By Brad King,
Vice President, Management Consultancy,
Lord Cultural Resources

Are collections still at the heart of museums? If so, will that continue to be true in the future, and in what ways? This issue of Cultural Capital examines the changing definitions and uses of ‘collections’ from traditional artifacts, artworks and specimens to those representing intangible heritage and living collections. We explore the issue of relevance and whether collections are still as central to institutions as they were in the past – and whether they will remain so in the future.
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By Gillian Thomas,
President and CEO,
Miami Science Museum

Miami is a gateway, existing on the edge between the ocean and the Everglades, open to the world. In earlier epochs under the sea, now above the sea, it may soon be under the sea again. The diverse population is always changing, new waves of people arriving. Almost no family comes from here only, so defining cultural capital for a science museum in this context is a challenge.
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By Judith Dueck,
Director, Research Content and Scholarship, Canadian Museum for Human Rights
with Sharif Islam Khandaker, Head: Archives, Library and Collections, and Heather Pitcher, Archivist

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) is a unique institution that will use collections to enhance our understanding of human rights, to illuminate personal experiences with rights issues, and to transform our perspectives. Human rights culture is expressed in both the tangible and intangible – in objects, documents, and art, and in ideas, memories, language and beliefs. It is captured in the stories of individuals and communities, in a country’s engagement in national and global human rights, and in the development of legislation.
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By Howard Dodson,
Director,
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is first and foremost a research library. As such, its collections are the foundation of its existence. Founded in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance, it gained international recognition when it acquired the personal collection of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, a Puerto Rican of African descent who had amassed an original collection of more than 10,000 items – books, manuscripts, artworks, photographs and periodicals – on the global black experience.
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By Stephanie Nolen, Journalist
and Ngaire Blankenberg,
Senior Consultant, Lord Cultural Resources