Origins

Reflecting on Origins

SELMA HOLO AND MARI-TERE ÁLVAREZ

We open chapter 1 celebrating origins, the first phase of the panarchic museum loop. Unique as every museum may become, there will always be, at the beginning of its life cycle, a profound desire for meaning-making that can only be fulfilled by the creation of a museum. Nine reflections on this earliest phase of the museums of our time bear witness to that kinship lying at the very heart of the museum enterprise. Characterized by vision, optimism, passion, intelligence, empathy, and energy, as well as an implicit expectation that the museum whose story is being told will be sustainable, these texts convey that kindred desire well. They also reveal the distinct challenges that accompany the origins phase — challenges faced and, to a greater or lesser degree, met. Within each museum's origin story is a distinct and individuated future, one that will be shaped by a particular set of hard economic, political, psychological, environmental, and/or cultural trials. This first phase of the loop will always, though, be associated with particular kinds of challenges related to accumulation, building, innovation, and growth. These challenges will be met by men and women possessing those very qualities of vision and passion, intelligence, optimism, and energy mentioned above. However, as necessary as these qualities are to give shape and form to a museum's beginnings, we will see in subsequent chapters that they are not necessarily the qualities that will guarantee its long-term resilience and sustainability. But that is for later; for now, we are celebrating beginnings and the personality types that launch museums. These are museums of many types, of different scales and sizes, and of different imaginations. Being aware of them, as we are doing by reading the nine texts panarchically, by giving them the equal weight of our attention, underlines the infinite variety available to us as we think about the museums we help build, and those that are parts of our lives as museum goers, workers, visitors, and leaders.

First, we become acquainted with a powerful lecture by the former president of Costa Rica, Óscar Arias Sánchez, in which he argues for his museum of peace. This is his foundational statement, directed to a global audience, and it is a passionate plea. President Arias's clarion call, and the accompanying text a few years later, delivered by Manuel Araya-Incera to the Global Conference of Peace Museums, emphasize that this peace museum would go beyond the usual expectations for this type of museum. More than a mere depository for documents, it would be a dynamic education site promoting peace — a model for other nations. What is unique about the ambitions of Arias and his foundation is that their museum would be a mirror of Costa Rica's actual cornerstone national policy of peace. It is rare to capture the moment of inception of a museum. Since that moment, Arias's peace museum has gathered and put i