ABSTRACT

I am not sure that there is a more incisive statement than this of the effort required to ensure that museums continue to be valued as social institutions in our society. We have good reason to worry about this, or even to despair. Despite the many efforts at change currently underway in museums worldwide, however modest, there remains little or no indication that they will ensure a desirable future for museums as we know them. This is not a matter of being optimistic or pessimistic, but rather a reflection of several persistent questions which may, in fact, not be answerable but which must be acknowledged. These questions are paradoxical, meaning that they are simultaneously contradictory, unbelievable, absurd, true or false in their meaning and implications.