Nelson Mandela said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Yet art museums are often at odds with a broader, more democratic, educational mission. Exhibitors and collectors of the “finest” in culture, they are by definition “discriminating”, selecting only the best examples of creativity, past or present. The paradox of most museum missions is to be both discriminating and simultaneously aim to engage and make art relevant to broader publics. Exclusivity often trumps.

This raises the question, who are museums for? At the crux of this conversation is whose creativity we celebrate and foster. Education departments are charged with helping a broad spectrum of people to find relevance and meaning through experiences with art. People bring a wide range of knowledge and experience to the museum that often remains untapped and invisible. This broader public also includes artists, many of whom are not represented in our collections and exhibitions play important roles in culture through making, teaching, and other forms of creative production beyond the art market and art institutions.

How can museums become places that invite and honor the creativity of others, places of exchange, and honor not only the work of a few artists? Can the 20^th century “repository”, become the 21^st century museum that is a generative place of exchange and relevance, connected with and contributing to the world? Woon will talk about key research and experimentation at the Museum of Modern Art led by the Education Department in collaboration with curators and other colleagues, that use artists’ inspiration, ideas and processes as catalysts for people’s creativity within the museum, in communities and in the world.