"THE MISSION of the Memorial Museum, located at the World Trade Center site, is to bear solemn witness to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. The Museum honors the nearly 3,000 victims of these attacks and all those who risked their lives to save others. It further recognizes the thousands who survived and all who demonstrated extraordinary compassion in the aftermath. Demonstrating the consequences of terrorism on individual lives and its impact on communities at the local, national, and international levels, the Museum attests to the triumph of human dignity over human depravity and affirms an unwavering commitment to the fundamental value of human life."I found the wording to be dogmatic and dramatic (especially the part which says, "the Museum attests to the triumph of human dignity over human depravity"), and evoked images of red state bumper stickers (like, "NEVER FORGET.")
Additionally, the first two goals are to "bear solemn witness" and to "honor the nearly 3000 victims." These don't seem to mesh with Paul M. Rea's idea of the function of the museum. In "What are Museums For?" he writes that the function of museums is "the acquisition and preservation of objects, the advancement of knowledge by the study of objects, and the diffusion of knowledge for the enrichment of the life of the people."
In other words, museums should educate and elucidate, which the Memorial Museum will probably do in some capacity by acting as preservers of a historically significant event. But overall, it seems like an emotional response is what they are going for. Are the objects in this museum artifacts or relics? It's hard to tell.
Another museum which dually serves a memorial is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Their mission reads:
"The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is America’s national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history, and serves as this country’s memorial to the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust."While it also serves as a place of remembrance, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum prioritizes the dissemination of information, which is what a museum should do.
Wether they also entertain, celebrate, or honor, the contract museums have with their audiences dictates that their purpose is to educate, and if museums are not doing this, they are underserving their audiences.
You know, I find your observations very interesting in light of a recent article in the NYTimes comparing Richard Nixon's presidential library to that of Ronald Reagan. The curator of Nixon's library has taken the stance that the Watergate scandal cannot be whitewashed from the president's history, even though it's a bit like airing dirty laundry in public. A number of trustees left the library protesting that too much emphasis had been placed on this very dismal era in Nixon's otherwise rather interesting political life. The curator argued that it is important to tell the entire story and provide a context. Reagan had his moment with the Iran Contra affair but including it in the library seems not to have raised anyone's hackles. We may wonder what the WTC Memorial museum will hope to accomplish aside from the obvious memorializing of the dead. I think the Holocaust Museum has slowly tried to expand their mission to include other "holocausts"--ie genocides--throughout the world. Will the WTC museum bear witness to terrorism in general?
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