Day: January 3, 2025

Cultural heritage refers to the artefacts, sites and traditions that represent cultures around the world. It is a complex and diverse field that covers a wide range of activities. There are many challenges in the practice of preserving heritage. Some of them include: a lack of funding and professional training, natural disasters, climate change, illicit trafficking and smuggling, tourism and destination management, as well as local community’s negative attitude towards heritage preservation.

The concept of cultural heritage evolved in response to the systematic destruction or loss of monuments, buildings, works of arts, and landscapes during armed conflict or natural catastrophes. The emergence of this idea was linked to the recognition that the preservation and protection of cultural heritage was a fundamentally important task for humanity as a whole. The concept focuses on the idea that cultural heritage has outstanding universal value and belongs to all people, regardless of their national or ethnic origins.

As a result, various governmental ministries of culture and intergovernmental organizations such as UNESCO have developed preservation, restoration and revitalization programs. These programs are designed to safeguard the integrity of cultural heritage and ensure its continued vitality in modern society. These efforts are complemented by an increasingly large number of private foundations, companies and individual donors that support this type of research.

A major challenge is how to define cultural heritage, since it varies greatly from one culture to another. This is why many scholars have proposed different categories of cultural heritage to distinguish between them. The most common categorization is the distinction between tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Tangible cultural heritage consists of physical objects such as museums, archaeological sites, and other buildings. Intangible cultural heritage is composed of practices and traditions such as dances, music, and rituals. Some examples of these practices are tango and flamenco, Viennese coffee house culture, Chinese shadow puppetry, and Kabuki theatre.

Intangible cultural heritage also includes spiritual practices such as shamanism, and traditional craftsmanship. It can also consist of social practices, such as festivals and rituals that bring together a group or a family. It can also be an aspect of a person’s identity, such as a language, an ethnicity or a religion.

The preservation of cultural heritage is a global endeavor that involves the international, regional and national communities, as well as local communities. It is a challenging and complex endeavor that requires the collaboration of experts from a wide range of fields, including history, archaeology, architecture, sociology, anthropology and political science. A successful approach to this subject needs to address the complexities of human nature, as it is always open to changes and interpretations. Therefore, it is essential to find a balance between cultural preservation and the right of each individual to choose how to interpret their own heritage. This is why we at Transkribus are dedicated to providing the best tools for deciphering and digitising historical documents and making them available to researchers and the public alike.

A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage, for education, enjoyment and reflection. It has a staff, a budget and the obligation to communicate its activities to all stakeholders.

A large museum will have a director who is the head of the institution and will set policies and plans. He or she might be assisted by a deputy director and other department heads. There might be a curator of art, for example, or a curatorial assistant who is responsible for a particular object or collection. Curators spend time researching and learning more about the objects in their collections. They are also often involved in putting together exhibitions, either in their own museums or at others. Other staff members might be educators, architects or horticulturists. Other museums might even have web designers on their staff.

Some museums may be in a historic building that was once a palace or fortress, as is the case with the Louvre. This type of museum has a special responsibility to preserve its historical context, and it may also have to deal with the issue of who owns history in terms of determining whether or not it is appropriate to display objects that once belonged to another culture.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is one such institution that deals with this issue on a regular basis. In recent years the museum has displayed works from China that were donated by collectors. The controversy around this display exemplifies the issues surrounding cultural ownership and how it can be negotiated and resolved.

Museums are a source of pride and national identity, and they also serve as a tool for understanding our shared humanity. As we move forward, it is important to remember the legacy of those who came before us and continue to work towards a museum world that is truly global and inclusive.

Steven van der Beek is a former director of the Museum of Ethnology, Leiden and Museumpeil in the Netherlands. He has been an ICOM member for over 40 years and is a member of the Standing Committee on the Definition of a Museum (MDPP).

The first consultation round yielded richly varied responses from 23 National Committees, 6 International Committees and 1 Affiliated Organisation. They all help to inform the second round of consultation, which will be launched in 2022.

This is a very important question that every museum should be able to answer clearly. A clear definition will ensure that museums can continue to play an important role in our lives, in both their professional and everyday lives.

We invite you to participate in this crucial debate by submitting your comments or questions using the link below. Your participation is vital to ensuring that the new definition will be meaningful and representative of our collective voice. Thank you in advance for your support!