278. The Real Value of Museums feat. Daniel H. Weiss

Museums are centers for culture, for art, and for conversation. They are places where the far ends of the earth come together in the same place and expose people of all ages to things from across space and time. They also draw the past into the present and become centers for experiencing and understanding humans and humanity.

Daniel H. Weiss is an art historian and president of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City. He is also an author, and his latest book is called Why the Museum Matters. It examines the roles museums have played in our culture, what their purpose is in the present, and their uncertain future. 

Daniel and Greg discuss Daniel’s experience with the Met and other museums, as well as the history of the Met and how it was created, what separates museums from universities, how to engage visitors and convert them into lifelong museum-goers, as well as Daniel’s take on protests in art museums and the economics behind the Met’s ‘pay what you wish’ policy.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

The role of museums in creating meaningful experiences

17:16: I think the role of museums is to present material, ideas, content in ways that engage people in meaningful learning experiences that sometimes might offend them, and there's nothing wrong with that. If our objective is to present programs that everybody likes and nobody ever finds challenging, we're not likely to teach them very much—we're not likely to go very far. So we need to be thoughtful about how we make clear the agreement we hope to have with our visitors.

The art of doing museum work

15:41: The art of doing museum work thoughtfully is reaching out to people in ways that invite them in that are not threatening or intimidating to them but also allow them to learn new things.

How do museums make the world a better place?

29:04: If you were to ask me how the museum makes the world a better place, I would say, ideally, it creates better global citizens because the more people learn about other cultures, the more respectful they are, and maybe they'll be less inclined to go to war with them, or they might be more inclined to try to learn more about why a point of view that they hear is different from their own because they're seeing something about this other culture. That might give them pause, and that might give them the opportunity for reflection and respect, so it makes for better global citizens.

How museums differ from educational institutions

02:33: Museums are places where materials—I'd say cultural materials—can be broadly real. It can be scientific materials or sports objects where we use objects to help us understand our own history, our own experience, and to connect us to ideas. And that can be in any number of ways.

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

• The Met Museum of Art
• The Louvre Museum
• John Jay
• The Met removing Pay-As-You Wish Program
• Protestors Put Soup on Van Gogh
• The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth

Guest Profile:

• Alumni Profile at GWU
• Professional Profile on Wallace Foundation

His Work:

• Article about Daniel’s Tenure as Met Director
• Why The Museum Matters
• Art and Crusade in the Age of St. Louis

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