Over much of the last year, I have been trying to figure out what the effect of COVID will be on museums, not least as I tweaked the Conclusion to my book on museums, which is being published by Thames and Hudson in March (just in case you’ve forgotten !): budget cuts, of course; less travel; probably fewer blockbusters because they are so expensive to organise.
I was prompted to write the attached by the publication of András Szántó’s very timely interviews with museum directors internationally, which were surprisingly consistent in heralding, and indeed promoting, a move away from their permanent collections:-
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/january-february-2021/out-with-the-old-masters/
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Its a really interesting article but I wonder if there isnt a contradiction between two things you have said. On the one hand ” but have discovered, which is indisputably true, that the public do not particularly want or relish being lectured about works of art and taught their history” and on the other “The third area in which there has been a loss of faith, or loss of confidence, is in any belief in the continuing authority of the Western canon; though this does not seem in any way to have stopped the public from visiting, admiring and wanting to experience the greatest works of art of the European tradition, from Giotto’s frescoes in the Arena Chapel, to Piero della Francesca’s Arezzo frescoes, to Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and Last Supper, to Rembrandt’s Nightwatchmen in the Rijksmuseum.” You also quote a number of museum directors as wanting debate and dialogue -I suspect though that the terms of that debate will be within pretty circumscibed limits
Yes, you’re correct that there are probably contradictions as to how didactic one wants museums to be: to an extent, of course; but not so much that it overwhelms the experience. Charles