Curator Hyper

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Submitted manuscripts will undergo blind peer review. editor    9 Prescriptions for Art Museums in the Decade Ahead maxwell l. crouch   33 “Let’s Go to MY Museum”: Inspiring Confident Learners and Museum Explorers at Children’s Museums carol enseki   41 The Future of Zoos: A New Model for Cultural Institutions john fraser and dan wharton   55 Fifty Museum Years. and the Evolving Ecology of Community tom hennes 109 Do Museum Exhibitions Have a Future? kathleen mclean 123 Children’s Museums as Citizens: Four Inspiring Examples peggy monahan 127 About Face: The Rebirth of the Portrait Gallery in the Twenty-first Century marc pachter 131 Studying Visitors and Making Museums Better andrew j. anderson   19 Aerospace Museums: A Question of Balance tom d. and Then Some tom l. pekarik 135 On the Uses of Museum Studies Literature: A Research Agenda jay rounds 147 Science Centers at 40: Middle-aged Maturity or Mid-life Crisis? rob semper 151 Fifty Years of Changes in America’s History Museums Martin E. hein   87 Hyperconnection: Natural History Museums. freudenheim   63 The Extraordinary Growth of the Science-Technology Museum alan j. friedman   77 The Authority of Objects: From Regime Change to Paradigm Shift hilde s.�ontents Curator : The Museum Journal Volume 50 Number 1 January 2007    5 Celebrating 50 Years of Curator: The Museum Journal zahava d. Knowledge. doering. sullivan 159 Media in the Museum: A Personal History selma thomas 167 The Right Stuff in the Right Place: The Institution of Contemporary Art ian wedde  . Lincoln Zahava D. Jr. President Institute for Learning Innovation Annapolis. Champaign Enid Schildkrout. Missouri Margaret Gould Burke Director and Curator of Education California Academy of Sciences Marlene Chambers. Lanham. Director Central Park Zoo. Stapp.Curator The Museum Journal Zahava D. Laetsch. Massachusetts Judy Diamond. Books Editor Kathleen McLean. Chief Emeritus Illinois Natural History Survey. Doering. Semper Executive Associate Director Exploratorium. Gosliner. Willard Whitson. Nevling. Virginia David M. Maryland Samuel M. Grimaldi Chairman and Associate Curator Department of Entomology American Museum of Natural History Elaine Heumann Gurian Arlington. Taylor Morristown. Museum Media Editor California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park. Doering Senior Social Scientist Smithsonian Institution John H. San Francisco Carol B. Professor Department of Psychology Colorado State University. Professor Emeritus Department of Plant Biology University of California at Berkeley Neil Landman. Director Louisiana State Museum. Suite 200. San Francisco. Chairman and Curator. Falk. New Orleans Watson M. Editor Emeritus EDITORIAL BOARD Edward H. Chairman. Senior Curator California Academy of Sciences MIchael Ghiselin Senior Research Fellow California Academy of Sciences Myles Gordon Vice President for Education American Museum of Natural History David A. CA 94118 J. Executive Vice-President Phoenix Zoo Lorin I. Professor Emerita Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education San Diego State University John Fraser Director of Interpretive Programs Wildlife Conservation Society. Vice President Please Touch Museum Philadelphia. Kahn. Chairman and Curator Department of Invertebrates American Museum of Natural History Ross Loomis. Editor Emerita Denver Art Museum Peggy Ruth Cole Amherst. RICHARD BINGHAM. Editor Kay Larson. Executive Director W. President American Association of Museums ADAM BICKFORD Columbia. Managing Editor Samuel m. Rhode Island Peter Linett. Professor of Informal Science Education University of Nebraska State Museum. New York Terrence M. Maryland Elsa Feher. SHETTEL Rockville. New York J. Taylor. Director Museum Education Program The George Washington University HARRIS H. MD 20706 . Able. Exhibitions Editor Selma Thomas. New Jersey Danny Wharton. PATRICK KOCIOLEK. Fort Collins Laura Martin.. Department of Anthropology American Museum of Natural History Robert J. Pennsylvania Ken Yellis Vice President and Museum Director International Tennis Hall of Fame Newport. Board of Trustees AltaMira Press 4501 Forbes Boulevard. and the first article. still resonates with us today.1. become vastly more varied and complex. Curator: The Museum Journal (as it is now called) has published articles and commentary about the topics that matter to cultural institutions. As a result of these developments and the steady pursuit of improvement. beyond that which is implicit in the nature of the articles contained in the first issue. Contrary to  . contributing to a specialized corpus of knowledge—and with no medium in this country through which to record their experience.�i�t� �ears o� �urato� Celebrating 50 Years of Curator: The Museum Journal ••••• Zahava D. Doering. to serve and deal with the public need for education and knowledge. “On Being a Curator. Editor This is the first issue of a new journal. in this country. we believe. probably confronted the very first museum ever established. general and specific. ••••• From its inception at the American Museum of Natural History 50 years ago. to plan and prepare exhibits. 1958. Such a statement is all the more appropriate in the present instance. have taken on a highly professional character that reflects both the growing role of the museum in our culture and the high standards of performance that museums have taught the public to expect. It is customary on such occasions to offer an explanation to the reader concerning the origin and the purpose of the new publication. The Editorial Statement in the first issue. From the first issue (January 1958). entitled CURATOR. with the time and the expansion of the museum’s function. since this journal represents a venture unique. The skill and competence now required to organize and administer a modern museum.” the journal has published the most thoughtful writing of professional colleagues. —Curator 1. Although present museum problems. describing the need for such a journal. or to seek the advice or criticism of their colleagues in other institutions. discovering elegant solutions. the varied kinds of dedicated workers who make up the personnel of a museum find themselves facing intricate problems. to use and maintain collections. to share their triumphs. and to control the manifold interrelations of all these and other things as well. they have. from the exhibition The Art and Artifice of Science. that museums have never gone for the easy exit. On the cover and on the next page we show you a historic artifact from Curator Volume 1. as the accompanying archival text says. Curator became that medium of opinion. and other scientific disciplines. commentary. successes and failures of the type of museum or area of museum work they knew best. art historians—were asked to revisit the past and present of museums. . Tom Hennes. which emphasizes factual accuracy but welcomes differences of interpretation. and to reflect on what they suggest about the persistence of museum concerns. and Selma Thomas.) Our reluctance to impose an organizational framework or hierarchy on this wealth of viewpoints has led us to alphabetize the issue by authors’ surnames. Volume 50. They have responded with a marvelous chorus of styles and viewpoints. Kathy McLean took the initiative to read the first four issues of Curator. In short. We are happy to include in this issue four art images by artists who use the language. so Curator celebrated its tenth anniversary in 1967 and is honoring its fiftieth in this volume. experience. Issue 1. Feb. Issue 1. a vehicle for the expression of opinion. articles began focusing on other venues. In the original invitation. Andrew Pekarik. The next half century begins with this issue. As will be evident in this volume. In the past five years. reflection. . We welcome comments on the discussions that follow. praise. the hope was expressed that Curator would become . I hope that Curator has met your expectations and will continue to do so. comment. a note from the editor human birthdays. reflection. 2007. the editorial staff has made a concerted effort to solicit interdisciplinary articles from around the world. from scholarship to commentary to personal reflections. educators. criticism. Curator now explores the realms of art and science. suggesting. Curator was oriented to the interests of a natural history museum. this is to be a professional journal worthy of the skills and standards of modern museology. as the journal expanded its readership and author pool. All of the articles were peerreviewed in Curator’s formal process. January 2007 is a celebration and an invitation. Eighteen museum and independent professionals—including academic researchers. criticism and suggestions by the various members of its [National Museum of American History] staff on all their activities of museum work. Issue 2: A photograph of New York street signs. It is meant to serve the publication needs that fall outside its traditional scientific and popular publications. 9–May 20. and suggestions. We hope the table of contents encourages browsing and venturing beyond one’s specialty. engaging readers in lively debate. at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe. Initially. New Mexico. but have always pointed back to the heart of the city and its culture. experience. In the Editorial Statement of Volume 1. It did so with the help of hundreds of professionals throughout the world who have contributed articles. curators. . reviews. The responses have been as unique as each writer. and to address the future. and analysis. philosophers. The assignment was deliberately open-ended. View these striking visual experiments in the articles by Maxwell Anderson. paleobiology. However. journals are numbered from the first issue and volume. look and technologies of gene research. museum and zoo directors. (For instance. history and culture. we encouraged these colleagues to address the strengths and frailties. . At what moment was it discovered that there is no museum to the right?. Here we see the strange.curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07  CURATOR looks at museums . . . . . indecisive hand of municipal authority. . and finds that their cartes de visite are often difficult to understand and sometimes quite frayed. . In forging a multitude of “weak ties” outward at different institutional levels. The need to respond to a natural Tom Hennes (tomh@thincdesign. active and relevant. These links are active. 435 Hudson Street.com) is principal of Thinc Design.�i�t� �ears o� �urato� Hyperconnection: Natural History Museums. For over 150 years. ••••• Just for a moment. networked relationships directed toward common purposes. natural history museums have been supported by their communities and patrons on the basis of these strong ties and the mission that each museum represents. museums are finding that their shared activity with others brings to themselves new and often unexpected value across the “strong ties” that bind them together internally as institutions. bound together by what I will call the strong ties of institutional identity. Knowledge. and board. Museums that are taking advantage of this emerging environment are becoming “hyperconnected hubs” across which knowledge is exchanged and action initiated. What you just envisioned are the things that traditionally define natural history museums as distinct entities. Picture its community. collections. Open your eyes. staff. interconnected entities are finding powerful new opportunities to more vigorously engage the world they study and the constituencies they serve. and the Evolving Ecology of Community ••••• Tom Hennes Abstract Interviews conducted during the summer of 2006 with people in and around the international museum community suggest that the interests natural history museums share in common with each other and with other kinds of organizations and communities are creating an array of new links across institutional. Picture its building. complex. research. 87 . In the process. Those natural history museums most able to participate as members of larger. and exhibits. NY 10014. social and cultural boundaries. New York. Picture its departments. they are becoming increasingly open. eighth floor. That is changing. close your eyes and picture a natural history museum. On the surface. Increasingly.88 tom hennes • hyperconnection world in crisis and to compete in the modern landscape of cultural offerings is driving museums—specifically. Evolution In 1997. or technology.” It captured many themes—collaboration. programs and associations arising from common purposes and goals. accountability. updated version of the old. and measure of success at home and on a global scale. importance and value as the networks they enable are extending the mission and reach of their members far beyond what any of them could do alone. As a result. public programs. activism and technology—that resonate today. their local communities. the writers—directors and administrators of the leading natural history museums around the country—seemed to suggest that the new natural history museum would be an incremental. expertise. The argument for supporting natural history museums as scientific and cultural entities is increasingly driven not simply by their individual identities but. It provides a useful snapshot of a culture in transition. more importantly. in a growing ecosystem of affiliations directed toward shared ends. even outside the larger community of other museums. at least. limited funds tend to be directed toward choices of greater certainty—buildings and exhibitions constructed along more or less familiar lines—rather than profound transformations that require long-term commitment to new staffing. the field recognizes the opportunity for change but has not yet reached a point where the dimensions of change are well understood. They are growing dramatically in number. each with its own agency. updated with new tools and methods for greater reach. the perspective of that 1997 Museum News issue still dominates nearly a decade later. I have been working with natural history museums and related institutions for the past decade as a designer and participant in ongoing strategic planning processes. I decided to contact people in and around natural history museums to hear what they are thinking about and doing. Some of these affiliations—what I will call weak ties—are enduring and some are temporal. just as dot-coms were booming and all of us were scratching our heads over whether things were getting better or getting harder. but for the most part also committed to staying the course: essentially the same mission and model. They were impassioned about confronting future challenges. In either case. the weak ties of participation in shared enterprises drive value—and investment—to the strong ties of institutional identity. In this networked ecology. At the very . Museum News published a set of short articles entitled “Toward a Natural History Museum for the Twenty-first Century. and even smaller pieces that comprise museums—to participate in projects and programs with others outside their organizations. and connections to myriad others through projects. by the way they engage with others in the world to accomplish their individual missions. generator of funding. participation becomes the primary driver of mission. When I was asked to write this article. Think of the natural history museum as a network of smaller entities. the divisions. departments. In my experience with these processes I have almost always encountered a mixture of high aspiration and incremental progress. connection to issues. to engaging with a world for which they take responsibility. the long-time Provost of the California Academy of Sciences who is now returning to the research ranks. “I’m so glad. Gosliner told him they weren’t. These discussions were indeed interesting. They are looking for a kind of engagement and self-reflection it cannot provide.” While many of those halls persist. a longtime and enthusiastic supporter of the institution. and in order to preserve a kind of cross-generational identity with their children and grandchildren. a shift in capacity or even in strategy. Natural history museums in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries froze the world inside them. The picture that has begun to emerge hints at a far more fundamental evolution. What I heard suggested to me that what we’re experiencing is not simply a change of style. he told me a very interesting story about a donor to the new Academy. detached visions of a distant “other. Natural history museums—for the past century and a half—have studied and exhibited the world through a detached. though not surprised.curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07 89 least.” This is the dilemma. the institutions themselves have begun to move from a position of detachment to one of connection. I was impressed. which led me to surprising places and brought many scattered ideas together into a more comprehensible landscape. Natural history museums in the twenty-first century are beginning to change the world around them. and profoundly. The more I’ve listened. The report that follows is largely the result of those conversations. in fact. I found pieces of it in every conversation. The science of natural history museums was the science of description. Learning to Dance Terry Gosliner. out of nostalgia. The donor. unselfconscious lens that betrayed little responsibility for that world’s condition or future. and he wanted to know if that were true. a tweaking of mission. the more I’ve come to believe it is the great opportunity of our generation. I’d have some interesting conversations. During a phone call. People want them to be the same as they’ve always been. from holding themselves apart from the world they once described. of the natural history museum. they are themselves changing. and the versions of nature and culture presented in museum halls were most frequently denatured. had heard that the dioramas in the Academy’s old Africa Hall were going to be destroyed. But I thought I might also be able to see new patterns that would get me closer to understanding exactly what’s changing and the extent of the change. “I never actually come in to look at them. In the process. at the depth of thought and the degree of passion expressed by each of the people with whom I spoke about natural history museums and the world they engage. . Gosliner says. While each individual institution manifests this change to a different degree. but I always want to know they’re here. has for nearly a decade been one of the significant and passionate voices shaping the Academy’s restructuring and rebuilding project currently under construction in Golden Gate Park.” said the donor. fascinating. the dioramas were actually going to be restored in the new hall. But at the same time they’ve lost interest in this nostalgic vision. all but the most moribund are a part of it. though a few of them organized the museum’s exhibitions. you get moms and kids. The explorations and collecting that had begun more than a century before were galvanized by Darwin’s theories of evolution. Its branches shaped the disciplines of study. the time in which the study of the natural world was exploding.” helping them “rise above their base instincts. Both. “showing treasures to the unwashed. “The evaluators tell us that the reason people go to zoos is to get the kids out of the house. but all in all. the model worked pretty well. in turn. two kinds of institutions seem to her to be “dead”: natural history museums and zoos. not for the big message.” Alexander worries that marketing for those smaller purposes—the “Saturday visit”—is driving the agenda more and more and the whole purpose for which these institutions were originally founded—their intellectual underpinning—is becoming increasingly shaky. Those underpinnings were established in the middle of the nineteenth century. Edward P. she’s currently in the process of revising Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums. there was not much pressure to change. Alexander. however tentatively. For a very long time. mission. The exhibitions. “People are going with smaller purposes.C. were their collections. she says. The first was in the world the museums had studied: The planet’s environments were slipping . and the world’s naturalists were busily reconstructing the tree of life. and produced a mounting body of knowledge about the world. are based in nineteenth-century thinking. the teenage kid who’s fascinated by the fossils. If you take the visitors in the week and break them into clumps. European visitors who are there because they know they need to be there. and they’re becoming increasingly fragmented as they try to adapt to new missions. There was tinkering at the margins. she suggests. and zoos want to tell people that the planet is dying. “Maybe the institution can’t be monolithic any more. D. All of those are good reasons to go to the museum. What linked those two functions together. Their exhibits were about. dialogue?” What’s happening. and their “exotic” material cultures (and physical remains) were likewise collected and examined. becoming branches of science and defining the organization of the museum’s exhibition halls. A long-time museum educator and administrator.” What set natural history museums apart from other museums were their relatively equal and separate functions of research and public edification. brought in huge numbers of the public. She told me. and early in the conversation she said that based on the research she’s been doing for the book. Research curators pretty much did their own thing behind the scenes. Natural history museums were places in which the natural and cultural world was categorized.90 tom hennes • hyperconnection Mary Alexander put it more bluntly. who helped sustain the enterprise while the researchers collected more specimens and artifacts. described and exhibited for an eager public. a book originally written by her father. Peoples around the globe were also subjects for study in this age of empire. wrote about them. which had a dual role of display for the public and study for researchers.” Natural history museums are offering visitors complex menus of experiences that deliver the disconnected equivalent of sound bites. two big changes started to happen. I caught her at home in Washington. is that visitors are going for the pieces. one Sunday afternoon. In the latter half of the twentieth century. in Alexander’s words. but what do those reasons say about collections. ontologically-driven study representing an ordered natural world we sought to master.curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07 91 into a perceptible decline. To compete with other attractions. more interdisciplinary study of a disordered. The blockbuster exhibition came onto the scene with the arrival of King Tut in 1974 (Falk and Sheppard 2006).” Even if we take a “disinterested position of being for nature. This began a process of profound change in the relationship between institutions and the places and cultures they had traditionally studied. This process of change. One thing remained the same. the dancers—all of them—are being changed by the dance. influenced by forces outside museums’ immediate control. St. more entertaining. The major shift that’s going on “has to do with our understanding of our own place in nature and our own assumptions about it. is in tension with our nostalgic preconceptions of limestone-encased institutional order and cohesiveness. drawn by a diversity of leisure offerings and finding new ways—television. In the process. and with the natural systems they once were content to categorize and describe. a professor of museum studies at the University of Missouri. They were becoming increasingly sophisticated. Louis and a prolific writer about museums as evolving social phenomena (see his article in this issue). The evolution our institutions are undergoing—fragmenting but also reorganizing in new ways—reflects our growing awareness of nature. museums began to react. its non-European peoples were no longer willing to be passive objects of scrutiny—they were finding their own voice and demanding to be heard. Jay Rounds touched upon what I think is the fundamental issue when he told me that we have to bear in mind that natural history museums are “not so much about the natural world as about the disciplines that study the natural world. and demanding. and the research and collections mission. In the final third of the twentieth century. and a new. became increasingly distant from each other. more intricate. exhibitions grew larger. museums began to distance curators from exhibitions by a layer of exhibit developers and designers whose expertise was in the translation of scientific concepts into experiences for the public.” he said. Additionally. The second big change was in museums’ visitors. self-organizing natural world in which our species is but one of many co-dependent actors. believes we can only understand the shift that’s taking place around us “if we go back to the assumption that the museum is about us rather than about the plants and animals and nature in some presumed natural state. directed at the general public. Instead. and eventually the Internet—of seeing and experiencing the worlds that had once been the almost exclusive province of natural history museums.” Rounds. haltingly at first but with increasing vigor. directed toward peer science. though. There are still important and cohesive understandings to be gained and experiences to be had. Meanwhile. and more educational. No longer quite so “unwashed. with the peoples they once considered fit objects of study. In many places the educational mission. it comes back to working out some kind of issue about humanness. . making a passing reference to Neil Postman’s comment that all museums are about what it means to be human. cheap and ubiquitous travel. but they are no longer solely a reflection of institutional prerogative.” they began to spend their time doing other things. natural history museums are just beginning to learn to dance with their visitors.” We are in a period of transition between the old. bigger isn’t necessarily a better strategy. That niche is a product both of the community an institution serves and its unique capacities. I had spoken previously with the former president. it’s a question that can’t be answered in the boardroom with the senior staff around the table. the times require every museum to look deeply at the niche it can most fruitfully fill within a community. I reached him in Corvalis. it has to come from the community itself. “You can and should be able to find a small institution that creates better value for its community than larger institutions. Lynn Dierking. this is a flexible. he says. is to create a lifelong public science education resource that people will come to routinely. Museums are competing against all kinds of other public attractions and media. to emulate large institutions like the Smithsonian. a once nearly moribund institution which has been engaged in recent years in a thoroughgoing revitalization process in collaboration with its community.” But as competition increases. or the Field. to reflect. The goal. There was only one model. are jointly taking up a tenured position this year at Oregon State University to start a graduate program in free-choice learning. “it’s all well and good to be a large generalist when there’s no competition. he says. personalized range of services that could be swiftly and easily customized to the needs and desires of different groups and individuals. and frequently. about the museum’s plans. there is no consensus. The museum first began to experiment with a special space on the exhibit floor. mission and assets. Falk told me that if you brought a group of natural history museum people together in the mid-twentieth century and asked them what a natural museum should look like. how the Smithsonian defines community is very different from how a regional museum might define it. In the twenty-first century. where he and his wife. In his terms. It’s more about the quality and type of educational experiences museums create. I called Carroll Simon. called Connections. It requires those who run the public side of museums to work closely and persistently with those who visit them. to invent and experiment—and then to be willing to change yet again in response to what is learned. he insists. An example that Falk and Sheppard describe is the Buffalo Museum of Science. shaped in early workshops with community leaders. David Cheseborough. “is the game” these days. and finding a unique niche. they would have voiced a great deal of consensus based on the size of the institution and the quality of the collection. Simon told me that the new model involved a radical move to develop a much more deeply facilitated. And. the American Museum of Natural History. Oregon. to talk about how the shift is progressing. may be a better way to go. Most natural history museums tried. This is a process that requires a capacity to listen. Smaller.” Part of a larger philosophy of “turning the muse- . the acting president and current leader of the revitalization process. with greater and lesser success. and bigger was better. Falk argues that no single answer applies to all natural history museums. Putting it in evolutionary terms. open collections area that is used for facilitated programs of “the authentic processes and specimens of science.92 tom hennes • hyperconnection The Case for Diversity My copy of Thriving in the Knowledge Age (Falk and Sheppard 2006) happened to arrive on the day I had scheduled a phone call with John Falk for this article.” Creating value. work in the visual arts.” It encourages the staff to take advantage of every opportunity “to do the ideal thing: to turn research into a relevant public experience. and woodlands. camp groups. her museum’s mission. and . The relationship builds to the point where the staff know their individual users well enough to anticipate a child’s difficulty with a project and gather the resources that they think will be needed to help. Simon told me that a year into the experiment. But the most fundamental change is in the way Buffalo positions science and collections within the institution. from “a traditional model where science research and the educational programs and exhibits were almost totally independent of one another.” she said. and a host of others. while helping people—teachers. to one in which they are integrated.” Likewise. the museum no longer relies on traveling exhibits “to strengthen its public profile. new programs engage the public in experiments in aquatic biology and urban archaeology in its marshes. homeschool families. It enables the institution to experiment with different ways of serving different needs. many local families and some private schools. is attracting “scientists and educators who are passionate about the process of science and about helping people to learn how to learn.curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07 93 um inside out. a 264-acre refuge developed on a restored brownfield. she is a scientist with a strong cultural awareness and a flair for the untried. in part because so many people in L. it is “leveraging a brand from its unique core asset.” Another initiative was the opening of a satellite facility. families and individuals—become more confident in the skills of inquiry learning and critical thinking. its collections. The idea in Connections is to “coach learning rather than to spew facts.” New research is conceived together with public purpose as the museum’s science merges with science education. Vanda Vitali is experimenting with a different kind of relevant public experience. At the museum’s Tifft Nature Preserve. they are still trying to understand the value of a resource like this in a neighborhood setting and to learn whether people will use it and build a longterm relationship with it. teacher colleges.” Rather. the museum’s research on Pleistocene and Holocene vertebrate fossils is being developed into an extensive educational program for middle school students. This “alignment model. and the language that makes both the context and the mission engaging and relevant for the public. She acknowledges that Los Angeles “may not be known as a museum-going city. While it’s too early to know the answer.A. At the Hiscock Site. moving. music. and the museum staff are getting to know them personally. On several phone calls wedged into a packed schedule. she told me that she maintains a perspective from at least these three vantage points: the context of Los Angeles. in Simon’s words. it has become the incubator for a future network of satellites linked to the hub of the main museum. Located in a diverse neighborhood near Buffalo State College. students.” But she claims it is a city interested in experimentation. she says that many different groups are beginning to use it regularly. 40 miles away. which operates on the same philosophy but in a smaller space distant from the museum. She says that many kids are coming in on a regular basis. The museum staff are currently analyzing the first year and planning their next steps. Vice president of public programs for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. including homeschoolers. the Science Spot. lakes.” On the West Coast.” the space is increasingly used by schools. Paleontology was not supported in the country because it was not in the minority government’s interest to focus attention on human origins in Africa. In contrast to Vitali’s approach in Los Angeles. few South Africans were aware of the rich lode of pre-human ancestry beneath South African soil. and I called him one evening at home for a conversation about his changing universe. Curators. South Africa is building a community around the significance of its collection and its social implications. LA: light/motion/dreams—a multimedia experience that uses the museum’s collections to create a journey through the different landscapes of Los Angeles—and Conversations: Collections. and storytelling. and in many ways he’s having the time of his life. at the same time. but to bring in entirely new populations. and because there are lots of creative people there to contribute to an innovative undertaking. I had previously spent many hours talking with Thackeray in connection with my own work in South Africa. at their best. she hopes the museum’s visitors would turn to other sources as well. Vitali said she is always looking outside the museum for research and inspiration. a collaboration between the museum’s curators and six local artists who selected elements from the collection to create exhibits from their own perspectives. Experts and curators speak freely with the public. The current administration not only supports research into human origins but it takes an active interest in financing and promoting African paleontology. it houses an important—and local—collection of hominid fossils. By experimenting with different visual and musical forms as independent languages distinct from the language of learning about science. A paleontologist. In the past two years. Francis Thackeray is its acting director. A survey in 1996 showed that 95 percent of the people in the Pretoria metropolitan area had not heard of . including the nearly complete skull known as Mrs. he is witnessing a flowering of his field after years of working in the shadows of government disfavor. the museum has mounted exhibitions like Collapse?. not just to increase numbers. has been particularly effective at bringing in younger people. the Transvaal Museum has been able to use its newfound freedom and support to spark public interest in its unique collections. dance. the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria. from in their teens to their thirties. for information. The aim is to broaden the audience. Thackeray told me. Pressured by the Dutch Reformed Church. The strategy. while performing artists either create new works or perform works that connect in some way to the exhibitions and collections. she feels the museum has the opportunity to reach out to new populations and improve their experiences. and fewer still visited the museum. can augment the ways people experience the museum and inspire curiosity or passion along the way. Artists. the apartheid government that existed until Mandela’s election in 1994 had suppressed the teaching of evolution in schools and in museums. All this has changed since 1994. she says. She believes that exhibits. Ples. In spite of the fact that the museum possessed several important fossils of Australopithecus. based on Jared Diamond’s book. A colonial institution that was marginalized under apartheid. musical performance.94 tom hennes • hyperconnection video. Her goal is to provide “linking mechanisms”—including a radio station and an expanded Web site—that can facilitate deeper exploration. She told me that the museum has also developed new programs that include forums for debate. Thackeray says it has sparked the beginnings of a resurgence in the field and. more recently. exhibitions. Institutions are forging new links between their unique capabilities and their unique communities. But each is to one degree or another. For others. is that the fossils have become more of a household name. and the distribution of fossil casts to many schools.curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07 95 Mrs. Resurgence of Relevance In his introduction to the 1997 Museum News articles on the Natural History Museum of the twenty-first century. 80 percent of those surveyed knew of the fossil. and with greater or lesser degrees of awareness. Buffalo. understand it as well. and fewer and fewer people sought training in it. Ellsworth Brown writes: It can be argued that universities’ diminishing commitment to collections is a natural outcome of focusing on their true mission. educational initiatives. and care about it equally. possible because they were not encumbered by massive physical plants dedicated to the storage of collections? The one subject not tackled [in these articles] was whether the collecting paradigm under which natural history museums began is still valid or has much meaning when set against the massive and practical needs of Earth (1997).” He wants children to be able to touch things that teach them about their ancestry—skeletons. it had fallen out of fashion in academic institutions. Times have changed. Is the universities’ shift a nimble response to scientific need. it’s more fundamental. It also can be argued that university scientists see the same world that museum scientists see. and the Transvaal Museum could scarcely be more different from each other. People are aware of them “in the way that people are aware of the Mona Lisa. The driving urgency to understand what is happening to the world’s ecosystems has generated a new need to track changes in biodiversity and under- . Within these growing networks of users. and a matter of immediate survival. is the founding basis of the world’s natural history collections. and they are using very different methods for leveraging their assets and shaping new identities. Ples. But what they share is a broader pattern that is becoming visible to one extent or another in every museum I’ve encountered. the success of any one institution is increasingly going to be dependent on the value of the links it generates and the relevance of those links to the communities that form around them. which is education. By the 1970s.” Thackeray has channeled his limited resources between continued research and new educational programs that include activities that let students “get their hands dirty. the approach has been a matter of fine tuning to stay even with the times. This has been accomplished through public programs. fossils and rocks—and be touched by them. the study and classification of organisms and their evolutionary relationships to each other. For some. Los Angeles. as a descriptive field it was seen as increasingly irrelevant in the face of molecular biology. The result. says Thackeray. building an ecological network of users around itself by finding a match between what it offers and what its community—or communities—finds useful and important. Systematic biology. They are intentionally reaching out to their potential users and strengthening the connections that will bind those users to them. Collections are useful to see how much mercury was in swordfish in the 1800s. that collections grow very slowly. But.1 This kind of activity is an easy fit with the research capacity and collections of a large natural history museum like the Field. communities and other parties to assess threatened environments and make wellfounded recommendations for action. Lamont Curator in the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History.” He noted. ‘there is still a lot of discovery out in the world. without the collection. People never dreamt that these things would be important in this way. and have a responsibility to do so. Cracraft says that scientists have become much more attentive to these issues. who heads the Field’s Division of Environment.” conducted in collaboration with local communities and in-country scientists. and Cracraft focus on is peer research. “the work would be impossible. individual states have imposed regulations on organisms like birds. The institutions actively engaged in research and communicating to the public and other constituencies are transforming the way they use data for a much broader audience. and that in certain fields or areas it’s much more difficult to collect than it used to be. though. for studying the environment. In a sense. ECCo builds multidisciplinary partnerships among institutions. inseparable museum functions. and much more attention is paid to trafficking in animals and making sure collecting permits are in order. put it: “One way of thinking about it is that over 90 percent of the world’s species are still undiscovered.” Eldredge’s metaphor is a library of biodiversity. You keep them just to have them because it’ll be needed in generations to come. “Systematic biology is more relevant than it’s ever been. Moskovits told me. Culture and Conservation (ECCo).” says Moskovits. The expertise to conduct rapid inventories and the vast natural history collections that can be accessed digitally in the field are “natural. The nineteenth century is gone and none of the dioramas depict anything that still exists.” Niles Eldredge. told me: “Ironically. Even in the United States. governments. we’re more necessary than before. and is using this wealth of data to track long term change and support surveys of endangered areas. Like similar programs at the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian. it will “have uses down the road that may be more useful than you can imagine. the main purpose of which is to advance knowledge. Many countries are concerned about their genetic resources. curator in the American Museum of Natural History’s Paleontology Department.” ECCo is “just beginning to scratch . has more pragmatic objectives. he says. ECCo’s work and its recommendations for action are driven by “rapid biological and social inventories. None of those I spoke to agree. If we are going to have knowledge about species. they are going to be seen by the world as something worth being supported.” What most scientists like Gosliner. Like any library. these nineteenth-century institutions are even more relevant to the twenty-first century than they were when they were founded. Debra Moskovits. As Joel Cracraft.96 tom hennes • hyperconnection stand ecological relationships. Terry Gosliner says. In the process. Eldredge. Science has awakened to the storehouse of biodiversity maintained in the millions of specimens stored in natural history museums. we have a lot of collecting left to do.” Some scientists and people outside the field suggest that collecting is no longer needed. because of the way the world has changed. people in the field can go online and look at these specimens. she says. founded in 1864 by Dutch colonial entrepreneurs.” At the American Museum of Natural History. The KIT today views itself as a consultancy for partners in the developing world rather than the colonial enterprise it was at its founding. she says.” she says.” she says. but that the tangible heritage” of the museum’s collection enables new understandings about “how culture and society are organized. Legêne and her colleagues have discovered. biomedical research. are tangible heritage elements that enable “new conversations to take place. but in the course of two extended phone calls for this article. While traveling in Holland two years ago. We work in a dynamic applied political context in which such fossilization is impossible and would be fully contrary to the work of our colleagues . “Our colleagues in the institute expect that they can recognize what they are doing in what the museum tells the public in the Netherlands.” This is not only of academic and cultural value. form a tangible basis for new kinds of dialogue that shape consultancy work of the KIT in the developing world and also increase the museum’s cultural knowledge of the artifacts themselves. At the time. has a “professional ethic” with source communities to be consultants for capacity building. “The old specimens. These dialogues help the museum to “get out of art historical and ethnographic knowledge.” she says.” Although the collections contain material culture that was lost generations ago in many communities. I had met Susan Legêne. “you see showcases reflecting a kind of view about man and nature. The museum. The collections. she spoke more about using the material culture in the museum’s collections as a medium for developing new modes of discourse with diverse communities.” to be a “museum of a museum. The museum’s collections. is joined with the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT). The partnership perspective has also affected what is done in the museum. “they know things we really don’t know. “It is impossible for the museum to fossilize. Source communities’ indigenous knowledge—their intangible heritage—provides a “common ground” for looking at the collections. there are no field guides and little information about what teams are likely to find. but also facilitates projects on the ground that benefit both communities. Moskovits can’t imagine doing rapid inventories without the reference collections. The institute. not “just to make our own story about a society to which we have no responsibility. and cultural preservation and exchange. “When you have an excellent scan. that we study or show to our community to enjoy. the historian who heads the curatorial department of Amsterdam’s Tropenmuseum and runs its international cultural projects. based in the 1930s and 1950s. both in the identification of species and in the preparation of field guides to be used for inventory and monitoring. in turn. poverty alleviation.curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07 97 the surface” of developing new tools for conservation. It saves enormous time. culture and society. an applied research organization that focuses on projects of sustainable development. Legêne told me.” Those dialogues have also helped Legêne to reshape many of the museum’s exhibits to more consciously reflect the tension between its colonial past and its evolving role in the international community.” This new “functional life” is not limited to biological collections. “have a new and immediately functional life. we had spoken mostly about changes she was making to the museum’s exhibits. In many areas of the world. for instance. not that we bring back their indigenous knowledge.” she says. he still consciously retains an outsider’s eye. Hyperconnection In 1998. accessible mainly to scholars. after nearly 150 years as a museum without public displays. set out to make Naturalis as accessible and inviting as possible.” Not only the collections. where he was working with Vanda Vitali on a collaborative project that would bring some of Los Angeles’s temporary exhibitions to the Netherlands. This is important not just because it’s revitalizing museum science. but also the exhibits. Amsterdam’s science center. Much of the new work. once used principally as a descriptive catalogue of the world’s biological and cultural resources. both in Holland and abroad. the Dutch National Museum of Natural History (Naturalis) moved into a new building and opened its first major public exhibitions. but it is also working to develop joint programs with environmental organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and NEMO. are directly relevant to the work of the development agency. Thus far. scattered among many different buildings.98 tom hennes • hyperconnection in other departments of the KIT. for instance by creating public health exhibitions in hospitals to get medical information out to the public. are becoming increasingly connected to the way people in and out of science understand the world and relate to it. organizations. At the same time. Until this move. Houtgraaf says that the role of natural history museums is no longer the center of importance. When I spoke to him in Los Angeles. He had never worked in a museum before. the connections that link them to those networks increase in importance. but also because it enables natural history museums to reposition themselves within the larger context of the world in which they operate. the programs include an indepen- . It was the relationships he and others within it are building outside the museum. As their collections and research programs participate more fully in the shared concerns of larger and more diverse networks of researchers. These collections. he thinks. Wim van der Weiden. it was no longer the museum itself that most excited him. to build stronger educational programs and new communities. and virtually invisible to the public. which are doing important scientific work on their own but benefit from access to the museum’s collections and from its expertise in communicating with the general public. Like many museums. the value of the natural history museum as a critical part of those networks begins to dramatically exceed its value as a stand-alone entity. Naturalis is connecting with organizations like the National Science Foundation in the Netherlands (NWO). Naturalis established twoway communications with classrooms and is conducting regular programs with them. and with the enthusiastic support of Naturalis’s then-director. it was in many ways a quintessentially isolated nineteenth-century institution. as director for public engagement. will happen outside the museum. The institute’s public face and its development work influence each other and share responsibility to the communities they serve. and communities. The questions facing natural history museums are changing. and more than 10 years later. Dirk Houtgraaf led the development effort on the new museum as its project manager. and the relevance of their collections—in their storage vaults and on exhibition—is changing with them. ” Having both biological and cultural expertise gives ECCo the capacity to make good conservation recommendations that also take the needs of local people into .” It’s about “long-term collaboration and long-term goals. Photo courtesy of the artist. 440-500 Mya.nederlandsesoorten. ambrotype. “We couldn’t do what we do. for example.nl) that is attracting 6. and a Dutch biodiversity register (www. You recognize that as a museum your mission is to reach out and turn science into action. is “somewhere in the air. Naturalis isn’t asking for an immediate return. She said that governments are willing to listen to them because the scientists are perceived to speak objectively. it passed over proprietary programs in favor of a Web-based program that is “semi-open source. dent educational Web site (www. The Field’s Debra Moskovits believes that there’s “an important and strong role academic institutions can play in converting environmental research into action. The collaboration has not been without difficulty—there have been disagreements about ontological organization and hierarchy—but they are being resolved and he thinks the arrangement is to everyone’s advantage.” so that it could be customized and then freely shared in Holland with other collaborating institutions.curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07 99 Alison Carey. The capacity we have to change conservation on the ground has totally to do with the fact that we are a research museum.000-7. She pointed to Parque Nacional Cordillera Azul. he told me.” In Art and Artifice.natuurinformatie. he says. huge impact. Community thinking. New Mexico.”2 Collaboration isn’t limited to the sharing of informational and educational resources. Museum of Fine Arts.” The rapid surveys the museum and its collaborators perform are intended to help national and regional governments and communities make informed decisions with regard to environmental preservation and restoration.” The results have surprised even her. an area larger than the state of Connecticut. Instead. From the series “Organic Remains of a Former World. Criptolithus and Eumorphoscystic. Ordovidician Period. it has chosen to “invest and invest and there will eventually be a return.” she told me. particularly governments’ willingness to implement recommendations swiftly. 2005. that was conserved in Peru within eight months of an ECCo survey. basd on their direct observations.nl) developed with a half-dozen other organizations and many more individual collaborators. “if we were an NGO. “You can have a huge.” When Naturalis decided to build its digital collections database.000 visitors per day. ” he told me.D. a feast for about 100 local supporters. and restoring habitat in the greater Chicago area. they are describing instances—like those mentioned by Vanda Vitali in Los Angeles. “The response is striking. Their work is catalyzing other activities as well. After speaking to Moskovits. she’d ask them what they wanted from tourism and get into dialogues about what was reasonable to offer and reasonable to expect.100 tom hennes • hyperconnection account. he believes. and a teaching guide for local teachers.” Closer to home and with several Chicago institutions. The program he had told me about previously was started by Angelica Arriola. Permanent or not. I reached him just as he was making preparations for a Pachamanca. “There’s got to be a structure to all this. to ensure they become a permanent transformation in natural history museums. and the key is to figure out how the people who live in and around the area can become the long-term stewards of the national park. his archeological crew is working with the local museum and school system putting together three publications: a map of the archaeological resources in the area. In the course of the work she had had meetings with every community in the area. Moskovits says it’s a “huge collaboration.” she said. “okay. ECCo has co-developed the Chicago Wilderness program.” Moskovits’s work had first been mentioned to me by Jonathan Haas. Haas told me. Arriola had outlined six different tour programs based on the sites in the region. in a call earlier in the summer. which engages local communities directly in monitoring. Haas is a veteran museum anthropologist at the Field who spends his summers these days unearthing the remains of a previously-unknown 5. who had joined the team while working on a master’s degree in eco-tourism in the Norte Chico. 40 guinea pigs. and 50 kilos of potatoes. two goats. Caroll Simon in Buffalo. starting with a guide and cookbook of the region. Arriola is working on her doctorate to implement the program. He told me her method had simply been to have a meeting in someone’s house. That’s the only way. Haas said they recently hosted a group of people making a video about the work: “It’s becoming like an artists’ colony. 30 chickens. talking to nearly everyone. Virtually everyone had something to offer and “nobody’s resources were dismissed. I wanted to pick up that thread again.000-year-old state spread across a thousand sites in three of the four valleys of the Norte Chico region of northern Peru.” Meanwhile. cultural and archeological resources in the area. “whether local or distant. rather than an imposition. Moskovits and Haas describe are different ways in which they are creating new linkages between the work they do and other individuals and organizations around them who share in it and will ultimately carry it forward. what do you think you have to offer Peruvian tourists?” Then. she told me “The social issues run the full spectrum. he is grooming two young Peruvian Ph. Once programs start—and he included ECCo—those who initiated them have to put systems in place to ensure that they continue on their own. and had completed a registry of natural. put up a blackboard and say.” Now. what Houtgraaf. and collaborators that included a whole pig. he said. Of equal importance. candidates to be ready to step into the project’s lead after he retires in five years. friends. Susan Legêne in Amsterdam and Francis Thackeray . a guidebook.” Referring to Cordillera Azul. protecting. At the same time. He had noted near the end of our conversation that one of his team members was working with people in the region on local ecotourism for Peruvians. and he and I have spoken about the relationship between museums and the Web many times before. there has to be a substantial benefit that outweighs each museum’s instinctive desire to continue on an independent course. Shirky told me. writer. According to its Web site. collective enterprise. Shirky told me that the value of participation—shareable resources. The idea of a museum as a stand-alone attraction is in “direct tension to becoming a hyperconnected hub” that is part of a larger. Some of these will fail. but the familiar image of a single hub with lots of spokes sticking out of it doesn’t begin to account for the degree of connection happening in the field. teacher and guru of the Internet who takes a particular interest in social software—programs that enable people to cluster and work together around common areas of interest. Trends that take hold generally occur in three significant growth phases: .curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07 101 in Pretoria—in which their work stimulates new kinds of activity and new communities that didn’t exist before: communities of museums. and its online catalogue contains nearly 70 million entries. expertise and access to each others’ collections—was so great that libraries found it more attractive to join the pool than to compete on holdings and systems. technology and new methods of doing business spread in the business world. By 1981. To gain a perspective from someone who lives and breathes networks. He has written extensively on the growth of the Internet.S. it now has over 55. Instead. professional and economic networks. It was founded by the state of Ohio to develop a computerized system to enable its 55 academic libraries to share resources and reduce costs. The evolution of the OCLC into a wide-ranging global collective followed a pattern that is not unlike what Shirky said is typical of the way networks. and to the communities in and around the areas in which they conduct their research. a noisy but comfortable haunt in the West Village near both our offices. He cited the example of the OCLC. and because they will have been integrated into the culture of their museums. In order for isolated instances of networking to take hold in the field as a whole. The idea of a natural history museum as a hub in a network is not new. Think of it like this: as little networks around each museum connect to each other they become bigger networks that reach out to still larger communities. and communities around museums that form through common interests and common objectives. Shirky is a consultant. The links that bind them together will have passed from the node of an individual to the hub of the museum. but others are likely to persist because the social and professional networks that support them in the beginning will have durable value for everyone involved. maintaining complete control of its own agenda and its own identity.000 members in the U. We met at Bar Six. to their home communities. The question that arises is whether these network effects—links initiated by museums to each other and to disparate communities—are isolated instances or whether they really constitute the beginning of a larger trend. I asked Clay Shirky to have lunch with me in New York. all connected by the Internet and by a host of other social. a library cooperative that began in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center. museums are joining—and building—more complex and dynamic webs that link them to each other. the organization had expanded substantially and was renamed the Online Computer Library Center. and 110 other countries. Shirky says. But more interesting is the possibility of significantly linking systematics with action. Is there an “800-pound gorilla” big enough to stay out and keep others out? In other words.” Shirky hypothesized that the answers to three questions would underlie the predictive success of any movement of natural history museums toward larger. They are seeking expertise. in Shirky’s view. he says. larger social and organizational structures. 3. Do the early adopters have sufficient moral suasion to bring other museums along? 3. It can’t happen all at once.’” In Shirky’s view. With widening patterns of adoption. or visitors with remote communities around the world. But the weak ties are beginning to define a movement outward from the community of natural history museums to other. 2. resources and public participation that exceeds what their own organizations can provide.” But the museum can benefit by joining resources and communities together around areas of common interest. because “you still need to do something where people who come to town for two days can visit and still recognize it as a museum. “past participation is going to become a predictor of sustainability. in a complex process that resembles a trade negotiation. but some individuals and some departments have begun to form networks with each other and with many other organizations and communities.102 tom hennes • hyperconnection 1. we are in a world in which the old ontological connections—the strong ties—are weakening and the weak ties are becoming more valuable. This applies equally to the complex ecological relationships of “tiny shrimp living in rainwater pools in the rainforest canopy” and to the links among institutions and communities. That founding group “jollies new members along” into the collaboration. Building collective databases is an obvious one—as difficult as some have found it. It’s about crossing the valley between ‘we own our own users’ and ‘anything that helps all natural history museums also helps us. A handful of relatively secure visionaries not afraid of sharing make the first bold moves. for natural history museums to form networks. “You have to talk across disciplines. broadly-based networked structures and activities: 1. This is an opportunity for weak ties. and institutions aren’t well set up for this to happen under one roof.” Natural history museums are not on the verge of a widespread cooperative network like the OCLC. Is there is enough tradition of cooperation to get a few members sharing? 2. There are many advantages. it becomes obvious to outsiders that joining is better than staying out. They will likely generate value . “The value of the museum increases for two or more constituents if it increases the value of their meeting. can anyone afford to stand alone? At some tipping point. Whether these “weak ties” are strong enough to pull institutions as a whole into a more collective undertaking remains to be seen. which is not what the institution traditionally does. the Smithsonian’s associate director for public programs. I had to talk to the 800-pound gorilla. the questions are not the “identify/quantify” questions of the nineteenth century. topical and up-to-date information. Woods Hole. national agendas. My conversations and experience have convinced me that the first—a tradition of cooperation—is sufficiently strong to favor success. Several people I’d talked to pointed me toward Robert Sullivan. interaction. For the second question—moral suasion—it is too early to tell. and regional publics. “If the Smithsonian says ‘We don’t do that. Clearly.” Sullivan used the example of the Smithsonian’s upcoming ocean exhibition to illustrate. The Smithsonian has the only natural history museum with enough mass to be able to tip the balance of a web of nascent networks one way or the other. A discussion with Sullivan. The third question is harder.’ the visitors are frustrated. The Smithsonian should define hyperconnection. This demands networking “on both the public and science side. More importantly. to name a few. they expect customization. During the same period. to name only the most obvious advantage.” For the . it has a national scope. the movement gains strength from greater participation. to a “hub in a learning network” that defined the audience as a national and global learning community. the audience has changed because of the experiences they’re having elsewhere. he and I arranged to talk by phone one Sunday morning. personalization. Scripps.curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07 103 regardless of whether the whole of the natural history community joins in.” The alternative is to collaborate with other institutions and learn to educate the public on ideas the institution is “not always comfortable with. destination culture.” both for the Web portal and the educational initiative.5 million visitors annually. Web technology. science. and to the far-larger network of the Federal government. he said.” This has increased the need for networking “not only because it makes good programming. searchability. Since that time. it has 6. keeping the world’s collections on a single database is far more powerful than even the largest of the individual collections. the Smithsonian’s audience now expects predictive science. NASA. The exhibition “requires every department of the museum.and post-visit. After a few missed attempts on both sides. the National Museum of Natural History stands out for many reasons: its funding structure supports free admission. “The science requires network collaboration. and the opportunity to extend an experience both pre. but the success of shared temporary exhibitions and examples like Dirk Houtgraaf’s expanding programs and initiatives suggests that it is not likely to be a deal-breaker. it has links to the larger network of other Smithsonian museums. the Monterey Aquarium. but because it’s needed for the science” they’re producing. I left my lunch with Shirky thinking about his three predictors for broader network structures. Sullivan told me that he began to speak in 1990 about a transformation in the Smithsonian from the “destination culture” that existed when he arrived. In addition to its sheer scale. I quickly found out.” Natural science is increasingly “collaborative science. plus NOAA. is a fast-moving journey through an agile mind that leaps across demographics. Sullivan says. To answer it. the Smithsonian has focused more on addressing larger-scale questions around global citizenship and management of the global commons in its exhibition and national outreach programs. Summer workshops don’t do it. many different natural history museums are using their capacities in exhibition. They don’t hit enough numbers. We have a serious obligation in teacher training. and it shouldn’t just be the Smithsonian doing it alone. universities know how to do talking heads.” The opportunities are opening up everywhere “for a product we know how to build.” He added that the public also expects any Web portal the institution produces to take them to all the participants. We’re a powerful network. the science. anyway. and other scientific and outreach organizations.” He went on to the need to re-certify millions of teachers. and now they’re calling our bluff. We just need to get the materials out there. at least.” he said. He told me he plans to spend the next five years focusing on the creation of as many new projects. The money is out there.104 tom hennes • hyperconnection Smithsonian. the networks. natural history museums are “the only ones who know how to do it. he said. you realize aquariums and museums touch hundreds of millions of people each year. “It takes a whole community. We have to step up or not be taken seriously. object-based interactive online programs. It’s a different scale. that nobody has wanted to take it on. and we’ve got to get the message out. multimodal philosophy until it takes root. tending a multidisciplinary. we act as a clearing house for those agencies and it makes sense for everyone. but we rarely look at our cumulative effect. We know how to get a group of people—artists. “a few of us.” The Smithsonian is working on project-based. a teacher can come to an aquarium and do hands-on learning and the national program can be broadcast through a network of zoos.” What natural history museums have to offer is a skill set that Sullivan thinks is under-appreciated in the institutions themselves. It should be a network. Every teacher has to be recertified in science and technology. like a group in Brazil “that wants to present environmental science in a casino. local and regional communities.” He says he gets calls from the leisure destination business all the time. In aggregate. “Taking 30 teachers down the Amazon doesn’t do it. We have the materials. The regional organizations can provide regional stuff.” In Sullivan’s view. reading. “It’s a whole system of opportunities—and that becomes enormous. scientists. there is nothing standing in the way of a transformation of the entire natural history landscape. Across that landscape.” The Future of Purpose Whether the Smithsonian or one of the other large institutions will lead the way or simply participate in an even larger-scale phenomenon driven mainly by smaller-scale institutions is anybody’s guess. designers. science centers and natural history museums. education—and. But by Clay Shirky’s metrics. listening—to build new links to their visitors. university networks— everything we need. even more important. educators—together and get them to produce a creative product. The problem is so big. the stuff. “You’re not just managing the exhibition. forming national networks “is natural because we can work with national agencies that don’t have educational outlets. “Ocean literacy is vital to the future of the world. The goal for the ocean initiative is to reach 300 million people in the first three years.” and he adds. technology people.” he says. “We’ve always whined and moaned that we have a better way to teach. Many are also us- . research organizations. He likened it to a deal flow in investment banking—the continual stream of proposals that keeps the business alive. touring exhibitions. outreach to underserved communities. I touched on this in a conversation with the Field’s president. discovery. gains enormous reach and leverage. communities in areas under study. Also a trustee of the University of Chicago. all require that the institution partner with others. They really need to partner with other people. Each museum inhabits an important and unique position in such a network.” he said. networked ecology in which traditional distinctions—among museums and between museums and other types of organizations and social structures—become less sharp and less important than the specific contributions each participant can make to the collective whole.” The purposes for which natural history museums were founded are no longer sufficient to sustain them. but he also stressed that research programs. linking to a series of other networks: communities of visitors. motivations and activities of the diverse agents connected through it. is going to be comfortable with a cooperative. and governments in active. “None of this has viability on its own. Not everyone.” He told me the growth of partnership is both essential and “organic. These links.” When alliances are formed. thought and activity—brings dramatic changes to the authority. environmental action. Yet those who embrace the tectonic shifts that are occurring beneath them will find extraordinary new opportunities for growth. as many are doing. the museum links them not only to itself but also to each other. Moreover. and other museums. communities.” but others will thrive and museums have to go on building them. “All these institutions in today’s mega-world are really small.3 Each natural history museum. autonomy and intellectual seclusion many institutions once enjoyed. and the communities and organizations that participate in their research and action. collaborative programs of ecological and cultural stewardship. The value of such a network increases exponentially—in part because the generation of knowledge and activity is distributed across it rather than arising solely within in a single hub. educational systems. It is not that exploration. certainly. reaching out from the institutions to the communities and organizations that participate in their exhibitions and public programs. evaluation or protection. NGOs. New niches will open. form a network with natural history museums acting as hyperconnected hubs across which knowledge is generated and exchanged in increasingly accessible and cohesive ways. NGOs.curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07 105 ing their capacities for research and systematic collection to link with individuals. “You have to be at the center of these things to flourish as an institution. His board has given his staff and him “nothing but encouragement” to develop these alliances. John McCarter. “some things fall by the wayside. positioning itself as a hub in such a network. often in unpredictable. new directions that give the network qualities of selforganization through the interests. governments. he pointed out that the Field’s $65 million annual budget is tiny in relation to the university’s roughly $2 billion. and those nimble enough to occupy them will gain. and he put it into terms of the economics and scale of museums. This is important because those links allow new clusters of individuals and organizations within the aggregated network to interact and share their own knowledge independently across it. Joining with the new interconnected clusters—each with its own agency and motivations. “You have to have fiscal responsibility.” he said. and descriptive science . through joint programs. community ties. dividing itself between research and exhibits. and between us and them. digital resources and. Information on the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation can be found at http://www. Francis Thackeray told me later that the Transvaal Museum. but that these things by themselves no longer constitute sufficient purpose to justify or support public institutions in a time of transition.org/research_ collections/ecco. beginning to coalesce with others into what I believe will become an increasingly dynamic network that links disparate communities together and will enable all of us to better understand the complexity of our world and act more effectively toward shared ends that arise from that understanding.amnh. they will create greater value for the strong ties that bind them together as individual entities. 3. between science and nature. Howard Rheingold cites . Notes 1. programs. It is an institution modeled on sharp divisions and solid walls.fieldmuseum. and the links that connect them—Shirky’s weak ties that bridge across institutional boundaries—are fundamentally changing the way institutions are organized.106 tom hennes • hyperconnection are no longer useful. This is an environment not of either/or but and/and—intelligent design and evolution. between inside and outside. The purposes that drive those ends are extraordinarily varied. and role in a changing world. ghostly institution that inhabits the dualistic world of the nineteenth century. The institutions that thrive in it are most likely going to be those in which topdown management. was considering joining the Dutch collaborative. For more information about ECCo. the argument for funding and maintaining these institutions will be based less on their intrinsic value as repositories of knowledge and objects than on the importance of their collaborations.htm. Increasingly. The National Museum of Natural History has a range of interdisciplinary research projects that can be found at http://www.html. which has not yet started digitizing its collections.edu/rc/ inter_disc_res_progs.php. They will retain and even deepen their individual character by integrating more fully with their communities and contributing to the networks in which they participate precisely those assets—the collections and expertise—that most uniquely define them. see http://www. In his book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. or that there is no room for wonder at the natural world. Independently.org/ science/facilities/cbc. most importantly. and as the weak ties that extend outward gain in value. shared knowledge. And they will gain enormously from the collective commons that the network ecology will make available to them. The natural history museum that Mary Alexander told me is dead is a solitary. The world and our relationship to it have changed. academic and creative structures are able to adapt themselves to a new ecology of bottom-up self-organization. 2. The new model is a hyperconnected knowledge hub.mnh. Their walls are becoming more porous. the enormous energy of the interconnected communities that increasingly redefine them.si. Sheppard. Museum News 76 (6): 39–40. Cambridge. J. Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology. People Interviewed The following individuals generously gave their time in discussion for this article. IL. the Netherlands. These can be as simple as bookmarks accessed by each user. Falk. E. Curator. 1997. . Cambridge. This means each group benefits from the accumulated knowledge and access of each user by generating individual knowledge resources that can be shared. American Museum of Natural History. the value of “groupforming networks” (e-Bay was the first successful example). Director of Public Engagement. President. References Brown. Terry Gosliner. in which individual users are able to form groups with any other users through a coalescence of interests or pursuits. Naturalis. MA: Basic Books. Annapolis. CA. New York. Catalogue of change. According to David Reed. Department of Anthropology. California Academy of Sciences. Thriving in the Knowledge Age: New Business Models for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions. MA. San Francisco. Dirk Houtgraaf. Maryland Historical Trust. Lanham. MD: AltaMira Press. Niles Eldredge. grows exponentially with the number of users. American Museum of Natural History. Institute for Learning Innovation. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Lesley University. John Falk. Any mangling of their words is my own.” one of several theories governing value in different kinds of networks (Rheingold 2002). Joel Cracraft. they have provided me with a window into the current world of the natural history museum far in excess of what I have directly quoted and I’m deeply grateful for their insights. The collective group gains disproportionately through common access to the shared “commons” of the resources. the Field Museum. Rheingold. TERC. Director. Curator. or as elaborate as detailed information collected by a birdwatching community for the benefit of other birdwatchers. President. George Hein. Department of Museum Services. 2002. and B. Senior Curator. H.curator 50 / 1 • january 20 07 107 “Reed’s Law. Museum Advancement Program. Professor Emeritus. Lamont Curator and Curator-in-Charge. Chicago. 2006. NY. MD. NY. Division of Paleontology. Leiden. New York. Mary Alexander. Division of Vertebrate Zoology-Ornithology. Jonathan Haas. South Africa. New York. President and CEO. Buffalo Museum of Science. Terry Gosliner. Enid Schildkrout. Associate Director for Public Programs. Head. E. Sullivan. NY. In addition. Robert A. IL. Faculty of Humanities. Pretoria. National Museum of Natural History. IL. Acting President. Carroll A.. Curatorial Department. CA. Los Angeles. George Hein. Museum for African Art. Jay Rounds. Amsterdam. Chicago. John W. St. Simon. Transvaal Museum. New York University. and Joe MacDonald for their very helpful comments on drafts. University of Amsterdam. Buffalo.108 tom hennes • hyperconnection Susan Legêne. Clay Shirky. Environment. Vice President. the Field Museum. Jr. thanks to Mary Alexander. MO. Chief Curator. Environmental and Conservation Programs. Francis Thackeray. Smithsonian Institution. Washington. . DC. Desmond Lee Professor of Museum Studies and Community History. University of Missouri. the Field Museum. Louis. part-time professor. Graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program. Culture and Conservation. New York. Adjunct Professor. McCarter. NY. Acting Director. the Netherlands. Debra Moskovits. Vanda Vitali. Vice President of Public Programs. Tropenmuseum. NY. Chicago. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.