Long considered by many as the center of high society and fine art, museums have established themselves as the elite foundation for what many museum directors proudly describe as the, “cathedrals of culture.” In vibrant metropolises, urban museums have sought to find a composite group of high class patrons amongst the density and heterogeneous nature of the city. Up until recently, museum collections sought out only the most exclusive and rarest of art as a top priority in the agenda held by longtime directors. In the current era, however; a major trend has occurred amongst many of the directors who are facilitating new programs that allow each institution to provide a focused area for creating a multicultural setting in the local community.

Wall Street Journal reporter Judith H. Dobrzynski investigated this new trend and explored how a new generation of museum directors in their early 40’s are adapting the exhibits to reach an audience once ignored by directors. 

In order to remain relevant in today’s fast paced society, art-museums like that of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis are destabilizing the preconceived notion of what constitutes “fine-art” by reflecting on the universal and dynamic changes occurring in vibrant urban communities. The director of the Walker Art Center, Ms. Olga Viso, utilizes the museum as a means to engage the local neighborhoods of Minneapolis with exhibits that range from current global affairs to an the interactive piece called the “Tool Shed”— which allows visitors to create art with items ranging from iPads to playing cards. For directors, redefining a new generation of art is a method of what Ms. Viso describes as, “breaking down boundaries.” With society becoming increasingly more globalized and interconnected, new generations of museum directors are attempting to create an experience for the visitor that provides new perspectives on how constant change and increasing diversity directly impact their community. For the Walker Art Center, this transformation becomes new a form of engaging the community with art that was once considered inaccessible.

For both the audience and art patrons, this new trend for museums enhances the exhibit to broaden the outreach into the local community by addressing local demographics and catering to the community.  Essentially these museums act as method for making art accessible to everyone. To a large degree, this popular strategy is spreading amongst museums across the United States. By increasing the amount of different community voices present in the local art museum, directors are engaging visitors to reflect on their own involvement with their local environment. The outcome has produced tremendous results for increasing the number of visitors to their local museums because directors invest in an exhibit that not only draws on the diversity of the local community but instead creates a visual narrative for the community members to constantly reflect upon. As a result, such new ventures for museums allow the definition art to become more inclusionary in its terms and less dependent upon the elite standard that long acted as an exclusionary measure for much of a museum’s surrounding community.

Read the article here on 'No More Cathedrals of Culture.'