What Will the Museums of the Future Hold?

The Future of Here, an ongoing exhibition at the Peale Museum, gathers and presents imaginary artifacts from the everyday life of a future people that might one day inhabit the landscape of this city. By assembling these artifacts from the trash and debris we leave behind, the exhibit raises questions about what we value and what we tend to neglect, and how we might begin to change those values and habits. What does it mean to build a museum exhibition from waste materials that might otherwise be buried and forgotten in the margins of our urban landscapes? And what might the museums of the future hold one day, as embodiments of what the people of that time deem worth saving?

Museums are often asked to preserve the physical and material remains of past people and cultures. There is much to learn from close relationships with such objects, for they also carry intangible meanings, telling stories about the people of the past and allowing us to reflect on the lived experiences of those who once used and cared for them. But the cultural life of those peoples can sometimes be taken out of context, with meanings lost in translation. How will the museums of the future interpret the significance and even the beauty of what is left behind, while maintaining the relationship with lived experience?

The objects and materials we have access to now will determine the materials left for future generations. These things invite us to think about their own future, as well as the cultural orientations of the people to come: what they might want to save collectively and how they might do so, whether through museums and collections or new kinds of spaces and institutions. We will explore these questions in the context of the exhibition, and in the company of contemporary museum professionals in conservation, curation, and cultural heritage.

Sanchita Balachandran is the director of the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute. She is an art conservator trained in the preservation, technical research and care of archaeological materials. Balachandran was previously the director of the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum and taught courses in museum practice and the technical study of ancient items from that collection. She holds a PhD in Preservation Studies from the University of Delaware.

Winter BearKing (Lakota) is the Education Programs Specialist and Indigenous Outreach Coordinator for the Maryland Center for History and Culture, and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Trainer for the Association on American Indian Affairs, funded by the Mellon Foundation. They are currently completing their graduate degree in cultural heritage management at Johns Hopkins University. Ms. BearKing weaves together a background in social history and love of storytelling to build deeper understanding of ontologies and their influence on society.

Leila Grothe is Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at The Baltimore Museum of Art. Her recent projects include Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum—a large-scale initiative comprised of nine exhibitions, institutional interventions, and a publication all geared towards centering Indigenous voices, as well as recent solo exhibitions with Raúl de Nieves, Martha Jackson Jarvis, Stephanie Syjuco, Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, and numerous collection and group exhibitions. She also teaches in the Curatorial Practice graduate program at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

The conversation will be moderated by artist Jordan Tierney and anthropologist Anand Pandian, who developed "The Future of Here" in collaboration with a team of students and creators at Johns Hopkins University. This event is co-sponsored by the Maryland Center for History and Culture.

Host or Publisher The Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture