Envisioning a Common,Capable Public

Abstract To bring great art to the people, art that would transform their lives, used to be the aim of museums. But in the twenty‐first century, contemporary trends in cultural policy reflect a diminished idea of the public and human subjectivity, and a diminished concept of culture. The outcome of this defensive turn is a retreat from difficult exhibitions and a replacement of them with celebration of the ordinary and the banal: the obviously popular topics which challenge no one. As a consequence of the collapse of culture with a capital “C” and the crisis of human subjectivity, cultural policy demands less of the public and delivers less.