Museums Change Lives? (or have they 'redesigned their disguise?' *)

We've just had the first Heritage Discussion Group today, which follows on from the reading group last year. it was lovely to see everybody, and meet some of our new students.

This month, we focussed on thinking about the Museums Change Lives vision, produced by the MA in 2013. The vision proposes:

Museums change people’s lives. They enrich the lives of individuals, contribute to strong and resilient communities, and help create a fair and just society. And museums in turn are enriched by the skills and creativity of their public.

 It follows on from an extensive piece of research they did into attitudes towards museums called Museums 2020.

What I wanted to do here, is not summarise the debate, but perhaps try to allow some of the debate to continue here. So, the things that particularly resonated with me about the discussion were the issues that this vision raises in terms of:

•  legacy
• charity
• criticality
• politics
• stability
• trust
• ideology
• partnerships

 I'd really welcome any comments or further posts, which engage with or comment on these ideas.


* I need to credit Katie for this succinct and provocative idea.