P3D Re: Placing collections

["Alexa Smith" <arws@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a great topic for P3D as it's something everyone thinks about at some 
point.  I don't know the average age of the members on the group but I'd like to
submit that for anyone in their 20's-40's at least, the idea of donating your 
collection to a museum when you die may be a moot point.  If you consider you're
planning to live into your 80's at least, that's a good 40-60 years away.  With 
the current speed of technical advances, there may not be such a thing as an 
"institutional" museum at that point or, if there is, it may not be the best 
place to put your collection.  Current museums only present about 10%(?) of 
their collection at any one time plus it limits the number of people who can see
it due to it's fixed location.  Suppose technology advances to the point where 
you can see/touch collections through a virtual set-up?  At this stage, probably
anyone could set up a "museum" and charge a nominal viewing fee for maintenance,
etc. and anyone in the world could enjoy it.  Therefore, selling/donating your 
collection to an individual who really cares about it might result in more 
people viewing it.  Yes, this may be just sci-fi as no one can predict the 
future but it's worth thinking about as my guess is we're in for some very large
changes!

Alexa


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