Over the last couple of decades there’s been a tremendous explosion<注1> in museum attendance<注2>, and I see that<注3>continuing. As the population grows older, with<注4> more people studying in their retirement, and as schools<注5> and universities develop<注6> more imaginative ways of presenting<注7> knowledge, museums and galleries will be at the centre<注8>of the educational process.To make the most of<注9> that position, they<注10> must not just open their doors but ensure that their material is engagingly presented, with flesh-and-blood teachers<注11> as well as displays that draw on<注12>information technology.

　　I think we will dismantle<注13> the conventional idea of what a museum is and develop new methods of presentation: not hoarding our collections in imposing buildings, but scattering them through site-specific<注14> museums, possibly even in the open air. The remains of Hadrian’s Wall<注15> are now displayed by a string of different institutions, including local history groups<注16> and publicly-funded<注17> museums, and that’s a good model.

　　I’m not a great fan<注18> of the audio tour<注19> that leads you to a piece of art and then tells you what to think about it ?the sort of approach the Getty Center<注20> in Los Angeles takes. I much prefer the interactive calling-up<注21> of information, on a free-will basis<注22>, via a little handset<注23>. That way<注24>, technology helps you find out more about a particular aspect of a work of art as you stand in front of it.

　　Technology will continue to be immensely valuable in helping us establish<注25>the age and provenance<注26> of works of art. We can use increasingly objective criteria to establish the age of paper, pigments, chemicals and so on, and there will be shocks ?sudden realizations that a great piece is a forgery.

　　The art market itself will, of course, continue to fluctuate in line with<注27> supply and demand, but in Britain I hope museums and galleries may one day be helped by a government willing to liberalize the tax rules<注28> and offer private collectors greater incentives to give works to public institutions.、

　　It will remain tricky<注29> to obtain sponsorship but there is great potential for better business relationships between museums and related industries: the publishers and software companies who can manufacture replicas and reproductions<注30> under licence<注31>.

　　A century ago, no one could have guessed<注32> there would be a museum dedicated to<注33> air and space travel on the Mall<注34>, in Washington DC, so it’s impossible to say what new museums we might have in 100 years. But we may turn back to<注35> neglected areas of history. They誺e just laid the foundation stone for the Museum of the Native American in Washington<注36>, and I can see a resurgence in our interest in the ancient world ahead<注37>.-