> << but he is frankly wrong to criticize educational outreach and
>  exhibition as somehow lesser, even inappropriate activities for a museum
>>
>
> Au contraire.  I didn't "criticize" the above activities and I did not say
> that educational outreach and exhibition were "somehow lesser, even
> inappropriate activities for a museum".  This is a distortion of what I
> wrote.  I would NEVER say they're "inappropriate"--that's absurd.  Of
COURSE
> they're appropriate and highly desirable.

I must apologize to David for my distortion of his position. I have reread
some of his older posts which had led me to unfairly stereotype him as
excessively isolationist. His remarks on this issue have been consistently
moderate, and I believe that while he does have an admitted bias toward
preservation, he does truly support a museum's mission of exhibition and
education.

> What I was trying to get at was
> the essence of a museum.  It seems to me that locating essences is a
> fundamental issue in how we define words.  What makes a museum different
from
> all other entities that are not museums?

Despite my hyperbolic representation of his position, I was also trying to
get at the essential role and meaning of a museum.  The Home of the Muses
root I refered to I think defines that essence accurately. I do think that
education is the primary function of a museum. Education is the underlying
rationale behind collection and preservation. It is too easy for the
difficult and complex processes of collection and preservation to become
seen as an end in themselves. Such an attitude often leads to a situation in
which public is viewed as a dangerous burden on the collection, resulting in
a suppression of this essential educational function.

> To those who insist
> that "education", not collections, is the core of museums, I'd say this is
a
> semantic misunderstanding.  Education and/or knowledge is the context
within
> which museums exist and the reason they are organized, but the core,
essence,
> or unique characteristic of a museum is its collections.

Only by David's limited definition. Some of us, to the opposition of those
such as David, have been defining science centers and children's museums as
museums, and I am arguing that this is appropriate, and does not dilute the
essence or definition of museum so as to make its meaning less particular or
useful. Including in the essential definition of a museum the display and
interpretation of edifying objects for the purpose of education seems to
pose little danger to the preservationist function. On the other hand, this
opposition to these supposedly collectionless museums by those who feel that
conservationist collections are the essential element, are in fact a threat,
(indeed one I suspect that is intended) to these types of exhibits and
institutions.

>As someone else on the list adroitly but simply asked recently, if it's all
about education,
> what's the difference between a museum and a school?

The way a museum differs from a school is that a museum displays objects as
it's primary educational tool, while a school uses teachers as it's primary
tool, just as a library uses books as their primary tool.

Here in Los Angeles, many decades ago, Charles and Ray Eames designed an
amazing exhibit called Mathematica (seminal to my own decision, as a child,
to become a scientist) at the LA County Museum of Science and Industry . All
the items in the display were fabricated for the purpose of the exhibition,
and there were no preservation considerations or artifacts included in its
construction. In some ways Mathematica is almost the prototype of the
collectionless museum that is so often criticized on this list. Ironically,
today. the objects fabricated for this display, no longer being exhibited,
are now a part of the collection of the museum, being carefully preserved by
the conservators.

This is part of the etiology of my own prejudice for the inclusion of such
educationally focused and often collectionless exhibits in the essential
definition of a museum. For me, in my own work, the look of epiphany in the
eyes of children experiencing a exhibit is my most profound reward. I
extrapolate this value to the museum in general, and do believe that it is
in such moments of enlightenment (including those of scholars studying
unexhibited collections) that a museum gains in authentic claim to the
resources of the culture.

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