What is a Museum?

Museum Studies, Week 1

What is a Museum?

Definitions:

·      In the ancient Hellenic world: a building connected with or dedicated to the Muses or the arts inspired by them; a university building, especially that established at Alexandria by Ptolemy I Soter c 280 B.C.

·      A building, or part of a building, dedicated to the pursuit of learning or the arts; a scholar's study.

·      A building or institution in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are preserved and exhibited. Also: the collection of objects held by such an institution.

·      In extended use (usu. derogatory ): any large or motley collection of things, esp. outmoded or useless ones; the repository of such a collection.

There are lots of examples of Museums:

•       Arboretums

•       Art galleries/museums

•       General museums

•       Encyclopaedic museums

•       Historic building or sites

•       Preservation projects

•       Herbariums

•       Zoological garden

•       Aquariums

•       Planetariums

•       Children's museums

•       Nature centre/ visitor’s centres

Museums and their Functions:

One role of museums is assembling objects and maintaining them within a specific intellectual environment (world view).

Museum development can be divided into different phases corresponding to shifts in world view.

According to Whitehead (1990) there are six periods of museum development:

Sir Ashton Lever’s museum opened in 1775 to paying public in Leicester Square. In the 1760s and 1770s he had acquired an enormous collection of birds, amongst other materials, which he displayed in the former royal palace, Leicester House, 1775. Lever acquired exceptional Pacific ethnography, from his friend Captain James Cook, which was displayed alongside his natural history collection. He refused access to the ‘common people’.

Ashton Lever's Natural History Museum, 1775

According to Hooper-Greenhill (1992) there were three distinct periods of museum development:

·      Renaissance Episteme 1400-1600

·      Classical Episteme 1600-1700 (= Pre-Linnaean Period)

·      Modern Episteme 1750-present (= Linnaean and Modern Periods)

An episteme is a world view.

How does one define a museum?

·      Conceptual approach - museum, heritage institution, society, ethics

·      Theoretical and practical considerations - museology, museography

·      Functions - objects, collections, musealisation

·      Through its players - professionals, public

·      Through its activities - preservation, research, communication, education, exhibition, mediation, management, architecture

Formal definitions for ‘What is a Museum’

•       The American Association of Museums’ website (now the American Alliance of Museums) used to contain a page entitled “What is a Museum?” stating: “the common denominator is (that museums) make a unique contribution to the public by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the things of this world.” 

•       The International Council on Museums (ICOM) declare that a museum is “a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, and open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment.” 

•       The Museum and Library Services Act describing a museum as “a public or private non-profit agency or institution organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational or aesthetic purposes, which, utilizing a professional staff, owns or utilizes tangible objects, cares for them, and exhibits them to the public on a regular basis.”

•       And a dictionary definition states that a museum is “an institution for the acquisition, preservation, study and exhibition of works of artistic, historical or scientific value.”

What is the nature of museum?

Lidchi (1997) highlights the following important points about the nature of museums as:

-       Representation

-       Classification

-       Motivation

-       Interpretation

“A museum does not solely deal with objects but, more importantly, with what we could call, …ideas - notion of what the world is or should be.”

Some common themes of museums:

-       Non-profit

-       Permanent

-       Open to the public

-       Public service (including aesthetics, enjoyment and education)

-       Collections (covering acquisition, preservation and research)

-       Exhibits (embracing communication and interpretation)

Museology and Museography

Museography: 

- Museum practice, i.e. the planning and fitting out of the museum premises, conservation, restoration, security and exhibitions. 

- In French, the term museography identifies the art (or the techniques) of exhibitions.

- It used to be seen as the description of the contents of a museum.

Museology: 
- The subject of museum theory and practice (also known as Museum Studies).

- The most commonly accepted meaning apples the term museology to anything realting to museums

- Another meaning relates to 'Museology as the science of the museum'.