| Museum education and museum educators continue to be the subject of ongoing debate. On the one hand they are expected to keep Dutch museums alive; on the other, it is thought that they may in fact be hastening their extinction. The basic problem is that the parties involved in the debate are unable to agree on what constitutes the core mission of a museum. Obviously, the collection takes first priority; it should be researched and conserved for future generations. And there?s the rub: the collection is being conserved for an audience. The question is what kind of audience exactly? And how do museums make sure that this audience becomes aware of the collection? In the Netherlands various studies have been carried out in recent decades on the way in which museums communicate with the sections of society that they see as their audience. These studies have paid particular attention to education departments and their position within the overall museum organisation. It emerged that educational services and staff have become an essential part of the museum world. However, given the ongoing debate on the public remit of museums, the question remains as to how far accessibility to museums has become professionalised over the years. Educational museum staff from the 1950s, 1960s and later decades can help to answer this question, as they witnessed the developments in audience guidance from close quarters over a long period of time and may even have been instrumental in getting them these started. How much professional development and expansion took place in this domain? Why and to what extent do problems and discussions recur time and again? This study takes a closer look at the human aspects of this issue. The crucial questions are: How has the educational work of museums been professionalised since the systematic establishment of educational services in Dutch museums in the 1950s? How was this process experienced on the inside? To what extent have museums continued to build on the work of the first educational services? The study consists of interviews with pairs of people who can share their knowledge of museum education in the recent and distant past and people who are currently employed in the sector; either two representatives from the same type of museum but with different ideas and backgrounds, or two people who have done educational work, but with totally different career paths. Various problems connected with the professionalisation of museum education will be drawn from the current academic literature. They will be categorised thematically and tested against the experience of the interviewees. This will provide a theoretical framework for discussing specific institutions, people, events and exhibitions or projects, possibly in comparison with present-day counterparts. |