With a growing number of experiences available online, virtual tours, digital archives, and 360-degree object explorations, it seems logical to wonder if museums have lost their relevance. In some respects, I would argue they never had as much importance as they do today. But what is special about museums is that they are spaces for experiencing culture in real-time.
We Can’t Experience Real Presence in Virtual Spaces
Museums offer visitors a real presence in space. Virtual presentations can be a supplement, of course, but they can never replace a real experience. The sense of space, the materiality of objects, and their scale and real-world context are important in their cultural understanding. The physicality of the exhibit itself is vital to our cultural experience.
A Museum Experience Gives the Information Credibility
Museums are institutions that are known as trusted sources of information. They research, preserve, and collect knowledge that people trust, which is especially important at a time when the internet is awash with unchecked and unverified information. Everything in a museum is collected and curated, researched, and placed in a historical context.
An Experience-Based Education Is Unparalleled by Online Learning
In an online environment, we’re often reading and watching information. A museum is an experience-based education, where visitors move through physical space and learn in real space while observing objects of art and history. The experience of museums often stays in the mind more strongly and longer than does online learning.
Museums Help Maintain Cultural Identity
Museums preserve memory; they help preserve our identity as a culture. Museums are important to us now as never before to protect our collective memory, and to help us understand where we’ve been and where we’re going. They are key for helping our cultures understand their collective identity and collective history. Without museums, we risk losing our past.
Museums Incorporate Digital Technologies in an Age of Information
Of course, museums have always embraced innovation, and we’ve become experts in integrating digital technology into our spaces. We use digital tools to enhance the museum experience, offering virtual access and contextual learning materials that help bring our collection into a digital environment.
We Still Have Our Role to Play
Even with all that, we believe that the presence of museums is important. They have something that a digital environment simply can’t give. Museums offer us real presence, cultural credibility, and authentic educational value. Museums help us connect not only to information but to history, and they help us navigate a digital environment full of false information by providing a real presence in space, cultural context, and authentic human connection. They provide us with an anchor in a rapidly shifting, often digital world.