Authorized by 92 % of individuals at ICOM’s normal convention in Prague on Wednesday, the brand new definition describes a museum as “a not-for-profit, everlasting establishment within the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and displays tangible and intangible heritage.” The noteworthy modifications come within the closing two sentences, which learn, “Open to the general public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster range and sustainability. They function and talk ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, providing assorted experiences for schooling, enjoyment, reflection and data sharing.”
In an announcement, ICOM President Alberto Garlandini acknowledged that the definition was “not excellent,” however nonetheless known as it “an incredible step ahead.” The earlier definition, which had been in place since 2007, was only one sentence lengthy. Earlier than 2007, the earlier definition had not modified in 30 years.
The phrase “museum,” it is price noting, comes from the Greek for “seat of the Muses,” and refers to mythological figures related to inventive inspiration.
Extra aspirational than prescriptive, the up to date language comes at a fraught time for museums, that are going via a sweeping cultural reckoning that has touched almost each stage of their operations, from choices about funding to what’s proven of their galleries. The brand new definition displays this reckoning, however some critics say it does not go far sufficient to acknowledge museums’ difficult historical past of centering White, male and Western views.
In recent times, the museum world has been stricken by accusations of “poisonous philanthropy” for receiving cash from such controversial patrons because the Sackler and Koch households. The Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 prompted renewed scrutiny of museums for his or her lack of range, each in museum staffs and within the objects of their collections. Extra lately, controversies about stolen artifacts have led some museums to return pillaged artifacts — such because the Smithsonian’s determination to return Benin Kingdom Court docket fashion artworks to their homeland in Nigeria. Nonetheless, different works with difficult historical past stay in some museum collections.
With these debates nonetheless enjoying out, the definition raises questions on how establishments will likely be held accountable. Much like the United Nations, however for museums, ICOM could make suggestions, but lacks the authority to implement compliance. And in the USA, the place many museums are privately owned, its tips don’t carry a lot weight.
In international locations with largely state-run museums, nevertheless, the definition can probably have a big sway with governments that determine what museums and initiatives are worthy of funding. “That was a part of the push to be sure that they received it proper,” mentioned Laura Lott, president and CEO of the American Alliance of Museums. “It might have actual implications on many museums if it inadvertently mentioned the incorrect factor about what museums are or pointed to a previous of what museums have been.”
Lott, who attended the convention in Prague, praised the ICOM’s wording. “It’s a well timed reflection of the fact that the roles of museums are assorted and lots of are altering,” she mentioned. “I additionally discover simply a number of hope in the truth that dozens of countries representing hundreds of museums got here collectively and located a standard definition.”
Lott factors to the Oakland Museum of California for its “introspective work on itself and the group,” and the Phillips Assortment in Washington, which employed one of many first range officers within the museum trade, as examples of museums that embody the rules outlined within the definition.
Others have famous that the definition — which makes strides in opening up a tradition-bound area to self-appraisal — can form tradition.
Kaywin Feldman, director of the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork, who started her tenure in 2019 with a imaginative and prescient of reform and reinvention, applauded ICOM for its efforts.
“I recognize the problem that they had in creating the brand new assertion — a mirrored image of the breadth of establishments represented by ICOM,” Feldman mentioned in an announcement shared with The Washington Publish. “It’s a difficult time for museums, as audiences and communities anticipate higher relevance, accessibility and transparency from them. The definition can be aspirational, which supplies me nice hope for the sector.”
The revised wording has been a very long time coming. In 2019, ICOM proposed an excellent lengthier definition that referred to museums as “democratizing, inclusive and polyphonic areas for vital dialogue concerning the pasts and the futures,” tasking museums to “safeguard various reminiscences” and “contribute to human dignity and social justice, world equality and planetary well-being.” It was dismissed as a bloated manifesto that used fashionable rhetoric and didn’t do sufficient to distinguish museums from different cultural establishments.
Some aren’t so proud of the place ICOM has landed now both. As Laura Raicovich, writer of “Tradition Strike: Artwork and Museums in an Age of Protest,” informed ARTnews. “It might have been a much more essential shift for ICOM to acknowledge that museums aren’t impartial, and by no means have been.”
ICOM, a membership-based group headquartered in Paris, has 40,000 members from 141 international locations. Fashioned within the Forties, ICOM describes itself as the one world group within the museum area. It publishes analysis, hosts coaching classes, points codes of ethics, and maintains a “Crimson Record” database that flags cultural objects susceptible to theft and trafficking, so police and customs officers can establish them.