A museum is a place where art, science and history come together to entertain, educate and inspire people. Every museum is different, but they all share the same core functions: collecting, preserving and interpreting objects for the benefit of the public.
Traditionally, museums have been seen as institutions that preserve rare items, which are often stored in glass cases and displayed in a “cabinet of curiosities” style. However, more recently, museums have come to be seen as cultural institutions that celebrate and share a society’s values and achievements with its citizens. They are also increasingly being seen as places that address social and environmental problems, in particular climate change and the Anthropocene.
As a result, museum professionals have squabbled over the definition of “museum.” While there are a few official definitions, most of them skirt around the issue. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has developed a new, more inclusive definition that is being debated in a series of consultations.
The consultations are open to ICOM members worldwide and take the form of workshops and online surveys. They are based on a broad understanding of what museums are and how they should function in a rapidly changing world.
A key issue is the role of museums as educational institutions. Many adults are reluctant to visit museums because they see them as stuffy and school-like, or they think that museums are irrelevant to their own lives. In fact, museums are already good at educating their visitors, but they need to be better at showing that learning doesn’t have to be boring.
Another key issue is whether museums should be for profit or nonprofit. Nonprofit museums are usually not owned by a single person or group, but rather by a collection of people who volunteer to run the organization. They don’t make money for themselves, and any profits go back into the museum for things like planning new exhibitions or updating the building.
For-profit museums, on the other hand, are owned by someone else. The profit made by for-profit museums is generally returned to the owner, or used to purchase more art or other objects to add to the collections. Some museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., are for-profit, while others, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, are not.
Ultimately, the final decision on what constitutes a museum will be made at ICOM’s Extraordinary General Assembly in Prague this August. For the first time in its history, ICOM will be deciding on a new definition of museum that explicitly includes issues such as inclusion, accessibility and sustainability.
ICOM Define is inviting museums to participate in the consultations by submitting their own proposals for what they believe a museum should be. The results will be available on the ICOM Define website after the meetings in Prague. To learn more about the process, click here. ICOM-US members receive free access to the webinar recordings of “What is a Museum?” here.