Dear Diane,
I do see these differences - I try to understand it and I am always
getting back to different philosophical backgrounds. On the other hand,
also North American Museums are members of ICOM. ICOM defines very
clearly the duties of each museum worldwide. This was agreed also by
North American Museums. But more and more I see differences of
interpretations of these common ICOM views. For example, with regard to
a real scientific museum definition (Declaration of Calgary), it has
been mostly the European museologists defending a museological real
definition of "museum" and not the old functional description of
"museums" defended mostly by the North American Museums - being nothing
else than a mission statement.
On the other hand we also have a few people here influenced by North
American thinking always being very keen to propose everything anarchic
(today even possible by digital information) as the better model. But
this has nothing to do with democracy. In a specialized society, we do
have specialized museums, museum specialists, specialized narrators and
educators, etc. As I have mentioned before, they do good to include
input from the outside. But during the discussion of the last weeks, two
ideas/proposals of INSTEAD were made. Equality and fairness has to be
included by the specialists themselves. But do not forget that also
equal rights in a democracy are limited. I am avoiding to repeat the
"Nazi example" mentioned.
Best regards
Christian
"Diane Gutenkauf" <[log in to unmask]> schrieb:
Dr. Christian Müller-Straten:
It isn't about BETTER, it's about DIFFERENT. Perhaps this is a
particularly American attitude...something arising from the American
notions of equality and fairness that formed early in our Colonial
period
and are strongly held today.
Judith Martin (aka Miss Manners) wrote a fascinating book defending
American etiquette and exploring the social and political milieu under
which many of our modern attitudes arose.
I highly recommend it as a tool for understanding why the Americans on
this list are more open to "outsider" interpretations than are the
Europeans.
Diane G.
On Sun, 5 Mar 2006 21:28:00 GMT, "Dr. Christian Müller-Straten"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>"Jeremy" <[log in to unmask]> schrieb:
>Hi Darryl,
>
>Just to clarify, I am entirely in favour of
>'unauthorized' tours. I was using the term simply to
>distinguish them from the official tours produced by
>museums themselves.
>
>Jeremy.
>
>Dear Jeremy and rest of the list,
>
>Before getting into another discussion about a wonderful chaotic idea,
I
>would like to remind all in favour of unauthorized tours that such
group
>tours by real persons from the outside are forbidden in many museums
>allover the world to prevent the worst (just imagine Nazis conducting
>unauthorized tours in European former concentration camps and
memorials)
>and protect the right of work of their own interpreters. Have you
>forgotten the conflicts with the museums missions?
>
>Why always thinking that outsiders are better than the staff? Is the
>staff in US museums really unable to do a good job? Have they lost
their
>inventive power, their creativity, their scientific impetus? Why
always
>being in favour of something totally anarchic?
>
>I am satisfied with ordinary work done well. For me as a longtime ICOM
>member it is up to museums to care for the objects, inform, to
>interprete, to combine education with entertainment. This can nowadays
>only be done knowing the vested interests of the visitors. If they
don'
>t do it for any reasons, they loose the right to be called "museum".
>
>Sorry to be that rigid again, but I do not esteem the background of
>these proposals.
>
>Best regards
>
>Dr. Christian Müller-Straten
>
>Verlag Dr. Christian Müller-Straten / MUSEUMS AGENTUR
>Kunzweg 23, 81243 München, T. 089-839 690 43, Fax -44
>Mails werden mit täglich aktualisierter PANDA-Software geprüft.
>[log in to unmask]
>Are your institution and exhibition already listed under
>http://www.museum-aktuell.de?
>Last count for January 2006: more than 181,000 hits. For 2006, we
>expect 2 million hits.
>
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Mails werden mit täglich aktualisierter PANDA-Software geprüft.
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Are your institution and exhibition already listed under
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Last count for January 2006: more than 181,000 hits. For 2006, we
expect 2 million hits.
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
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