If you've gone to the Springfield Art Museum lately, you've no doubt noticed some renovation taking place in the main front lobby. You may have also noticed that the Gift Shop, just outside the entrance to the Museum's main gallery space, is closed and has been more or less gutted. Both projects are the result of thinking outside the box about how the Art Museum is serving the public, says Executive Director Nick Nelson. "Museums, like our museum here, are having to face a new world: a new world of media, a new world of information," according to Nelson. "Museums used to be sort of repositories of information and facts. An if you wanted to know something, it was sort of like the Encyclopedia Britannica--you would go to the museum and find out information. Nowadays, information is everywhere, and you can find it--if you need to know something, all you have to do is pull out your phone. So, I think museums, in a lot of ways, we still take the role of scholarship and information--"
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