By Ogova Ondego
Published August 10, 2019
What does the word ‘museum’ mean?
Yes, but not quite: a ‘museum’ is not just a house of culture, where heritage lives or a building in which objects of historical importance are stored and exhibited.
International Council of Museums (ICOM), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that focuses on conservation of the world’s natural and cultural heritage, wants ‘museum’ to have a broad and all embracing definition in order to keep abreast of developments in a rapidly changing world of the 21st century.
Consequently, ICOM shall on September 7, 2019 take a vote on the new definition that, if it passes, shall be included in the statutes of ICOM that has a consultative status within the United Nations Organisation.
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“Over recent decades museums have radically transformed, adjusted and re-invented their principles, policies and practices, to the point where the ICOM museum definition no longer seems to reflect the challenges and manifold visions and responsibilities. We invited members and other interested parties to take part in creating a new, more current definition. New proposals were published here on a continuous basis,” ICOM says.
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The new definition, that shall be voted on at ICOM’s Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA) in Kyoto, Japan, reads: “Museums are democratising, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and the futures. Acknowledging and addressing the conflicts and challenges of the present, they hold artefacts and specimens in trust for society, safeguard diverse memories for future generations and guarantee equal rights and equal access to heritage for all people.
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Museums are not for profit. They are participatory and transparent, and work in active partnership with and for diverse communities to collect, preserve, research, interpret, exhibit, and enhance understandings of the world, aiming to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary wellbeing.”
This is quite a mouthful if the simpler English dictionary of a museum as ‘a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited’ is any measure to go by. However, looking at the expanded description closely, it seems not lose grasp of the straight dictionary definition, i.e museums ‘collect, preserve, research, interpret, exhibit, and enhance understandings of the world, aiming to contribute to human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary wellbeing.’
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But ICOM is unlikely to go by the simple definition as it argues that the new definition has been arrived at through wide consultation, listening, collecting and collating alternative definitions through its standing committee on Museum Definition, Prospects and Potentials (MDPP).
The definition on which a vote shall be taken in September was presented to the Executive Board of ICOM on July 21-22, 2019 during its 139th session in Paris, France.
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