ABSTRACT

The future of museums, and of those who work in them, is closely aligned with the future of the society or cultures in which they exist. As the twentyfirst century approaches, we are encouraged to consider how the world and society may be restructured, how civilizations and their cultural characteristics may evolve, and what impact the evolutionary changes may have on our traditional institutional structures and content. Interestingly, we can look back to the 1980s and evaluate the predictions in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. What credibility did futurists and their predictions have anyway? As we have observed, studying the future has become a serious and largely respected profession that allows us to predict with some accuracy the shape and characteristics of societies and civilizations and their respective values and cultural institutions in decades and generations that will follow. We have an opportunity to look hopefully to the future for a better, or at least a different, world. During the latter part of the twentieth century significant and remarkable changes have been occurring. American society is emerging as more culturally diverse than ever, and we are getting better at recognizing and acknowledging diversity. The population as a whole is aging, with proportional shifts in population age groups. There are demographic regional realignments, with people moving to the west, southwest, and southeast areas of the United States. Public education is under increasing criticism as inadequate to meet new and better standards and cultural needs; some believe public education requires a major overhaul. Astounding new technologies are being developed with almost frightening speed. The information explosion is here. The planet earth's ecosystem

is seriously threatened and endangered, and social problems of poverty, health, drug abuse, AIDS, and homelessness persist. Gender equity has taken on renewed importance, and people with special disability needs are newly empowered. Financial instability will continue to be a problem for the country and its institutions, but may taper off as the economy improves. Political influences are attempting indirectly to reshape, perhaps temporarily, cultural and educational institutions in the United States. As society and lifestyles are restructured and new social values evolve, so the institutions that reflect them will also change, including our museums. Indeed, individuals who can initiate changes, or adapt to them quickly, will staff those institutions. Tomislav Sola of Croatia has observed that "we have to analyze institutions in order to make assertions concerning their professional staffs."3 Indeed, if museums as institutions are changing we must examine what types of individuals are best suited to work in them. Can museums be barometers of the future while traditionally preserving the past? Are they indeed catalysts for change? Should they be? What are the roles for museums in managing and coping with the problems and changes of society that they may provide even more meaningful environments for study, education, and interpretation? Lorena San Roman of Costa Rica argues: "Today, museums cannot be useless, because if they are, they will disappear. They must play a role in the polemics of the country and in its socio-economic development."4 The time for reflection and action is upon us. Museums must embrace new social and educational roles in their communities. Attempted external controls of museums cannot prevent museums from raising social issues, presenting alternatives, and finding past and present truths for our lives. "Cabinets of curiosities," if ever they were that, will become agents of change.