THE UNIVERSITY AND ITS MUSEUMS: PLACE IN THE CULTURAL TOURIST AREA OF THE CITY

Abstract

The article attempts to analyze the place of higher educational establishments(HEE) in general and its museums in particular playing in the city life. Thethe empirical basis of the article is the information collected as a result of researchvisits to HEE in seven regions of Western Ukraine: Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk,Ternopil, Volyn, Rivne, Chernivtsi, and Zakarpattia, organized for 2013-2017.The main used method is interviews with personnel of HEE museums.The author points out these «temples of muses» gradually moved awayfrom its traditional educational and research mission in the 1980’s. Such reassessmentof priorities had been caused by the crisis of the museum. For thelast 30 years it has become clear reduction of using the collections for teachingand research in many universities; some HEE plan to dispose of collectionsand to close museums; many universities are working out alternative organizationalmodels for managing collections in the one newly created museum.The crisis in the museum environment has imposed on the crisis, which theparent universities as institutions are encountering today - «crisis of identity» and «a crisis of resources», caused by the increasing often contradictoryrequirements to the high schools. On this background, the museums as individualunits also began to increase requirements. It led to their gradual transformationinto a museum of « the third generation». One of their defining missionis promoting the HEE, cooperation with the public in order to disseminateinformation about the university, vocational guidance, involvement of patronsand organization of other works implementing this direction. In particular,the article highlights atypical for the Ukrainian context the role of HEE museums- «shop-windows» and «show-cases», through which representatives ofoutside university environment can acquaint themselves with the achievementsof high school and feel its special atmosphere. The author outlines a numberof touristic potential of some HEE in Western Ukraine, where physical objectsare interesting from an architectural and cultural point of view. Amongthe most striking examples is the main building of Yuriy Fedkovych ChernivtsiNational University., Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, campus of Lviv Polytechnic National University, campus of The National Universityof Ostroh Academy, Lviv State University of Life Safety, Kremenets ForestryCollege. Among the researched 74 HEE are roughly a quarter which can beclassified as «visually attractive». However, less than 10 % of them use thisadvantage for brand developing. The relevant policy concerning museumsand academic space in general will allow high school to become a separatepoint on the tourist map, to establish relationships with the surrounding communityand to participate actively in local cultural life.