WITHIN A CIRCLE OF AFFILIATES. MUSEUM AS A RESPONSIBLE COMMUNITY-CREATING INSTITUTION DEALISM IN MUSEUM

Abstract

Museums as community-creating institutions are formed by various circles of stakeholders. Many of those circles result from a cooperation with a definite milieu. However, it is this extension of the circle of museum’s affiliates and a gradually bigger impact of external factors on the range and form of these actions that make museums once again face the question how to consciously and responsibly undertake subsequent social commitments? How to establish durable relations that require participation in long-term processes in this ‘irresponsible world’? How to create circles of associates for this to translate into the development of the social capital of the institution and its environment? Based on the results of a subsequent deepened analysis of the material amassed in the ‘Study of the Museum Public in Poland’ Project in the course of a 4-years’ quality study, four types of dilemmas have been presented: they are the dilemmas which the study participants tackled when talking about the museum public (discussed in a different publication), and which are faced by museum curators and their affiliates keen on an efficient cooperation beyond the museum and on establishing durable relations. The analysis of these dilemmas will aim at demonstrating how the deepening of the awareness of social responsibility can contribute to reaching socio-creative goals of museums regardless of the operation model a given institution implements on a daily basis.