Is there such a thing as a for-profit museum?



On Wed, 6 Dec 2000, Boylan P wrote:

> At its meeting in Paris yesterday (5 December) the ICOM Advisory Committee
> - representing each of its more than 150 national and international
> committees and affiliated organisations - agreed to submit the following
> updated version of the 1974 international definition of a museum to ICOM's
> next General Assembly of representatives of ICOM's 16,000+ members, to be
> held in Barcelona, Spain, on 6 July 2001:
>
> "A museum is a non-profit 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 purposes of
> study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their
> environment.
>
> "(a)  The above definition of a museum  shall be applied without any
> limitation arising from the nature of the governing body, the territorial
> character, the functional nature or the orientation of the collections of
> the institution concerned.
>
> "(b) In addition to institutions designated as "museums" the following
> qualify as museums for the purposes of this definition:
>
> "(i)  natural, archaeological and ethnographic monuments and sites and
> historical monuments and sites of a museum nature that acquire, conserve
> and communicate material evidence of people and their environment;
>  (ii) institutions holding collections of and displaying live specimens
> of plants and animals, such as botanical and zoological gardens, aquaria
> and vivaria;
>  (iii) science centres and planetaria;
>  (iv)  non-profit art exhibition galleries;
>  (v)   non-profit institutions or organizations undertaking conservation,
> research, education, training, documentation or other activities relating
> to museums and museology;
>  (vi)  cultural centres that facilitate the preservation, continuation
> and management of tangible or intangible (living heritage) resources."
>
> -------------
>
> This definition is of great importance beyond the membership of ICOM
> itself since it is very widely used by other official bodies at the
> national and international level.
>
> Also, the proposal for a new top level Internet domain of .museum,
> recently agreed by the official international domain-naming body, ICANN,
> explicitly links .museum to the ICOM definition of a museum.
>
>
> Patrick Boylan
>
> =========================================================
> 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).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>

=========================================================
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).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).