PROFESSION OF A ‘MUSEUM CURATOR’. ON LEGAL CHANGES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EROSION OF THE ROLE PLAYED BY MUSEUM CURATORS

Abstract

Changes in the legislation related to museum curators and museology, introduced with small steps in harmony with the Overton Window concept, are discussed; they are leading away from the letter and spirit of the Act on Museums of 21 Nov 1996 and the traditions of Polish museology based on creating collections of museum objects and working on them in various manners. Regulations and legal opinions on the museum curator profession are presented, pointing to the fact that the initially cohesive definitions and provisions are becoming blurred, to the extent of losing their initial sense, and threatening the identity of this professional group, as well as the identity of museums as heritage-preserving organizations. Furthermore, attempts to extend the concept of museum curator to encompass also the institution’s executives or the entire museum staff undertaken in order to depreciate this professional group and deprive it of the impact on the institution’s management have been signalled. A tendency has been observed to deprive the employees fulfilling the museum’s basic activity, museum curators included, of the influence on shaping state policies with respect to museology, this clearly illustrated by the composition of the Council for Museums and National Memorial Sites. Provisions of the labour legislation as regards professions of public trust museum curators aspire to join have been quoted. Mention has also been made of certain activities they have undertaken to prevent the process of de-professionalising the profession of a museum curator in the museum-related legislation, and to subsequently reverse it. The 2016 Bill on Museum Collections and on Museums prepared by the National Section for Museums and Institutions for the Preservation of Historical Monuments of the Solidarity Trade Union has been presented. The main demands of the Bill have been pointed to: the consolidation of the status of museum collections as the main purpose of the museum’s raison d’être, the status of a museum curator as a profession of public trust, and the shift in museum management from technocratic (New Public Management) to modern, aiming to serve the national heritage and people in harmony with the principles of the New Public Service.