Le mercredi, 8 oct 2003, à 15:17 America/Montreal, Gary Edson a écrit :

> Suggestion 7:
> A museum is an organization that serves society by exhibiting, 
> maintaining,
> or protecting the tangible and intangible evidence of humankind and the
> environment for the purpose of cultural enhancement, education, 
> enjoyment,
> preservation, or research.

This sentence is my favorite. I think, it's enough general to include 
all kind of museums.

It exclude the problems of:

- profit / non-profit : Michael Cooper says "Yes. We make money. But we 
don't make a profit." I think that there is no problems to make money. 
Actually, we didn't make but if one day we have a profit, we will be 
very happy to reinvest it in the museum!

- the role of the museum (research, education, etc.) : each museum has 
it caracteristics but all are museums: a place (physical or virtual) 
that explain something to people. I think the principal element of a 
museum is an exhibit (made with objects -artifacts or created- and a 
narrative).

- the subjets (science, culture, natural, etc.) : science is one 
element of culture as art or history. A museum is the "knowledge 
projector" for environemental-natural subjects (animals, natural sites, 
etc.) and/or humankind subjects (tangible or intangible)

- private / public museum : I think that a museum is destinated to be 
viewed and visited by all people. Museum are for the society. If it's 
not the situation (only for invited people or with reservation), it's a 
personnal or institutional collection (like in some companies). The 
word MUSEUM have to be reserved to "for society" institutions.

Then, for finish, please excuse my writed english, it's not my 
language! ;-)

Ana-Laura Baz
_________________
Muséologue
http://carnets.ixmedia.com/ana
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