ISS 25 (1995).pdf - The International Council of Museums

The museum is an universal mechanism to be adapted to different contexts. We. museologists.
operate on two levels: the object context and the museum context. For the museum is also the
testimony of an epoch: shouldn't we keep some former museal achievements as samples. acting as
examples to the contrary (colonialism. communism. catholicism and so on) ?
Conclusion
In the relation community-heritage-museum. we can have no model but only some basic
principles. Knowledge is a power. that's true. but one has to acknowledge one's own ability (the
chance of gifts. education. training) and the science one has acquired to share it with the community.
In that optic. museums exist to render that sharing easier. The ideal motto of museologists in their
action could be "know thyself'. which means help the community to become self-governing on its
way towards its culture.
Our power regarding the community is primarily RESPONSIBILITY.
But other questions remains. and one among them: we don't have to cope only with existing
things. We also have to foster creation. So what is our position concerning art and the art-museums
which. at first view. do not seem direcUy community-oriented as ethnography museums?
This will be the theme of our next symposium in Rio. in 1996.
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