More Gnomic Aphorisms for Museums

In my self anointed role as museum guru I often tweet remarkably deep and important thoughts about museums and the museum world. Some of them are appreciated, some of them aren't, but I think I'm beginning to see a shift in museum practice as a consequence. I like to think the British Museum's Community Conference was inspired by the Museum of Unreason's weekly 'let's talk about it in the pub' sessions. Perhaps the V&A's desire to embrace the loss of curatorial control via social media is a direct mirroring of my own loss of control after Theakston's Old Peculier has worked its singular magic during my sessions 'in the pub'.

During the month of May I have been tweeting my manifesto to the world in 140 characters or less. Here they are collected in one place as a resource for history to thank me for in the centuries to come.


Importance of Museums

"I don't think many people have a very good understanding of museums and the importance they could play in their lives."

"In museums nearly everything we do is of no importance, but it is important that we do it."

"Museums,if poor, are of no importance, and if excellent, of infinite importance. The only thing is they cannot be is moderately important."

"For sustainability what is required is a profound and thorough conviction of the justice, necessity and importance of museums by museums."

"We shouldn't stop talking about the importance of our museums & culture because the well-being of society is directly linked to them."

"I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilisation than full recognition of the place of the museum."

"Without a museum, society is a flock of sheep without a shepherd but without innovation, a museum is a living corpse."


Museum Funding

"The importance of money to museums flows from it being a non-existent in the present with the likelihood of there being less in the future."

"Museums for museums' sake is a philosophy of the well-funded."

"Museums should be more about making an impact on society, rather than making an income from society."



Future of Museums 

"The only way to predict the future  for your museum is to shape your own future for it, not leave it to gov’t."

"Surely museum sustainability depends on changing thinking to become something that society 'needs to have' rather than 'would like to have'."

"Museums are not a product of their circumstances. They are a product of their decisions and the quicker they realise this the better."

"The best time to have rethought your museum was 10 years ago - the second best time is now."



Museums as Cultural Hubs

"For a museum to be a cultural leader is not to have all the ideas; it's to create a culture where everyone can have ideas & feel valued."

"Diversity in museums results from the real interchange of ideas, objects and influences, not from the insular development of a single idea."

"We should not want museums for the few any more than education for the few, or freedom for the few."

Secret of Good Exhibitions

"The aim of a museum is to display not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance for humanity."

"The basic principle of a museum exhibition must be to make us pause."

"A good museum exhibition allows you to enter it from a variety of angles and to emerge with a variety of views."

"Great museums discuss ideas; average museums discuss events; poor museums discuss people."

"Museums must never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun."

"Museums should not merely be a pleasure. They must give spectacular joy to life & contribute immensely to goodwill and happy companionship."

"It isn't what a museum looks like but what it is that is of basic importance."

"Museums must understand the importance of engaging with the bond of children with their parents through learning.."

"To make us feel small in the right way is a function of a museum; the trouble is many make us feel small in the wrong way."

"Shouldn’t a museum's philosophy be, ‘If it can’t be fun what’s the point in doing it?'."

Museums as Repositories of Material Culture

"All objects are subject to museums interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth."

"Nothing is so frustrating or futile as museum with ambition but without systematic knowledge & collections to underpin it."

"Time extracts various values from objects. When these are exhausted & the original uses are forgotten then they will be donated to a museum."

"Museums shouldn’t be all about getting and having bigger collections, they should be about giving and being."

"Curatorship: the art of protecting old things from the weather."

"Will all human experience eventually crumble and end up lost in museum stores?"

"The world exists to end up in a museum."