MUSEUMS BEYOND WALLS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE THIRD PLACE’S CONCEPT

Abstract

The article focuses on museums’ activity that reaches beyond the walls of their premises in the context of a concept of the so-called third place. The third place – as a gathering place which is neither one’s home, i.e. first place, nor workplace, i.e. second place – was described by an American sociologist Ray Oldenburg in 1999 in his book The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. Three study cases have been used in the article: Museum Forum (project carried out by the National Museum in Kraków), Bródno Sculpture Park (project co-conducted by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw), and the method of work implemented by the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków, including in particular the project Dzikie Planty (Wild “Planty” Park). I discuss assumptions the projects have been based on, how they fit in an overall strategy of the museums, and reasons why they have been undertaken. Finally, I wonder whether having been conducted in a fully accessible public space and conducive to users’ interaction make it justified to categorise them as the third places in the meaning given by Oldenburg. Although Oldenburg’s concept has been regarded by museum theorists as not applicable to museums, I have come to the conclusion that projects conducted by museums in a non-committal context of an open space meet the conditions the third places do.