Tom,

To me a museum is:

A gathering place for the community
A community/historical/national treasure
A place of learning
A place of knowledge
A place where people discover who they are; of self
A place of personal and community understanding
A focal point of the community's past
A place of remembering and reflections
A time capsule of mankind
A melting pot of culture and place
A community showcase
A place of interpretation and recreation of the past
A nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization
A place to be entertained or edutained
An educational institution and learning center
A place of art, history or of a specific collection or interest
A dusty and dirty place full of artifacts (no museum is that of course!!!)
A place to remember our ancestors
A place to gain hands-on experience, to touch, to feel and to explore
A place to buy a historic item (from the museum store)
A regional or state historic society
A tourist destination
A place to donate (Donations can be sent to my email address.  Kidding!!!)
A cultural and/or heritage institution
A "staging ground for symbolic action" (Sheldon Annis)
A place to bring the relatives
A professional or volunteer based institution
A place to eat and converse (if museums have a coffee shop or restaurant).

Timothy Ambros and Crispin Paine post ICOM's definition:

"A non-pofit-making, permanent institution, in the service of society and its
development, and open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches,
communicates and exhibits for the purpose of study, education and enjoyment,
material evidence of man and is environment."  ("Some definitions of
'museum'" MUSEUM PROVISION AND PROFESSIONALISM, ed. Gaynor Kavanaghn, New
York: Routledge, 5)

Also taken from the same article, the American Association of Museums defines
the museum as "A non-profit permanent, established institution, not existing
primarily for the purpose of conducting temporary exhibitions, exempt from
federal and state income taxes, open to the public and administered in the
public interest, for the purpose of conserving and preserving, studying,
interpreting, assembling, and exhibiting to the public for its instruction
and enjoyment objects and specimens of educational and cultural value,
including artistic, scientific (whether animate or inanimate), historical and
technological material.  Museums thus defined shall include botanical
gardens, zoological parks, aquaria, planetaria, historical societies, and
historic houses and sites which meet the requirements set fort in the
preceding sentence."  (Ibid., 16).

Also, there would be many would say that a museum must be defined having a
"collection," which brings up the debate of children museums, etc., or those
organizations having NO collection.  (Oh no, I do not mean to open up that
can of worms again!!!  Forgive me).

Just a few ideas.

John Martinson
Curator of Collections
http://ourworld.cs.com/john29mart/

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