Directors’ Perspective: A Transatlantic Discussion on the Role of Museums

Abstract

ABSTRACT In November 2019, the Smithsonian hosted the Transatlantic Seminar for Museum Curators and Educators: Museums as Spaces for Social Discourse and Learning. The program brought together German and American museum professionals and was co-sponsored by the Leibniz Institution, the Smithsonian Institution, and Fulbright Germany. On July 20, 2020 Britta Horstmann and Barbara Stauffer, two of the seminar participants, had the pleasure of sitting down with museum directors from two of the sponsoring organizations: Volker Mosbrugger, Director General of the Senckenberg Society for Natural Research, a member of the Leibniz Institution, and Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The lively conversation covered a variety of topics, ranging from the imperative of sharing stories about an object’s provenance to the power of harnessing citizen scientists to the importance of digitization, and suggested ideas for how U.S. and German museums might create a cooperative network for the future. While their perspective(s) are based on their experience(s) with large natural history museums, many of these themes are relevant for smaller, non-science museums as well.