The museum of the present

James Panero | The New | 1st December 2016

Booming museum attendances are due partly to a greater focus on the visitor experience. This didn’t use to be such a priority. “The museum of the past … was content to care for the … pleasure and delight of its permanent collection”.  Might their focus on box office lead museums to neglect their custodial role of cultural objects? “Our times [need] a real, unmediated engagement with the objects of the past “.