A common soul

This afternoon I went to Mexico for some meetings in the central part of the country (Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Zacatecas). I sat next to a woman who was only going to Mexico City. She helps museums present themselves to the world. She is a New Zealander who married an Australian. She said that the minute she first came to Mexico she somehow felt at home. Funny, I felt the same way also.

The work she is doing is interesting including working with an economics museum in Mexico. She explained that museums have several problems. First, they take all comers - so the range of expertise/understanding is quite varied. That presents a challenge to interest the well prepared and the not-so-well prepared. At the same time museums face the same set of issues that other institutions face in regard to expertise. No longer is it possible to assume that because you are a museum or a curator that you will know the field - just like professors or doctors or other professionals the assumptions about expertise are changing. Finally, they have the problem of catching the moment for museum goers. How do you catch their attention - offer them somethng interesting and yet not overwhelm them? I thought it was an interesting perspective.