens, are a geologically recent survivor from multiple Homo species. Only recently has a more holistically minded geoscience profession included a spotlight on human disruption of natural processes. In the 1980s, spurred by exploration from orbiting spacecraft, the field’s attention began to shift toward the Earth System-the interconnection of its outer shells of air, water, ice, and life. Geology used to be about the pre-human Earth. At an AAM Annual Meeting during World War II, Albert Parr, Director of the American Museum of Natural History, spoke about “the painful anxiety and uncertainty with which we search for our proper function in the national struggle for a better future.” Looking back at the Depression, Marjorie Schwarzer, author of the 2020 book Riches, Rivals, & Radicals: A History of Museums in the United States, noted in a 2009 Museum article that “when funds began to flow again … an opportunity to be societal role models for the wisest possible use of resources and talent was lost.Īrguably, this situation has reoccurred in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and in the continuing aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.Ī geologist before a museologist, I have a big-picture perspective, and my interest in the museum profession intensified as the scope of the geosciences expanded. These are not new challenges to the museum profession. It conveys “a sense of grappling with the survival-literally and figuratively-of our planet, our loved ones, our ways of life,” said in announcing its choice. Planning was underway to commemorate the 50th Earth Day-a half century since the world marveled at the first view of Earth from the Moon-just as news organizations began frequent use of the word “existential,” which presciently chose as its 2019 word of the year. ![]() Why and how the perspective and purpose of museums should be widened.Ģ0/20, a common reference to clear hindsight and normal vision, took an ironic twist as 2020 began. This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s May/June 2023 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. Ethics, Standards, and Professional Practices.Ethics, Standards and Professional Practices.Facing Change: Advancing Board Diversity.COVID-19 Resources & Information for the Museum Field.Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion.
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