ABSTRACT
Contemporary society is the elephant, and museums are using a wide variety of efforts to describe the beast. We are a nation attempting to define the "New Man: homo multiculturans". Museums are participants in the effort to define our collective culture. Most museums would see a reflection of themselves in James Boyer's description of the recognition level: acknowledging or taking formal notice of ethnic diversity and admitting diversity as being of some particular status meriting special notice. The Euro-American nature of museum collections, created in an earlier era, makes it difficult for museums to address issues of pluralism. Museums rely on educational programs and changing exhibitions, rather than on their collections, to build new audiences and reach society as a whole. If museums are to remain fresh, current, and relevant, they must focus less on obtaining quantitative proof of change and more on establishing mechanisms to retain, manage, use, and share the power of diversity.
