Technikatörténeti szemle 22. (1996)

TANULMÁNYOK - MacLeod, Roy: Modern Times and the Sciene Museum: Museum Knowledge and its Management

ROY MACLEOD* MODERN TIMES AND THE SCIENCE MUSEUM: MUSEUM KNOWLEDGE AND ITS MANAGEMENT Introduction The museum is no longer, if ever it was, an institution innocently engaged in the processes of the collection, conservation, classification and display of objects. On the contrary, it is one among many components in a complex array of cultural and leisure industries, no longer certain of its role, no longer secure in its identity, no longer isolated from political and economic pressures or from the explosion of images and meanings which are, arguably, transforming our relationships in contemporary society to time, space and reality.

1 Thus Roger Silverstone recently issued a manifesto for the social studies of science in the modern museum - a cognitive and representational space fully as important to science as the laboratory and the classroom. Today, we live in a museum age.

2 Today, there are over 35,000 museums in the world, including 7000 in North America and 15,000 in Europe. France records 6000, and Germany, over 1500. In the UK, over 2200 major public and private museums and galleries receive 70 million visits a year, representing 30% of the adult population, excluding tourists.

3 Australia, with a population of only 17 million, has over 500 museums catering for an annual two million visitors. Even the small Pacific island nations boast over thirty-five museums, some derived from colonial institutions, but others reflecting new national sentiment. According to Kenneth Hudson, for a country now to have no museum, is "to admit that one is below the minimum level of civilisation required of a modern state".

4 Museums are Important not only as places of rational entertainment, but also as places for the invention of myths and histories that we make to suit our time.

5 Far from being institutional constants, major museums are, in fact, in a constant state of change, both in their managerial motivations and in what * University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, (Australia)