MUSEUM IRELAND 2020
(Re)Defining Museums as Forums Fernando Sánchez-Migallón Cano
Introduction
of the issues raised by the difficulty of achieving
At its 25th General Conference in Kyoto in 2019,
consensus on the museum definition.
the International Council of Museums (ICOM)
Using the National Museum of Afro American
proposed a new museum definition. Its purpose
History and Culture as a case study, it will explore
was to signal the values required for museums
how user-led philosophy has helped to reimagine
to respond to and make the transformations
the place of the museum, its functions and
required by twenty-first century challenges. It was
identities.
designed to enable them to incorporate diverse world views, address deep social inequalities,
Museums and an Identity Crisis
and acknowledge climate and biodiversity crises.
Duncan Cameron, a Canadian museologist, argued
While acknowledging museums’ ‘unique, defining
in 1971 that museums were unable to figure out
and essential unity’, the definition presented
who or what they were. This identity crisis was
them as ‘democratising, inclusive and polyphonic
leading to widespread confusion about their
spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and
societal roles. Should museums be ‘temples of the
the futures’. It defined museums as ‘participatory
muses’, focusing on the collection, preservation,
and transparent’, working ‘in active partnership
interpretation, and display of objects? Or should
with and for diverse communities’, and ‘aiming
they be ‘museums of ideas’, focusing not on
to contribute to human dignity and social justice,
things, but instead on enabling public debate on
global equality and planetary wellbeing’.
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pressing social, political, and moral issues of the day? He argued that many museums were more
Although the new definition was produced through
reminiscent of churches than of schools, being
ICOM’s worldwide consultation, its outcome was rejected by multiple national branches, whose
...created [spaces] that were the temples within
objections can be summarised as an opposition
which they enshrined those things they held to
to what they regard as an uncertain amalgam of
be significant and valuable. The public generally
political correctness and trendy posturing that
accepted the idea that if it was in the museum, it
would be of limited legal value. Some have also
was not only real but represented a standard of
expressed alarm at the omission of words such as
excellence. If the museum said that this and that was
‘collection’ and ‘education’ which they consider
so, then that was a statement of truth.
essential to a museum’s mission. Beyond the objects and artefacts it preserves, Through a discussion of a twenty-first century
Cameron’s temple-like museum both projects
museum’s boundaries, this paper addresses some
and protects the dominant values of society
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