Importance Of Contemporary Museums

In the Museum Manifesto, Joseph Veach Noble makes the list of ‘the five basic responsibilities of every museum: to collect, to conserve, to interpret and to study’ (Weil, 1990, p.74). These roles were accurate when the first museums were created. However, with an increasingly globalized world, traditional museums have to rethink their purpose and find a new role more adapted to the society’s requirements. I have chosen to focus my essay on ‘traditional museums’ as in opposition with ‘contemporary museums’. In the following, I will argue that museums’ responsibilities have expanded: their new challenge is to become increasingly social institutions. Therefore museums must engage the dialogue with their communities. They are part of their societies’ evolution ‘by inspiring their visitors to think, act and be in the service of their society’ (Sourgo, 2012). In practise, they have the opportunity thanks to education and entertainment, for example, to make a real change.

To increase their audience and to attract more people, museums need to concentrate on their visitor rather than on their art collection. The 21st century is characterized by a world becoming increasingly global: this new spatial organization has accentuated the competition between countries, cities and especially museums, and the novelty race. Furthermore traveling has become an …show more content…
Democratizing the art appears to be the ultimate objective for museums. Furthermore, they have a commitment towards their community to be social institutions and be a key place for the community’s gathering. Nevertheless, social purposes don’t always match economical perspectives, which can’t be ignoring in time of financial crisis. Ultimately, museums would have to find a balance between their desire for social changes and their need for economical