What is a museum? I’m sure you’re thinking that it’s a silly question because, of course, there’s a very simple answer. Well, go ahead and give it a little try.
Uh-huh. Not as easy as you thought, right?
Museums are one of those conceptual ideas. We know exactly what it is, but it’s so hard to put into words. Well, I’m going to do just that for you. I’m going to put the definition of museum into words.
The most important thing to define first, just as in writing, is your audience. The audience of a museum is especially important because you would not want to advertise yourself as a hands-on children’s museum and then have priceless works of art ruined by sticky little hands.
A museum serves only one function: to educate. The next step is to decide how you’ll educate your audience—without boring them. Children are interested in different things than adults are, and have shorter attention spans; so the way to educate them must differ too.
The next key to a museum is to collect the items through which you’ll fulfill its function. These items will be used to give your audience knowledge and possibly to inspire them.
So, the only stipulation for something to be a museum is to be an institution that teaches through a collection of examples.
Not only do museums display their items to teach the public that they serve, they also store a lot of their collection in back rooms. This gives museums the option of what they want to teach. They can choose a specific area of their collection or a time in history that they want to highlight for their public. Also, many museums will rotate parts of their collection to other museums. This allows the knowledge to be spread around the nation or even around the world.
Next, let’s talk a little about types of museums. Obviously, we have already discussed art museums and children’s museums. Those are clear examples. Some examples you might not have thought about, though, include a site-specific history museum, an airplane graveyard, an art history museum and a zoo or aquarium.
Yes, a zoo is a museum. It is a living museum. Zoos, as we have defined, are a museum because they serve an audience by educating using a set of examples. The “examples” just happen to be alive.
Why do we have museums? As a society, I think we need museums. We want to know more about our past and our future. A history museum, such as the Smithsonian or a Holocaust museum, serve to teach us about the past. They are there to remind of the horrific things that have happened so that we don’t repeat them, and to tell the stories of triumph from the past. Science museums are there to teach us about the latest technology—and show us what our future looks like.
Another purpose that museums can fulfill, but is not necessary for the classification of “museum,” is research. With their vast collections of educational items, museums can be wonderful places for academia to study and produce their research. Just as they educate the public with the past and the future, museums can be institutions for research to explain our country’s history or to study what the newest and greatest technology will be in five years.
So, is a circus a museum? Is an antique store? They both can teach us things and preserve things of (historical) value. How about a planetarium? Museums don’t have to be just about the terrestrial.
That is an interesting conceptualization. I would indeed argue that a planetarium is indeed a museum.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure this adds anything to the overall discussion, but I remember an episode of the Twilight Zone where aliens captured humans for a zoo on their planet. In a way, we're doing the same things with our own planetary species aren't we? I guess since it's the same planet we are immune from criticism.
Also, think about this conceptualization. You were talking in the piece about a collection of educational items for study. If we did encounter an organism from another planet or outer space, think of the treasure trove of biology on and inside that creature. That creature would be a museum by itself.
I really like how you looked out side of our world for an example of a museum. I had not looked that far. I agree with you that being able to study the inside and psychology of an organism that we knew nothing about or was from a different planet could definitely be a museum all by itself. I'm glad you thought of that!
ReplyDeleteDo you think that in the past decades, that museums have been on the decline? With the boom of the internet (and endless amounts of information available freely online) are museums (and libraries) getting pushed out? Where does the internet come short-- and where do 'brick-and-mortar' establishments do likewise?
ReplyDeleteI think you have brought up a really good point and one that I have not thought about in a long time.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we still have museum's? We can access almost limitless art on the Internet. We can see any painting we want, old and new.
But, there is more to life than the Internet. There is something about experiencing a work of art in person for the first time. There is nothing like coming around a corner and seeing the Mona Lisa for the first time. You may have seen it in book, magazines, advertisement, countless times. But it is not the same as seeing it in person.
Another thing that we lose on the Internet is image quality. By it's very nature and our needs, if we want the Internet to move quickly, we must use small files. Along with small files, comes bad image quality. It is progressively getting better, but it will never be the same as being able to approach a painting for the first time and see the artist's brushstrokes.
I could do an entire blog post on this! So I'm going to stop now before I begin ranting.