Culture for All

Slides from my keynote for the Prague Platform on the Future of Cultural Heritage, convened by the European Commission, October 7-8, 2019.

The Prague Platform talks about “Enhanced digitally enabled cultural heritage participation for all citizens.”

But what do these words mean? And how might we approach them — as practitioners, communities, governments and institutions, and citizens?

Democracy without citizens

The point at which politics becomes hard to understand is the point at which it is no longer politics but just competitive play, a Risk-style board game. Once there is only a handful of self-qualified players, we no longer qualify as a democracy, or perhaps even a polity. To cover political life as a game played between elites tells citizens that politics is a spectacle to be watched, not an activity to be participated in. Such coverage creates what scholar Bob Entman refers to as a ‘democracy without citizens.’

We'll Be Paying For Mark Halperin's Sins For Years To Come, by Eve Fairbanks, Buzfeed, 22 November 2017

Old Man Principles

Tyler Ruzich (with the mic), with Alex Cline, Ethan Randleas, and Dominic Scavuzzo — candidates for governor of Kansas. (Photo Jeff Tuttle/For The Washington Post)

“‘You know, lots of people ask me, what can you, Tyler Ruzich, do for people my age?’ Tyler said, back in his car. ‘I say, we keep continuing these Old Man Principles that aren’t working. In [Alexander] Hamilton’s time, someone my age could be commander of a frigate. Did the Founding Fathers consider that a 17-year-old might be governor? I don’t know. Did they consider that a reality-television businessman would become president of the United States after losing the popular vote? Probably not.’”

— “Six teenagers are running for governor in Kansas…”, by Monica Hesse, Washington Post, March 3, 2018