Functions of museums: the essence and significance of museums

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

Museum is a special social institution that performs many socio-cultural functions. It makes sense to consider the concept and functions of a museum in modern conditions, since the passage of time influences this definition a lot.

The Essence of the Museum

Museum is a special kind of cultural institution, which is a concentrated expression of the culture of the present and the past. Through this social institution, a person can adapt to the constantly changing conditions of the surrounding world. Being in a museum, a person enters into a dialogue with culture and historical events, which forms his range of value ideas. Each visitor perceives museum exhibits in his own way, and that is why comprehension and analysis require a separate explanation and contemplation. The museum allows a person to form a holistic view of the past and present through their own mental efforts, as well as overcoming external and personal stereotypes and internal barriers.

Implementation of the main functions of the museum contributes toestablishment of socio-cultural relationships in society. It also performs the function of ensuring the interaction of different cultures, studying national traditions and cultural heritage.

Concept

The concept of a museum is associated with the dichotomous nature of its goals: the preservation of historical and cultural heritage for future generations and its simultaneous opening to contemporaries. The very word "museum" came to us from ancient Greece - museion - the temple of the muses.

In Ancient Greece, however, the concept of a museum differed significantly from its modern idea: the museum was a place of contemplation and comprehensive knowledge of the world around, a place of reflection.

The Russian Encyclopedia defines a museum as a historically conditioned multifunctional institution of social memory, through which the public need to preserve and represent a special group of cultural and natural objects that society defines as particularly valuable.

The components of the concept of the museum are called:

Collection of objects, meaningful collector as a value.
"Temple of the Muses" - a space for collective action and the collection of various works for the purpose of further understanding.
Communication about the presented values.

The concept of a museum also includes a specific phenomenon of socio-cultural memory: a museum is created and exists to preserve memory, as well as to stabilize common values and norms in the existing society.

The museum is called cultural-an educational and research institution that stores, collects, records, studies and popularizes monuments of culture, history and nature in accordance with its social functions of the museum. This definition contains a close connection between the museum and its social function - the exhibits in this case play the role of direct sources of information about the culture, history, nature of individual societies or areas.

In the definition of this concept, the priority is educational, scientific and research nature, which serves to meet the needs of society in the use and storage of objects of the surrounding reality as elements of historical memory, aesthetic value and social information.

The museum is designed to accumulate and store information, as well as to identify various patterns that relate to the processes of study, as well as the transfer of knowledge through museum exhibits. Seen from this point of view, the museum is both a social institution and a source of information.

In modern times, in addition to the processes of historical knowledge, as well as the transfer of knowledge and experience and cultural and philosophical understanding, a component of aesthetic value is also invested in the concept of a museum. Now the museum has also become a cultural center and a strong tool for social and cultural impact. At this moment, the communicative component also turns on, which implies the conscious creation of museum funds in order to transmit complex information through this specific communication channel.information about the environment. Thus, a special dialogue is created, which is aimed at creating a common holistic view of museum exhibits.

Functions

Museum contains many functions, however, as a rule, two of the most basic functions of the museum are distinguished:

Documentation function.
Function educational and educational.

Documentation

Documentation implies an organized and purposeful structuring of the reflection of various historical events, phenomena and facts, as well as socio-cultural processes through museum exhibits. This museum function is implemented in the course of cognition and study of exhibits for the subsequent scientific description of objects. Thanks to such detailed descriptions, visitors can correctly and objectively perceive the objects presented in the museum.

Education

The educational function of the museum is based on the impact of exhibits on museum visitors. The latter is expressed in a large amount of information that each person who immerses himself in the information space of the museum receives. In the process of implementing this function of a modern museum, the cultural and cognitive needs of the society are stimulated and satisfied. This function also manifests itself in various forms of exhibition and cultural and educational activities.

The socio-cultural functions of the museum are of great importance, insignificantly influencing the perception, education and relationships of people in society. In modern society, visiting museums is considered a real social, historical and cultural duty: people are sensitive to cultural and historical memory, carefully preserving it and passing it on from generation to generation. This role of the museum is facilitated by additional functions that it performs along with its main ones:

Communicative (social) function of the museum.
The function of the symbolic impact on society.
Function of organizing useful leisure time.
Function of universal preservation of national and cultural-historical memory.
Socio-cultural function.
The function of interaction on various spheres of society and the individual.
Function of professional museum activities.

The functions of a museum in modern society are quite extensive, since the museum plays many significant cultural, historical, social and educational roles.

Socio-cultural function

Whether it is a function of a local history museum or a function of a school museum, within the framework of the socio-cultural role, this cultural institution becomes a kind of intermediary between visitors and the presented museum exhibits. This phenomenon reveals the specificity of the museum as a communication system, which contributes to its definition as a socio-cultural institution. Realizing this function, the museum appears as an information and communication center, through which the societygets the opportunity to satisfy his needs in the preservation and subsequent use of objects of the surrounding reality as evidence of objective reality.

Thus, the museum also performs the function of transferring socially significant knowledge. Objects of culture and history are carefully researched and presented as primary sources of knowledge, taking into account the existing understanding of the purpose of the museum itself and its role and functions in modern society.

Leisure activities

This entertaining function of museums (local lore, historical - it doesn't matter) manifests itself in modern times, when they began to realize their goals and objectives of acquainting visitors with the cultural and historical heritage of certain regions or other areas. The fulfillment by the museum of this function is determined by the need of society for cultural forms of entertainment and leisure, as well as the need for emotional and cultural development.

Social memory save function

It is sometimes distinguished separately from the function of documentation, since some characteristic features of a particular historical period often impose their own specifics on museum work, as a result of which museums are transformed along with changes in the political, economic, social and spiritual spheres of society. For different peoples, representatives of various social groups and residents of different countries, this manifests itself in different ways, which forms their own special approaches to the classification and systematization of ideas about the world, the pursuit of beauty, harmony and aesthetics, whichleads to the emergence of a special specificity of the representation of museum exhibits. With this feature, museums are able to preserve social memory by capturing it through their exhibits.

Function of professional museum activity

This aspect is manifested in the form of division of labor. The general specialization of the museum staff in performing their functions requires a sufficiently high level of training in the cultural, historical and social sphere. In practice, this function is implemented in all areas of museum work, which includes exhibition, pedagogical, restoration, research, stock, educational and other activities.

Function of symbolic impact

This function is due to the presence of an impressive layer of cultural symbols of different levels in different nations. For example, at the state level, symbols such as the flag, anthem, coat of arms can be named, while at the city level, symbols such as monuments, famous places, natural attractions, and more will be added. National clothes, musical instruments and much more fall into the cultural and everyday level. This category also includes various patterns of behavior and typical attitudes, the study of the past and social memory, which can be demonstrated in the form of museum exhibits or other evidence that captures the surrounding reality.

Interaction function

The implementation of this function in practice occurs through special institutions and social institutions that are activelyinteract with museums or other institutions such as scientific, cultural or educational institutions. The system of such connections is very multifaceted and diverse - first of all, this affects school and preschool institutions, as well as systems of higher and secondary specialized education. For example, these can be group excursions aimed at familiarizing students with objects of culture and history.

The essence of the definition of a museum is determined mainly by the need of society to preserve the cultural, historical, natural and public heritage in order to pass it on to descendants, as well as to represent the accumulated heritage to contemporaries. The implementation of museum functions is connected with the acquisition of museum collections, in the organization of which the scientific apparatus and the professional staff of the museum take part. Implementing them, the museum takes into account the interests and needs of various social groups, and also relies on public support in creating exhibitions and in the process of preserving cultural and historical heritage.