Opinion: Despite federal budget cuts, museums are here to stay in America

The Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park File photo by Chris Stone Times of San Diego In spite of the cuts to the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington museums and libraries across the the United States are forging ahead For nearly three decades this little-known federal agency has provided tens of millions of dollars in funding and endorsement to museums and libraries throughout San Diego Jessica Hanson York CEO of the Mingei Museum in Balboa Park reported The San Diego Union-Tribune that the cuts are a gut punch San Diego s libraries and museums will survive and hopefully prosper But they will need our financial and moral promotion Such sponsorship is crucial to building the kinds of communities San Diego necessities indeed which every neighborhood every nation badly requirements and there has never been a more challenging period of economic dislocation facing the people in our region The Institute for Museums and library Services has reported it best The relationship between libraries museums and their communities is at a critical intersection There has never been a greater need for libraries and museums to work with other organizations in effectively serving our communities there has never been a more rapid period of change affecting museums libraries and their communities For too long it seemed people stopped going to museums or at least museums didn t seem to know who visited from where they came or why they visited That s all changing If you ve noticed almost all museums now ask for your ZIP Code so they know where you came from and with chosen precision particularly with the help of the help of audio guides often offered free they know what attracted you and how long you spent at any one exhibit just as online marketers have been doing with content cookies The Dallas Museum of Art sometime ago launched free general admission and a no-cost friends membership activity to encourage broader involvement and interest among people who might not otherwise go to museums at all The plan is simple give everybody a device that tells him or her what he or she is seeing and collect the evidence When compared to their Zip Codes the museum can tailor their experience curate to reach a wider audience and better serve the larger region Modern tech is transforming museums from spaces of looking and learning to spaces of interaction participation and engagement Multiple libraries and museums in Southern California do the same But that is only the beginning of what museums are doing with apparatus to serve the larger region and relate to their neighborhood in methods unheard of in another age Clearly museums are being redefined for a digital age The transformation museum bureaucrats say promises to touch every aspect of what museums do from how art and objects are presented and experienced to what is defined as a The pragmatic need to appeal to modern audiences who expect to be surrounded by hardware is one engine of change But museum representatives insist there is a powerful aesthetic and cultural rationale as well In recent times I visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam where you can buy almost anything Van Gogh candy scarves potato chips must be a connection somewhere There is a booth encouraging visitors to pose in front of a Van Gogh painting and receive an email picture creating a deeper connection between the museum and the visitor As the British philosopher Alan Watts once put it museums were once just places where art goes to die But for the greater part people now museums are cherished institutions places that house artifacts and other objects of scientific artistic cultural or historical importance and make them available for populace viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary John Eger is professor emeritus in the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State University Previously he served as legal assistant to FCC Chairman Dean Burch telecommunications adviser to President Gerald R Ford and senior vice president of CBS Worldwide Enterprises