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).