Dear Christopher Smith:
     No, I'm not kidding.
     The definition of the museum has expanded a bit.  The noncollecting
museums I mentioned are story telling museums:  the art and objects are used
to illustrate and support a series of messages.  The art and objects aren't on
display for their own sakes.  
     Different kinds of museums have diferent kinds of purposes.  The purposes
of most art museums are to thematically "show", and to protect a broad
selection of art (not usually of their communities) for further examination. 
The purposes of most history museums are to use their objects to tell a story,
and to preserve their communities' material cultures. The purposes of most
science museums are to tell a story and to teach scientific concepts.  Do zoos
(which are also museums) keep their collections forever?  ...  There is no
single purpose, style of presentation, or mission for all museums.
     Now, to this mix, we've added the noncollecting museum.  The purpose of
the ones I know (I know of four) are to tell a story, and to use objects and
art to facilitate the telling.  When you walk into most noncollecting museums,
you're unaware that they have nothing in storage.  They look and feel like a
museum.   Their purposes are similar to collecting museums.   Because a
noncollecting museum is usually (perhaps not always) "story" based, collecting
would be contrary to its purpose.  Their stories would change over time, and
they probably wouldn't tell the same story twice.  So, they wouldn't want to
be burdened with things they might never use again.   
     Michael Radice
     The Union Institute

____________________________________________________________________
Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com.

========================================================Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://museums.state.nm.us/nmmnh/museum-l.html. 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).