18 May 2024 marks the 48th International Museum Day, and this year's theme is "Museums Committed to Education and Research", highlighting the critical role of cultural institutions in providing a holistic educational experience.
International Museum Day was created in 1977
International Museum Day was initiated and created by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 1977. In 1977, in order to promote the healthy development of the global museum industry and attract the public to understand, participate in and pay attention to the museum industry, the International Council of Museums announced to the world that May 18, 1977 was the first International Museum Day, and the theme of the event was determined for the International Museum Day every year.
On this day, museums around the world will hold various publicity and commemorative activities to celebrate their own festivals, so that more people can understand museums and better play the social functions of museums.
China divides museums into five categories
As for the classification of museums, the dominant way in the world is to divide them according to the content of museum collections. The current authoritative classification of China is found in the Statistical Yearbook of Chinese Cultural Relics and Tourism (2020), which is divided into five categories: comprehensive, historical, artistic, natural science and technology, and other categories according to the type of institution.
According to relevant data released by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, as of 2023, the total number of registered museums in the country will reach 6,565, and museums across the country will hold 34,000 offline exhibitions and receive 578 million visitors. Museums and their cultural products are becoming a part of our beautiful life, "museum fever" has become a cultural phenomenon, and "going to museums" has become a fashion of the times.
The primary mission of the museum is cultural preservation
In recent years, museum education has attracted more and more attention, and the first national regulatory document in the museum industry in mainland China, the "Museum Regulations", puts education first when expressing the three major purposes of museums. So, what exactly is good museum education?
An Laishun, a professor at Shanghai University and chairman of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Asia-Pacific Alliance, said that first of all, the three core functions of museums are an organic whole of the trinity, and there is no question of which is more important than the other. Education, research and protection are all interrelated and mutually fulfilling. They point to the common goal of museums: to serve the development of society and society.
To make a good museum education, we must first solve the problem of why. The primary mission of museum education is to preserve culture and, on this basis, to enhance cultural identity and cultural self-confidence. Specifically, it covers four aspects:
First, as a non-formal education, museum education should be integrated into the overall national education, and work closely with other types of education, such as formal school education. Second, museums should make full use of the characteristics of museum education, such as independent selectivity, emotion, perception, and transformation, to stimulate the curiosity of the audience and mobilize their subjective initiative to think and explore. In fact, the dream of many scientists and historians is to visit museums when they were young. Third, we should change our stance in a timely manner, from the perspective of the institution to the perspective of the audience, from what kind of education the museum provides based on itself to what kind of content the audience needs in the learning process. Fourth, it is necessary to absorb the theories, methods and techniques of modern pedagogy in keeping with the times, and mobilize the wisdom and ability of learners in all aspects through various channels, in various forms, and in a variety of different practical life and learning situations.
Pay attention to the audience experience, but also be wary of the supremacy of entertainment
An Laishun believes that more and more museum exhibitions and cultural projects in the mainland attach importance to the audience experience, which is a very gratifying development, but we should be wary of the signs of entertainment first. For example, some deliberately created "check-in points" and "events" have a worrying historical, artistic and cultural content, and the cosplay staged in individual museums also raises questions about their cultural taste. Museums should and must be entertaining and educational, but whether these entertainment themselves are beneficial depends on whether they add cultural value to the museum, because the more important responsibility of the museum is to guide and cultivate noble aesthetic tastes and social customs.
Zheng Yi, a professor at Fudan University and director of the Fudan University Museum, said that the mechanism of primary and secondary schools using museums to learn is gradually taking shape, of course, the whole is still in the initial stage of development, the content and form are relatively simple, and the museum's education supply to primary and secondary schools needs to be normalized and equalized. The study trip is an opportunity for the museum to further integrate with primary and secondary education. One big problem is that many of the so-called "study tours" do not live up to their names. What's more, the role of museums is still very limited. However, there is no doubt that it is a new form of museum education activities and a form of combining culture and education in the new era, and there is great potential for innovative exploration in this regard.
The theme of International Museum Day in the last decade
The theme of each year's International Museum Day is closely related to and inseparable from social life, and it is an in-depth exploration of the museum's mission, carrying expectations and dreams for the future.
2014: "Museum Collections Build Bridges"
2015: "Museums are committed to the sustainable development of society"
2016: "Museums and Cultural Landscapes"
2017: "Museums and Controversial History: The Unspeakable History of Museums"
2018: "Hyper-Connected Museums: New Approach, New Public"
2019: "Museums as Cultural Hubs: The Future of Tradition"
2020: "Museums Committed to Equality: Diversity and Inclusion"
2021: "The Future of Museums: Restoration and Reinvention"
2022: "The Power of Museums"
2023: "Museums, Sustainability and the Good Life"
2024: "Museums are dedicated to education and research"