Oh, this is a mighty big topic, but it might help to break it down. First, it depends on which country you are talking about. The idea of museums as safe places for keeping treasures goes as far back as ancient altars and temples. Private collections often were derived from fabulous Cabinets of Curiosities. America "borrowed" many of its museum ideas from Europe (1700s-1800s) when it came to the founding of museums in America. Some museums, such as the Smithsonian, were founded on particular collections saved and presented for the educational benefit of the American people. Other museums were born from private collections. There was no single path in the evolution of American museums, but many of the founding documents can be seen in a book called MUSEUM ORIGINS.
That said, those of us in museum education and interpretation have no doubt about the value of museums in education, in fact we'd claim that museums set the standards for object literacy and object-based inquiry. To understand the objects of our cultures—of artistic, natural, or popular origin—is to understand our very selves. And yet, museums today struggle for identity and funding as educational institutions. Why? The reasons are many, but two factors are primary contributors: identifying as "attractions" to appeal to the masses and throw off the cape of elitism, and lawmakers and donors don't see museums as the life-long learning centers that they are and have always been meant to be. Additionally, many people think of "Education" as k-12 or k-20 services to schools exclusively rather than looking more globally to see how different types of visitors learn in the museum environment and why. Couple this with the identity crisis many museums face because of those factors and it is not hard to understand why the idea of museums as educational institutions gets muddled for the masses.
But just like libraries that promote written literacy, museums have the unique power to teach and promote object literacy. For example, it is one thing to put an object on display, and it is quite another to put an object on display AND provide opportunities, either via live interpreter or some form of inquiry-based interactive to understand how that object was made, used, and valued and WHY. Even if the museum has no collection, it can teach about ideas as "objects" because often their outcomes are tangible. A question I often pose to my museum studies students is, "Could a library be a library without any books?" If so, how? Can a museum be a museum without a collection? It's been proven that the answer is "yes." But how has that changed our ideas of what museums are and their role in society? I'm sure my colleagues have many different ideas about this topic; mine is just one view. But yours is an important question, and I hope others will add their voices to the conversation.
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Stephanie Lile
Lecturer for Nonprofit & Museum Studies
University of Washington Tacoma
Original Message:
Sent: 07-19-2016 06:03 AM
From: ISHAQ BELLO
Subject: Role of Museum
Please i need more light on "The role of the Museum in Cultural history and Education. "