The Dynamics of the Museum Concept

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Museums’ roles are diversifying considering their dynamic relationships with the present-day economy, society, and communities. Nevertheless, education is the main constant marketing museums’ complex activities. An important part of the educational mission of museums is designed with and for teachers and their students. Nevertheless, these partnerships are complex and they need more understanding for designing more effective educational programs. Having this in mind, the present study analyzes the way primary-school teachers in Bucharest, Romania, interact with museums and how they use their collections as educational resources in class. The qualitative investigation implemented shows that there is a high potential for partnership and teachers need more guidance and cooperation opportunities coming from museum educators and curators.
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alexandra.zbuchea@facultateademanagement.ro

National University of Political Studies and Public Administration

Da’DeCe Association & University of Bucharest

University of Bucharest/CESI Doctoral School & Da’DeCe Association

Closing the Gap between Museums and Schools

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Museum professionals worldwide make considerable efforts to maintain the integrity of the cultural institutions they manage, as organizations that collect, research, conserve, and exhibit, as well as in their educational and social purpose, in a concerted effort to make museums more performing, more popular, more attractive and more competitive. In this context, many questions arise about how a performing museum looks like in the current social, political, and cultural contexts, how the performance of a museum can be evaluated, and, especially, how the managerial performance of museums can be increased. At the center of these concerns, the issue of stakeholders, the partnerships with them, the strategies for their optimal approach, as well as the impact of such initiatives on increasing the managerial performance of museums, occupy an essential role. One of the objectives of this research is to emphasize the need to use new strategies, methods, and tools in an attempt to make museum institutions perform better from a managerial point of view. To verify the perception of such initiatives, two practical applications were carried out: quantitative research, which analyzes the perception of internal stakeholders (museum staff) on the involvement of external stakeholders in the process of improving museum services, and qualitative research, which sought to capture the perception of museum managers in Romania regarding partnerships with stakeholders and their role in increasing the managerial performance of the institution. The results show that museums are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of stakeholders with an active interest in museum practices and policies and optimized solutions regarding the institutional and organizational transformation of museum institutions in Romania are taking shape, to rebuild the way museums interact with relevant stakeholders.
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Increasing the Managerial Performance of Romanian Museums with the Help of Stakeholders

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This article presents three interdisciplinary and community-serving museum projects carried out by the Portuguese Judiciary Police Museum (Museu de Polícia Judiciária – MPJ), two of which are based on original ideas and unprecedented procedures. All three of them are ‘out of the walls’ crime prevention projects for the protection of Portuguese cultural heritage. The first project (starting in 1996) was dedicated to museums, the second (2003) to religious art in places of worship, and the third (2007) to the Portuguese unique and identitary Tile Heritage. The common genesis of the three projects is rooted on the one hand in two competencies of the Portuguese Judiciary Police (Polícia Judiciária, PJ) - crime prevention and crimes linked to cultural heritage – and on the other hand in museum concepts emerged in the last fifty years in museum studies - e. g. Declaration of Santiago do Chile 1972, ICOM Round Table; ‘Siena Charter’ ICOM Italy 2014; new museum definition ICOM Prag 2022. The three interdisciplinary projects – based on important partnerships from different academic areas and society sectors – are described in this article in terms of motives, implemented actions and results, and a final summary evaluation. Notwithstanding the severe financial conditions – all three projects had extremely small or even nonexistent budgets - and many not always surmountable obstacles, all three projects presented measurable positive results, and two of them received important national or international awards and were ‘exported’ to Brazil as models.
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Crimes and Museums, but no Fiction: Portuguese Judiciary Police Museum’s Projects for the Protection of Cultural Heritage 1996-2022

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Contemporary collecting relies on the expertise of museum professionals. They identify, acquire, and safeguard current objects and testimonies that can illustrate and challenge history writing in the future. This paper presents the contemporary collecting endeavours of the House of European History—a museum that opened its doors in Brussels in 2017, as an academically independent project of the European Parliament. It contributes to the current discussion on best practices in collecting materials relevant to present-day society and documenting history in the making. In particular, it stresses the importance for a history museum to document significant aspects of the present and focuses on two recent collecting actions of the House, which were undertaken to document the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine.
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Tomorrow’s History in the Museum. Collecting Testimonies of Current Events for the House of European History

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The present research paper explores the contribution of the Inquiry Drama Method to meaning-making in a museum environment. It presents and assesses an educational program realized in the Historical Museum of Alexandroupolis. The article comprises a theoretical and an empirical section. The first part refers to the museum as a context of development and learning, in Inquiry Drama Method, and the functional connection between them. In the second part, a theatre-pedagogy intervention is presented through Inquiry Drama Method and Action Research methodology in a museum environment. The participants are university students in the ‘Drama and Group Empowerment and Resilience’ course of the Department of Primary Education at the Democritus University of Thrace. This educational research intervention was completed in three circles of four main stages each (plan, action, observe, reflect), drawing on museum exhibits regarding photos of refugees in Thrace as well as theatrical texts, storytelling, and personal testimonies from Armenian refugees. Results show that the participants constructed personal and social meaning through Inquiry Drama Method and drama techniques on sociopolitical issues, regarding what it means to be a refugee in the old and contemporary times.
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Inquiry Drama as a Method to Explore the Museum Environment. An Action Research Example at the Historical Museum of Alexandroupolis (Greece)

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The purpose of this article is to examine how modern techniques of measurement and visual representation using ICT can aid in the assessment and preservation of wooden architectural landmarks in open-air (folk-life) museums. By developing a general understanding of vernacular architecture, experts can more effectively plan for maintenance and large-scale interventions to protect these structures. Specifically, the article focuses on the use of photogrammetry to assess and diagnose roof coverings, which are a crucial component of vernacular architecture. Roof coverings not only impact the aesthetic of a building but also play a significant role in its function. As they often reflect local customs and beliefs, they are essential to a community's cultural identity and sense of belonging. Measuring roof coverings in vernacular architecture sites can be challenging due to the availability of materials like thatch, clay tiles, or wooden shingles, and the negative impact that a degraded roof can have on the overall state of a building.
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Measuring Roof Coverings of Vernacular Architecture in Open-Air Museums. A Long-Term Approach for Sustainable Intervention Work

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Volume 3 (2023): Issue 2 (December 2023) The Dynamics of Books - Writing, Publishing, Reading

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Volume 2 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022) Museums. Communities, and Society

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Culture. Society. Economy. Politics

Call for papers December 2023 Deadline extension to November 1, 2023  One cannot study Culture without exploring its interdependent and intersecting social, economic and political ecosystems. For culture encourages both inter- and trans-disciplinary studies, contributing not only to the better understanding of the phenomena investigated, but also proposing approaches leading to the development of cultural and creative sectors and of contemporary society itself.  Among the main lines of exploration we encourage are:   the development of the cultural sector, stressing the current challenges and trends;  the cultural dimension of humans, communities and societies;  the sociology of culture and knowledge;  the economic dimension of culture and its role in sustainable development;  culture and wellbeing;  the management of cultural organizations;  the cultural dimension of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations;  the politics of culture, as well as the use of culture in political contexts.   We welcome other lines of investigation as well, as long as they are in align with the main scope of the magazine.  The journal has a practical focus, encouraging submissions to be practice-oriented and relevant for the contemporary world. Not only academics, but also practitioners are invited to submit, as well as to analyze the specific situation and successful initiatives in emerging countries.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 

Volume 2 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022) - Museums. Communities, and Society

Culture. Society. Economy. Politics

Volume 2 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022)

Museums. Communities, and Society