With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Museums' future lies on the internet, says titans of British museum world

Two titans of the British museum world, Sir Nicholas Serota and Neil MacGregor, last night sketched out their visions for the museum of the future.

Both said that the relationship between institutions and their audiences would be transformed by the internet. Museums, they said, would become more like multimedia organisations.

"The future has to be, without question, the museum as a publisher and broadcaster," said MacGregor, director of the British Museum.

Serota, director of the Tate, said: "The challenge is, to what extent do we remain authors, and in what sense do we become publishers providing a platform for international conversations?

"I am certain that in the next 10 to 15 years, there will be a limited number of people working in galleries, and more effectively working as commissioning editors working on material online."

The duo were speaking at an event at the London School of Economics in celebration of 60 years of the publisher Thames & Hudson.
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)