Museums cannot help but transform to respond to changes in contemporary society

Public debate about the scope of museum institutions, the social functions of the museum, and the actions to be taken to attract more and more visitors usually intensifies after watershed events that have collective implications, such as world conflicts, pandemics, terrorism, and global economic crises. Since the beginning of the third millennium, there have been at least four such caesuras, without considering the effects of climate change: the security crisis triggered by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the economic crisis of 2008, the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-2021, and the current international geo-political crisis. After such events, which are all in some way an effect of globalization, museums, as cultural hubs active in different scenarîs that all converge in a “glocal” type scenario, redefine themselves as all other institutions do and, updating their own “arsenals of peace,” try to bring their own contribution to the attempt to recreate the balances, including psychological ones, compromised in the various strata of the population.

It is in this context of endemic insecurity that the debate fatally turns to the mission and role of museums, and international bodies such as ICOM point to the pursuit of “diversified experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing” as the way forward. Beyond the way in which these guidelines are declined, even lexically, it is clear to all that museums, in the face of a complex situation such as the contemporary one, cannot fail to transform themselves in order to respond effectively to the demands for change coming from contemporary society, which demands first and foremost serenity and “moments of respite.” In order for everything to take place without distorting effects with respect to the institutional purposes of museums, however, it is necessary that before making strategic choices about the various activities to be put in place, a reflection on the identity and “positioning” of the museum in the cultural landscape that we have defined above as “glocal” should be initiated by those in charge of management, with the contribution of all stakeholders.

In our case (the Cerveteri and Tarquinia Archaeological Park), such positioning arises from the very nature of the cultural places managed: a “network” park that includes two archaeological areas of universal value included for this in the World Heritage List of Humanity - the Etruscan necropolis of Cerveteri and Tarquinia - and two national archaeological museums of great importance not only for the richness of the collections, but also for the value of the “containers” (Palazzo Vitelleschi and a wing of the Ruspoli castle), located in as many historical centers rich in tourist attractions. Such characteristics invite to orient the action of archaeological museums and parks such as ours in a bi-directional way, on the one hand to exploit in the archaeological areas already configured “park-like,” the potential of the binomial “nature-manufactured” , on the other hand to make the most of the potential of museum-cities, as Tarquinia in particular is, that are located in multi-layered historical centers, in which the organization of cultural and entertainment events (theatrical and para-theatrical, dance and music performances) springs from the deep vocation of the community itself and its urban expression. As far as museums are concerned, the richness of our collections also invites us, as the Ministry also asks us, to organize initiatives focused on the renewal of permanent exhibitions, the use of deposits, and the enhancement of contexts and masterpieces worthy of mention.

Having said this in general terms, it remains to be clarified how far a cultural institution such as a museum, including an Archaeological Park that is an “open-air museum,” can go that wants to be less and less a “temple” and more and more an “agora.” Is it all permissible if, in this scenario of permanent competition among museums, the goal is to increase the number of visitors with less and less discounted cultural offerings? There is, in our opinion, no magic formula for doing the right things and avoiding excesses, just as there is no single formula on how schedules should be constructed to attract more and more visitors with “diversified” cultural offerings without turning museums into neutral containers that organize and/or host popular events such as a summer festival may be.

From our point of view, in the new expanded horizon of values and goals that ICOM designed with the Prague General Assembly, there is a clear graduation: education, pleasure, reflection, sharing. As we understood the invitation formulated in Prague, in the cultural programming of a Museum that wants to be “alive” and in step with the times, there can be no entertainment for its own sake without “education” and “reflection.” Therefore, the popular saying, “If Muhammad does not go to the mountain, it is necessary for the mountain to go to Muhammad,” may not always apply, in the sense that we do not believe that the museum in order to be competitive must necessarily disregard “educational” purposes in order to intercept increasing shares of the public who for entertainment usually head elsewhere. At the same time, we are convinced that a good way to identify the strands of activity to be undertaken in the museum is to balance profit and nonprofit activities, on the one hand considering “income-generating” among the possible options for locations that lend themselves to the purpose, and on theother by involving territorial communities in planning through the tool of the Public Notice for the collection of expressions of interest, which should allow museum institutions at least to have an understanding of what the community expects from the museum and what it can offer to it. The museum’s task at that point will be to select quality proposals and put them “in system” with its own initiatives and with those of a more “entrepreneurial” nature.

Specifically, we will try and are already trying to design diversified cultural paths that make our museums and archaeological sites increasingly interesting places, where people enjoy the beauty of the sites, learn something, exercise their critical sense (appropriately in the Prague text there is a call for “reflection”!) and where inclusion and knowledge sharing - using appropriate languages - are primary goalsî. Valuing the testimonies of the past, therefore, is never separated in our vision from the goal of inviting people who come to visit us to look with “new eyes” at the present, not to stop at the surface of things. Given the peculiarities of the testimonies of the Etruscan civilization that we have the responsibility to manage, for us this goal is achieved by telling our audiences - through targeted initiatives - how the Etruscans managed the resources of the territory, how from the exploitation of these resources arose asocial organization with great inequalities between the ruling class and the rest of the population, how international relations were created for the exchange of commodities and consumer goods, how the Etruscans dealt with universal problems such as the fear of death, the perception and reworking of ethnic and cultural otherness, the translation into “myths” of ethical and cultural values, and gender issues, all of which have highly topical implications. The various initiatives we have organized so far at the Park and will organize in the future will be guided by this vision, which is inspired by Article 9 of our Constitution, and will hinge on the founding values of sharing and including culture. The high road, therefore, for the Park is the one outlined by our Ministry, which in adopting Investment Line 1.2 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan has indicated accessibility as the main medium-term goal of the Museums, which all initiatives should be inspired by.

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