Author Description

Museums enjoy considerable media attention. Much is pleasant. But coverage can also be about difficulties. Major controversies can erupt at a moment's notice. Oddly, most are brought to the public's attention by museum outsiders. PERPETUAL MUSEUM ISSUES: An Insider's Essays 1987 - Now is an exception. It offers one practitioner's perspectives on a host of issues. Steven Miller has decades of museum experience as a curator, director, consultant, and trustee. The content presents warnings he gave to the field that continue to be relevant. Topics discussed touch on personnel matters, exhibitions, collections, governance, along with inclusion, equity, and diversity practices. Definitions of community and mission are explored along with debates about collecting and how to explain public trust duties for what museums own. The highly controversial practice of removing collections is analyzed. Known in the trade as deaccessioning, the author is a specialist in the subject.