Rooted in the past, active for the future: Museums and inspiring a new generation of citizens

Abstract

Museums have a crucial role to play in building active citizens in their societies. In part, museums are well positioned to do this because developing new citizens is greatly strengthened by the study of the challenges and successes of the past. However, in looking for examples to learn from just as much can be gained by examining citizens working in imperfect or non-existent democracies as from those operating in long-tenured ones. This article looks at three such institutions that all seek to build citizenship while working with recent histories of dictatorship. While many aspects of their work are unique to each of their contexts, one clear lesson is shared by all of the institutions, active citizens need to be informed by the past, but museums can only be effective at inspiring citizens when they allow young people to address the pressing concerns of their own lives.