< Back

MUSEUMS OF TOMORROW: AN INTERNET CONFERENCE

Welcome to the archive of Museums of Tomorrow: An Internet Conference, which was sponsored by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Research Center through the Museum website from October 6-19, 2003, and organized and moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New School University; Curator, Center for Art and Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County.

ORGANIZATION
An international group of thirty renowned scholars, artists, museum directors, and curators participated in this two week-long discussion. The public accessed the discussion on the Museum website. The conference offered scholars, curators, artists, and the interested public from all over the world an unprecedented opportunity to talk to and listen to each other. The interchange of ideas never ceased during the two-week period of the conference, because the discussion was active and available on the Internet 24 hours a day.

OVERVIEW
What is the future of the art museum? For a two-week period, October 6-19, 2003, a national group of thirty scholars, artists, museum directors, and curators discussed and debated the role of the art museum in this Internet conference. Given the increasing commercial-as well as global-direction of culture, the future of the art museum as we now know is it no longer certain. Participants explored a range of issues about the viability, relevance, effectiveness, responsibility, and role of the museum in an ever-changing world.

This conference explored the museum of the 21st Century from multiple viewpoints touching on a number of questions: How can directors and curators respond to changing audiences and constituencies? What is the social and ethical responsibility of the museum curator or director? Who is responsible for the content of exhibitions? Should artists and critics have greater say in museum programming? What is the relationship between the art museum and other forms of cultural entertainment? What role can new media and technologies play in the future of the art museum? Should art museums reflect the increasing globalization of culture? What is the future of museum education? How should art museums address and correct pasts histories of prejudice and exclusion? Is the virtual museum the wave of the future? Are art museums doomed to extinction?

The proceedings of this conference were published in the volume Museums of Tomorrow: A Virtual Discussion, edited by Maurice Berger, co published by the Research Center and The Center for Art & Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2005.