A keynote for the 2015 We are Museums Conference in Berlin, Germany. Museums… why should we care? Much has been written about the changes our culture is experiencing as institutions that once held a place of primary esteem have now somehow become less important than they once were. Museums are at the crux of this change and are wondering how we might preserve and bottle the relevance we hold with our audiences. At the same time, we find that relevance to be changing, ephemeral, and eroding. How should museums answer these fundamental questions about our impact and why we matter at all? When challenged to defend the public investment and trust that we have stewarded for so many years, are we prepared to give a good account? In this talk, Rob will expand on his seminal article about museum impact, Museums… So What? and will provide new insights and opportunities for museums to look towards to document and demonstrate actual real impact that museums provide and the tangible benefits museums can bring to their communities. “Museums… so what?” will follow up on his much discussed article from the CODE|WORDS series on Medium. https://medium.com/code-words-technology-and-theory-in-the-museum/

1. Flickr Credit ~brandondoran
MUSEUMS… SO WHAT?Robert Stein, Dallas Museum of Art
@rjstein

2. IMAGE OF MOON

6. We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not
because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure
the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are
unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
September 12, 1962. President John F. Kennedy at Rice University in Houston, TX.

7. If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for
knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will
go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no
nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race
for space.
President John F. Kennedy
12 September 1962.

8. Flickr Credit ~atrid
MUSEUMSare under pressure

9. FINANCIAL
SUCCESS

10. Flickr Credit ~andyhay
ATTENDANCE

11. Flickr Credit ~fotodispalle
RELEVANCE

12. Museums are caught in a
tug of war between impact
and entertainment

13. EDUCATE
ENTERTAIN

14. EDUCATE
ENTERTAIN
Unfortunately for many museums’ social
missions, visitors indicate that the quality
of an organization’s “educational
experience” matters relatively little to
overall satisfaction.
Entertainment vs Education: How Your Audience Really Rates
The Museum Experience – Colleen Dilenschneider
(colleendilen.com)

15. PETER SINGER

16. “… it seems clear that there are objective reasons for
thinking we may be able to do more good in one of these
areas than in another.”
Peter Singer on supporting the arts vs. global health
Good Charity, Bad Charity, August 10, 2013. The New York Times
PETER SINGER

17. Quoting from an argument advanced by moral
philosopher Peter Singer, for instance, [Gates]
questions why anyone would donate money to
build a new wing for a museum rather than
spend it on preventing illnesses that can lead to
blindness. “The moral equivalent is, we’re going
to take 1 per cent of the people who visit this
museum and blind them,” he says. “Are they
willing, because it has the new wing, to take that
risk? Hmm, maybe this blinding thing is slightly
barbaric.”
Financial Times, Richard Waters, November 1,
2013.
MUSEUMS…
SLIGHTLY BARBARIC

18. The things that make a museum good are its purpose to make a
positive difference in the quality of people’s lives, its command of
resources adequate to that purpose, and its possession of a
leadership determined to ensure that those resources are being
directed and effectively used toward that end.
(Making Museums Matter, Weil, 1997)
WHAT MAKES A
MUSEUM GOOD?
Flickr Credit superamit

19. WHY ARE WE SO
BAD AT PROVING
OUR IMPACT?
Flickr Credit ~hadock

20. IMPAC
T
MUSEUMS ARE IDEALLY
EQUIPPED FOR SOCIAL

21. MUSEUMS CAN BE
CATHEDRALS FOR CULTURE

22. MUSEUMS ARE PLACES TO
THRASH OUT BIG IDEAS
[Museums] have become cathedrals for a secular
culture, storehouses of collective values and
diverse histories, places where increasingly we
seem to want to spend our free time and thrash
out big issues. We put our faith in few traditional
institutions these days, but the museum is still one
of them.
Museums in a Quandary: Where Are the Ideals?
Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, August 26, 2001

23. Flicker ~draphotography
MUSEUM PEOPLE
BELIEVE THIS

24. Flicker ~draphotography
BUT THE PUBLIC
DOESN’T
We’ve dawdled around too long
with a small vision and failed to
inspire them

25. Issues of low or no priority for museums:
• Fostering a sense of community
• Helping the vulnerable
• Providing a forum for debate
• Promoting social justice and human rights
PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF – AND
ATTITUDES TO - THE PURPOSES
OF MUSEUMS IN SOCIETY
A report prepared by BritainThinks for Museums
Association (Museums 2020 vision)

26. The study goes on to assert that the public holds
museums in an esteemed place of trust, but would
rather have them stick to caring for collections and
providing entertaining (but educational) experiences for
our children.
PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF – AND
ATTITUDES TO - THE PURPOSES
OF MUSEUMS IN SOCIETY
A report prepared by BritainThinks for Museums
Association (Museums 2020 vision)

27. HOUSTON, WE HAVE
A PROBLEM

28. For all our laments about losing relevance – we’ve
failed to pitch a big enough idea to inspire the public
and ourselves to great change.
Flickr Credit ~hadock
RELEVANCE IS
FLEETING

29. MUSEUMS NEED
A MOONSHOT

30. Flickr Credit ~christopherbrown
GAPS ARE FORMING IN
SOCIETY THAT CANNOT
ULTIMATELY BE
SUSTAINED

31. To solve the world’s big
problems we need to get
out of the
BOX

32. Flickr Credit ~photohannah
COULD MUSEUMS BE
A CATALYST FOR
THAT CHANGE?

33. Flickr Credit ~photohannah
COULD YOU BE A
CATALYST FOR THAT
CHANGE?

34. Flickr Credit ~mediotanque
GLOBAL
POPULATIONis growing by 80m people each year

35. Source http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/153596/

36. Flickr Credit ~fab05
70% OF THE GLOBAL
POPULATION WILL LIVE IN ONE
BY 2050CITIES
Source: Guardian Cities, Jan 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jan/27/guardian-cities-site-urban-future-dwell-
human-history-welcome

37. Flickr Credit ~cgpgrey
INCOME
INEQUALITY
No society can be
flourishing and happy of
which the far greater part of
its members are poor and
miserable
Adam Smith, The Wealth of
Nations

38. 1% OF THE
POPULATION OWNS
46% OF THE WEALTHSource: Oxfam, “Working for the Few”

39. 85 RICHEST OWN
AS MUCH AS THE
POOREST 50%Source: Oxfam, “Working for the Few”

40. The simple story of America is this:
the rich are getting richer, the
richest of the rich are getting still
richer, the poor are becoming
poorer and more numerous, and
the middle class is being hollowed
out. The incomes of the middle
class are stagnating or falling, and
the difference between them and
the truly rich is increasing.
The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided
Society Endangers Our Future. Joseph E.
Stiglitz, 2012.

41. US CHILD
POVERTY
RATE IS AT A
20-YEAR
HIGH
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/28/child-poverty-us_n_6054958.html

42. This massive concentration of
economic resources in the
hands of fewer people presents
a significant threat to inclusive
political and economic systems.
Instead of moving forward
together, people are increasingly
separated by economic and
political power, inevitably
heightening social tensions and
increasing the risk of societal
breakdown
Oxfam, “Working for the few” Jan 20,
2014.

45. Jean Antoine Theodore Giroust
French. 1753-1817
The Harp Lesson
1791

46. Philippe Joseph de Bourbon, Duc d’Orléans (1747-1793)

47. Eugene Louise Adelaide de Bourbon Orléans
(1777-1847)

48. Féicité Ducrest de Saint-Aubin (1746-1830)
Madame de Genlis

49. Eugene Louise Adelaide de Bourbon Orléans

50. Louis Philippe I, King of the French – 1830-1848

51. Flickr Credit ~cgpgrey
SOCIAL
ISOLATION
We must learn to live
together as brothers or
perish together as fools.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

52. These days, insecure in our
relationships and anxious about
intimacy, we look to technology
for ways to be in relationships
and protect ourselves from them
at the same time. The ties we
form through the Internet are
not, in the end, the ties that
bind. But they are the ties that
preoccupy…
Sherry Turkle, MIT professor and author of
Alone Together
THE CHANGING NATURE
OF FRIENDS

53. I fear that we are beginning
to design ourselves to suit
digital models of us, and I
worry about a leaching of
empathy and humanity in
that process.
Jaron Lanier, virtual reality pioneer and
author of You Are Not a Gadget
THE CHANGING NATURE
OF FRIENDS

54. Flickr credit ~cosmic_bandita
35 percent of adults older than 45 are
chronically lonely, an increase of 25%
compared to a decade prior
Roughly 20 percent of Americans—about
60 million people—are unhappy with their
lives because of loneliness.
In 1985, only 10 percent of Americans said
they had no one with whom to discuss
important matters, and 15 percent said
they had only one such good friend.
By 2004, 25 percent had nobody to talk to,
and 20 percent had only one confidant.
Is Facebook Making Us Lonely. The Atlantic
AN EPIDEMIC OF
LONELINESS

55. Flickr Credit ~bionicteaching
Death from suicide is now more likely than
dying in a car crash or from cancer.
Dan Diamond. Stopping the Growing Risk of Suicide.
2014

56. Flickr Credit ~nanophoto69
Loneliness is not just making us sick, it is killing us. Loneliness is
a serious health risk. Studies of elderly people and social isolation
concluded that those without adequate social interaction were
twice as likely to die prematurely. The increased mortality risk is
comparable to that from smoking. And loneliness is about twice
as dangerous as obesity.
Social isolation impairs immune function and boosts inflammation,
which can lead to arthritis, type II diabetes, and heart disease.
Loneliness is breaking our hearts, but as a culture we rarely talk
about it.
Jessica Olien – Slate.com “Loneliness Is Deadly
LONELINESS IS DEADLY

58. Flickr Credit ~cgpgrey
POLARIZING
IDEOLOGY
If you want to go fast – go
alone. If you want to go
far – go together.
Dr. Johnetta Betsch Cole,
Smithsonian National African Art Museum

60. Source: DW-NOMINATE Scores of the House and Senate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/02/13/polarization-in-congress-has-risen-sharply-where-is-it-going-next/

62. FRANKFURT
MARCH, 2015

63. BALTIMORE
April, 2015

64. DALLAS, TX
MAY, 2015

65. K.1.2014.82
Syria
The “Homberg Ewer”, 1242
Brass inlaid with silver
15 1/2 × 8 1/2 × 8 in. (39.37 × 21.59 × 20.32 cm)
The Keir Collection of Islamic Art
on loan to the Dallas Museum of Art

66. 66

67. 67

68. Polarization of opinion along ideological,
racial, gender, and class lines; exclusive
social structures separating rich from
poor and majorities from minorities; a
sense of individual disempowerment; and
the overwhelming nature of many of
society’s problems are all factors
contributing to this sense.
Perhaps most fundamentally, the
crosscutting nature of today’s complex
issues often places them outside of the
traditional structures and settings, such
as civic organizations, labor unions, and
political parties, which have served in the
past to organize civic discourse.
Americans for the Arts, 1999

69. MUSEUMS NEED
A MOONSHOT

70. EMPATHY
/`empaTHē/
noun
The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

71. There’s a lot of talk in this country about the
federal deficit. But I think we should talk
more about our empathy deficit – the ability
to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes;
…
we live in a culture that discourages
empathy. A culture that too often tells us our
principal goal in life is to be rich, thin, young,
famous, safe, and entertained. A culture
where those in power too often encourage
these selfish impulses.
Senator Obama at the 2006 Commencement Ceremony for
Northwestern University
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2006/06/ba
rack.html#sthash.4ql0gZhs.dpuf
EMPATHYDEFICIT

72. EMPATHY
Recent research shows a steep drop in self-reported empathy
measures among college-age students. In a study of nearly
14,000 student, 75% of them rated themselves as less
empathetic than the average student 30 years ago.
Multiple studies link the increase in social isolation as a key
factor resulting in lower empathy scores.
What, Me Care? Young Are Less Empathetic
Jamil Zaki, Dec 23, 2010.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-me-care
IS CHANGING

73. Even after controlling for age, race and
education, we found that participation in
the arts, especially as audience,
predicted civic engagement, tolerance
and altruism.
Ranallo, A. B. Interest in Arts Predicts Social Responsibility: Study
University of Illinois at Chicago. August 16, 2012.
CULTURE CREATES
BETTER CITIZENS

74. The potential of art to create indelible images, to
express difficult ideas through metaphor, and to
communicate beyond the limits of language makes
it a powerful force for illuminating civic experience.
Animating Democracy, Americans for the Arts
EMPATHY

75. Begin with art, because art tries to take us outside
ourselves. It is a matter of trying to create an
atmosphere and context so conversation can flow
back and forth and we can be influenced by each
other.
W. E. B. Du Bois
EMPATHY

76. BALTIMORE
April, 2015

78. EMPATHY
Is empathy the killer app for museums?

79. MUSEUMS CAN
BRIDGE THE GAP

80. Just 7 years after Kennedy’s speech in
Houston, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon

81. What if museums could help to solve any one
of these problems in the next 7 years?

82. If this history of our culture teaches us anything, it is that a changing society cannot be
deterred. These changes will go ahead, whether we join in them or not, and they are one of
the great adventures of all time, and no museum which expects to be the leader of other
museums can expect to stay behind in the race for impact and relevance.
President John F. Kennedy
12 September 1962.
Adapted for Museums, @rjstein
June 2, 2015.

83. A EULOGY FOR
ROBERT FROST
If sometimes our great artist have been the
most critical of our society, it is because their
sensitivity and their concern for justice, which
must motivate any true artist, makes him
aware that our Nation falls short of its highest
potential. I see little of more importance to the
future of our country and our civilization than
full recognition of the place of the artist.
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture,
society must set the artist free to follow his
vision wherever it takes him

84. Music will never again be quite the
same. This will be our reply to violence:
to make music more intensely, more
beautifully, more devotedly than ever
before. And with each note we will honor
his spirit, commemorate his courage,
and reaffirm his faith in the triumph of the
mind
Leonard Bernstein, 1963

85. THANK YOU!
@rjstein
Please read the original Museums… So What? article as a part of:
CODE|WORDS: Technology and Theory in the Museum Project
https://medium.com/code-words-technology-and-theory-in-the-museum/
@CODEWORDSmuse