IN THE CONTEXTS OF THE POSSIBLE: LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS AS INCENDIARY CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

Great cultural institutions—incendiary cultural institutions—feed flames that illuminate the human capacity to imagine the possible. When we consider our institutions as dramatic stages or provocative forums—places where human beings present themselves to each other, act to change their cognitive lives, perform the passions of their searches, frame their hopeful inquiries, tentatively assert their aspirations—we begin to understand that we preside over a place where something essential and revolutionary goes on. But what situations for learning could live up to the metaphor of flame and fire¿̣ What would such an institution be¿̣ How might an incendiary cultural . . .