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The Social Work of Museums
Museums may not seem at first glance to be engaged in social work. Yet, Lois H. Silverman brings together here relevant visitor studies, trends in international practice, and compelling examples that demonstrate how museums everywhere are using their unique resources to benefit human relationships and, ultimately, to repair the world. In this groundbreaking book, Silverman forges a framework of key social work perspectives to show how museums are evolving a needs-based approach to provide what promises to be universal social service. In partnership with social workers, social agencies, and clients, museums are helping people cope and even thrive in circumstances ranging from personal challenges to social injustices. The Social Work of Museums provides the first integrative survey of this emerging interdisciplinary practice and an essential foundation on which to build for the future.
The Social Work of Museums is not only a vital and visionary resource for museum training and practice in the 21st century, but also an invaluable tool for social workers, creative arts therapists, and students seeking to broaden their horizons. It will inspire and empower policymakers, directors, clinicians, and evaluators alike to work together toward museums for the next age.
eBook
Toward the next age
From shamans to scientists, many predict that the twenty-rst century will soon
bring the human community to an inevitable and irrevocable turning point. As we
enter what scientist Edward O. Wilson has called “humanity’s bottleneck” (2002),
a time of peak strain and an unprecedented challenge to our natural, economic, and
intellectual resources, humankind will either meet its dire need to transform on a
global scale or collapse (Musser 2005). Already, the century’s escalating epidemics,
extreme natural disasters, and ruthless international violence seem like glaring
symptoms of a world at risk. We are quite capable of destroying each other and
the planet. To survive and thrive in the next age, we must evolve new strategies for
benecial coexistence, using every suitable means to do so. In this light, the social
work of museums no longer seems optional, or a clever way to keep collectionsbased institutions relevant, but an essential responsibility to humankind. e
world’s museums have always been committed to caring for culture. To insure the
next age, museums must help foster cultures of caring.
Book Chapter
In the service of society
In an old art museum with a well-worn oor, a tour group gathers around an
enthusiastic guide and a famous painting of owers. People are soon sharing moments:
where and when they have seen owers like this, who they know that loves bright
colors, and what they think of the work. A petite woman with long, grey hair oers
her opinion of the artist’s technique. A tall, slender man nods in agreement, and the
two exchange quick smiles. Like countless other groups enjoying the world’s art in
museums, this man and woman, along with their companions, are exercising their
minds, expressing their identities, and recognizing potential friends as they interact
with one another. For this group, the moments are particularly powerful. Just two
hours ago, the woman could not remember her name or what day it was, and the man
had been sullen and withdrawn. Like many of their companions, who are all residents
of a local nursing home, the woman and man are experiencing the progressive
impairment of cognitive and social functioning caused by dementia. Unfortunately,
they are far from unique. By the year 2040, the prevalence of dementia will more
than triple worldwide, reaching epidemic proportions in India, China, and elsewhere
(Ferri et al. 2005). Yet, in this museum, viewing art, they nd their thoughts and
voices and connect with the social world. Which museum is this? It might be any
one of a growing number, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the
Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki, that now oer tours to foster positive mood and
social interaction for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers. Who is the
woman with the long, grey hair and the slender man? As statistics would suggest, they
are our neighbors, our parents, ourselves.
Book Chapter
Treasures of home
Of all our bonds, none reveals more innate artistry than family. Be they near or far,
families shape us as we shape them, blending textures from the past, colors in the
present, and visions for the future. Always works-in-progress, families are among the
greatest treasures gathered in museums today.
Book Chapter
Solve et coagula
How do museums benet close pairs? It seems no coincidence that some of the
earliest philosophers who aimed to make gold from base metal through the alchemical
arts of solve et coagula – Latin for “separate and join together” – made discoveries and
shared secrets in the Great Museum of Alexandria. For centuries since, pairs of many
kinds have been doing likewise in museums. Today, the children of enemies in Ireland
and in Israel, divided by religious dierence, are nding common ground for edging
friendships through lively museum activities. Caregivers and their spouses in Finland
and in New York are enjoying more meaningful conversation together because of art
museum programs. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and heterosexual couples in
Australia and Oregon are arming their bonds by sharing their love stories in exhibits.
Heartbroken lovers in Croatia and army widows in California are facing the loss of
their beloved partners with support from museums. Together, this varied evidence
yields an exciting conclusion: museums serve essential needs of close pairs, even in
cases of risk. ey also inuence several key social issues pertinent to partnership.
Exactly how are museums engaging in social work with close pairs? We start this part
of our survey by considering the nature of pairs.
Book Chapter
Social work perspectives
As long as public museums have existed, so has an entire profession devoted to the
service of society and its development. For more than one hundred years, as the
museum eld inched toward declaring a prevailing concern for the public good, the
profession of social work actively fostered the well-being of individuals, groups, and
society, while rening theories and methods for doing so. Luckily, museums value
interdisciplinary knowledge, professional development, and productive partnership.
From the elds of education and communication, for example, museums have adopted
important concepts and techniques. It is from the eld of social work that museums
have, intentionally and unintentionally, garnered both essential approaches and
practical guidance to inform many of their social service eorts to date. Increasingly,
museums are engaging in social work. It is therefore not only professionally wise but
ethically necessary for museums to deepen their relationship with this essential global
profession. What is social work, and how do its fundamental perspectives further
advance museum theory and practice? Let’s briey return to our scenes of change in
museums for a closer look at social work in action.
Book Chapter
From body to soul
Of all human relationships, perhaps none evokes more awe than the one we have with
our own existence, otherwise known as the self. Remarkably, through a lifetime of
social interaction, each of us becomes an entity that is both similar to and dierent
from all others. For this journey, humans have long found support and inspiration in
diverse sources, from religion to poetry to science. In the twenty-rst century, service
to the self is also plentiful in museums.
Book Chapter
