It was exciting to read about the implications of technology in shaping museum culture in Rozan’s piece. He mentioned that digitization, virtual/augmented reality, etc. can impact the ways in which a museum operates and interacts with its own objects, artifacts, and community. It is interesting to consider how this “digital push” may help to untangle many deep-rooted ethical issues with traditional museums as cultural institutions. For instance, museums that have the potential to exhibit only virtual recreations based on digital scans of historic objects may be able to return the original items to the countries they were taken from, helping to unravel questions of ownership and colonialism. This consequently results in museums shifting their narratives and ideals from ‘big names and topics to personal stories and community histories’, shifting the role of a museum from having a ‘scholarly focus to a community one’. This transformation is conducive to encouraging community-building, and can have reverberations that extend beyond the realm of the museum and into facilitating positive interactions and change within a society.

The shift towards a more ‘fluid, dynamic, community-centered institution’ can also aid in addressing questions of elitism and exclusivity that comes along with the ‘traditional’ museum. In a traditional museum setting, there may be a disparity that exists in the demographic of people that attend museums, specifically based on educational and socioeconomic background. It is intriguing to see how new community-centered approaches can promote inclusivity and become ‘open and accessible’. Overall, it seems that museums are undergoing exciting changes and will see more transformations in the future!