It should be a definition which recognises the dissimilar conditions and practices of museums in diverse and rapidly changing societies, and supports museums in developing and adopting new scientific paradigms and addressing more adequately the complexities of the 21st century. In December 2018 the ICOM Executive Board has decided that it is time to develop an alternative definition which will be more relevant and appropriate for museums in the 21st century and future museum landscapes. Over the decades minor adjustments have been made to this definition. While this definition is meant to define the essence of what constitutes a museum, it is also understood as an ideal, which is interpreted somewhat differently by museums, and ICOM recognises as members also institutions which only partially or to varying degrees fulfil all the criteria or functions. The museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.
#Backbone definition professional#
ICOM provides a shared ethical framework for museums, a forum for professional discussions, and a platform for questioning and celebrating heritage and collections in museums and cultural institutions.Īs a backbone for this global organisation sits a shared definition of what museums are and what they do.
The Museum Definition as the Backbone of ICOMįounded in 1946, ICOM is the global organisation of museums and museum professionals, with 40,000 members from 140 countries from all continents. The museum definition should express the accountability and transparency under which museums are expected to acquire and use their material, financial, social and intellectual resources. The museum definition should express the commitment of museums to be meaningful meeting places and open and diverse platforms for learning and exchange. The museum definition should express the unity of the expert role of museums with the collaboration and shared commitment, responsibility and authority in relation to their communities. The museum definition should acknowledge and recognise with concern the legacies and continuous presence of deep societal inequalities and asymmetries of power and wealth-across the globe as well as nationally, regionally and locally. The museum definition should acknowledge and recognise with respect and consideration the vastly different world views, conditions and traditions under which museums work across the globe. The museum definition should acknowledge the urgency of the crises in nature and the imperative to develop and implement sustainable solutions. The museum definition should retain-even if current terminology may vary-the unique, defining and essential unity in museums of the functions of collecting, preserving, documenting, researching, exhibiting and in other ways communicating the collections or other evidence of cultural heritage. The museum definition should be clear on the purposes of museums, and on the value base from which museums meet their sustainable, ethical, political, social and cultural challenges and responsibilities in the 21st century.
The following parameters are set for proposals for a new definition: The process may result in a number of different proposals to be brought to the Executive Board in June 2019, and one or more proposals to be brought to the General Conference in September 2019. The MDPP is asked to initiate and organise this, in the first part of 2019, as a participatory process through structured dialogic methods.
This process should start immediately at the beginning of 2019, ensuring that there is time for a broad and global anchoring and involvement of the membership as a whole. ICOM should initiate a process of reinterpretation, revision, rewriting, and reformulation of the current museum definition to be proposed for debate and decision at the ICOM General Conference in Kyoto in September 2019. Recommendations adopted by the Executive Board
0 kommentar(er)
