Reconceptualizing Museum Ethics for the Twenty‐First Century: A View from the Field

Abstract

Museum ethics as a domain of the museum field emerged in the mid‐twentieth century. However, this approach to ethics as professional practice, relying on fixed codes of ethics, has proved to be a constraining rather than an enabling process. Recently a new model of museum ethics has emerged; regarding ethics as a dynamic social practice, it encourages dialogue and critical thinking to develop socially purposeful museums. The Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the University of Leicester embarked upon a research project that took the form of a research network, bringing together museum leaders to test the potential of the new museum ethics to address key ethics issues with which museums are grappling. This research network expressed a compelling need for change in museums through the framework of the new museum ethics, a triad of three distinct but overlapping spheres: case studies; ethics codes; and values and principles. Participants agreed that this triad creates a powerful tool in its capacity to function as a set of lived values that connects ideas with actions and equips museums to develop responsive ethical policies and decision‐making now and the future. While many questions persist about the practical implications of the new museum ethics, responses from contributors reveal the significance to museum leaders of five ethics themes on which the network focused: social engagement; transparency; shared guardianship of collections; moving beyond canonicity; and sustainability.