The "ecomusee" (=3D ecomuseum in English) concept is quite a long estalbis=
hed=20
one, but the name was coined by Hugues de Varine, then Director of ICOm=20
in 1971 in preparing notes for a speech given by the French Minister for=20
the Environment to the ICOM General Conference held that year in Grenoble,=
=20
Dijon and Paris.  This has been followed by a whole school of "nouvelle=20
museologie" (new museology) in many parts of the world (probably most=20
parts of the world other than the English-speaking countries where the=20
term has not been widely adopted, though arguably the concept exists
under other names eg. community museums in anglophone countries).

Nancy Fuller of the Smithsonian has prepared a very substantial=20
bibliography of English language publications on the ecomuseum concept and=
=20
ran a session on it at the AAM Fort Worth meeting.  I was surprised that sh=
e=20
has not replied to this correspondence - but perhaps she is sitting at=20
home locked out of her office because of the Capitol - White House dispute?

I put together some bits and pieces for the UK Museums Association's=20
journal in 1992, and reproduce these below as a brief introduction:

Patrick Boylan

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=20
=20
             ECOMUSEUMS AND NEW MUSEOLOGY: DEFINITIONS=20

     Patrick Boylan,   Museums Journal, April 1992, pp. 29 - 30.


"MUSEUM" =3D       building =1D collections =1D expert staff =1D visitors
"ECOMUSEUM" =3D    territory =1D heritage =1D collective memory =1D popu-
                 lation

(Adapted from Ren=82 Rivard, 1988. Museums and ecomuseums:
Questions and answers. in Gjestrum & Maure (editors).
=FEkomuseumsboka -identitet, =FEkologi, deltakelse. Norsk ICOM,
Troms=FE, Norway; and Hugues de Varine, 1991. L'initiative
communautaire. Editions W./M.N.E.S., Macon, France.

The term '=82comus=82e' (ecomuseum) was devised by Hugues de Varine,
then Director of ICOM, for use by Robert Poujade, the Pompidou
government's radical Environment Minister, in addressing the 1971
General Conference of the International Council of Museums
(ICOM).=20

However, it is widely argued that the father of modern French
museology, Georges-Henri Rivi=8Are (1897 - 1985), (de Varine's
predecessor at ICOM), laid the foundations of the =82comus=82e
movement a quarter of a century earlier in his planning of the
Mus=82e Bretagne in Rennes.   Poujade, de Varine, and Rivi=8Are all
wanted to provoke the then very traditional and centralised
French museums to look beyond their front doors and crusade for
both the environment and the renewal of the museum as an
institution - to create a new museology.  De Varine's provocative
new word pressed home the Minister's point: =82comus=82e - an
interdisciplinary community-orientated museum of the ecology and
environment, natural and human, of a defined territory.=20

Terminology has always been a problem.  During his last visit to
the UK in 1979 Rivi=8Are acknowledged that the word ecomuseum was
not being adopted in English-speaking countries, but argued that
many very different UK museums are outstanding ecomuseums
according to his definition, citing Ironbridge and the
decentralised multi-disciplinary county museum service of
Leicestershire as two very different examples.  =20

Also, as the term 'ecomuseum' has spread through much of the non-
English-speaking the world over the past 20 years it has
paradoxically fallen out of use in France where it originated and
today the main emphasis is on 'new museology'.  Only one
significant new institution bearing the title 'ecomuseum' opening
in France during the whole of the 1980s and the originator, de
Varine, now prefers the term 'community museum'.=20

Some key quotations and definitions:=20

'Ecomuseums and ecomuseology: New incarnations of the museum?
Modish  neologisms? Alibis for our inability to transform an out-
dated institution? None of these judgements is absolutely true,
nor absolutely  false either.'=20

(Hugues de Varine, 1985, The world and beyond. Museum (UNESCO),
no. 148; UNESCO translation).

'An ecomuseum is an instrument conceived, fashioned and operated
jointly by a public [eg. local] authority and its local popula-
tion.  The public authority's involvement is through the experts
[staff], facilities and resources it provides; the local
population's involvement depends on its aspirations, knowledge
and individual approach.   It is a mirror for the local popula-
tion to view itself to discover its own image, and in which it
seeks an explanation of the territory to which it is attached and
of the populations that have preceded it... It is a mirror that
the local population holds up to its visitors to be better
understood and so that its industry, customs and identity may
command respect.  It is an expression of humankind and nature.=20
it places humanity in its natural environment.  It portrays
nature both in its wilderness and as adapted by traditional and
industrial society.'=20

(Georges-Henri Rivi=8Are, 1985. The ecomuseum - an evolutive
definition.  Museum (UNESCO), no. 148; UNESCO translation,
revised by the author).=20

'A few simple principles: the objective is the service of
humankind and not the reverse; time and space do not imprison
themselves behind doors and walls and art is not the sole
cultural expression of humanity. The museum professional is a
social being, an actor for change, a servant of the community.=20
The visitor is not a docile consumer, regarded as an idiot, but
a creator who can and should participate in the building of the
future - the museum's research. =20

(Hugues de Varine, 1986. Nouvelles Mus=82ologies, Editions W.
/M.N.E.S., Macon, France; author's translation)


=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
          THE LITERATURE OF ECOMUSEUMS AND NEW MUSEOLOGY:=20
                          AN INTRODUCTION=20
                          BY PATRICK BOYLAN

                       (publication details as above)


Images of the ecomuseum  Special issue of UNESCO's quarterly
Museum  magazine, 1985 (vol. 37, no.148, pp. 181-244) (UNESCO,
Paris, U.K. agent: H.M.S.O., single issue: 40 French francs).

Although during the 1980s France published more of fundamental
importance to the understanding of museum policy, objectives and
development than did the whole of the English-speaking world,
hardly any of this mass of new literature has so far been
translated into English.  Consequently this special issue of
Museum is much the most accessible over-view in English of the
ecomuseum and new museology revolution.  It was dedicated to the
memory of Georges-Henri Rivi=8Are, the French pioneer of ecomuseums
(see below), who died during the final stages of its preparation.=20


The fifteen articles begin with the Rivi=8Are's last 'evolutive
definition' of the ecomuseum finalised in 1980 and an introduc-
tory essay by Hugues de Varine, who actually coined the word in
1971.  Four articles on ecomuseums and the related 'new
museology' in France follow, with particular emphasis on the
experience of two outstanding examples: the Ecomus=82e Le Creusot
Montceau-les-Mines north of Lyon which opened in 1974, and the
Ecomus=82e des Rennes (Bintinais) in Brittany then under develop-
ment, (completed in 1987).=20

These papers are followed by 'The new museology proclaimed' by
the French Canadian pioneer of ecomuseums, Pierre Mayrand, who
is now the president of the International Movement for a New
Museology, [*** NOTE TO EDITOR AND TYPESETTER: CAPITALISATION
HERE IS AS IN OFFICIAL ENGLISH VERSION OF THE TITLE - PLEASE
COPY!! ***] (invariably referred to by its French acronym of
MINOM), a translation of the 1984 'Declaration of Quebec: Basic
principles for a new museology', and a review of the development,
objectives and philosophy of the ecomuseum movement in the
Province of Quebec by another leading 'new museology' figure,
Ren=82 Rivard.  Other articles cover the development of the
ecomuseum and community museum concepts elsewhere in the world,
including Sweden, Portugal, Venezuela, sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil
and the USA. =20

                     - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

La Mus=82ologie selon Georges Henri  Rivi=8Are: Cours de
Mus=82ologie/Textes et t=82moingnages, Paris, 1989, 402 pp. (Editions
Dunod, 30 rue St. Suplice, 75278 Paris Cedex 6, France, 430
French francs + postage)

Museums have had their fair share of the world's colourful and
encyclopedic characters but it is hard to imagine anyone with a
wider-ranging career and more varied interests and achievements
than Georges Henri Rivi=8Are, (1897-1985), who is generally
credited with the development of the concept of the ecomuseum if
not the word itself.=20

While still in his teens he became organist at the prestigious
Paris church of St Louis-en-l'Isle. During and after his war
service his musical interests broadened, and he began a dazzling
Parisian career as a jazz pianist and  composer, including
regular solo appearances at top venues such as the Casino, the
Boeuf sur le Toit and the Follies-Berg=8Are, where he wrote for
Jos=82phine Baker.

However, the famous Boeuf sur le Toit was about much more than
music, and Georges Henri became a close friend of most of the
leading artists, writers and other intellectuals of 1920s Paris.=20
His work with Jos=82phine Baker and her Revue N=8Agre led to a
growing interest in African art, then to a wider interest in
ethnography.  In 1928 he joined the national museum of ethnogra-
phy in Paris, which had languished unchanged for thirty years.=20
In less than two years he transformed the displays, doing so
'with genius', according to the leading art dealer, Ren=82 Gimpel.=20


He liked to describe this as his 'conversion to the religion of
museums', and his fertile mind, numerous successful publications,
practical schemes and charismatic teaching combined to make him
an unchallengeable missionary  for museum innovation continuously
over the next 55 years.  By the time he became the founder
director of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 1946
he was already seeking a fundamental renewal and broadening of
museums, pioneered what became the ecomuseum concept in his work
for the Mus=82e Bretagne in Rennes as early as 1947. =20

Sadly, his planned 'Treatise on Museology' was never finished,
but this massive memorial volume - jointly compiled and edited
by thirty of his fellow workers and followers, brings together
the texts of his annual course in museology given in the
University of Paris from 1971 - 1982, supported by a wide range
of commentaries from the thirty contributors.  Of special
relevance here are both Rivi=8Are's own writings on the ecomuseum
concept and the 'hommages' and discussions of his concept by many
leading practitioners in this field.  The book also has a full
bibliography of Rivi=8Are's writings and a short illustrated
biography.=20

                     - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

L'initiative communautaire: recherche et exp=82rimentation by
Hugues de Varine. Macon, France, 1991, 266pp. (Editions
W/M.N.E.S., 3 rue Bauderon de Sennec=82, 71000 Macon, France, 130
French francs, including postage)

If all the publishers of the world had been allowed to publishing
only one book between them in the present decade to guide and
galvanise professionals and decision-makers in museums, this
volume would have to be it. =20

Sadly, although what would translate as 'The community initiat-
ive: research and experimentation' was completed in 1984, such
is the price of innovation that it was three years before any of
it appeared - and then only in an much abridged portuguese
translation published in Brazil in 1987.  The full French text
was only issued by its present forward-looking publisher in 1991,
and no English translation is planned.=20

De Varine, Rivi=8Are's successor as Director of ICOM, shared his
passionate concern to make museums truly relevant, outward- not
inward-looking, and to make them serve society and its develop-
ment.  He coined the neologism '=82comus=82e' in 1971, and has ever
since been close to the development of ecomuseums and new
museology around the world. =20

He worked personally on the pioneering Ecomus=82e Du Creusot from
1971 to 1982, and that of Sud-Picardie from 1975 to 1979.  From
1978 to 1984 working for the Office of the Prime Minister he
applied the community identity and development objectives and
ideals of the ecomuseum and new museology movements in trying to
deal with the massive social problems of the troubled 'satellite'
new towns around Paris and other major cities. =20

This volume analyses each of these three projects in detail, and
draws from these and de Varine's wider experience the very
relevant underlying principles of human relationships in relation
to available 'social time', cultural life and community action.=20
In addition to the Le Creusot and Sud-Picardie ecomuseum case-
studies there is a substantial general chapter on the 'new'
museum and ecomuseums, while the final third of the book
describes and discusses the practical application of community
education and development through museums and new museology.

Flood publishers with demands for an English translation of de
Varine's seminal work, and in the meantime send off your
Eurocheque and sign up for French classes without delay.=20

                     - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Patrick J Boylan is Professor of Arts Policy and Management,
City University, London, and a member of MINOM - the Interna-
tional Movement for a New Museology)