In the 21st century, participation is one of the key words related to the operations of museums and debate around them. The public are encouraged to co-create museum projects: exhibitions, programmes ...that accompany exhibitions, studies; they play the role of consultants and advisors (youth councils, clubs, consultancy teams). Museums are more and more widely ‘opening’ to embrace the public. Never before has the position of visitors been as significant. An overview of participatory programmes in Polish museums is provided. They are classified and characterized by the Author who places them within the philosophy of museum operations, particularly with respect to the altering role of museums, currently debated over within ICOM, with the context of the new museum definition in mind; furthermore, she presents the initial conclusions drawn from the implementation of such projects for museums. In the paper the material from interviews conducted as part of the Atlas of Museum Participation Project implemented with a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage has been used.
Der Welt-Museumsverband International Council of Museums wurde 1946 als Antwort auf die Gräuel des Zweiten Weltkriegs gegründet. ICOM versteht sich als Brückenbauer, Think Tank und Netzwerk der ...Museumsfachleute und Museen. 75 Jahre nach Gründung ist es Zeit für eine Rückschau: Zeitzeugen-Interviews mit den noch lebenden Präsidenten von ICOM Deutschland und dem letzten ICOM-Präsidenten der DDR geben Auskunft darüber, welchen kulturpolitischen Herausforderungen der Verband sich gegenübersah, wie und ob diese bewältigt werden konnten. Tanja Bechtel hat es übernommen, leitfadengestützt im Sinne der Oral History und der Methodik von Experten-Interviews diese Zeitzeugen-Gespräche durchzuführen und in einem Bericht für ICOM Deutschland zu dokumentieren. Das Ergebnis ist ein Resümee langjähriger Verbandsarbeit im Kultursektor und eine Konfrontation mit zurückliegenden, aber auch mit aktuellen, zum Teil globalen Herausforderungen.
The topic discussed in the paper is the change and evolution the concept of museum (Greek: museion, Latin: musaeum) has been undergoing for over 2500 years, as well as many of its different meanings: ...from the definition of a spot in space, including a place of worship, up to the name of learning form, research and knowledge centre, collection of texts and poetry, music and theatre festival, synonyms of a dictionary and encyclopaedia, library and a secluded study spot, up to large institutions co-creating culture and educating socially. Once museums had become social institutions, the process of defining their organizational form and their mission limits began. The International Council of Museums (ICOM), as an organization grouping museum employees and museologists, namely both practitioners and theoreticians, ever since its establishment in 1946 has on a number of occasions initiated works on a shared definition of museum. The paper assembles all the ICOM-proposed definitions in 1946–2007 presented both in English and Polish. The latest proposal submitted at the Kyoto ICOM General Conference on 7 September 2019 (Annex 1), however, for the first time aroused a heated debate and was not finally voted on by the ICOM General Assembly; instead, the debate has continued on the proposed phrasing since. The historical overview of the museum concept and the history of the ICOM museum definition presented against the opinions of invited Polish museum professionals is the ‘record of time’, documenting the considerations on the role and tasks of museum in contemporary society.
International Committee Poland (PKN) of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) was founded in 1947 as a result of Poland having joined the United Nations, and subsequently the International ...Council on Monuments and Sites (UNESCO). Throughout the 72 years of its activity, ICOM Poland (PKN ICOM) has transformed from a smallsized group of museum directors and experts (21 individuals in 1947) into a team of professionals amounting to over 300 individuals (either professionally active or retired). Their contribution to shaping Polish museology will likely become the topic of an extensive monograph. In 1947-2018, ICOM Poland was presided by 8 individuals (see Table 1.); their operation mode was specified by subsequent ICOM Statues, modified by the General Assembly, as well as the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums. It is the first decade of the ICOM Poland operations that is discussed in the paper; the names of the illustrious museologists of that period are given; they were the ones who in 1947-58 worked out the principles of cooperation, and despite the challenging political situation, were able to gradually introduce the rules of creating museums and of managing them as institutions of heritage protection and active learning, open to a broad exchange of ideas and international cooperation; furthermore, they worked out the assumptions and models for museum exhibits’ conservation and documentation.
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