[indistinct chatter] announcer next, a look at the future of the Smithsonian Institution with the new secretary. He sat down with a conversation with the Aspen Institute president and ceo. This is one hour 15 minutes. [indistinct chatter] all right, i think we are ready. Good afternoon. Thank you all for being here. I am the director of the Aspen Institute, and it is my pleasure to curate four or five times a year, some of these washington roundtable series, sponsored by michelle smith. We want to thank you, michelle. The conversations i curate naturally deal with the arts, but not just with the arts, but art and society and how the arts intersect and how they can be productive and evermore interactive partners with all of the areas of society, which is very much of course in keeping with the mission of the Aspen Institute itself. Today, we are very happy to welcome dr. David score 10, the new secretary of the smithsonian, who comes to us building on a distinguished career in medicine. And the president in academia at the university of iowa and cornell. But he has been he was appointed as the 13th secretary. And i can say that as an artist who visited the museum since a child on the mall, an endless at herof inspiration is disposal, and also a tremendous source of work. I am proud to serve on the president s committee for arts and humanities, along with others in this room. And what of the earliest things we did was partner with richard in Disaster Recovery in haiti. And it is an activist role of sorts that the smithsonian took on in that instance. Far be it from the idea of things we go to look at. In that spirit, we welcome you here. I am also proud to say that my boss and great leader, walter, will be monitoring moderating this discussion. He is a chronicler of great men. And an inspirer of many. Well, thank you very much for helping put this together. Next to see you all here. I asked earlier whether i should call you dr. Skorton or president skorton or secretary skorton mr. Skorton everyone here can call me david, but walter, i would like you to call me your excellency. [laughter] your excellency. That was a Henry Kissinger sign. [laughter] in your case, it fits. [laughter] when you got inaugurated or installed, it was i read the speech and i have heard about it you gave a wonderful speech about this is magic. Within toso allowed play louis armstrong. Tell us about the inauguration and the idea that this is magic. Mr. Skorton the official title of it let me interrupt myself. I want to thank you, damien, for your kind words. Damien is a fellow flute player. Ofyou are an aficionado these conferences, i wouldnt let another one go by without forcing damien to show his stuff. But that is up to you as a group. But it is wonderful to be here. And i do want to a knowledge my partner and the person who has taught me so much about the smithsonian, richard, a source of a lot of very good ideas, which [laughter] so the installation which my colleagues are calling here at the smithsonian, i want to set the stage. The currency we deal in, just as you said, is inspiration. The currency we deal in, how we deal about it, it is inspiring people to understand more things, dream bigger, to make things, create things, understand things. So the word i used his magic is meant to reflect the many different ways we bring that together. Some of that is based on being facetoface with an object, a painting, something that has historical significance. Increasingly, it has to do with the dynamic interplay of ideas. Which might or might not need to be in the context of an object. I try to touch on those areas in the speech. The speech is available, and if you have trouble sleeping and who doesnt these da if you read it, you will fall asleep quickly. You will stay asleep for 68 hours and awake with no bitter aftertaste. Try it out. [laughter] walter you talk about being in the presence of an object. Whether it be a horn, flag, you can see all of those things digitally online now. Where does the museum of the future go in the digital age . David as you know, but you are too nice to say, i really do not know much about the museum world. I come from a career and lifetime spent in the Life Sciences. I am a cardiologist. I took care of young people, teenagers, young adults with inborn heart disease. Im comfortable in that world. I am an amateur musician, comfortable in that world. And im just learning about the museum world. That is a sort of disclaimer. But im reading avidly, three different books on Museum Studies of various kinds. Very frequently, as you may have noticed, there are articles about the socalled 21st century museum. The most recent one i read was four days ago in the times. In those articles, there are sort of three themes sounded. I want to be clear that im not saying these are the three most important. These are the ones i absorbed. Number one, as walter eloquently raised, moving from an object based encounter to one where you do not have to be on site. That could be visual, could be auditory, could be some other way that doesnt require to be in front of the object. I believe right now, from my own experience just as a museum goer, and a few weeks at the smithsonian a few months at the Smithsonian Institutions that are large, broad, and respected will for the for seeable future, should have a foot in both worlds. We need to preserve the objects we recognize as part of the american and International Traditions and culture. And yet, as richard and others have been doing for some time, begin to push the boundaries of what can be done. My predecessor, formerly president of georgia tech and a very creative person, began the process of more aggressively digitizing those parts of the collection that can easily be digitized. The collection is 138 million things. And some of the museums, i believe the sacklers digitized. The verb he used was to democratize the collection. You do not have to be among the relatively small people worldwide who will ever get to the mall. Unfortunately, even in our city, there are people who do not get to the mall. Who dont share in the richness. That is one theme that it sounded. The second theme, which resonates with me and im very concerned about, is the issue of diversity writ large. Diversity in the audience is we are serving, the employment at the museum, diversity in the programming we are offering to whomever. Diversity in the themes we are willing to touch. I would not mind coming back to the controversy later, as one of those things related. That is the second theme that sounded. In the third one really has to do with an underlying issue that i think our society is dealing with. And that is, how much do we focus on the stem disciplines and the nonstem disciplines. The smithsonian is an unusual organizations that touches the gamut. Austin kiplinger a friend of , mine, a cornell graduate, he is a lifetime washingtonian. And what he found out i was appointed in 2014, let me give you a quick description of the smithsonian everything under the sun. That is actually what it is. Astrophysics to art. Here is an institution that absolutely, positively needs to make sure we do not overly focus on the stem disciplines. Despite the fact we think about it in vocational, economic terms world leadership and security terms. All of that is important and necessary, but not sufficient to work our way through a troubled world. Walter you seem suited for that because you have a science background as a cardiologist. And even in your cardiology, you are most renowned for imaging and how to use it to understand things better. Then you have also been a flute player. You have loved the arts. Instead of seeing things as the arts or the stem disciplines, you have stood at the intersection. Is there a way to make sure that people can get to that combination of the two cultures . David im a cheerleader, not an expert. Without meaning to pander but what you do collectively at aspen is a great example of bringing ideas, even differing points of view especially differing points of view together. My partners and colleagues at the smithsonian, not limited to richard, have done a fantastic job across the disciplines. I think we can do a lot more. We are doing reorganizations we are still in the midst of. I hope will sort of set the infrastructural stage to make it easier for the smithsonian to think across those lines. Walter like at cornell, when there are less departments and divisions, you are doing that with a big ideas climate change, society and culture and things in the smithsonian. David when you have an institution that has been around for a long time, and the smithsonian is one of those and cornell is one of those, the only sure way to do something that is really different is to be able to turn the page on a new chapter. When lonny bunch our wonderful , director of the soon to be open National Museum of African American culture, which is beautiful and profound both, she is going to turn the page on a chapter this started as a blank slate. A long, long overdue expiration of African American history and culture in this country that we sorely need. He is going to do interesting things i think you will find fascinating, dealing with what you are talking about. That museum will touch history, culture, science, almost everything you are talking about. As hard as a fidgety, hardest thing to do, it is easier to take something that is in existence and turn it into something. At cornell, the best opportunity i had, i was just the recipient, i have nothing to do it. The new campus on Roosevelt Island was a blank slate where Michael Bloomberg walter and others david he was president of the new york city economic corporation. The idea was to analyze the economy of new york city, one of the largest in the world. Even of countries. And they discovered that although the prediction was that finance, media, fashion, biomedical studies and so one n would be part of the economy, and the tech sector, there was a relative shortage of graduatetrained professionals, that is computer scientists, electrical engineers, materials scientists, so they had a contest which we partnered with the Israeli Institute of technology, it was a blank slate. That campus is being put together with no departments. No departments. What we set up were what we called hubs, for lack of a more elegant term, three areas that seem to fit the new york city economy that we can bring together as strands to create a new kind of fabric. And those three were healthy living, the built environment broadly including transportation, infrastructure, green tech, and so on, and the socalled connected media. Short of turning a page and having a blank slate, it is a tall order. Because places like the smithsonian or universities have got to be distinguished. Because it distinguishes disciplines. If we abandon focus on individual disciplines or excellence, we will get nowhere by combining them. We can do things like what we are doing with africanamericans, we can create out of the whole cloth. Otherwise, it is a delicate organism. Where we have to handle it at all, it has to be handled very gently and carefully. And im a strong believer in has to be bottom up. Even if i had been 20 years in museum business, it is not enough to have one person come to the table and said we have to work together. It have to be grassroots. Walter you mentioned the importance of having younger people, use, and diversity be part of defining the museum of the future. How are you going to do that . David you look at me, one of you say even younger . [laughter] your whole attitude is extremely upsetting. So i will roundtable let it go this time. [laughter] so from being in higher ed for so long at interacting with undergraduates, my wife who really is a source of the very large proportion of good ideas, she had the idea we should live with the freshman in freshman dorm each fall at cornell. Walter that sounds like something i would not consider a good idea. [laughter] david the latest thing she is talking about is having a stayover having sleepovers at the museum. You think it is a good idea, but those floors are marble. [laughter] forgetting my aging back, so when you think about the Higher Education experience, i always thought that our ideas about some aspects of academia could not depend on audience response. If one is teaching civics or biography or poetry or dance or whatever it is, we have experts and professionals to do that. They interact with students and get feedback. But other aspects like the way we do things should have consumer input, or whatever the right word is. I want to emphasize public input into how we do planning, specifically, were going to set up a Youth Advisory Council here in the city of washington. Ive had a wonderful experience of talking to mayor bowser about it. She was the isolate me come in and spend time with her in a busy time in the citys life. We will work on it together. We hope to bring high school students, perhaps freshmen and sophomores still thinking it through, from all over the d. C. Area and show them some things we are thinking about. In the case of people who preceded me as leaders and the in the smithsonian, like richard and others, they have already done a lot of that. In the museum of natural history, when you venture in and see the constitution, if you turn to the right, there is something called the curious cue. It is oriented towards teens. It was designed in part why Washington High School students. It is fantastic. And there is art land attached to the hirschhorn. It deals with kids from about 1319. They dont have to be students. They are in their learning how to do everything from i was in there a couple of days ago Stage Lighting to dj work. To postproduction music, sketching, you name it. There are already youth programs. But i need the input as the new leader. So we are going to set up a youth council. I will listen to them and to the extent that they can spend the time with me, a lot of t other allow the other leaders will have a chance to try things out. You cant have your customer to you exactly what to do. I am reminded of the book, the innovators dilemma. Where one of the many interesting ideas i remember so clearly was that if you want to listen to customers, you cannot run the company. You tell them what they need. Convince them. Walter the old steve jobs line. Henry ford said if i asked my customers what they wanted they , would say a faster horse. [laughter] david im thinking about a faster horse. My first car in 1965, when most of your parents were learning how to walk, was an impala. And i just got a new one. Walter chevrolet will be happy. David it is a fabulous car. Walter damian, you and i have talked about around the country we are serving a new Division Starting a new division here at the institute for people who are in high school and early years of college, especially from less served communities, getting them involved. We are to be working with you on that i hope. You mentioned earlier two controversies. The smithsonian seems to either stumble through or thrive upon these great controversies. Like should we have shown this or done that. Tell us your view of some of the controversies that have happened, and how you propose to handle them. David i would love to talk about it. The one thing i will not do is secondguess decisions made before i got there. It is very hard to do that. Let us talk about the general proposition. To me, creative activity will very often engender controversy. Think about creative people. I am most comfortable in the sciences. Somebody has a new idea that may sound heretical to people in the field and be controversial, and maybe traversing over for two sets of reasons. One, is an actual new idea and the other stepson conceptions the people of put their whole careers on. So in science and we are used to having actual arguments heated arguments over points of view. You know a lot of this about the innovators on whom you have written. But it is equally true on the arts. Think about contemporary art, which in every generation is what is happening now. I believe that artists, whatever kind they are, they could be dancers, musicians, performing artists, visual artists, they may perceive the world a bit differently. They may perceive trends sooner than the general populace. So when creating an expression that reflects that different perception of currency of reality, they may bump into people who do not share that point of view. Years go by, generations go by, perhaps that was an early perception that turned out to be true. Maybe not. Whatever it is, creative activity across the spectrum of human activity will engender controversy. We have to be ready for. And i think a few axioms to me would be if a professional curator backed by normal institution processes done correctly decides to put something up, we should not take it down. We should not take it down even if there is public outcry, even if there is concern. One example right now is Margaret Sangers bust in the national gallery. In that case, i cannot be more supportive of the decision of the director of the national portraiture gallery. At undersecretary richard curran, we have to tell the story of our country both parts we are very proud of and the parts that we shake our heads about perhaps and wonder. Otherwise, how are we going to understand and think more towards the future . It does not mean we have to be arrogant. It does not be we cannot improve the process, that we cannot think more actively in a preemptive way about what might be controversy over. Walter can you give an example . David the bill cosby portrait. I think it basically means i think it was very important to understand the reasons for that exhibit. And not to punish the artist. Not to punish those who would like to perceive the art because of potential problems. Walter so you have not walked that back. David and i will not. Walter you speak about what you did as being preparation, there is a lot of discussion these days about Political Correctness on College Campuses, causing controversies or try to stop people from doing things. What did you learn at cornell from that issue that you are applying to the smithsonian . David 16 weeks, i am basically understanding where the entrances are and so on. [laughter] walter you had the bill cosby issue. David the leader has to get out and face it. My approac