ABSTRACT

The demand that publicly funded art museums contribute to the creation of a more socially inclusive society poses a fundamental challenge to many assumptions about what these institutions are for and to how they function. To go beyond providing mere physical access to the presence of works of art (even if this is free) to providing intellectual and emotional access to the meanings of the works of art for all potential visitors and to taking a developmental approach to visitors’ aesthetic experiences, will require changes in the conventions of art museums. Such changes often evoke real and profound opposition. Is this opposition designed to protect a valued tradition, which is coincidentally and not intentionally exclusive? Or is it that art museums, as currently conceived, are inherently exclusive? What is the relationship between aesthetic standards applied to works of art and traditions of display, and the ethical standards that shape the public services provided by art museums, which receive public subsidy either directly or through the tax system?