Mission
The Virtual Museum of Public Service educates and inspires by celebrating the dedication, innovation, and impact of public servants in creating a better, more equitable world.
Our Vision
In an environment where the valuable contributions and personal sacrifices of tens of millions of public servants are often invisible or misunderstood, the Virtual Museum of Public Service will underscore the value of public service and the integrity of those who deliver on their government’s promises. The Virtual Museum of Public Service will do so by highlighting the critical work and quiet pride of public servants in service to their fellow citizens.
We define public servants broadly: as civil servants, employees, and elected officials in all branches of government, their nonprofit partners and private sector contractors, the investigative news media, and countless volunteers. All contribute to accomplishing the public sector’s missions.
VMPS will present multimedia exhibits that highlight the positive roles public servants have played in delivering on our government's pledges to the public. Each exhibit will emphasize how individual public servants and groups have significantly improved our quality of life across health, education, criminal justice, defense, the arts, parks, and dozens of other services that build social capital.
Please see the museum prospectus at: https://www.publicservicemuseum.org/-our plan for creating this novel resource for public servants, citizens, students, educators, and policymakers.
Complementary tools and materials will render the museum a comprehensive educational resource, including an interactive timeline documenting the history of public service, a media room, literature, data and infographics, videos, podcasts, and a comprehensive career and volunteer information page that will allow visitors to explore ways in which they themselves can make a difference. Hundreds of such resources have already been identified.
The Rationale
The Virtual Museum of Public Service sets out to remind and inform the general public about the scope, range, and ethos of public service. The Virtual Museum of Public Service believes that many museum visitors will be surprised to learn how much their fellow citizens in the public service accomplish with relatively sparse funding and resources.
Over 30 million Americans currently work in the public service - in the military and in federal, state, and local government. Moreover, millions of nonprofit partners and private sector contractors, as well as media reporters and foundation staff, help these public servants carry out the missions of government; most have not been recognized as public servants in their own right. The museum will serve as a vehicle through which all of these individuals can celebrate the legacies of public servants who risked their lives and careers to ensure the equitable delivery of supportive services before them. The museum will stress the importance of public servants - historical and current contributions and their quiet pride in serving their fellow citizens.
Museum Offerings
The Virtual Museum of Public Service offers engaging, in-depth, multimedia exhibits that highlight the positive roles public servants, institutions, and their partners have played in delivering on government's promises to the public. These public servants and institutions have immeasurably improved the quality of life for all stakeholders across the realms of health, education, the arts, criminal justice, defense, security, and dozens of other services that build social capital.
We define public servants as employees or volunteers in government (civilian and military), nonprofits, public-private partnerships, foundations, the media, and voluntary organizations.
Each exhibit in the museum's collection is accompanied by in-depth explanatory articles, extensive lists of materials, and multimedia links related to online resources. Additionally, the museum utilizes its connections with public service-oriented academics and practitioners worldwide to produce high-school and college-level lesson plans related to museum holdings. In this way, the museum will act as a novel global resource for students, educators, researchers, leaders, and policymakers interested in the experiences, sacrifices, and successes of public servants.