Dear Colleagues,
As everyone either knows, or may begin to realize, the definition of a museum is not such a simple matter.  I will not go into detail here, but there are several different approaches to such a definition.  

One could be called the "screening" method of erecting hurdles (standards?) such as not-for-profit, collects objects, interprets and displays, full-time, etc.  This approach, based on museum functions, is useful in weeding out flagrant museum-pretenders such as alligator farms and houses of mystery.  It is also handy and easy to state.  

But this function-driven or screening approach fails to tell us what the essential "museum experience" should be.  We can start from the other end and try to define what kind of experience or special educational niche is produced by the museum in order for it to be a museum to begin with.  For example, when a person meets and communes with an object under ideal conditions is this experience erased simply because the presenting organization has not yet received its non-profit status or its insurance has lapsed?

Of course, defining a museum as an organization that provides a museum experience is subtle and difficult to objectify (is a "flight" in a flight-simulator the same as a flight in a jet plane?).  Only recently has the emphasis of social obligation, education, community involvement and a host of other considerations been appended to the more functional requirements as can be seen by the growing length of the ICOM, AAM and Australian definitions.  

As always, real life is far more various than the categories we construct to represent it, and we now seem willing to include all sorts of operations that would not have been considered "real" museums in the past. Chief among them may be virtual museums, the ultimate example of the museum without objects.  This will all need thoughtful ongoing evaluation which, I am happy to see, some of our colleagues are already pondering.
Milton Bloch

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