The Critical Role of Museums and Heritage Sites in Times of Disaster (Keynote lecture: P, M. Taylor)

This online lecture, "The Critical Role of Museums and Heritage Sites in Times of Disaster," was the Keynote speech by Paul Michael Taylor at the opening session of the ASEAN Museum Congress (October 26, 2021 hosted in Manila, Philippines). The paper first surveys the range of museum responses to the current Covid pandemic, providing some statistics on museum closures, visitations, and furloughs, as well as the dramatic changes we have witnessed in museum access and crowd management, “special events,” in-person vs. telework arrangements, and many other museum functions during the pandemic. Secondly, the paper considers some silver linings to our enforced “pivot to virtual” that museums have experienced, exploring some benefits of the new forms of online interactions that will surely be maintained in the “new normal.” Part 3 examines some past disasters and their effects on museums, both at the Smithsonian and internationally, with special attention to the extreme example of Japan’s March 2011 “Triple Disaster” - the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 (massive earthquake, tsunami, and consequent nuclear power plant meltdown). The effects of the Triple Disaster on museums is examined, alongside the transformative role of the Ishinomaki City Museum in becoming an effective memorial to the victims. The paper then concludes (Part 4) by looking at other examples of contributions that museums and historic sites are making now to our remembrance and our societal interpretations of disasters and tragedies in the past and present.