I think Bernice has made a real contribution here and I urge that
this contribution become a signal/seminal document if this debate has
some linearity toward an eventual new definition.  I am going to
ponder her definition ... my only suggestion would be to find a way
to shorten it further.

Martin Segger


>REVISING THE ICOM DEFINITION OF MUSEUM
>
>I much appreciate the way this discussion has sprung into life since Gary
>Edson's first call for involvement (which also shows how ICOM-L can still
>be well-used, and have a sudden, revived value when the circumstances are
>right; it can involve anyone at all who is intensely interested, way beyond
>the more restricted formal structures of ICOM when it convenes its
>organisational parts physically).
>
>Reconsidering the ICOM definition of a museum was always considered an
>important task to get back to, through the whole ICOM Reform process of
>1998-2001.  However we had other, pressing organizational tasks to turn to
>in the first instance, and in fear that we would slow ourselves down in
>semantic arguments we left some of these fundamental questions as tasks for
>a more flexibly working ICOM to pick up later, after the first-phase Reform
>opened up some better working methods, involving more people's contributions.
>
>That time is now.  The Executive Council has authorised continuing work on
>the improvement of ICOM's key documents (called for in the ICOM Reform
>Recommendations in Barcelona).  The Statutes of ICOM are being worked on by
>a dedicated group of members - hopefully to propose them in a much simpler
>form and content, easier to read and operate.  And Geoffrey Lewis has
>chaired through a thorough review and reorganisation of the 'Code of Ethics
>for Museums' by ICOM's Ethics Committee, which he has recently put out for
>wider comment and reaction on ICOM-L, before bringing the proposed new
>format (through the Executive Council and Advisory Committee) to the
>General Assembly at Seoul in 2004.  It is worth noting that the Ethics
>Committee had no mandate itself to deal with the crucial question of
>definition of a museum, since this definition is lodged in the ICOM
>Statutes, and we all have to work out from that place.  Gary Edson is
>leading us to do this work now.
>
>I deeply hope we can get ourselves free of the old, existing definition
>(the very last one - Suggestion 8 - on Gary Edson's list in his recent
>email - although he does not include the long list of types of museums in
>the ICOM Statutes that come after the definition.)
>
>I do not mean that we would want to throw out all that the existing ICOM
>definition is seeking to say.  However it has a particular, and quite
>bureaucratically shaped history.  Phrases were changed, or added, to
>correct problems of earlier definition, exclusion, or new application over
>many years.  The result is a very unappealing statement, like an awkwardly
>assembled railway train of differently designed carriages, surviving from
>different eras.   The definition cannot lift anyone's heart to read
>it.  And it has very little capacity to arouse the interest or expectation
>of the 'society' museums are supposed to serve.   The things the current
>definition is trying to say and defend need to be 'lifted up', freed from
>successive historical moorings, reorganised and more subtly nuanced, then
>set down again in a shorter form.
>
>We need a rhetorically well shaped statement, in a voice of the present,
>more suitably sitting on the social foundations of today.  We need a
>flexible and inclusive statement, defending the most important things about
>museums and what they seek to do and care about.  But we must not fall back
>into internal theoretical distinctions and details about different types of
>museums and different kinds of work - that is where we always tend to go
>with this discussion, splitting hairs and protecting the differences within
>our professional work, rather than securing the commonality of our social
>contract on behalf of knowledge, memory and human heritage.
>
>Above all, we need a simple statement (inclusive but not
>technical-sounding) that is easy to follow, and directed towards the large
>readership and speech communities of society world-wide (those who have
>most at stake in museums).  A statement that could be placed in a daily
>newspaper and be generally understood.
>
>I am writing a lot of words here, I realise, but to argue finally for warm
>readability and simplicity, as well as integrity.  I thought I should try
>to offer a definition that serves what I am arguing for  --- so Gary, would
>you mind including this one also in your list.  I prefer pluralising
>straight away, as it starts out more inclusively.  And never using 'or'
>which splits things up, cutting a desired whole into alternative parts.
>
>My suggestion:
>"Museums are permanent institutions that conserve and communicate knowledge
>of the natural world and the cultural inheritance of humanity through
>collections, records, memories, images, and sites they care for and
>interpret, in public trust, for present and future generations."
>The above approach focuses on stating what museums do.  After the ICOM
>statutory definition, when we finally agree on one, can be attached a list
>of cases or examples to which such a definition would apply.  (We should
>remember to avoid the frequent confusion arising in these discussions over
>the years between defining MUSEUMS and defining eligibility for MEMBERSHIP
>OF ICOM - which are two different objectives.)
>
>
>The reasoning behind the definition offered here (if anyone is interested
>to read further) follows:
>
>'conserve' -- covers the accumulation of both knowledge and objects - as
>well as the specific technical activities of museum conservation;
>
>'permanent institutions' -- 'permanent', not limited life; 'institutions'
>implies 'civil society' and enduring public presence in a particular
>community or nation of people;  I prefer 'institution' to 'organisation' -
>which is far broader and does not imply permanency;
>
>'communicate' is to ensure active responsibility to project collections or
>knowledge out to society, rather than passively holding things for a
>museum's or researchers' benefit alone;  'communicate' is an active,
>transitive verb here, and covers all the activities implied by 'education';
>'communicate' also covers the whole range of activities and public
>programming associated with exhibitions;
>
>'natural world' covers the range of activities from zoos and botanical
>gardens to natural history museums, whereas pure research and experimental
>science could be covered by the 'cultural inheritance of humanity', since
>the results of research science do not reach human minds without involving
>some socio-cultural interpretation and history of scientific understanding;
>
>'collections, records, memories, images, and sites':    'collections' is
>there right up front, to secure the main history of museums and the
>still-primary presence and importance of collections; 'records' can include
>archives  - but the emphasis elsewhere in the definition on 'communicating'
>and 'interpreting' implies active public programming, not simply 'holding'
>things;
>
>'memories, images' carries a movement towards the intangible, and an
>emphasis on the human and living  -  this can include socially performative
>acts (music, drama, dance) and 'living national treasure' concepts;
>
>'sites' brings in the actuality of place - the museum itself, a natural
>site or eco-system (forest, wilderness), a cultural landscape, an historic
>house, an actual public place/location that might include a monument, or a
>memorial site (ICOM now has a new International Committee concerned with
>crimes against humanity); 'site' can also move comfortably to embrace
>another important new presence and pressure in museum definitions: the
>'virtual site' for born-digital cultural material, an Internet or
>electronic presence of human works/artefacts, maintained and communicated;
>'site' can also include intangible, psychological and culturally specific
>phenomena;
>
>'care for and interpret, in public trust': caring for things, in public
>trust, is a way to encompass a lot of things in the name of 'public good'
>and is better than mentioning a 'non-profit' institution, since we all
>agree that museums can make a financial profit (and many indeed work hard
>to do so) through their activities - but the 'profit' is not for any
>private benefit or interests, but to return resources to the institution
>and serve its public mission;
>
>'interpret'  is an important small word, moving further than
>'communicating' for it covers the agency involved in communicating -- that
>is, acts of interpretation (including 'displays'), partial acts, and open
>to argument and counter-interpretation, by which we signal that museums are
>not simply repositories, but discursive human institutions, historically,
>spatially, culturally (and linguistically) situated;
>
>'for present and future generations' - covers the idea introduced in the
>ICOM definition since 1972: 'in the service of society and its
>development';  the inclusion of 'present generations' ensures a commitment
>to social activity right now, not deferral of benefits to some future time
>(no excuse for delaying our social responsibility).
>
>The above definition is also designed to be able to include 'keeping
>places' in indigenous cultural contexts, where the term 'museum' is not
>favoured in any title because it has an alienating history.  For the same
>reasons 'open to the public' - in ICOM's existing definition - is not easy
>to maintain so prescriptively, both for the case of some museums that have
>necessarily restricted access (medical or scientific research collections,
>for example, or collections of objects or art works in high-level
>governmental buildings that can only be seen by appointment);  or
>indigenous (perhaps secret-sacred) sites or collections.   It is widely
>agreed and well understood publicly, however, that museums are for public
>access and benefit in the majority of cases.
>
>For reasons of the terrible history of collecting human remains, and the
>bad faith that this has caused world-wide, I would prefer that we avoid use
>of the word 'specimens' in ICOM's definition - this term inevitably
>reactivates auditory memory of the huge heritage of instrumental research
>as a result of colonisation, and use of others' culture and bodies for the
>benefit of an appropriating kind of knowledge that alienated people from
>their own dignity, autonomy and agency.  (I know 'specimen'  is a harmless
>word in many scientific laboratories, but let's avoid it in our central
>definition.)
>
>Final apologies for such a long message!
>Bernice Murphy
>
>
>
>
>
>At 9/10/2003 05:17 AM, you wrote:
>>ICOM Colleagues,
>>
>>Following are recently proposed definitions of a "museum." Your comments are
>>most welcome. I find this a very interesting exchange of ideas that
>>demonstrates the diverse nature of the museum profession. Please share your
>>ideas about these suggestions, or offer another suggestion.
>>
>>Gary Edson
>>
>>Suggestion 1:
>>A museum is a cultural institution that serves society by preserving,
>>researching and divulgating scientific, cultural and/or natural heritage
>>through the use of collections.
>>
>>Suggestion 2:
>>A museum is an educational organization that serves the public by
>>researching and interpreting scientific, cultural and/or natural heritage
>>through the use of a physical environment and often objects. Museums that
>>hold collections care for them as a public trust and preserve them for the
>>future.
>>
>>Suggestion 3:
>>A museum is an educational organization that serves the public by
>>interpreting scientific, cultural and/or natural heritage through the use of
>>a physical environment and often objects. Museums that hold collections care
>>for them as a public trust and preserve them for the future.
>>
>>Suggestion 4:
>>Museum: A knowledge base of the tangible and intangible evidence of the
>>cultural and natural inheritance of humanity.  Such a collection, normally
>>in the form of objects or specimens, preserves, promotes and presents this
>>heritage for the benefit of society and its development on a non-profit,
>>permanent basis. A museum is also a place, real or virtual, to which the
>>public have access to benefit from such activities.
>>
>>Suggestion 5:
>>A museum acquires, accumulates, permanently preserves, keeps records of,
>>and provides expert treatment of products of nature or human creations, it
>>ensures public utilization thereof, studies the environment from which the
>>products of nature or human creations are acquired and provides
>>educational services for scientific and study purposes.
>>
>>Suggestion 6:
>>A museum preserves and presents the objects, specimens, images, or practices
>>of humankind to benefit society, promote education, advocate human dignity,
>>and protect the environment.
>>
>>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.
>>
>>Suggestion 8:
>>A museums is a non-profit making institution in the service of society and
>>of its development, and open to the public which acquires, conserves,
>>researches, communicates and/or exhibits, for the purposes of study,
>>education or enjoyment, the cultural, natural or scientific evidence of
>>people and their environment.
>>
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>>
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>
>
>
>Bernice L Murphy
>Vice-President, International Council of Museums [ICOM-Paris]
>Contact details:
>PO Box 1269, Potts Point [Sydney], Australia 2011
>Fax:[+61-2] 9357 2159.  <[log in to unmask]>
>
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--



Martin Segger M.Phil., F.R.S.A.
Adj. Professor & Director, UVIC Community Relations,
(Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery & University Centre Farquhar
Auditorium), University of Victoria, University Centre, Rm. B115,
3800 Finnerty Road, P.O. box 3025 STN CSC, Victoria, B.C. V8W 3P2
Phone: 250 721-8298    Fax: 250 721-8997    E-mail: [log in to unmask],
web: http://external.uvic.ca/govt-relations/

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