ABSTRACT
From shamans to scientists, many predict that the twenty-rst century will soon bring the human community to an inevitable and irrevocable turning point. As we enter what scientist Edward O. Wilson has called “humanity’s bottleneck” (2002), a time of peak strain and an unprecedented challenge to our natural, economic, and intellectual resources, humankind will either meet its dire need to transform on a global scale or collapse (Musser 2005). Already, the century’s escalating epidemics, extreme natural disasters, and ruthless international violence seem like glaring symptoms of a world at risk. We are quite capable of destroying each other and the planet. To survive and thrive in the next age, we must evolve new strategies for benecial coexistence, using every suitable means to do so. In this light, the social work of museums no longer seems optional, or a clever way to keep collectionsbased institutions relevant, but an essential responsibility to humankind. e world’s museums have always been committed to caring for culture. To insure the next age, museums must help foster cultures of caring.
