A Message Concerning University and College Museums
We the undersigned believe that:
Great colleges and universities look both forward and back; they shape our shared future by being stewards of our shared past.
They perform this service not merely through the commitment of countless faculty and other resources to the cause of teaching, learning and scholarship, but also by building, preserving, providing access to, and interpreting tangible objects, ranging from manuscripts and rare books toworks of art and biological and natural-history specimens and artifacts.
Our college and university collections, found in our great academic archives, libraries and museums, are deep repositories of past and present human creativity, in all its diversity and richness.
These collections present students, teachers and local communities withunique opportunities to experience, to learn, and to grow. They speak to theyoungest child and to the lifelong learner. They advance teaching and learning across the arts, humanities, and social and natural sciences, while also inspiring new and exciting forms of inter disciplinary scholarship.
They engage entire communities in the perpetuation and dissemination ofknowledge, in their understanding of society and culture, in the value ofcultural and scientific literacy to our democracy and, thus, in the practiceof developing good and educated citizens.
Archivists, librarians and museum professionals - and the array of servicesthey provide - play an essential role in the educational enterprise by facilitating access to, as well as the appreciation and interpretation of, our college and university collections.
At the heart of many of our great colleges and universities stand museums ofart, science, archaeology, anthropology, and history, as well as arboreta and other collections of living specimens. Along with our libraries and archives, these academic museums advance learning through teaching and research. They are the nation's keepers of its history, culture and knowledge. They are essential to the academic experience and to the entire educational enterprise.
Founded, like universities, to serve humankind, museums are no more disposable assets than are libraries and archives.
Great Universities have Great Museums.
The Boards, Officers and Members of the:
American Association of Museums, Ford Bell, President; Carl Nold, Chair Association of Art Museum Directors, Michael Conforti, President; Janet Landay, Executive DirectorAssociation of College and University Museums and Galleries, David Alan Robertson, President University Museums and Collections, International Council of Museums, Cornelia Weber, Chair College Art Association, Paul Jaskot, President; Linda Downs, Executive Director Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Max Marmor, President.
FOTO: Museu Nacional de História Natural de Nova Iorque
