On a rainy Monday in April when hundreds gathered at Monument Circle to show support for culture in greater Indianapolis, I was sitting in the dry offices of the Institute for Museums and Library Services (IMLS), Washington, D.C.
I write now, not to explain why I wasn’t part of the rally but, rather to report on how the 62 grant proposals me and representatives from ten other states, helped review reaffirmed my long-held belief that cultural institutions make a difference in our lives today.
My experience in the museum field spans three decades; my grant reviewing over a dozen. In that time I’ve witnessed incredible change in the relationship between cultural organizations and their communities.
In 1978, I was selected as a finalist for a year-long paid internship at a prestigious east coast art museum and spent a grueling day interviewing with one curator after another. I ended the day in the executive director’s office. With frank curiosity I asked him, “What do you see as the role of this museum?” He replied without hesitation, “To be the arbiter of taste for the community.” I wondered, “Which community?” guessing that the Rothko’s and Chippendale chairs were not the same inspiration for the poor urban areas surrounding the museum as they were for the wealthy suburbs. I said only, “But every community has its own preferences.”
You see, 30 years ago, museums focused on what they wanted to tell and show; there was little sense of serving the public beyond those already interested in culture. Today, responsiveness to community is best practice.
In two days at IMLS, one of four federal agencies that distribute grants to all kinds of not-for-profit site specific learning places, I talked about science centers that take scientists to underserved neighborhoods to stimulate community dialogue; aquariums that offer after-school, weekend and summer programs for high school students with few options for out-of-classroom learning; art museums that involve the community in developing programs and exhibits to best serve a specific community’s needs; history museums that help teachers make classrooms more engaging and exciting.
My time at IMLS reminded me how hard my museum and other cultural organizations in Indianapolis work to reach out, to include, to enrich and to be the best community partners we can be. By helping IMLS determine who should be funded, I was helping further the important community-based work of cultural organizations here and across the country.
And should we organize another rally at Monument Circle, I will be sure to make the point that became clear to me in my two days away: Cultural organizations matter today because they’ve made community matter.