Open Forum

Dear All

In this time of craziness, When is it good to pick a fight for museums? I get that it can be a delicate thing but I also want museums to continue to tell all stories and welcome the community. I believe in the trust that museums have with the public. 

Thanks,

Rachel

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Rachel Alschuler
Museum Education/ Visitor Experience
San Francisco CA
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Hi Rachel,

I don't know if there is a right time or a "when" that is the perfect time. When it comes to museum advocacy, I would say that we should always be championing museums and what they stand for. 

However, for the other side of that coin...

I would say that you are right about such a thing being very delicate and that it depends on your organization and your role within it. You would need to be very prepared for the fact that fighting for museums can easily backfire, especially if you're in the public sector and work for a municipal/county/state/federal organization. And by backfire, I mean the potential of losing your job. If you're in the private sector, you have a little more wiggle room, but need to bear in mind that anything you do reflects on your organization.

Ultimately, as museum professionals, we should always be championing museums and historic sites, but we also need to choose our battleground carefully and make sure what we do reflects positively on the agencies and institutions we are advocating.

All the Best,
Aaron

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Aaron Gates (He/Him)
Site Manager
Mission Dolores State Historic Site - Texas Historical Commission
San Augustine, Texas

Original Message:
Sent: 05-28-2025 12:52 PM
From: Rachel Alschuler
Subject: When is it good to pick a fight for museums?

Dear All

In this time of craziness, When is it good to pick a fight for museums? I get that it can be a delicate thing but I also want museums to continue to tell all stories and welcome the community. I believe in the trust that museums have with the public. 

Thanks,

Rachel

------------------------------
Rachel Alschuler
Museum Education/ Visitor Experience
San Francisco CA
------------------------------

Dear All

In this time of craziness, When is it good to pick a fight for museums? I get that it can be a delicate thing but I also want museums to continue to tell all stories and welcome the community. I believe in the trust that museums have with the public. 

Thanks,

Rachel

------------------------------
Rachel Alschuler
Museum Education/ Visitor Experience
San Francisco CA
------------------------------

Dear colleagues:

My answer here is: WHENEVER YOUR MUSEUM COMES UNDER ATTACK! 

At one time in my career, I was the sole museum employee tasked with leading the creation of a new museum facility that was assumed to be 'easily moved' into a provincially designated historic site.  Of course, this eventual $1.7 million (CAD) project took more than the "6 months" originally assumed by my municipal museum employers.

Eventually, we did in fact successfully move our collections into the heritage building that was extensively renovated to accommodate environmental control systems in a northern climate. This direction required strict attention toward avoiding pulverizing of the brick fabric of the structure due to 'vapour pressure' that would force moisture injected into interior spaces during the winter months towards the outside low humidity & into the building's bricks where it would freeze & thus crumble them!

See the following narrated PowerPoint presentations outlining the 'ins & outs' of such complex AND EXPENSIVE processes at https://miscellaneousmuseology.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/adaptive-re-use-project-for-the-sam-waller-museum-narration-2.pptx , https://miscellaneousmuseology.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/crucial-cautions-re-museum-adaptive-re-use-of-heritage-structures-for-museum-purposes-narration-final-1.pptx , & Experiences with Adaptive Re-Use of Heritage Buildings for Museum Purposes .

Due to the length of time (9 years) it took me to properly plan, raise the necessary funds, hire & train additional staff, initiate, & complete such a project (involving 3 separate phases: selective demolition, renovation construction, & exhibit installation), a community newsletter author took it into his head to publish his criticism of the project as overly ambitious & unnecessary--if not unworthy of all the time & effort involved. 

In response, I published his full published critique along with my point-by-point rebuttal in my museum's newsletter that was sent to other museums in my region, elected provincial officials, the Historic Resources Department officials, & professional museum organisations. Those interested can read it at https://miscellaneousmuseology.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/1994-10-waller-museum-project-justification.pdf OR 1994 10 Waller Museum Project Justification . 

As I closed my response, "Mr. [named critic] is certainly entitled to express his opinion about what we should and should not be doing. What he is not entitled to do, however, is to use false or twisted statements (whether deliberate or ignorant), unfounded preconceptions, and base opposition to the pursuit of excellence, to attack us in public without being strongly rebutted." 

In the view of this museum professional (now retired after more than a quarter century of work in the museum field), we all must understand that the values of heritage preservation & education facilities are NOT universally supported &, therefore, must ALWAYS be defended with vigour & strong argumentation.

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Paul C.Thistle
Director/Curator (retired)
Stratford, Ontario

Original Message:
Sent: 05-28-2025 12:52 PM
From: Rachel Alschuler
Subject: When is it good to pick a fight for museums?

Dear All

In this time of craziness, When is it good to pick a fight for museums? I get that it can be a delicate thing but I also want museums to continue to tell all stories and welcome the community. I believe in the trust that museums have with the public. 

Thanks,

Rachel

------------------------------
Rachel Alschuler
Museum Education/ Visitor Experience
San Francisco CA
------------------------------

Dear All

In this time of craziness, When is it good to pick a fight for museums? I get that it can be a delicate thing but I also want museums to continue to tell all stories and welcome the community. I believe in the trust that museums have with the public. 

Thanks,

Rachel

Yours is an important question, Rachel, especially now when so many institutions of civil society--universities, legacy media, libraries, and on and on--are coming under attack or slowly starved of support. When I advocate now, I am strongly connecting museums to civil society, as trusted institutions of lifelong learning that help maintain the educated populace necessary to a functioning democracy.  I have worked in government-associated museums for decades, at the federal, state, and municipal levels, and during that time I have found that an essential component of advocacy now is educating people about what museums do and how we do it. I work for a city government in which there isn't one other person who has a good understanding of museum operations and the ethics and law around museums, which means that I have to patiently explain these concepts (over and over) in order to even start to advocate. But it's a task worth doing, for the future of our profession and for democracy.

Dear All

In this time of craziness, When is it good to pick a fight for museums? I get that it can be a delicate thing but I also want museums to continue to tell all stories and welcome the community. I believe in the trust that museums have with the public. 

Thanks,

Rachel