Museum Community Research Articles

Participating in Online Museum Communities: An Empirical Study of Taiwan's Undergraduate Students.

With the worldwide spread of the Internet, human activity has become permeated by digital media, which shapes communication and interaction and speeds up the improvement of the experience and diffusion of museum exhibitions. Contemporary museums must understand their audiences, especially with respect to online preferences and surfing involvement experiences. Museums are changing in an effort to attract young netizens to access and use museum resources. Virtual museums are increasingly using digital exhibitions to preserve and apply their collections and establishing online community platforms to interact with young people. This study investigates the underlying mechanism of online community characteristics that enhance audiences’ emotional resonance and involvement. Results from a questionnaire survey (N = 1168) of Taiwan undergraduate students show that perceived relevance and esteem improve their emotional resonance, which can attract new people and maintain existing relationships within their communities. Following flow theory, maintaining community relationship characteristics increases emotional resonance, which, in turn, enhances user involvement, but we found only small significant effects of emotional resonance on involvement. These findings illuminate the mechanism of the attitudinal relationship building and maintenance for online museum communities and advance the practical contributions of online museum community use and effects.

Traditional versus Contemporary Conservation Methods in West Cameroon’s Community Museums

Community-museum storage spaces in west Cameroon are generally characterised by neglected collections, dust, and woodworm infestations. This situation is the result of abandoning indigenous conservation methods in favour of so-called conventional Western conservation techniques, which professionals consider to be superior, but whose implementation has been a failure in west Cameroon’s community museums. The consequence is a paradoxical situation in which collections in west Cameroon no longer benefit from traditional care, but, because of a lack of resources, do not benefit from contemporary conservation standards either. Based on qualitative research, this study provides an overview of the situation and argues for the reappropriation of indigenous conservation techniques in order to improve the physical well-being of collection storage.

Reflections on Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in a Chinese Australian Community Museum

ABSTRACT The cultural and linguistic heritage of Chinese Australians is complex and often poorly understood by Australian communities. It can be challenging for GLAM sector organisations to both understand and share the complexity of Chinese culture in Australia in a meaningful and coherent way. Using the Chinese Museum in Melbourne, Australia as a case study, this paper reflects on how this diversity shaped the work of the Museum. Drawing on personal experience as the curator of the Museum, the author argues that communities are evolving, our understandings of them imperfect and so learning about cultural complexity is an ongoing iterative process.

Expanding Museum Communities: International Perspectives on Access in Exhibition Design and Public Programs

ABSTRACT Embracing an inclusive mindset within museums is necessary to further accessibility and transform the role of museums in a changing society to more effectively foster diversity. A brief overview of the history of laws related to people with disabilities and the role of centralized museum associations sets accessibility as a concept within cultural and social structures, and is followed by three case studies that reveal how social norms and attitudes must first change before museum policies and procedures related to accessibility can be implemented effectively. These comparisons show remarkable common ground between institutions on both sides of the Atlantic and across the United States despite significant political and cultural differences. The dialogue presented here can only be a start for a further transatlantic exchange of how to move beyond inclusion as a “box to be ticked” to incorporating it as a fundamental asset in the conception of museum work in the twenty-first century.

The RE-ORG Method Applied to Collection Storage at the Andafiavaratra Palace Museum, Madagascar

In June 2019, Madagascar was chosen as a host country for a RE-ORG programme, a method developed by ICCROM and UNESCO and applied transnationally to help museums to improve the management of their collections in storage. This activity, initiated by UNESCO, was financed by the government of Japan and carried out by the Ministry of Communication and Culture in Madagascar. In December 1995, the Rova of Antananarivo, which housed the historic Queen’s Palace, was destroyed by a fire. Thirty per cent of the collections saved from the flames were transferred to the Prime Minister’s Andafiavaratra Palace, now a museum. For over two decades, the unexhibited collections were stored in unstructured rooms that did not comply with principles of preventive conservation. Putting theory into practice, the RE-ORG method was applied to the royal collections at the Andafiavaratra Museum in 2019. The project primarily involved the reorganisation of the storage rooms and training during two weeks for Malagasy museum staff. A unique approach was taken: the 26 participants from 12 museums returned to their respective museums when their training was completed with the intention to reorganise or create their own storage facilities. The RE-ORG project in Madagascar led the ICOM National Committee to a general review of Malagasy museums. This case study shows how improving storage areas in Malagasy museums led to greater awareness among the local museum community and visitors on the importance of preserving cultural heritage.

Uncertain Future

Uncertain Future

История музея-заповедника «Пермь–36»: опыт историографического осмысления и музеефикации

The article studies the history of a small timber-harvesting colony that was created in the times of the GULAG labor camps, outlived the period of being a political colony, and was transformed into a museum, the Museum of the History of Political Repression Perm–36, in the 1990s. Based on the analysis of publications of the 1990s–2000s, an attempt was made to recreate the history of comprehension of the era of political repression using the example of a certain museum. From the active study of the topic in the early 1990s and establishment of a public museum with support from the Perm Oblast administration, Perm–36 moved on to undergo severe criticism from the local and federal press, deprivation of financing and administrative support and, finally, rather rough dismissal of the museum administration and appointment of top managers from the Ministry of Culture. The public museum had a powerful creative and scientific potential that allowed it to develop, implement new forms of work, and attract the international museum and human rights community, but, unfortunately, the State Memorial Museum of the History of Political Repression Perm–36 has become an ordinary regional museum in fact. In the first years of being a state museum (2015–16), the administration of Perm-36 tried to revise the directions of work of the public museum. This was expressed in its attempts to justify the authorities and the cruel laws of the time when the colony existed and to find some incriminating evidence against its political prisoners. New exhibitions of the museum (e.g. “Broken by windfalls”) highlighted the state’s need for the prisoners’ work, in particular in harvesting timber needed for the reconstruction of war-ravaged cities, the successes in mechanization of camp production, and so on. The public outcry forced the leadership of the museum to adjust its course. Now, according to the development concept adopted in 2019, the activities of the reserve museum are aimed at preserving the memory of victims of political repression in order to prevent such tragedies in the future. The state museum Perm–36 continues to open new exhibitions and expositions that tell the story of the colony through the stories of people from the GULAG camps, dissidents, and human rights activists. However, the activities of the state memorial museum, which is deprived of public initiative and creative potential of the first directors, cannot yet rise to the level of international recognition and significance that its predecessor, the public museum, used to have.

“Under the Romanovs’ Sceptre: the 300th Anniversary of Russia's Proclamation as an Empire”. “Russian Charity. Tradition and Modernity”. Review of International and Interregional Scientific Conferences

A review of international/inter-regional scientific conferences held by the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Foundation for the Revival of Traditions of Charity and Charity “St. Elisabethan and St. Sergius Educational Society” (ESPS Foundation) in 2021 is presented. In connection with the momentous historical date — the 300th anniversary of the proclamation of Russia as an empire — scientific conferences were held “Under the Romanovs' sceptre: on the 300th anniversary of the proclamation of Russia as an empire» with thematic blocks: “The Russian Empire: Projection to the West” (Kaliningrad), “The Imperial House of Romanov and the Inclusion of New Lands and Peoples in the Cultural and Civilisational Space of the Russian Empire” (Perm) and “The Russian Empire in Comparison with Other Empires of the East and West” (Kazan). There was also an international scientific and practical conference entitled “Russian Charity. Traditions and Modernity” (Kazan), whose scientific reports focused on the development of charity in Russia in the first half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. More than 300 leading scientists-historians, archivists, representatives of the museum community from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Perm, Kaliningrad, Voronezh, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Republic of Crimea and the CIS countries took part in the events.

УВИДЕТЬ НЕВИДИМОЕ: КОНЦЕПЦИЯ ЭКСПОЗИЦИИ "ОТКРЫТОЕ ХРАНЕНИЕ ФОНДА КЕРАМИКИ И СТРОИТЕЛЬНЫХ МАТЕРИАЛОВ ГНИМА ИМ. А.В. ЩУСЕВА"

The concept of “Open storage of pottery and construction materials collection of the State research institute and Museum of architecture named after A.V. Shchusev” adopted for implementation is considered in the article. A survey of collection items (collection contain more than 4000 items that allow to reflect diversity of construction materials used by master builders of ancient Rus’ and prior to the early 21st century. Having performed analysis of the Russian and foreign experience, the author argues that the selected form of exposition provides the access and maximum contact authentic items that the major part of them has not been displayed earlier. This concept is easily combined with the space of museum dedicated to architecture. It is well-known that the number of items in museum collections by far exceeds possibility to exhibit them in museum. Hence the principal reproach addressed to museum community: the greater part of any collection that are preserved in museum vaults are inaccessible to public. The main reason for that is the shortage of exposition areas. This shortage exists nearly at every Russian museum. With increasing frequency museums use for performance of their main function (storage and provision of social-cultural information not only exposition areas but also vaults in form of open storage.

Проблемы организации инклюзивной среды для работы с детьми с РАС в музеях различного профиля

Museums today play a pivotal role in creating an environment that follows principles of social inclusion and is accessible for individuals with disabilities including museum visitors with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Extracurricular activities are an integral part of comprehensive support for children with ASD that require coordinated efforts of museum professionals, psychologists, and educators. However, museum professionals may lack information about autism and appropriate approaches. The Federal Resource Center for Organization of Comprehensive Support to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders at MSUPE studied this process by conducting a survey about the availability of resources for accommodating individuals with ASD as independent visitors as well as participants in museum programs. The results of the survey attest to a high level of engagement of museum community in creating provisions for visitors with ASD in addition to the demand for consulting centers that would facilitate development of appropriate tools. We present a project that has introduced “social narratives” as an instrument for ASD in a setting that can serve as a model for such a center.

Transmission of Cultural Values and Meanings in the Process of Museum Communication

Transmission of Cultural Values and Meanings in the Process of Museum Communication

OPEN AIR CELEBRATIONS IN LENINGRAD'S SUBURBS IN THE CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURAL TOURISM IN THE 1950S (THE CASE OF PALACE AND GARDEN COMPLEX OF PAVLOVSK (LENINGRAD OBLAST, THE USSR))

Palace and garden complexes located at suburbs of Leningrad (Leningrad Oblast, the USSR) rapidly reconstructed after ruinous German occupation during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 became popular places for open air celebrations among Soviet citizens. The author outlines historic specifics of open air celebrations considered as a form of organization of leisure time, topics and content of cultural programs, analyses an evolution of forms of museum communication with visitors in early post-war time drawing on the example of Pavlovsk of the 1950s. The article gives the author's view on a role of integration historical and cultural resources (including monuments of architecture and decorative art) into the context of solution of personal growth, educational, recreational tasks of Soviet social pedagogics, measures aimed at state support to domestic tourism sector.

Current sociological aspects of museum communication

Current sociological aspects of museum communication

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN A TODAY'S MUSEUM'S VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION

The author traces historical evolution of philosophical and scientific views on a concept “virtual”, notices that academic though of our days defines virtual communication as a type of information exchange run through telecommunication systems. The paper argues the point that digitalization of museum environment lets to practice innovative approaches to preservation and popularization of objects of historical and cultural heritage by means of museum work with the use of special program and technological measures. The review of the today's computer­based forms of museum communication getting widespread in work of leading museum institutions of Russia and a number of foreign countries is given.

Specific Forms of the Safeguarding and Showcasing of Cultural Heritage as Part of Tourism in the High Tatras

This study describes a variety of approaches to communication by museums involved in cultural heritage exchange. It focuses on the High Tatras region, which is the most important centre of tourism in Slovakia. It also looks at the specifics of how tourism developed in the region. The data was collected over a multi-year series of ethnological field research trips, and primarily conducted by means of structured interviews, oral histories and participatory observation. The paper concentrates on shifts in the area of museum communication, from the classical interpretative approach towards exhibitions that present their subject matter in a more flexible way, with a focus on emotional experience.The article aims to use some chosen case studies of small, independent museums and galleries from the town of Vysoké Tatry, in the High Tatras, to highlight the importance of sustainability, especially in terms of the growth of tourism.

Problems of the National fund of Ukraine Preserving in Conditions of Political Crisis and Military Conflicts

Purpose of the article. The purpose set by the author of the article in the study of this topic is to outline the issue of preservation and return of museum collections from the temporarily occupied territories to the cultural heritage of Ukraine. The relevance of the article is due to the current needs of optimizing state policy in the museum sphere, creating effective government programs to preserve the national museum fund. Reforms in this sphere of public life are generated by the need to create a single state unified system of accounting for museum objects from all museum collections in Ukraine. The scientific novelty of the research is that the research proposes conceptual approaches to preserving and restoring museum values in the event of armed conflict and confrontation. Research Methodology. The implementation of the research task is subject to a theoretical and methodological basis, which includes a set of methods, among which the primary is in the form of collecting information on the level of research topic, studying sources, author’s observations and experience, as well as secondary methods used for the purpose of processing and analysis of the obtained information. The absence of a single state consolidated information database makes it impossible to determine the extent of the loss of museum values on the occupied territories. On the example of the occupied Luhansk’s museums author proves that the issue of preservation of cultural monuments of Ukraine should become urgent for authorities of all levels, and the museum community should be involved in discussing these problems, creating and implementing fundamentally new ways and measures to preserve the museum funds of Ukraine, considering the huge loss of national cultural values. The compilation and publication of collections catalogues of individual museum institutions and the Museum Fund of Ukraine as a whole should become a strategic direction of the state policy in the field of culture and museum sphere, as a preventer of the final loss of monuments in cases of armed conflict. Conclusions. The research results can be applied for the restoration and practical updating of the Lugansk museums' activity upon their return to Ukraine, as well as for the development of scientific and methodological recommendations for improving the accounting of cultural monuments of Ukraine and the State Programs for the preservation of national cultural heritage.

Comfort as the Main Basis of Museum Communication

The purpose of the article is to identify priorities for creating a comfortable environment in museums as the main basis of museum communication. The research methodology lies in applied methods of analysis, synthesis and creative generalizations of empirical material. The scientific novelty of the research is in the fact that this article begins in Ukrainian museology the analysis of comfort in a museum as the basic basis of museum communication. Conclusions. Summing up, it should be noted that the modern visitor has long ceased to be a passive observer, he takes a clear position in relation to both the traditional functions of the museum and the field of museum services. The relationship between the museum and the visitor continues to develop in the direction of increasing the role of the latter. The openness of the museum to the visitor should be realized at all levels of museum activities: from the development of infrastructure to the revision of the concepts of the museum’s permanent exhibition. In this regard, it will be necessary to deepen interaction with the visitor not only at the formal level, but to develop mutual communication and participation of visitors in special programs, discussions and other museum events, which will entail an increase in the time spent in the museum. Active visitors willingly enter into dialogue with the museum, are ready to present and argue their position on the relevance of museum services, the peculiarities of staff work, the legitimacy of the rules and prohibitions introduced in institutions. The creation of a renewed, attractive, comfortable environment in museums requires major changes, innovations, and experiments. Any innovations, even the most daring ideas worthy of being tested in the museum space, provided that they do not pose a threat to the preservation of historical and cultural heritage objects and do not threaten the safety of visitors and employees.

Revenue Sources Matter to Nonprofit Communication? An Examination of Museum Communication and Social Media Engagement

ABSTRACT Nonprofit organizations increasingly communicate with their stakeholders using a diverse range of communication channels, some of which involve social media. Although previous studies have found benefits to using social media for nonprofits, little is known empirically about nonprofits’ entire usage of communication channels. It is particularly unclear when nonprofit organizations become capable of investing in their communication channels and what revenue sources affect organizational communication use. To investigate these questions this study examines the impacts of revenue source indicators on museum communication, including usage of traditional channels and social media. By collecting museum data from multiple sources, including official websites and their social media profiles, this study finds that Revenue Diversification (RD) has a positive impact on the number of communication channels utilized as well as on the number of Facebook posts and engagements. The government grants ratio and donations ratio do not have such relationships. The results suggest that financially stable nonprofit organizations may be more capable of adopting new communication media and proactively utilizing them.

Creating a comfortable environment as a basis of effectiveness of museum communication

The article identifies priorities for creating a comfortable environment in museums as the basics of museum communication. It develops basic principles of creating a comfort zone as the basics for museum communication. The authors applied methods of analysis, synthesis and creative generalizations of empirical material. In Ukrainian museum studies, an analysis of comfortable being in the museum as the basics of museum communication has been initiated. The authors note that the modern visitor has long ceased to be a passive observer, he takes a clear position regarding both the traditional functions of the museum and the field of museum services. The relationship between the museum and the visitor continues to develop toward the role increase of the latter. The openness of the museum to the visitor should be implemented at all levels of museum activities: from the development of infrastructure to the revision of the concepts of the museum's permanent exhibition. Creating a renewed, attractive, comfortable environment in museums requires major changes, innovations, and experiments. In this regard, there will be a need to deepen interaction with the visitor not only at the formal level but to develop mutual communication and participation of visitors in special programs, discussions and other museum events, thus, increasing the time spent in the museum.

F. Vovk’s Library and the Library of the Museum (Cabinet) of Anthropology and Ethnology Named after F. Vovk

The research is dedicated to F. Vovk’s book collection and the Library of the Museum (Cabinet) of Anthropology and Ethnology Named after F. Vovk. The list of problems that help to implement the research objective consists of bibliographic description of rare books from the “Rare books collection with F. Vovk’s name on bookplates, inscriptions, and marginalia” in the Library Fund of the National Museum of Ukrainian History (the object of the study), and its three (sub)collections (subjects of the study); characteristics of the content, chronology, language, and topics of publications with focus on certain copies depending on the role of their content or authors in Ukrainian studies. The author substantiates that the studied collection (171 units) constitutes one of the largest rare books collections in the Library Fund of the National Museum of Ukrainian History and contains fragments of libraries of many prominent scholars. The research provides reasons for the receipt of the fragment of the library of the former Museum (Cabinet) to the National Museum of Ukrainian History in 1936; its future; final discovery by the museum experts in the 2010s and introduction into scientific circulation, as well as into museum communication. Reasonable assumptions about the non-scholarly division of the library of the former Museum (Cabinet) are made, relying on the comparison of the Library Fund of the National Museum of Ukrainian History and the book collection of Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. The object of this research is analyzed as the source for ethnology, ethnography, local, and Ukrainian studies. The information from bookplates, inscriptions, and marginalia forms the base for the outlines of the biographies of the authors of publications. Representativeness of the studied ­(sub)collections is determined in comparison with their original content according to the archival sources. Research prospects are set in the context of the mission of bibliographers, historians, and experts in Ukrainian Studies to develop “Professor F. Vovk’s Memory Department”, initiated in the 1920s by his associates and brutally interrupted by the Great Terror.