I decline to accept the end of museums

On 10th December 1950 in Stockholm, Sweden a modest writer called William Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He accepted it during the dark days following the Soviet acquisition of the nuclear bomb and the very future of civilisation seemed under threat. Move forward 66 years and the pessimists are talking of the death of museums. I disagree strongly with this view. Read (or listen to) the Faulkner speech, apply it to museums and the argument for optimism still holds up. This can be simply because museums are an intrinsic part of human civilisation. To lose them would be part of the loss of self. The speech can also be read as an emphasis on the link of museums with the broader cultural and artistic community. Unwittingly he has hit upon one of the secrets of sustainability that Arts Council England are very keen on. i.e. working with artists.

I have taken an reinterpreted excerpt from the speech. I hope it will inspire you as it did me.

"I decline to accept the end of museums. It is easy enough to say that museums are immortal because they will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of museums puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that museums will not merely endure: they will prevail. They are immortal, not because they alone among cultural organisations have an inexhaustible voice, but because they have a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and engagement and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help museums endure by lifting their hearts, by reminding them of their collections and activities and hope and pride and compassion and love and sacrifice which have been the glory of humanity's past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of museums, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help them endure and prevail."

William Faulkner 1919 - 1962