Temple of the Muses: Beyond the Secular Museum (original) (raw)

Around the world, indigenous peoples are reclaiming the museums established by colonial powers, and matters of spirit are taking their rightful place. Museums in Western Europe, on the other hand, exhibit two parallel streams: religion, faith and belief are accepted when somehow exotic or 'other', but when they apply to 'us', the dead hand of secularism descends. Yet museums really are temples of culture, available for inspiration to everyone. Cathedrals and churches once had that role, but in a multicultural society, they are not the universal institutions they once were. Public museums are one of the key institutions, at the heart of our communities, able to provide that level of inclusive cultural inspiration, epiphany and exultation, but they fail by running scared of anything beyond scientific materialism, thereby missing half of life. The contrast between post-colonial museums and those in the former colonial powers is striking. We can learn a great deal from world developments, and by going back to first principles. What, then, would a museum, prepared to be a true temple of the muses, be like?