ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how museums and galleries have tried to respond to crucial issues, and the wider implications of the patterns. The National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC was first planned in 1980 and finally opened in 2004 with a ceremony which included a six-day "First Americans festival and a Native Nations Procession". In the early years of public museums and galleries in the UK, entry was sometimes restricted to visitors who had a letter of invitation and adhered to the correct dress-code. The importance of visiting as a child points to a key feature of typical audiences to museums and galleries: the majority of such audiences today in many countries are family groups, although there are differentials between museums and galleries. An important consideration when thinking about community involvement in museums is that individual 'communities' may well not necessarily share, or even adhere to, the museum's broad remit to represent the 'public' more widely.
