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

ICOFOM Stavanger 1995
ment, hence the term 'community museology'. Presentation and preservation of the
heritage are considered within the context of social action and change. Heritage is a resource
to be considered and developed within the context of community improvements.
The people of the community themselves have to take care of their own heritage, hence
the term 'popular museology'. Key-concept is the 'reappropiation du territoire, du
patrimoine, pour I 'autodeveloppement individuel et collectif. Characteristic is the view
that the concept of museum is not confined to a building. The museum can be anywhere,
and is anywhere and everywhere within a specified territory. For this museum concept the
term ecomuseum has been coined, hence the term 'ecomuseology'.
It is the French concept of ' museologie nouvelle' that gradually became recognized as one
of the main streams within museology. The term has been monopolized by two, related,
organizations: the Association ' Museologie Nouvelle et Experimentation Sociale'
(MNES)', and the Movement Internationale pour la Museologie Nouvelle (MINOM).
During the ICOFOM meetings in Mexico (1980) and Paris (1982) the position of
ecomuseums and new museology within the committee was discussed. A group of
members attempted to make new museology the focus of the committee's policy. As a
result the principles of ecomuseums were discussed during a special seminar at the 1983
conference in London. During the 1983 meeting the Canadian 'ecomuseologist' Pierre
Mayrand proposed forming a working group on 'museologie communautaire'. During its
first meeting the newly elected board 'decided to establish only function-oriented working
groups and not constitute any permanent working groups to deal with the different problems
within the field of museological research'. Moreover, the board considered that ' in
a situation, where the principal matters concerning museology, as such, are still being
studied and discussed, and where the justification of museology - and consequently of
ICOFOM - is even called into question, constituting working groups for detailed mUSeDlogical
matters, and especially for different " museologies " , could cause not only a split in
limited personnel resources but first of all interference in the committee's work in its
entirety'. Nevertheless, Mayrand was asked to establish a temporary working group to
prepare a special session on ecomuseums and new museology during the 1984 meeting of
ICOFOM wich was to take place in Canada.
The 1984 meeting of ICOFOM did not take place in Canada. Thus the temporary working
group had nothing to prepare, nor did it take any other initiatives regarding ICOFOM.
Instead something else happened. Disappointed by the lack of response during the 1983
meeting in London and by the failure to organize the committee's annual meeting in
Canada, the Canadian museologists organized the First International Workshop for
Ecomuseums and New Museology in Quebec. At this meeting a policy statement was
adopted, known as the 'Declaration of Quebec"o.
Founded in 1982 in France.
10 Published in Museum 148 (1986), p. 20 1.
136