If you ’ve always nonchalantly defined museum as “ a place to seeartor historic object , ” you ’re not necessarily wrong . But the International Council of Museums ( ICOM ) has a more specific , official guideline that defines a museum as “ a non - profit , permanent insane asylum in the inspection and repair of society and its development , subject to the public , which develop , preserves , inquiry , communicates , and exhibits the tangible and nonphysical heritage of humanity and its environs for the aim of teaching , work , and use . ”
ICOM ’s 40,000 members have been stick to this definition for almost 50 age to lay out more than 20,000 museum around the world . Now , The Art Newspaperreports , some members want to change it .
On July 22 , the organization ’s executive board convened in Paris and compose a new definition that Danish curator Jette Sandahl believes good causa the demands of “ cultural democracy . ” By this updateddescription , a museum must “ acknowledg[e ] and addres[s ] the engagement and challenges of the present , ” “ work in combat-ready partnership with and for various communities to compile , conserve , research , interpret , exhibit , and heighten understandings of the reality , ” and “ contribute to human dignity and societal justice , global equality , and planetary welfare . ”
The proposal immediately evoke rough reactions from a number of other members of themuseumcommunity , who mat the text was too ideological and vague . François Mairesse , a prof at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and the chairwoman of the International Committee of Museology , even resigned from the revisory commission — led by Sandahl — before this summer when he understand the Modern definition was n’t , by his standards , really a definition . “ This is not a definition but a statement of fashionable value , much too complicated and partly aberrant , ” he toldThe Art Newspaper . “ It would be disastrous to impose only one type of museum . ”
The current plan is for ICOM members to vote on the definition at the general assembly on September 7 in Kyoto , Japan , but 24 interior branch and five museums ’ international committee have petitioned to defer the voting — they’d like some clock time to create their own definition formuseumand represent it as a counter - proposal .
[ h / tThe Art Newspaper ]
