By Lāth Carlson / For The Herald
When you think about museums, what comes to mind? Dinosaurs? Ancient artifacts? Old paintings? Old things, from the past. But in reality, museums are all about the future.
The only reason museums collect things from the past is in the hope that they will be of value in the future, and yet with the Trump administration’s targeted elimination of the Institute for Museum and Library Services and the politicization of the Smithsonian and National Archives, museums are also at risk today.
Rather than just being places that preserve the past for future generations, I believe the true value of museums is to help us live richer, more vibrant, inclusive and tolerant lives in the present and to help us envision even more desirable futures.
Emotions come before thought. Fear, disgust, curiosity, and love are all triggers of engagement. If an object does not engage with our emotions, we are less likely to go deeper. We are less likely to give it a thought. Social media is an unprecedented amplifier of emotion. Emotional posts beget emotional reactions ad infinitum, with very little attempt to go deeper. Museums are different. As a museum experience triggers our emotions, there is more time and space for turning emotion into thinking, empathizing, wondering.
By connecting personal emotions to the stories and experiences shared in museums, we’re able to explore not just the past, but ourselves. Museums help us feel; and give us space to express those feelings in the present. When we see something in a museum that we connect with emotionally, we often use it as a springboard in telling our own stories, or asking people about theirs. We reflect on how this connects to our own experiences, our own stories, or maybe the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. Through stories, we understand each other better, and are open to new perspectives and new possibilities.
As we hear and tell new stories, we often dream of different opportunities. At their core, museums are places of dreaming. In an anthropology museum we might dream of being an Icelandic Viking trader traveling down the Volga with a load of furs and walrus tusks bound for Constantinople. In an art museum we might dream of being an artist painting calving glaciers in Svalbard, Norway. In a history museum we might dream of being a recent Finnish immigrant settling in the Pacific Northwest. In a popular culture museum you might dream of being the next ABBA. In a children’s museum we can dream of what you might build with thousands of LEGO. In fact, you can do all of these in Seattle at the National Nordic Museum today.
Why are museums such good places for dreaming? Because we offer a much broader array of pasts to explore than you find anywhere else, except the library. Without the diverse examples from the past, our dreams of possible futures are very limited. And, they have a tendency to look a lot like dystopian Hollywood films. I learned this in my time as the founding director of the Museum of the Future in Dubai. With over 3 million guests in less than three years from more than 180 countries, we found that no matter whether they were a head of state, or a family visiting from Vanuatu, their visions of the future tended to look a lot like “Blade Runner” or “Minority Report,” American films from decades ago.
The real power of museums is as places where we can experience diverse pasts, so that we might live better in the present, and envision more vibrant, inclusive and just futures. In this time of division, fear, and isolation, we need to dream better dreams for the future. So don’t let the dreams die, support and visit your local museums (and libraries).
Lāth Carlson is the executive director and CEO of the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, which receives no federal funding.
About the National Nordic Museum
The National Nordic Museum — representing the happiest countries on earth — is the only museum in the United States that showcases the impact and influence of Nordic values and innovation in contemporary society and tells the story of 12,000 years of Nordic history and culture, across all five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) as well as three autonomous regions (Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Åland) and the cultural region of Sápmi. The Museum shares Nordic culture with people of all ages and backgrounds by exhibiting art and objects, preserving collections, providing educational and cultural experiences, and serving as a community gathering place. For more information, go to www.nordicmuseum.org.
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