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 2. Museums

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Intro Chapter 2: Museums

Intro Chapter 2: Museums

What is a Museum? Can you call any collection of objects a Museum? No. A Museum is a permanent display of exhibits.

An exhibition, on the other hand, is a temporary display of exhibits. A Museum can include one or more temporary exhibitions.  And some people use the word "Museum" for their temporary exhibition - for instance for a pop-up Museum.

In August 2022, a new official definition of “Museum” was published. It says that Museums must be accessible and inclusive, and that they must foster diversity.

2.1 What is a Museum?

2.1 What is a Museum?

In  most countries, Museum is not a protected word. People can call any collection a Museum, it can be a shed or a garage with some artefacts, or a huge building.

museum in a shed

The Beachcomber Museum  in the Netherlands

The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia

The general definition is that a Museum is a building where objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited for the general public and for research.  

Museums may exhibit animals, but they usually will be dead animals (recently dead, or very very dead like Dinosaurs), objects, paintings, photos, and whatever you can think of.

Some Museums do also show living dressed-up people who demonstrate how people lived in the past or in foreign countries. People who demonstrate arts and crafts. Or: people who are part of a 'performance'. 

Dinosaur

https://www.rd.com/list/best-dinosaur-museums/

Photo Black Performance

Maren Hassenger performing Senga Nengudi’s “RSVP” at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Nov. 17, 2012.

In traditional Museums, you can wander about, look at your favourite displays and read the labels.

In recent years, Museums have tried new approaches to get more people to visit the Museum, preferably not once but many times. They want visitors to 'connect' with the displays. To raise interest, awareness, to make people think, feel, learn.

Museums do this by letting people interact with displays, by 'immersing' the visitors in some experience, by organising regular new exhibitions, by offering courses, workshops, DIY activities. All of these can be for the general public, or for special target groups: seniors, children, young people, people with disabilities. 

In later chapters, you can read more about this.

2.2 A New Definition

2.2 A New Definition

The official definition of Museum was revised in August 2022. The updated ICOM (International Council of Museums) definition of Museum is:

“A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage.  Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.” 

Source: https://icom.museum/en/resources/standards-guidelines/museum-definition/

Why is this new definition important? We have highlighted the elements in the text that are most important for us:  
According to the new definition, Museums must be

    • accessible and
    • inclusive, and
    • they must foster diversity.

Also:  they must operate and communicate with communities. 

This new definition can help Deaf Museums. They can use the new text to support their applications for funding: our plans meet the requirements of the new definition of Museum!

Furthermore, as a result of this new definition, mainstream Museums may become more interested in collaborating with Deaf Museums or the Deaf community. For instance: to set up a joint exhibition.
As part of the Deaf Museums project, we asked mainstream Museums and Museum professionals if they would be interested in collaborating with a Deaf Museum. 21% of the mainstream Museums said they were already working with the Deaf community, 37.5% said they are willing to consider this. See the Survey Results for more information. 

"Museums are changing from static, monolithic, and encyclopedic institutions to institutions that are visitor-centric, with shared authority that allows museums and visitors to become co-creators in content creation. 

Museum content is also changing, from static content to dynamic, evolving content that is multi-cultural and transparent regarding the evolution of facts and histories, allowing multi-person interpretations of events." 

Source: Designing Museum Experiences


Further Reading:

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