The word museum comes from the Greek word mouseion, meaning “seat of the Muses,” and it’s an apt description: museums are institutions founded to preserve and interpret some aspect of society’s cultural consciousness. The earliest museums had a variety of functions, from recreational venues to scholarly libraries, and some were even founded to serve as a form of civic pride or nationalistic endeavour. In modern times, museums serve a myriad of purposes, from the promotion of economic development and revitalization to educating people on their heritage.
Despite their wide-ranging purposes, museums are bound by the same core functions, reflecting what may be an innate human desire to collect and interpret objects of historical or aesthetic value. As early as the 3rd century bce, there was evidence of large collections being assembled by religious groups and individuals, but it was only in the 18th century that the concept of a public museum became widely established.
Today’s museums take many forms and are located all over the world, but they are often defined by their guiding principles of being non-profit, permanent, research-based, open to the public, with collections held in trust for the benefit of the general community. They operate on a budget that is supported by membership, donations and grants. Museums are managed by a board of trustees and a director who work with the museum’s staff, which includes curators and conservators (the folks responsible for hands-on care of the collection), collections managers and educational specialists. The museum staff also supports the community and visitors by providing information, education, research and exhibitions.
A new definition of the museum has been passed by Icom’s Extraordinary General Assembly in Prague. It is the first time in 50 years that the institution has changed its definition, aligning it with major changes in the role of museums, acknowledging inclusivity, accessibility and sustainability.
Icom’s new definition, which replaces one that was last amended in 2007, is based on extensive outreach to museums. Museum representatives from 126 of Icom’s 50,000 members were spoken to over an 18-month period in four distinct rounds of consultation by the ICOM Define committee.
The Louvre’s vast galleries are packed with household-name masterpieces — think Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic Mona Lisa and the crowd-pulling sculpture of David, which still has its famous sling, tree stump and those buttocks. There are rooms devoted to Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, as well as a room for neoclassical, Romantic and Art Nouveau decorative arts. It’s also home to the largest library of 19th-century French painting in existence.