STAGE PROJECT

August 2005

DGIV/CULT/STAGE (2005) 4

A MANUAL FOR MUSEUM MANAGERS

by

Dimitrios Konstantios
Nikolas Konstantios
Liana Tsombanoglou

Department of Culture and Cultural Heritage

Directorate General IV Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport

The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not
necessarily engage the responsibility of the Council of Europe.

CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION

2. HISTORICAL DIMENSION

3. THE ROLE OF MUSEUMS TODAY

4. MUSEUM MANAGEMENT

11

Why does the museum need management?

11

Strategy and goals

11

Administration

12

The role of the Board

13

Museum Personnel

13

General issues of personnel function

15

The function of the museum - Management methods

16

5. COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT

17

Acquisition and Disposal

18

Documentation

22

23

Computer based systems

Collections Care

25

Preventive Conservation

26

Security and Safety, Handling and Packing, Moving and Transport, Storage

29

6. PROGRAMMES FOR THE PUBLIC

31

A. EXHIBITIONS

32

Types

32

Exhibition Policy

32

Organising the Exhibition

33

Stages in realising the Exhibition

34

General remarks on organising exhibitions

36

B. MUSEUM EDUCATION

37

Education services: within the museum

37

Education services: outside the museum

38

7. MUSEUM COMMUNICATION

39

A. MARKETING THE MUSEUM

39

Strategy: a. product, b. price, c. place, d. promotion

40

The application of marketing in museums

44

The flip side of the coin

45

Marketing Conclusion

46

B. MUSEUMS AND THE PUBLIC

46

Who visits museums?

48

Evaluation Research

49

8. BY WAY OF AN EPILOGUE

50

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY

51

1.

INTRODUCTION

During the last 20 years the role of the museum within modern societies has been
significantly transformed. A museum closed to the public and a mere protector of collections
has been replaced by an institution with a scientific, educational and cultural role. Museums
are nowadays a reflection of a high level of social development. This new role, combined with
the expansion of the term cultural heritage concurrently, demands a modification in museum
management.
There is a consensus about the steps that museums should take towards closer connection
with society, and rendering museums friendlier to the general public. First, museums should
identify their priorities and effectively manage their human resources, a step that can
contribute to a rational financial management thereby reducing their overhead costs.
Second, the range of their activities should be broadened, so as to include exhibitions from
different fields of art. To this end, the use of new technologies is an effective means of
facilitating better access to the museum, to bring the museum closer to its patrons and with
society in general.
Third, museums should take into account the changes in domestic and foreign societies,
which become multicultural, and should understand that their operation is applied to a public
with various ideologies, beliefs and, in many cases, origins. For this reason, museums need
to develop communication strategies characterized by extroversion, international relationships
and co-operations, cultural exchanges and constructive dialogue on common problems.
Finally, the introduction of new expertise, from museologists and managers should also
become part of museums everyday life, provided that the role of art historians is not
neglected.
The danger that museums face, concerning their new role within ever-changing societies is
that of adopting exclusively market-oriented policies and, as a result, putting aside their real
purpose, which is the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage. Balancing the role of
the collection with the role of the public is the key to the current purpose of the museum.
The purpose of this manual is twofold: on the one hand to present and briefly analyse the
issues related to museums and on the other to give solutions and guidelines to the problems
that arise from these issues.
The Historical dimension and The Role of the museum today are introductory chapters that
focus on the interpretation of the museums purpose by assessing its continual redefinition
through the passing years in relation to societys changing demands.
Museum management is examined in relation to the structure, the organization and the
human resources that museums must encompass nowadays.
Collections management is analysed in terms of acquisition and disposal, documentation
and multi-media appliances, access, care, storing and transportation of the collections.
The general chapter entitled Programmes for the public consists of shorter chapters: 1.
Exhibitions are analysed in terms of their division in different categories, their planning and
their evaluation. 2. Museum Education refers to the educational services that museums
provide to their users within and outside the museum. Museum Communication outlines the
marketing strategies that should be applied to the museum. Positive and negative
applications of it are also examined. Museums and the public deals with the museums
potential visitors, the policy towards them and the methods of gaining information concerning
their needs.
Each chapter has been considered as an independent unit. The bibliography follows the same
pattern: it is organized separately in every chapter and for that reason some basic
museological editions may appear more than once.

2.

HISTORICAL DIMENSION

The Latin word museum (Greek: mouseion) has had a variety of meanings through the
centuries. In classical times it signified a temple dedicated to the Muses. The most famous
museum of that era, founded at Alexandria by Ptolemy Philadelphus in the third century B.C.,
was a place for study appropriated to literature and philosophy. It included apartments, a
dining hall, lecture halls, cloister, botanical garden, zoological park, astronomical observatory
and library. The museum had objects, statues of thinkers, astronomical and surgical
instruments, elephant tusks and animal hides and a botanical and zoological park, but it was
mainly a university or philosophical academy a kind of institute of advanced study with
many prominent scholars in residence and supported by the state. The museum and most of
its library were destroyed about AD 270 during civil disturbances.
The ancient world possessed public collections of objects valued for their aesthetic, historic,
religious and magical importance. The Greek temples had hoards of votive offerings of gold,
silver and bronze objects, statues and statuettes, paintings, and even bullion; some of these
works were displayed for the public to see and enjoy. The paintings were on planks (Greek:
pinas), and thus a collection of them was called pinakotheke. The Romans displayed
paintings and sculpture in forums, public gardens, temples, theatres and baths. In the villas of
generals and statesmen, works of art and booty captured in wars were displayed for private
enjoyment. Emperor Hadrians villa was an excellent example of his wish to reconstruct in his
villa some of the famous sites and buildings he had seen in Greece and Egypt. In fact, it may
be considered a precursor of todays open air museums.
During the Middle Ages, the churches and monasteries of Europe became repositories of
jewels, statues, manuscripts, and saints relics. Beginning in the 7th century, spoils of the
Crusades were added to these repositories. They were occasionally displayed and served as
a reserve to be pawned in time of war.
The adoption of the word museum, to signify collections has been a product of Renaissance
humanism, eighteenth-century enlightenment and nineteenth-century democracy. Two new
words appeared in the 16th century to express the museum concept. The gallery (Italian:
galleria), a long grand hall lighted from the side, came to signify an exhibition area for
pictures and sculpture. The cabinet (Italian: gabinetto) was a square-shaped room filled with
animals, botanical rarities, small works of art, artefacts and curios. Both of them were private
collections, having closed doors to the public. Occasionally, only distinguished travellers were
allowed to visit these private cabinets; gradually, in the 17th and 18th century they were
opened to the public.
During that period, the opening of public museums became an imperative; the purpose was
to share the private collections with everyone. The first public museum was the British
Museum, founded in 1759. A number of rules and statutes, though, disqualified the poor and
uneducated from entering it. The potential visitor would undergo examination in order to
enter the museum and there was a librarian who decided whether the applicant was proper
for admission. So, essentially nothing had changed from the days of private museums. This
environment provoked awe and intimidation.
The turning point for museum accessibility was heralded by the succession of world fairs,
marked by the Great Exhibition in London 1851. These exhibitions attracted a vast number of
people and several governments were persuaded that museums could be used as a means
of social utility and control; the population could utilize their spare time constructively by
visiting museums and educating themselves. The exhibitions also convinced governments
that museums had the power to imbue a sense of national pride in the population. As a result,
throughout the 19th century monarchs and governments recognized the value of museums in
influencing public opinions, almost to the point of brainwashing, regarding museums as
institutions of nationalism, the dominating political outlook in Europe at the time.
In the 19th century, the museum remained the same cold and unwelcoming building. The
most important scope became education but surprisingly it was still intellectually inaccessible

for the educated middle-class. By the mid-19th century things started to change because
different types of museums emerged: private cabinets, semi-public collections, public
institutions, society museums, exhibitions and popular museums. These different types of
museums were accompanied by a variety of opinions on the purpose of museums: classical
learning, scientific discovery, national, cultural economic or political recreation. The value of
museums was recognised by governments, though without being translated into legislation.
Throughout the 20th century and especially after the Second World War, when political
changes occurred and influenced all sectors of public life, the museum became subject to
ideas of reform. But although the previous condition started to improve, this was still not a
golden period for museums. Lack of funding, neglect and new tendencies meant that many
museums were dissipated if governments would not agree to take responsibility for them. The
financial constraints and poor museum organization kept museums locked in their past,
waiting until after the Second World War evolve and to become multi-functional.
From the Second World War onwards the museums have developed considerably. A national
framework for government intervention in museums has emerged and a new managerial
ethos has been imposed on them. Today, museums vary quite a bit. They range in size: from
great institutions to a small one-room style; they vary in their collections: art, history,
archaeology, science, industrial, military, ethnography, natural history museums; they also
vary in who runs them: government (central or municipal), university, or independent (a
significant number of these have been created by the wealthy benefactors). They range in the
audience they serve and in their purpose: from entertaining tourists to preserving the data of
scientific research. During the last thirty years museums have grown in number and they have
assumed new roles in the societies that they serve. Today, they are an international growth
industry continues to acquire new functions in the organization of cultural activities.

3.

THE ROLE OF MUSEUMS TODAY

After having presented a brief history of the museum development through the centuries, it is
easier to understand the new role of museums today. We could describe this new role in short
as a challenge to preserve traditional museum concerns but to combine them with
educational values, focusing on sharing knowledge and adding quality to everyones life. This
in function means a radical reorganisation of the culture of the museum, which in addition to
looking inward to their collections should now look outwards to their diverse audiences.
Museums must develop a clear social function thereby improving their relationship with their
audience.
Museums are "pure children" of their time, have in each case other purposes, are influenced
from philosophical ideas and reflect various types of communications and messages. The
museum as an institution has been approached in the "modern world" through certain
ideological perceptions that nowadays are characterized as "old museologies". On one hand
old museology perceives the museum as a "temple". Duncan Cameron wrote in 1972 that the
museum as a temple 'plays a timeless and universal function, the use of a structured sample
of reality, not just as a reference but as an objective model against which to compare
individual perceptions". This idea of the museum represents the classical roots of the
museum, which is more object than human orientated. It is also characterised as: "the
formalist" perspective which underlines the centrality of the objects and their ability to teach
resulting from a belief in the reforming power of artefacts. The museum is seen as a place
preserving treasures from the past and admiring the uniqueness of highly cultured objects.
In addition, old museology is connected with an elitist approach towards the museum and a
passive character that does not really encourage visitors to act and participate. It is related to
traditional ideas and a linear perception of history. It is more based on empirical than
professional standards and is not taken as an academic discipline. Consequently, the
museum remains a conservative and static institution, not eligible to accept new ideas, far
from making any changes and attached to old theories that cannot open new windows to the
museum reality.

On the other hand, after the 1980s, in the so-called "post-modern" era new museological
theories have applied to museums as ideologies and practices. These theories are still
dominant and form the basis for dialogue in the museum world. "New museology' expressed
very successfully by P. Vergo as both "a state of widespread dissatisfaction with the
traditional characterization of the museum (what he names "old museology") and as a need to
pursue new museologies based upon a radical re-examination of the role of museums within
the society". On the contrary to the idea that old museology is a "search for origins, traditions
of search for similarities and a collections of images and perceptions of the past legitimised by
those with a vested interest", new museology can be expressed as a "new spirit of critique
which has encouraged debate and challenged established consensus ".
Moreover, new museology is more people than object orientated. According to the "analyst"
perspective museums attempt to teach not just what happened but how and why. Objects
form the props not the frame. Its concept brings discussion and the energetic role of the
museum in the centre, underlining the educational role of the museum combined with various
expressions of entertainment. In other words, museums instead of temples of vanity, become
places where wider cultural realities are taking place. Democratisation and access become a
reality and civilization is produced.
The "new museology", which has been in existence for less than two decades, coincided with
another process: museum people started to look at their institutions with a new awareness
towards the world outside, understood that there were needs calling for engagement on
behalf of museums and realised that many others were doing the same job. What traditional
museology lacked most has been a "common vocabulary". Nowadays, museum studies are
more an academic and critical discipline, interested in professional standards and new
techniques in many aspects of the museum areas.
Although so far there have not been many written attempts at detailing museum history
and/or studies dealing with the museum as an institution from the sociological perspective, it
is true that new museological theories are often influenced from other sciences and
philosophies. Some examples, Hooper-Greenhill uses Foucault's works to approach
knowledge and differentiate the "effective" from "linear" history, in order to see museums not
only as institutions of ideologies and theories but also as practices. Benett uses Bourdieu's
theories to develop ideas related to museum as disciplinary and controlling space.
Although new museological theories have brought new ways of seeing the role of museums,
ways that have to an extent been proved sufficiently universal and acceptable and act as an
on-going influence on museum practice, we should have in mind that the "drama" of constant
change is non-stop. If only we look back at what was the definition of museum in the last two
decades, we would understand the change: "museum is an institution which collects,
documents, preserves, exhibits and interprets material evidence and associated information
for the public benefit" (Museums Association in the UK, 1984) and the most recent:
"Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration learning and enjoyment. They
are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens; which
they hold in trust for the society" (Museums Association in the UK, 1999).
The major point of differentiation is that traditionally the dominant perception, which
emphasises the collections, not only as useful tools to serve the museum's mission but also
as objectives per se, has been transformed into a human-centred one and characterises the
identity of the purpose of the museum as it shifts and modulates through time. It is also
important that words like inspiration, learning and enjoyment come together to serve the
museum's mission.
Museums like many other institutions do not exist on their own. They are part of a general
social, political and ideological context and are affected by various factors. When it comes to
the point of why museums change dramatically, one can argue that big social, political and
ideological changes have also occurred. Demographic shifts, changes in economic systems,
changes in the market and the development of the discerning leisure consumer, changes in
the scientific sector and the use of technology, changes in the political status and changes in
7

the formation of the European community have various effects on the aspects of a museum's
role today. In addition, changes in the perceptions on the purposes of the museum within the
society and more specifically in relation to the public, changes in its symbolic role in relation to
the history or the future of a nation or society are main reasons why museums tend to modify
their character.
Today, the educational role of the museum can claim to be a major justification. The nature
and range of the educational role of museums has changed dramatically. Museums are
repositories of collections, scholarship, expertise and skills. Therefore, museums have the
duty to make their resources available to all potential users and the delivery of these
resources has to do with museum education. The educational role of the museum seems to
be crucial, as new possibilities and structures are emerging for education in museums around
the world. Museum education is being renewed, evaluated and actually developed. Museums
like other institutions have now entered a time of change in the assumptions and principles,
which shape their development. In addition, those who fund museums are asking them to
demonstrate that the society benefits from their investment. In other words, museums can no
longer justify their existence only in terms of safeguarding and displaying their collections.
They also need to prove what they offer to the society. Part of this offer has to do with
knowledge and education.
Although there is still a tendency to picture education as a session taught for children,
museum education is placed in the context of the museum as a cultural institution within a
social framework. Museum education shifts to a broader scope and gains another meaning as
the "arena of educational work is no longer the educational room but the whole museum". As
a result, museum educators follow critical museum pedagogies as an educational approach
and an analytical method from a cultural perspective.
Museum education is also connected with the communicative nature of the museum.
Museums act not only as protectors but also as communicators trying to replace the notion of
the museum as a collection for scholarly use with the idea of the museum as a medium of
communication. In that way practices are changing to take into account the visitors needs.
Consequently, museums tend to accept their visitors not as being a mass of people, but
individuals with particular needs. The active post-modern museum approaches the visitor
through new theories of learning and communication.
The majority of museums provide education services within and outside the museum. They
either organise a range of formal teaching programmes or work closely with schools to allow
teachers to make the best use of the educational resources available. The establishment of a
department of education has been of high priority and of enormous value to a museum.
Education specialists, members of the staff with special training in psychology of learning,
experienced in analysing complex concepts and how to present them in a simple and
inspirational way to non-specialist audiences, are responsible for organising regular
programmes to schools and/or other groups, for arranging open days to individuals or for
providing education material. Moreover, museum education services include many ways of
taking the museum out into schools and other parts of the community such as school loan
services, mobile displays, talks and other special events.
To continue, museum education is not what museums do with their objects but a process of
individual and community development drawing upon a range of useful resources to which
both the public and the museum staff contribute as partners. Education and curatorial staff
work together to achieve the same goal and efforts are brought together to encompass the
public character of the museum. For a proactive museum, changes in the field of education
are of great importance, because they enrich visitor's experience of the collections, increase
attendance, attract more diverse audiences, place the museum in the centre of arts, leisure,
tourism, commercial activities and offer to museums a leading role in shaping the cultural
development of the society.
Part of the museums transformation is the change to its infrastructure. The increase of the
number of visitors to cultural buildings and the role of museums as centres of activity and

consumption, the need for extra space for various uses have gone up. The new sophistication
of running museums means that more areas of the building must be dedicated to
administration. The traditional notion of the museum is being challenged by contents
becoming events and container becoming catalyst.
As far as museum buildings are concerned we are witnessing the simultaneous evolution of
two contrary tendencies: the multifunctional and the specialised. On the one hand, the
creation of big cultural complexes (such as the Pompidou Centre and the Tate Modern),
where museums form part of a more extensive whole that, apart from exhibitions, includes
rooms or offices, libraries, auditoriums, theatres, administrative centres, and research
centres, in addition to restaurants shops and other commercial functions. On the other hand,
the creation of small museums with a specialised subject is becoming increasingly prevalent.
In addition, museum buildings have always had their peculiarities such as adapting existing
structures or linking museum buildings with historical associations. Another characteristic is
that building procurement has moved from the traditional model to a new one. This fact has its
main effect on planning design and construction that often overlap to save time and meet the
museum's needs more successfully. To meet the increasing demands, museums try to use
new advantageous methods and keep a balance between architecture and museum image
and practicality. However, sometimes too much "architecture" overshadows the museum's
collections and destroys the balance.
There is scarcely a museum function that has not been touched by developments in
technology over recent years. Advanced computer and IT systems, digital technology and
various technological innovations are used in the display of collections, in offices
(documentation), in libraries, in conservatories, in storage rooms, in security systems or to
make the museum more accessible through Internet (3D museum). The most important things
for museums is that technology has broadened the amount of information that can be shared,
diminished the need for experts to relay it and minimised the speed with which information
can be accessed and manipulated, matching all this with the expectations of the new
generations. Technological innovations have had dramatic effects on the cultural relationships
that constitute museums as institutions of cultural display, have improved cultural life and
have formed a way of living. The use of technology by museums today is so widespread that
it can be considered as a "cultural artefact" in its own right.
Museums now more than ever do affect and are affected by important areas of social life.
Although museums are non-profit institutions, they act upon the economic development of the
society. Museums have become a big industry as they pay their employees, buy supplies
locally and pay out money to companies or individuals. Moreover, when museums spend
money obtained from outside, they contribute to the circulation of money into the community,
acting as an "export industry". Museums also provide new and various jobs, full-time, parttime, volunteers, by supporting local businesses or creating spin-off businesses such as craft
shops. Museums attract tourists and second-home owners and retired residents and
encourage new business in the area. As a result, museums increase the income per
individual and enhance the quality of life not only by contributing to the cultural but also to the
economic improvement of the community.
A museum is one of the most common expressions of cultural tourism, since every year
millions of people visit them following a kind of "pilgrimage". As the number of tourists visiting
museums increases, the museum contribution to cultural tourism development has become a
great concern. More specifically, museums contribute to the overall ambience of a city, thus
making it a more interesting and pleasant destination to visit. In other words, they are major
attractions in conjunction with various cultural institutions, monuments and/or archaeological
sites. In addition, museums organise or sponsor special events that can turn an area into a
tourist destination. Museums increase the length of time that tourists stay in a city, which has
multiple positive effects, since the longer tourists stay in an area, the more money they spend
and so the community gains more of a profit.
Museums nowadays, apart from economic development, are also connected with the general
improvement of social life. They do not only symbolize the unity of an urban area or act as
9

autonomous institutions within a historic city, nor only do they represent audiences by
connecting them with the history of a city/area but museums constitute the basic means
through which the wider process of "urban regeneration is achieved. The success of urban
regeneration cannot be measured just in merely physical terms. Museums do not only help in
the fight against economic decline, unemployment, crime, depopulation, political radicalism or
social violence but have been particularly beneficial in opening the routes of social health as
well. Museums can become a "shop window" for a city; they can change its poor image,
acting as a major cultural attraction, as a way of accelerating urban regeneration.
In recent years, museums have faced the problem as well as the challenge of increased
competition with other sectors of the "industry of cultural heritage" and leisure activities,
mainly in terms of quality, availability and price. Museums have been pushed to change and
offer attractive services and meet the needs of the public in order to attract visitors and
survive. As the character of museums has been transformed to a form of leisure activities,
museums offer, apart from exhibitions and educational services, a range of shopping and
entertainment facilities and events. The notion of commercialisation today is so strong that we
speak not only for visitors but for clients and consumers and often museums have been
transformed into a kind of "supermarket".
Museums have developed marketing as a response to the dynamic challenge of increased
competition. They have entered the field paying attention to the growing emphasis on quality,
value, customer satisfaction and retention, acting locally to a more global way of thinking. The
management of a museums marketing focuses on identifying its potential markets as well as
on communicating with them. Museum marketing also aims to achieve the continuous
improvement of services and products, in order for it to meet the needs of visitors and finally
to increase attendance and visitor-generated revenues.
In recent years, with the pressure of rising costs, the decline of funding and the diversity of
more elaborate and expensive services, the need to expand private revenues have been
increasingly important and necessary. Museums charge fees for admission, for loan items, for
special exhibitions and events. Sometimes they rent their facilities. Pricing has become a
sophisticated practice in a growing number of museums. In addition, museums try to increase
income from selling products and/or offering services in shops and restaurants. They also use
other ways of fund raising, such as memberships and corporate support or sponsorship
(raising money through donations by individuals, companies, foundations or governmental
agencies). These are more complex but quite effective ways to find financial resources for
their activities.
Since museums are not only just buildings, not only just collections under special protection
but also complex cultural institutions intending both to collect and to preserve the
material/cultural heritage as well as to convey relevant meanings and ideas, museums'
functions have been significantly expanded. Hence the use of effective management has
been proved absolutely necessary. As Lord and Lord argue "the purpose of management is to
facilitate decisions that lead to the achievement of the museum's mission, the fulfilment of its
mandate, and the realisation of the goals and objectives for all of its functions". In other
words, a museum should inspire with its mission, communicate its mandate. It should also
lead people towards its goals, control the attainment of objectives and evaluate the fulfilment
of its functions. The nature of change is of such a character that the increasing pressures in
the socio-political and cultural environment of the museum demand new forms of planned
change. Consequently, effective management will make museums more responsive both to
their internal or external users. Change within museums is as vital to their future as it is for
their present. The effectiveness of this change, the resolution of conflict and the
understanding of culture in such institutions, have become fundamental tasks for museum
managers.

10

4.

MUSEUM MANAGEMENT

Why does the museum need management?

If we keep in mind the role of the museum today, we realize that facilitating decision-making is
a basic factor for bringing to fruition the final goals, the aims and the mission of the museum.
This is so because in contemporary societies the museum is not just the building which
houses collections. It is a complex cultural organization which securely conserves and
preserves material cultural objects, whilst at the same time interpreting them and/or mediating
in our understanding of them. That is, it communicates with society, using the total of its
actions and functions. As contemporary museology shows us, museum management should
fulfil five roles.
First, the museums mission should be inspired. If the museum houses musical instruments,
the director-manager of that foundation should inspire the personnel, the volunteers, the
sponsors and the visitors with the museums mission in the knowledge and role of musical
instruments and in the cultivation of musical education. The management must believe in this
mission and this must be diffused throughout its actions. If the museum hosts objects of the
archaeological heritage, then the director-manager should inspire all the aforementioned
persons with its mission, which is essentially getting to know the culture and art of the
particular historical period. He should believe in the importance of this mission, since from this
belief emanates the specific policies he will design and implement.
Second, it should specify the limits of its jurisdiction that is its institutional brief. This facilitates
collaboration and relations with other similar cultural foundations and organizations, as well
with its visitors. That is, it communicates and clarifies the framework of responsibility and
intervention to the administration and the personnel, as well as the visitors to the museum.
Third, it should lead towards the museums final goals. It has been argued correctly that
management is not the same as leadership. They are similar, but differ. For example, sound
management demands the electronic documentation of the objects in the museum. This is
doing it right. But the essential ability of leading the personnel with the help of the necessary
specialists providing the means and the resources to enable this to be done is doing the right
thing.
Fourth, it should supervise the achievement of the museums aims. In relation to the plans
concerning the final goals, the management places intermediate goals, readjusts and
monitors the budgets, checks catalogues, the annual goals, the allocations, and so on.
Without this verification of the progress of realizing the intermediate goals, the final goals
cannot be achieved.
Fifth, it should evaluate the realization of the museums functions, which comprise three
parts: the administration, the sectors or domains of responsibility (collecting-documentingpreserving) and the activities (research-exhibition-interpretation). The aim of management is
therefore to evaluate all of these functions. How fully the documentation, the conservation, the
study of the material as well as the manner of exhibition is carried out and, primarily, how this
will be interpreted to the public.
It evaluates the effectiveness and ability of the measures taken with respect to specific
functions, the necessary funding, the time necessary for their realization and so on. Without
exact or acceptable evaluation, complementary measures cannot be taken and the goals
cannot be adapted to possible new circumstances. That is, there will be difficulties in the
administration and the realization of the goals that have been set.
Strategy and Goals
Every museum organization has to design and to implement its strategy, in order to achieve
its final goals. If the role of the museum today in open and multicultural societies, in a
globalised and hi-tech environment imposes as a goal the wider participation of society in
the knowledge and pleasure it produces, then the museum has to design its strategy and the

11

specific policies it will implement. The museum has to answer how it understands the open
museum and which groups of society it addresses. In this way it will be able to implement
policies of decentralization, democratization and avoidance of exclusions of those citizens
whom the museum itself keeps out, through the authority and the sanctity it transmits. The
strategic plan has to be long-term, with intermediate goals that are realizable and controllable.
It has to prescribe the policies which will be followed in order to realize the intermediate aims,
the expenses and the means that will be met. Last, it has to prescribe the form of the
administration which will apply these policies, whether in the sectors for which the museum is
responsible collection, documentation, conservation, or in the activities it will undertake
research, exhibition, interpretation.
This overall plan must be comprehensible to the museums public, to its supporters, local
communities and state bodies. Only in this way will the mutual trust and understanding
between all those involved with the museum be achieved. Because the autonomy of the
museum, strived for by all, is not achieved in a vacuum but as a foundation that works for the
benefit of society that is in any case interknit with social and state institutions, as well as with
every citizen individually.
Administration
This sector is exceptionally important, since it will be called upon to apply the policies which
will bring the aims and the goals of the museum to pass.
In this chapter we shall deal with how many people are employed in the administration and
how good personnel management should be achieved. We shall emphasize from the outset
that the administration model depends on the character of the museum, that is, on how it was
founded. In other words: its legal status. Let us look briefly at these categories of the
museum.
Category 1: This includes the national, state, provincial, municipal, local or specialist
museums (e.g. postal museum, geological museum, railway museum etc.) (Line
departments).
Their basic characteristic is that they are associated directly with the government, the regional
or municipal authorities, or with the organizations of which they are departments. Their basic
funding comes from the aforesaid authorities, and their incomes return to the central funds of
the organizations or the state. Councils related to the function of these museums are more
advisory in character. Their structure is more centralised and dysfunctional with regard to the
efficient management of the museum personnel.
Category 2: This includes museums which serve the public interest (Legal Persons in Public
Law). Their holdings can be state or municipal or university property, but they enjoy functional
and administrative autonomy (Arms length). Usually they have a board in which state or other
municipal or university bodies, representatives of foundations or scientific organizations, and
others participate.
They receive an annual financial grant from the bodies on which they depend, but can
implement their own economic programme and can receive sponsorship or donations.
Category 3: This includes museums which serve the public interest without economic gain
and which have the legal status of Legal Persons in Private Law (Non-profit making). The
body appoints a board of trustees which includes its representatives as well as
representatives of scientific and social bodies. The director is appointed by the board. The
foundation receives state aid but also funding from private sources.
Category 4: These are private museums which are of economic benefit to their owners but
which are not among the organizations covered by the UNESCO umbrella by the term
museum.

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The role of the Board

Many state or so-called national museums do not have a board or if one exists it is entirely
advisory in character. It is usually made up of individuals from the scientific, academic and
business worlds, and its tasks are limited to expressing opinions on the role and the policy of
the museum.
Very often the state, which is responsible for a series of museums within its territory, sets up a
Museum Council, which gives its opinion on issues introduced for discussion. It is made up
of directors of state and other museums, academics, artists, administrators and so on. The
final and essential decision, however, always rests with the responsible government minister.
The boards which have an administrative role in the museums, with legal status in public or
private law, but which serve the public interest, implement a series of responsibilities:
-

Very often the director of the museum is also president of the board, so as to avoid
dysfunctions. Other times, however, they are two different people.
The members of the board are the link between the community and the museum.
They approve the goals and the policies submitted by the director.
They ensure that the museum is able to carry out security, conservation, research
and enrichment of the collections.
They approve the museums medium-term and long-term plans, the budget and help
reinforce its sources of income.
They collaborate with the director in order to find the optimum solutions to the
museums problems.
They ensure that the museum always has the appropriate personnel for its functions
and activities.

The nodal point is always the directors relations with the members of the board. The board
does not exercise direct administration. It discusses the policies submitted by the director,
supplements them and proposes them for implementation by the personnel. On the other
hand, the director is obliged to keep the board informed and up-to-date on all museum issues.
There must be continuous communication and briefing between the president of the board
and the director of the museum.
The size of the board depends also on the size of the museum. The members of the board of
a medium-size museum may be 10 to 15, whereas larger museums may have 25 to 30 or
even more members.
In the last case, the members may form special committees (finance committee, planning
committee, collections committee, etc.). It is reasonable that the director is an ex officio
member of all these committees, in which members of the corresponding sectors of the
museum administration may also participate.
The responsibilities of the board and its relations with the museum administration should be
clearly defined and governed by moral order, scientific ethics and a lucid legal frame, which
will be incorporated in the legal status of the museum from its founding day.
Museum Personnel
It is the personnel which carry out the museums functions and activities in all sectors, the
ultimate goal being the application of all the museums aims. Basically we have the
administration of two essential sectors. The sector associated with the Collections and the
sector associated with the public Programmes.
It is clear, however, that these sectors are not isolated and that the one interpenetrates the
other. For this reason the administration must be flexible and easily adapted as the occasion
demands.
In most of the worlds museums the hierarchical model of administration holds sway, even
though attempts have been made at administration with combination and collaboration of

13

responsibilities and actions, or administration on the basis of an activity or action in which all
those responsible collaborate.
A.
In the hierarchical model of administration, the structure plays the leading role,
headed by the director, the responsible assistant directors of the basic sectors and the heads
of the departments of the museums.
The role of the director is very important. Firstly, he collaborates on a daily basis with the
board for the effective management of museum issues. Secondly he drafts medium-term and
long-term plans concerning the constitution of the museum, the collections, the personnel and
the income. He proposes specific policies for the collections (policies for research, exhibitions,
documentation etc.), for the renewal of the personnel and its enrichment with new specialties,
for the serving of the public, security etc. Finally, he proposes the implementation of specific
actions, which will be harmonized with the proposed policies, so that the above plans can
proceed from theory to practice.
In addition, to knowledge of the subjects under the museums responsibility, the director must
have museological knowledge and experience, as well as administrative and organizational
skills. Mainly, however, clear political thinking is required, with the ability to analyse and to
synthesize. He must inspire the personnel and collaborate with other foundations as well as
with all the authorities. He is the conductor of an orchestra playing for the benefit of society.
B.
For the sector of Collections, an assistant director is proposed, who also acts as
deputy for the museum director. He is head of the keepers of the collections, the library, the
documentation bureau, the photographic laboratory, the archives and the conservators of the
museum. That is, a scheme which implements the policy of the museum collections.

Assistant director

Collections departments
(Keepers of collections)
(a,b,c,d, etc.)

Curators

Conservation
department

Conservators

Documentation department

Database office
Historical and Photographic Archive
office
Photographer
Library office

C.
For the sector of the Programmes for the Public, an assistant director is proposed,
who is head of the department of exhibitions, the department of publicity (media etc.), the
department of marketing and the department of publications. That is, a scheme which
implements every action relating to the public.
Assistant director

Exhibitions department

Publicity department

Architects office
Designers
Exhibition support
staff (labourers etc.)

Educational department

Head of media
Head of events
Head of public relations

Marketing department Publications department

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D.
For the personnel of the museum an assistant director is proposed, who supervises
the head of the economic management, the head of the secretariat, the head of the visitors
department and the head of the operation of the museum. That is, all the issues relating to the
personnel, the economics, the visitors and the security of the public and the installations.

Assistant director

Economic Management
Development department

Office A (Public income)

Office B (Sponsorship)

Secretariat department

Head of personnel
Secretariat
Typist

Visitors department

Museum operation department

Head of museum shop

caf
Reception office for visitors
(Cloakroom, tickets etc.)

Security office
Building maintenance
office
Technical personnel
office

General issues of personnel function

A significant functional problem of contemporary museums is their enrichment with all the
specialties that its role and policies demand. Creative and productive personnel are required,
who produce knowledge and create a different image of and atmosphere in the museum.
Thus the museum organization becomes interesting, friendly and attractive to the public. The
classic concept of knowledge, which is based on strict specialization, is obviously not enough
for museum professionals. Knowledge is certainly necessary, but it should be included in the
function of a professional group, in the framework of communication targeted at the public
have a sense of the public role that the museum plays. That is, knowledge should function
through what has been described as museum culture. This given, it is worth mentioning
briefly those specialties which are essential today, as well as their role.
We shall not mention the curators of the collections or the conservators, since we consider
these as self-evident.
Architect-Museographer-Exhibition designer
He chooses the manner of presenting an exhibition, the basic idea, the museological context,
the number and identity of the objects which has been completed. He collaborates with the
exhibition team and gives concrete artistic shape to the basic museological design.
Educator
He is concerned not only with implementing the museums educational programmes but also
with planning a policy of imparting knowledge for wider groups of the population, which will be
put into operation in the future. He designs the essential access of the population to all issues
of understanding the museums activities. He uses all the new technologies for the above
aims, trains educators, compiles printed and audiovisual material, etc.
Registrar
This specialty is acquiring greater and greater importance in contemporary museums. He
controls the process of managing the collections, the archives and all tasks of documentation
of the information deriving either from study of the objects or from conservation or from more
general research. He records the course of works, their administration, the data of
inventorying and storage.
Communication chief
He is not concerned only with public relations or the media more specifically. For each such
sector the office may have a specialist employee. He knows everything about the museum

15

and through publicity sets the seal on every action of the museum, whether exhibition,
publication, musical or literary event. He implements a strategy of promotion and information,
and creates qualitatively upgraded relations between the museum and the public.
Marketing chief
It has been accepted that a museums objects, as well as the products that emerge from a
museums activities, not only offer knowledge and aesthetics, and understanding of the
cultures from which they originate, but also function as cultural products, which can be made
very attractive to the public. So, cultural marketing is used, which, based on modern
marketing techniques, makes products ranging from exhibitions to publications, and retail
wares of special events, attractive to the public. The citizen is also a consumer. Thus, the
marketing chief promotes the museums products, brings income to the museum without
harming its scientific work or the care of the objects. It goes without saying that he works
within the frame of all the ethical norms imposed by the museum organization as well as the
material culture testimonies housed in the museum. Cultural goods are not furniture,
automobiles or mobile phones for sale.
Security chief
He manages all issues of security for the collections, personnel and installations. He drafts
regulations for security, everyday operation as well as emergency situations, and checks the
access and alarm systems. He collaborates with the personnel responsible for maintenance
of the installations.
Volunteer chief
In recent years there has been an increase in the role of volunteers (docents) in the museum.
Volunteers can undertake many activities or they can offer their help to the museum
professionals. The associations of friends or other societies work in this direction. The coordinator of the volunteers takes care of, organizes and controls all these operations. He
needs to have a flair for communication and organization.
It is clear that we could mention other specialties too, such as the head of the electronic and
printed publications, the photographer, the personnel manager and others. Depending on the
size of the museum, these activities are sometimes included in its personnel and sometimes
undertaken by others.
This leads us to another issue, which relates directly to the personnel of the museum: the
demand for continuing education. Special educational programmes for the personnel raise the
professional level and offer skills and new tools for the day-to-day management of all
museum issues. Contemporary social demands and the new role of the museum make
educational programmes and policies for the museum personnel imperative. Those who direct
the museums have to design and implement this policy.
The function of the museum management methods
1.
For the function of a museum complex, the use of management methods must begin
from the moment of its constitution as a legal entity, and from the charter specifying its role
and goals, the organization and administration, as well as the internal regulations of
operation.
2.
These methods play an essential role beginning with from the initial choice of a site
for constructing the museum. The choice of site must be made based on specific criteria
which regarding suitability for the collections, the personnel and the public.
First of all, the chosen site should be suitable in terms of physical space. For example, a
museum should not be built upon a seismic fault or on the banks of a large river. Next, the
environment should be suitable for the people and the works. For example, severe
atmospheric pollution would be a problem for museum designers, notwithstanding the modern
means of intervention available.
The possibility of access for visitors, public transport, and parking, access for fire services,
police, and persons with special needs should all be taken into account.

16

The security of the building complex itself from theft or other criminal actions should be
included in the planning, as well as the possibility of future expansion.
Also important is the possibility of recognition of the foundation.
The final cost of the construction should be taken into account, but in the context of the
specifications required for a museum space. In other words, the conditions of security, lighting
(direct indirect), atmospheric conditions (air-conditioning, control of humidity, temperature,
etc.), electrical and electronic installations (telephones, fibre optics, video, networking etc.,
sensors, fire detection, fire protection, etc.), special arrangement of laboratories, storerooms,
spaces for educational programmes, amphitheatre or multi-purpose spaces, etc.
3.
These issues become substantial problems when existing buildings are converted
into museums, or even more so when these buildings are cultural monuments. In this case an
integrated programme is demanded and detailed planning for the transformation of the
historic building, in order to ensure the two preconditions: that is, the safety and effective
operation of the museum and the preservation of the monumental character and the cultural
value of the monument. In both cases a Project Team should be set up, with participants
including the director of the museum, the project manager and specialist architects and
engineers, lighting specialists, preventive conservation, security etc. Very often the
workspace for the personnel, the storage space for the objects or the service space for the
public are undervalued, a fact which soon presents dysfunctions in the management of the
museum.
Management of Collections and Programmes for the Public
The role of the director or the directorial team in the overall function of the museum has
already been referred to. Let us look now at methods of operational management in the two
major sectors of the museums activities; the management of the collections and the
programmes for the public.

5.

COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT

Collections are the lifeblood of a museum and are absolutely connected with the museum's
mission. Museum's collections are the basic components of a museums very existence. The
distinguishing feature of museums is generally their use of original objects or specimens and
all museum programs ultimately have the collections at their core. Their management
encompasses all aspects to ensure their proper care, documentation and access. The areas
of collections management include public services, which are mainly acquisition,
conservation, documentation procedures, research, communication and exhibition or other
methods of maximising public access for educational or enrichment purposes.
Collections are evidence of our history and sometimes the only connection with our past.
Adding to them judiciously is the most fruitful way in which a museum can grow. The
acquisitions and operation budget and the development of a museums collection is therefore
a central concern for the management of any such institution. Collections care, including
conservation, security and storage has been until recently, the more centrally focused subject.
However, the new role of museums today is switching the focus towards access and
communication. These major museum functions should include those activities and
professional practices that enable people to have access to both the objects and the results of
their study, attract visitors to the museum, and provide for their intellectual needs (educationentertainment) through exhibitions, workshops and various demonstrations. Collections form
the resource media to develop such activities. Enlightened museum management also
supports long term curatorial research to underpin all museum programs that depend on the
quality and extension of museum research and the transposing of the collections into publicly
accessible formats. Research is fundamentally based on comparison between collections,
their overall investigation, experimentation or study goal, synthesis and communication of
knowledge pertaining to museum-related collections disciplines.

17

Museum mission

Management
policies

Exhibition policy

Collection policies

Marketing policy

Communication
policies

Education policy

Public

Acquisition and De-Accessioning

Museums need acquisition and/or disposal policies for their collections to be well managed.
A written policy providing details is essential to answer the question of what a museum should
collect or dispose of. A museums acquisition and disposal policy must be formally approved
by the governing body and based mainly on ethical codes of museum authorities. According
to the above, every museum should resolve around the nature of its collection, the criteria
related to specific information about collections (like subject, chronological or geographical
area), and the ability to provide good management of them. Museums should also examine
collecting policies of other museums, in order to avoid repetition or dispersion of any kind of
material. Moreover, a written policy should not only be published, but also reviewed at least
every five years. A museum shouldn't acquire an object unless it can officially acquire a valid
title to it as well, proving that it is legally acquired (that means that is not a product of
acquisition or export in violation of its country's laws). As far as archaeological antiquities are
concerned, a museum should not obtain objects whose recovery involved damaging
monuments or archaeological sites or other unscientific methods of acquisition.
A written policy is needed for other purposes. Firstly, it gives the museum's staff and the
public a clear statement of the purpose of the museum and a guide to what should be
collected. This is very important for the staff so as to avoid misunderstanding and to clearly
define what the museum possesses. In addition, it provides a number of legal and/or ethical
guidelines to be followed in order to make the staffs professional conduct during its daily
routine concerning acquisition and disposals. A written policy also indicates what the museum
will not collect or what kind of restrictions impede certain materials from being included in its
permanent collections. After certain material is accepted, a policy helps define the way that
collecting presupposes that the museum is able to care for its collections.
Acquisition and disposal are faced with two aspects: laws and ethics. Legislation is very
important but also problematic, as it is not the same everywhere. Moreover, the whole aspect
is connected with the debate about ownership of cultural property which has been moved
around the world many times.

18

There is national and also international legislation related to acquisition and disposal. The
most important international instrument in the battle to protect cultural property, including the
greatest number of signatories to it, is the Convention of Prohibiting and Preventing the illicit
import-export and transfer of ownership of cultural property of UNESCO (1970). In its 26
articles the convention defines the term cultural property, recognises that illicit import-export
or transfer of ownership of cultural property is one of the main causes of the impoverishment
of the cultural heritage concerning the countries of its origin; protection of that property can be
obtained from international co-operation. It also includes legal questions about enforcement
and conflict of law issues and many other details. It is important that it does not cover objects
traded illicitly before that date (1970) which is actually a real victory for nations who import art
and reflects the different political pursuits between nations within the UNESCO.
Acquisition is not an easy aspect to be defined. The Museums Association in the UK defines it
like this: "acquisition is the process of obtaining legal title to an item with the intention of using
it for museum's purposes. The Museums Association prepared a series of guidelines
concerning ethics and practicalities related to acquisition. These guidelines actually help
museum staff to apply the major principles of ethical codes which are important as they
underpin general museological registration schemes and include a number of flexible
recommendations. The fundamental role of a museum is to acquire and preserve objects in
its collection for the public benefit. A museum should collect under a policy, which ought to be
a public document and include its purposes and aims or the criteria not only for an existing
collection but also for future acquisitions. In addition, the written policy should take account of
the benefits of preserving items in situ or the moral rights of individual people or groups to
hold specific items. It also should take account of the acquisition policy of other institutions or
public organisations with a legal right to acquire items with the same or similar subject. A
policy should also encourage co-operation especially between museums that intend to collect
items with related subjects. A museum is ethically expected to have a more detailed strategy
in its acquisition policy without the need to offer it to the public.
Furthermore, a museum should acquire an item only after consideration of its long term value
and have the intention to retain it in perpetuity if it can provide both continuing care for it and
public access. Before taking the final decision to make an acquisition, a museum should take
into consideration the long-term recourse implications involved. A museum should avoid
making an acquisition outside the scope of its policy unless there are specific reasons as well
as circumstances. A museum should also not acquire an item if there is a reason to suspect
that its current owner cannot legally transfer the title to the museum or this item is illegally
exported, acquired or transferred as far as that countrys laws or international treaties are
concerned. Very important is that the museum has agreed to specific procedures. Possibly
this must be included in its acquisition policy to consider before taking the final decision to
include an item in its collections.
In addition, a museum should take into consideration the following aspects as far as
selectivity in acquisition is concerned. Firstly, if the item meets all the criteria set out by the
acquisition policy as relevant or important to its collections even if it is in an appropriate
condition to be acquired. Secondly, how the museum is going to use this specific item.
Thirdly, the price of the acquisition including purchase, VAT, transport costs, immediate
conservation costs, research or the cost of providing long term care and access. Fourthly,
background on the items provenance and the quality of documentation associated with it,
particularly more information about its context.
After an acquisition of an item takes place, the museum has to confirm that the title has been
transferred and all the documentation needed in order to retain it legally in the future.
Moreover, display or storage of the item must be under appropriate conditions making it
accessible to the public in a short time. The museum also has to record information about
copyright and take account of reproduction rights. Finally, a letter of acknowledgement and/or
thanks given to the donor, as well as a report to the governing body, seems to be appropriate.
There are different types of acquisition. One of them has to do with the permanent collection
of a museum. The majority of acquisitions are related to these kinds of collections that are

19

accessioned, the museum probably retaining them in perpetuity. Another type has to do with
revisable collections. Contemporary material can be included in this type, not accessioned but
reviewed after an agreed time (in a period between five years for example). A third type has
to do with handling collections some of which could be accessioned while others not.
Museums acquire material for their collections in a variety of ways. There are five main
methods: by donation, by purchase, by fieldwork, by exchange and by loan. Many museums
have been built up a high level on the basis of donations. Donations can take many different
forms. They can be offered either as gifts, or left to a museum as bequests, especially from
private collectors, which is actually very common. A donation should be accepted under a
series of conditions. The donor must know well the terms under which the museum is willing
to accept an item. Practically speaking that means that the title of the item will be transferred
to the museum which can then display it in its permanent collection or not. If the donor wishes
to apply conditions to the gift, the governing body must carefully consider every management
implication before taking the decision to acquire it. The donors conditions can be perpetual
only if the gift is made under a charitable form. In many countries there are tax incentives
inspiring individuals to give to museums in lieu of capital transfer tax. The donor must also
agree with the conditions and, if he is ignorant about the financial value of the gift, s/he can
seek an independent valuation. It is also positive for the museum to welcome financial
support for any cost related to the acquisition.
In addition, the museum has no obligation to accept an offer if it does not meet the criteria set
out by its policy and it is best to refuse a gift or bequest in written form. In such circumstances
it is appropriate to inform the donor about other registered museums and/or organisations but
to not acquire and directly forward the item to anyone without permission.
A museum can also acquire an item by purchase. This should be done for the lowest price
and usually from many types of public sales such as galleries, dealers or auctions. Many
times a museum buys an item from an individual at a lower price after negotiations. In that
case the museum should make clear its intentions and deal fairly as far as the method and
cost of the acquisition are concerned. The museum can take advantage of any financial
benefits but also keep its profile confidential. If a purchase is made from outside funds, any
related conditions should be approved by the museum to support a legal acquisition.
Fieldwork as part of a defined programme of research is another collecting method. A wellbased research policy within museums is needed nowadays. It is a method having to do with
a proactive approach to acquiring an item. The museum has to follow this method with great
sensitivity, as there is an interest in recording and preserving an item in situ, avoiding
damaging the natural, historic or cultural environment.
Exchanges and loans are other methods of acquiring an item. The most common cases
involve transferring the object/s from one institution to another under conditions in the context
of a defined collecting policy. An acceptation using these methods is not as simple as it
seems, since the museum becomes responsible for looking after the item. These kinds of
acquisitions are best preceded by agreements on how long or why a specific item should be
included in the collections. It is also important to clarify who is responsible for its insurance in
order to take extra care of long-term exchanges or loans.
The most basic cost related to collecting is that for the acquisition whether it is by purchase,
by donation or through research. An acquisition is not only related to with money invested in
it, but also to a range of both direct and indirect costs connected with the collections care. In
other words, museums generally need to establish a plan to deal with all related issues after
an acquisition for the collections management and care. This includes the initial cost of
acquisition, purchase, curatorship, conservation, storage costs and also operating costs for
later management and care, security, building maintenance and repairs or administrative
overload. Cost of acquisition is a complex entity as it differs from one institution to another
and varies according to the conditions of the collection, the type of museum building or its
governance. Realistic accounting of the cost is essential in every museum in order to develop
an effective management system to serve its general purposes. It is really difficult to speak
about sources of funding for acquisitions, as they are not the same in every country.

20

After having briefly discussed acquisition issues, let us now proceed to the concerning
disposal. Disposal can be defined as the permanent removal of an item from a museums
permanent collection. Sometimes this is called de-accessioning. Disposal is not often a
desirable decision for most museums. Disposal is expressed in the following ways: it can be a
transfer of an item from one museum or similar institution to another, as well as an exchange
between two museums or similar institutions for something else. It can also be a simple
change of status within the museum, a sale on open market (usually at auction) or finally the
destruction of an item.
When a museum acquires an object, it acquires it in order to preserve it for the public benefit.
Collections represent the generosity of the past generations and museums act as guardians
of them providing services but enhancing them for any use in the future. All museums are
subject to the laws of the countries hosting them and any disposal is controlled by law, either
of a general application with reference to a particular museum.
There are also special issues for different types of museums (national, independent,
university or local authority museums). It is the responsibility of everyone who works in a
museum to be familiar with the laws which apply them and to make sure that these laws be
followed. Generally, there is a strong assumption to avoid disposal. Even so, there are
reasons and circumstances in which disposal may be appropriate, especially if it is a decision
related to the public interest.
Every disposal must clearly demonstrate long-term public benefit. Such a decision should be
followed by published criteria according to the museums policy. Disposal should not be
undertaken principally for financial reasons, as selling from a collection is always risky and
may cause damage to public confidence in museums. Whenever possible co-operation and
offering of items, of course under certain well-specified conditions, to other registered
museums can take place. Any financial benefits gained as a result of such decisions must be
exploited for new acquisitions or for advancing collection management and care. Decisions
must be taken by the governing body of the museum, acting on behalf and with the advice of
the staff. It is unethical as far as the museum profession is concerned for a curator or other
museum staff to dispose of an item without previous consultation. Sometimes it is better to
have an outside experts report before any final are taken.
Ultimately, museums need to consider disposal when an item has deteriorated or poses
health or safety problems. In this case a badly damaged item is usually beyond any
museums use, sometimes being hazardous, threatening the conservation of other items in
the collection, or even the working conditions of the staff. Dangerous items should normally
be destroyed but such a decision must be thoroughly weighed by the appropriate experts and
administrators.
Disposal can also be considered in the case of a return of cultural property when there is an
arrangement for it to be returned to its place of origin outside the country (repatriation issues
involve very complex political decisions) or there is a duplicate of the item. In the last case
museums should have a good reason for disposing of an item by giving it to another
institution.
Furthermore, an item can be transferred if it is better owned by another museum or if the
museum has a real difficulty to provide public access to it and the care it requires. Especially
if the other museum has a collection in the same area of interest and can provide better
curatorial or conservation facilities such a decision is strongly advisable. It can also be
followed if the museum cannot provide special facilities related to access and management of
archive material. In that case, archive material is better housed in specialised public offices.
Museums include in their collections some accessioned items that at specific times are
regarded as irrelevant to them or inappropriate to the general museums mission. A disposal
in this case is very risky, because a museum should not make decisions for the short-term.
Apart from the above, the use of a specific item can be of great importance and given a new

21

purpose or value in the future as new technologies and procedures are rapidly moving into
the museum profession.
Further procedures are related to disposals. Before making the decision to dispose, a
museum should investigate every aspect (if for example the item is a loan), in order to
determinate whether the museum is allowed to dispose of a certain item. It is also necessary
to take into consideration all museums' particular regulations or unwritten special needs.
As the decision to dispose requires extra attention and knowledge or specialisation, museums
should always seek the opinions of various sources internally or externally: experienced
curators or anyone specialised in the subject within the museum, organisations that granted
or aided in the acquisition of the item, even the donor. Museums behave in different ways
when about to seek the donors opinion as it is a delicate subject. Many museums only inform
the donor of any intention to dispose, while others do not contact them at all or only contact
donors who have given items within the last ten years. In all cases it is vital to be sensitive in
any dealing with donors even if it is only to inform them.
The potential public and media response to a disposal can also reflect in a positive or
negative way on a museum. The presentation of a disposal providing understandable reasons
of such a decision may be of interest to the public or to groups of people (such as the Friends
of the museum, which especially in the last years are very common institution within
museums). But the final decision to dispose must not be influenced by external factors and
should be taken by the governing body acting on staffs advice and following different
processed depending on each museum policy.
After the decision to dispose of an item is taken, it is ethically right to offer it to another
registered museum. Two methods can possibly be followed: either openly as a gift by
advertising it in the Museums Journal and allowing two months for an interest to be expressed
or pointedly giving it directly to a specific museum. In case no institution wants to take it the
museum can retain it in its ownership, offer it for public education or research purposes
(schools, handling collections) or give it back to the donor. Probably the last solution is to sell
it and it is not generally recommended although there are museums which do sell objects
from their permanent collections. Finally, full records must follow all procedures, in order to
assure that the transfer of the items title is successful.
When it comes to practical issues, one should bare in mind that the question of whether,
when and in what ways acquisition and disposal processes should take place falls into a
larger context. It can be considered part of the general, as well as simple, question in relation
to the amount of material that must be collected. Is it possible for a museum to collect
everything and is it acceptable for it to be selective? Is it worth in general to try to collect
every single piece of material to be potentially displayed? Fortunately or unfortunately, it is not
possible in practical terms that museums nowadays collect absolutely everything. We would
need for example more than a second Rome or Athens, in order to redisplay material
evidence from these two ancient and modern cities respectively. And an immense amount of
money and labour as well. Therefore the notion of being selective and its application is a
modern necessity, whether considered as a necessary evil or not.
Museums nowadays (not only small museums but also large, well-established and worldfamous ones) are facing enormous financial difficulties, especially when they try to cope with
modern advances in theory and technology. Consequently discussions related to the criteria
of the aforementioned selectivity, both in terms of acquisition / disposal and of all related
areas, must comprise the core of fruitful, productive as well as open and unbiased debate.
Documentation
The proper recording and documentation of everything related to museum activities and
collection management in accordance with appropriate standards and the internal rules and
conventions of the museum is a most important professional responsibility. Many activities

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undertaken by museums are associated with registration and documentation procedures.

They result in information held in a wide range of potential museum applications that include:
1) Administrative management (before acquisition, acquisition, accession,
inventory control, loans, exhibition planning/management, other projects). This
section includes entry/exit forms, loan forms, exhibition/other projects objects forms,
educational packages, facilities reports.
2) Objects documentation (collection descriptions, indexes, catalogues, access
systems, image access). This section includes object forms and photographs with
standard information.
3) Collections care conservation management storage. This section includes
administrative aspects, condition reports, working records, placement in storage, and
transfer of items.
4) Dissemination. This section includes printed or digital publications (scientific
catalogues, guidebooks, books, leaflets, CD-DVDs, electronic products and other
productions of printed material.
5) Public access and library/archive applications. This section includes research
database, data for the Internet and museums page, historical or photographic
information, library services (including online).
Traditionally the typical approach has been to maintain a registry system as a tool for
inventory control, with indexes or catalogues to document the collections. Manual systems for
creating and managing museum records have considerable limitations and the most important
problems can be summarised in the following:
1) Records and catalogues are usually maintained separately by each individual
museum department. As a result it is not possible to have an overview of the
collections and to combine elements of those records managed by different
departments for any use.
2) Individual departments may have their own methodology for documentation. There
may be no consistency in methods of recording information between departments.
3) Information related to collections may have changed over a period of time. Past
records may be incomplete and inconsistent with later research or practice. Manual
systems are inflexible tools. They remain static, it is difficult to be improved or
updated and they do not respond to changing user needs.
4) Compiling detailed records manually is time consuming and an extremely routine
clerical action.
5) Accessibility is necessarily limited and the physical space necessary for storing hand
written records is greater.
Computer-based systems
The pressure on museums to adopt more efficient methods of stock taking and inventory
control, together with the advantages of technology and the potential of computers as
powerful tools of data processing and management provided the starting point to developing
new record keeping systems in museums. A desirable approach to computerisation of
museum information is to create an integrated system which is capable of supporting a whole
range of museum activities, providing shared data to different system users. Although most
museums cannot be satisfied with one given solution, yet may not need all components
available or be able to develop a wide range of applications simultaneously, it is important to
identify the objectives and advantages of computerisation and the functional requirements of
a system in the planning stage of such projects.
A number of desirable benefits can be gained from a computerised system and the most
important can be summarised as follows:

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1) Combine documentary sources into a unified information system or database bringing

together different aspects of the collections.
2) Provide access to information by referencing any topic contained in the existing
system and by any combination of such expressions.
3) Improve and standardise methods of record keeping and documentation.
4) Facilitate updates.
5) Improve both in terms of speed and quality, requests for information from museum
staff, researchers or the general public and identify ways to improve the various levels
of access necessary according to different needs.
Main characteristics of museum documentation based on computer data handled in a
museum network are:
1) Data independence, separation of structural information and compatibility in the
application programs.
2) Integrity that ensures the internal consistence of the database and controls a multi
user environment in which many users may access the system at the same time.
3) Security and access restricted only to authorised persons through passwords and
authorisation.
4) Recovery of data after a system failure.
A plan is a useful tool before starting out on new documentation practices. A documentation
plan is a carefully thought out document or report which reviews the documentation at a
museum, identifies problem areas and puts forward a method for solving those problems.
There are different reasons for writing a documentation plan. Its scope may range from an
examination of a specific aspect of documentation, a plan to clear a backlog or a review of a
whole documentation system. Ideally, it should be part of a larger more comprehensive
'collections management plan'. A carefully prepared documentation plan will not only assist
internal planning but it will demonstrate to governing bodies and funding agencies that the
museum is serious about meeting professional standards. A plan should include the analysis
of existing documentation situation, aims and objectives, a strategy for solving problems,
contact with other museums/organisations that may have experienced similar problems or
might be able to advise, realistic resources (costs, existing or extra staff needed, equipment
and space), timetable.
It is essential that any computerised information system is consistent in handling data. The
development of standards for description of the structure and content of records has been
proved absolutely necessary. Data standards may be developed internally to meet the
requirements of a specific institution or it may be possible to modify existing ones. The
Museum Documentation Association (MDA) in the UK has developed and published well
known data standards to support manual and computer systems. The International
Documentation Committee of ICOM (CIDOC) also acts as a forum for discussion and sharing
of information by presenting existing data standards prepared by different museums.
Terminology and syntax control are broad subjects but it is essential to come to grips with
them for systematically documenting museum objects. Terminology control is about
standardising the terms we use when cataloguing objects. Syntax control is about
standardising the format or order in which those terms are recorded. When recording
personal and corporate names, place names, dates etc., the actual words to be used are well
defined but the sequence in which they can be expressed can be inconsistent. Standardised
terminology and syntax lead to consistent records, which give reliable answers when
information is sought. There is no point in recording information about an object if they cannot
be retrieved and used. Terminology control can be applied to data in any field that you want to
index. You can use any words you like in free-text fields that you will not be creating indexes
for. If you use a collections management database, syntax must be very precise for
comparable data to be retrieved. You will need to follow some basic rules about syntax
control, which particularly apply to: personal names, corporate names, place names, and
dates.
A term list is a list of approved words or terms for use in the recording of specific units of data.
For example, object names, roles, materials, activities etc. Many museums create their own
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term lists to meet their own particular needs. A thesaurus is a more highly structured form of
word list, which is able to represent more complex relationships between terms. It has a
hierarchical structure, each branch of the tree developing into increasingly specific terms. A
classification system provides terms to assign objects to larger groupings. This is useful if you
need to search for all items which share a particular attribute but may have very different
object names. An object can be classified legitimately in several different ways, perhaps even
using two different classification systems. It is always best to use a published classification
system. Even if you cannot find exactly what you want, you may be able to extend an existing
system to cover your particular collection.
Digitisation of museum material, especially in the form of digital photos is a common desire of
professionals today in order to better serve good collections management and the multiple
use of that material in a simplified and effective way for various applications, saving money
and time. The term 'digitisation' refers to the process of converting objects and documents,
such as photographs, manuscripts, printed text and artworks into digital form The process of
creating a digital version of an object or document is governed by the 'digital life-cycle'. This
life-cycle defines the various stages in the creation and use of digitised records, including:
1) Management - involving issues of copyright, long-term preservation and storage
2) Access - the delivery of the image in an appropriate medium
3) Re-use - combining groups of digitised records to create specific projects e.g., for
learning/educational packages
The digitisation of a museum's materials can be done either in-house or sent to an external
collaborator. Basic in-house digitisation will require: scanner, digital camera, powerful
computer with adequate memory, system resources including backup and write to media
(e.g., CD-ROM, Zip drive) capacity, computer software, and staff to run the equipment and
manage the digitisation project.
The information an institution keeps about their collections is at least as valuable as the
collections themselves. In some cases, the information held, which describes an object or
specimen may be of even more value to a visitor or researcher than the object itself. It makes
sense to take precautions the loss this information, or its destruction through gradual decay or
sudden catastrophe, such as fire or flood.
You must ensure that information about collection items have the best possible chance of
survival. This is done by using good quality materials and making backup copies of all
important records. The copies, or better still the originals, should be stored in a secure place,
in a separate building from the rest of the documentation. The most important files should be
kept in a fireproof safe.
The best quality materials should be used for all permanent records. Backup copies should be
made as soon as possible after the originals are created. It will generally be easier to copy in
batches, so it may be necessary to wait for some time until sufficient records have been
accumulated. Computer files can be easily duplicated and should be copied weekly or daily,
as computer data is very vulnerable to loss due to power or equipment failure of operator
error. At the other extreme, techniques such as microfilming can only be justified on an
occasional basis. Even so, key records should not be left more than a year without making
copies. Members of staff should take responsibility for ensuring that records are copied
regularly.
Collections Care
It is commonly accepted that collections in the care of the museum form the primary resource
from which all other activities flow. Collections care is in many ways one of the most important
aspects of museum and collections management. Although museums and galleries possess
only a small percentage of all existing original objects it is true that many of these objects
have only survived because they have been in museums. However, putting an object into a
museum does not mean that it will last forever. The duty of care taking is central to the
museums work and should also be part of its functional objectives.

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Conservation is now understood to encompass preservation as well as restoration. Remedial

conservation is about repairing damage or decay to collections, using different types of
techniques. The aim of Conservation is generally to preserve museum objects and to retard
any change in its original qualities as long as possible. Preventive conservation is about
ensuring that the museums objects and collections are stored, displayed, handled and
maintained in ways, which do not lead to deterioration. It can be defined as any measure that
prevents damage or reduces the potential for it and focuses on collections rather than
individual objects.
Good preventive conservation seems the most efficient form of conservation as practicing
this method avoids the need for remedial care or at least minimises it. In this way it should be
possible to maintain an artefact in the same condition as when it was received by the
museum and to preserve collections for future generations. Preventive conservation is a longterm practice, involves controlling the environment and, if used comprehensively, the need for
individual treatment can then be reduced to more manageable levels allowing financial
resources to be used more effectively.
Planning for preventive conservation in museums, although mostly having to do with common
sense, is a complex issue as different types of collections need different methods of
treatment. It also demands specialists work and experience to ensure that the needs of the
collections are carefully met. First of all, the history of an object before it entered the
museums collection will affect its chances of survival and the way of conservation needed.
The purpose for which an object was made, the material that it was made from, how it was
used and the conditions under which it survived before entering the museum are factors to be
taken into consideration and underline the complexity of practicing preventive conservation.
Preventive conservation is related to three main categories of museum management: 1.
environmental standards, 2. security and safety factors (handling, emergency plans), 3.
design specifications.
Conservators have established standards for the most suitable conditions for collections of
various types. These standards show how a museum environment can be controlled by
measuring conditions and adjusting them to fall within specified limits. It must be emphasised
that environmental standards apply at all times, regardless of whether a museum work is on
exhibition, in storage, on loan or travelling. There are four main factors affecting the
conservation of collections: light levels, relative humidity, and temperature and air cleanliness.
The role of preventive conservation is to control these factors in order to keep objects and
collections maintained at peak condition as longer as possible.
Light can create serious damage to museum collections, and is one of the greatest threats to
the long-term condition of collections. Any light however strong or weak, is a form of energy
and can cause damage like fading colour or deteriorating the materials from which an object
is made. All museum objects are to a greater or lesser extent affected by light. We can say
that all organic material is at risk from light exposure. The term organic includes all things
which originated from animals or plants like paper, cotton, linen, silk, wool, leather, hair, dyes,
oils and many others in addition to all synthetic dyes and plastics. On the contrary, stone,
metal, glass and some ceramics are not affected by light and cause no reason for concern.
To reduce surface deterioration to a minimum we must control the lighting. But before dealing
with the different methods it would be useful to examine the nature of types of light itself. Light
sources can be divided into three types: Radiation from the sun, sky or artificial, according to
wavelength. The visible region (400-700nm) is where the human eye begins to be sensitive to
it. Infrared (IR) radiation extends from the end of the visible spectrum to longer wavelengths
and usually causes heating problems. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the short-wavelength side
of visible light. It is a form of electromagnetic radiation, an energy that if absorbed by a
material can cause photochemical change. Short wavelengths are more damaging than long
wavelengths, since they are of higher energy, so UV is more damaging than the equal
amount of IR light. Most materials undergo photochemical changes and are damaged both by
UV and visible light. Although there is less UV radiation in all light sources, in a museum with

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various types of objects, approximately half of the photochemical damage is caused by UV

and half by visible light.
The intensity of light is measured by a light meter using units of measurement known as luxunits. The light levels proposed in the conservation literature have been refined in recent
years. However, recommended maximum levels of illumination range from 50-200 lux.
According to the material from which an object is made there are different levels that should
not be exceeded. Materials like wood, horn, bone; stone, undyed leather or oil paintings
should not be illuminated with more than 200 lux. Other more sensitive materials, like
costume, textile, prints and drawings, manuscripts, papers, tapestries or dyed leather should
be exposed to no more than 50 lux.
Measurement and control of visible light is very important concerning the collections. The rate
of deterioration caused by light is proportional to both the light level and the amount of time
during which the object is exposed to that level. A strong light produces approximately the
same amount of damage in one year as a weak light one-tenth the strength will produce in ten
years. The damaging exposure experienced by an object illuminated at 300 lux for one hour is
the same as if it had been illuminated at 100 lux for three hours. Museums use different types
of lighting: daylight, fluorescent lamps, tungsten, halogen lamps. Daylight is the most difficult
to control since it changes through the day and throughout the seasons. Controlling
absolutely the lighting in museums often involves the installation of complicated and
expensive machinery, like motorised blinds controlled by photocells or solar control films.
Another approach for the control of lighting is to fit time switches to individual case-lights or to
install protective and light sensitive glass to windows, minimising the light exposure of the
objects.
The ultra-violet (UV) component of light is particularly damaging and it must be eliminated by
using filters that absorb wavelengths of radiation in the UV but allow visible light to pass
through without having any effect on the appearance of an object. Daylight and fluorescent
lamps emit high levels of UV radiation. Tungsten incandescent lamps generally do not need
UV filters. Ultra-violet levels are measured by a UV monitor, which measures the proportion of
UV falling on an object. Light sensitive objects should not exceed the amount of 75mvatts per
lumen (uw/lm). It is also appropriate that UV light must be filtered through laminated glass UV
filters, acrylic sheets, UV varnish applied to every glass, polyester films to window or display
case glass or plastic filter sleeves for fluorescent lamps.
Generally, museums should find solutions to reduce the amount of time an object is
illuminated, to reduce illumination to a level necessary for comfortable viewing by visitors and
to eliminate ultra-violet radiation. However, as all the museums do not have the opportunity to
afford or put to use expensive and specialised equipment, there are many simple and cheap
methods to be combined to reduce light levels. Some of these methods are: curtains, fitting
screens or covers to display cases, moving displayed objects away from windows areas,
reducing the number and wattage of light bulbs used, cutting out illumination when the
museum is closed to the public or blocking out windows.
Special care should be also taken to protect museum objects made of more than one
material. In addition, light levels should be regularly monitored in all areas of the museum and
staff trained to use the appropriate equipment. It is very important for a museum to have its
own light meters for regular use. Display and exhibition galleries need special design as far as
light levels are concerned. A combination of artificial light and daylight, controlled by a variety
of methods can provide the appropriate flexibility, to meet the needs of the objects and the
visitors.
One of the most destructive forces faced by most museum artefacts is humidity. All materials
that contain water react to the amount of water that exists in the air surrounding them. That
means that in dry air they lose water and in damp air they gain water. One possibility is to
measure the weight of water in a specific weight of air (g/m3) which is called absolute
humidity of the air. However, this method is not suitable since warm air can hold more water
than cool air. Relative humidity (RH) is the amount of water in a given quantity of air to the
maximum amount of water that the air can hold at the same temperature. It is expressed as a

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percentage. The amount of moisture that a material can hold depends on the relative humidity
of the air surrounding it. If the RH of the air falls the material will lose water. If the RH and the
temperature of the air surrounding an object is kept constant the moisture content will also
remain constant.
The type of damage caused by RH depends upon whether the material is organic or
inorganic. High RH can affect objects in three ways: to encourage biological activity, to cause
changes to physical dimensions or to accelerate different chemical reactions. As far as
organic materials are concerned changes in RH induce fluctuations in the size of the object. If
restrained during these fluctuations, cracking, stretching or tearing can occur which in some
materials is permanent. If the RH level is too high (over than 65-70%), swelling or mould
growth can occur. If the RH level is too low for a long time, flexibility of the materials may be
lost. With inorganic materials, RH changes do not usually induce size fluctuations. However
the corrosion of metals increases in high RH (for example bronze disease can occur in RH of
more than 70%). Some types of glasses are moisture sensitive and become opaque if
exposed to high RH.
The recommended levels of RH depend on the nature of the collection and its location. Stable
RH levels in the 50 to 55 per cent range have come to be accepted as the best compromise
level for preserving the majority of artefacts of a museum. The international standard has also
been established at that level as many exhibitions are travelling to different institutions all over
the world. It is very difficult to always achieve this standard as RH varies in different climates
like tropical, continental temperate or extremely severe ones. But it is very important for the
best conditions of a collection, as well for the comfort of people, humidity and heating control
to be operated in all areas for 24hours a day.
Relative humidity can be measured by an instrument called a hygrometer. Wet and dry bulb
hygrometers (also called psychrometres) when used correctly, give accurate results. The
sling hygrometer is the simplest and least expensive instrument to measure RH. Hair and
paper hygrometers and the recording hygrograph rely on the expansion and contraction of
moisture-sensitive elements with changes in RH, but it is not sure that they will give always
accurate results. There are accurate but expensive electronic instruments in which a moisture
sensitive element undergoes a change in electrical property as the RH varies. Humidistats are
also essential to ensure automatically that the relative humidity level remains constant or
correct.
The only complete answer to control relative humidity is air-conditioning of both exhibition and
storerooms. However, the installation and running costs of air- conditioning to all areas is not
attainable for most of museums nowadays. RH control may be achieved within a room using
freestanding humidifiers or dehumidifiers that are automatically controlled by humidistats.
Humidifiers are usually required to combat dryness caused by winter heating and
dehumidifiers for damp basements, storage or unheated areas. Humidifiers are designed to
add water quickly to the air in a controlled manner. There are three types of humidifiers:
atomising humidifiers, steam humidifiers and the evaporative humidifiers, which are the most
suitable for museum use. Dehumidifiers are divided into two types: desiccant and refrigerant,
which can be selected according to the temperature.
It is also possible to control the relative humidity of an enclosed space using materials such
as silica gel. This material can maintain the RH at a predetermined level. In case the RH
drops below that level it gives off water and if it rises it will absorb water. Silica gel is a
suitable buffering agent because it holds sufficient water, responds rapidly to changes in RH
and it is chemically inert.
Temperature seems to be one of the environmental factors of which people are most
conscious of in museums. However, for the vast majority of artefacts, temperature is not
particularly important compared with other environmental requirements. Therefore, rapid
temperature fluctuations may cause some problems in objects comprised of different
materials such as metal lies in timber. It is also true that chemical reactions occur faster at
higher temperatures, so lower temperatures are preferable. The question of temperature is
not easy as it is connected to other factors such as staff and visitors comfort.

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Furthermore, temperature affects the size of artefacts. With organic materials the size change
due to temperature is usually smaller than that due to relative humidity, so it is not so
important to be alert to minor temperature changes. With inorganic materials, temperature
usually causes changes in size. A thermometer can very simply measure temperature.
There is a need to maintain temperature at very stable levels in museums as it is connected
to relative humidity. The more stable the temperature is the easier it is to keep the RH stable.
For this reason direct heating should be avoided since it may cause local drying. Sunlight
should not fall directly on exhibits and powerful spotlights or lamps are better avoided or
mounted outside exhibition cases. Artefacts should not also be placed close to radiators or
anything that increases the temperature.
The levels of temperature recommended vary according to the place or the season.
Temperatures between 18 - 25C are generally acceptable for a display of a mixed collection.
In winter, temperatures can remain at the lowest level and in summer the highest. The levels
of temperature recommended are usually governed by the comfort of the individuals in each
institution where the exhibits are on display. In storage or in areas that are not open to the
public the temperature may be allowed to drop by a few degrees.
Museums and galleries in urban and industrial areas are likely to suffer from the damaging
effects of air pollution. Air pollution is mostly produced by the burning of fuels that move in
the air. No collection can be considered free from air pollution. Pollutants vary but may be
classified in two main categories: particulate and gaseous. Particulate matter includes dust,
lint, pollen, tobacco smoke, coal and oil smoke and bacteria. Gaseous pollutants are burning
fuels in factories, cars, machinery, power stations and chemical plants. There are two main
types of gaseous pollutants: acidic and oxidant. Damaging effects of air pollution vary from
case to case. Particulates can be found on all surfaces of a museum and eventually form an
unsightly layer. This surface dirt needs to be removed periodically, which is dangerous for the
objects of a collection. Acids attack calcium carbonate like marbles and limestone that are
very often used for buildings or statues. Other organic materials like paper, cotton or wool, silk
and leather are embrittled and discoloured after dioxide attack.
There is no minimum acceptable level of pollution. For museums in cities or industrial areas
the complete answer for the control of air pollution is air-conditioning. Air from outside is
drawn into the system, it is circulated several times but it passes through filters to remove any
pollutants may have been introduced. The filters must be changed periodically. As they
remove particles they can become more resistant to allowing the passage of air through them.
Gaseous pollutants may be removed by water sprays and activated carbon filters, which
unfortunately are not effective against ozone. Air-conditioning is expensive and for many
museums, not a possibility. The problem of dirt and dust can be minimised in other ways.
There are various techniques to minimise air pollution. An effective solution is to avoid putting
objects on open displays but in well-made dust resistant display cases. In addition, objects
should be kept wrapped in acid free tissue paper in closed storage units or boxes, dust covers
should be used and doors or windows should be kept shut as much as possible. Moreover,
public and staff areas of the museum should be kept as clean as possible and vacuum
cleaners preferred other than dusting equipment.
Security and Safety
Preventive conservation is also related to other factors such as security and safety. Museum
collections are always at risk from theft or damage especially when the museum is open to
the public. Theft in museums is increasing all over the world as museum pieces are highly
priced on the market. Damage, whether accidental or not, through fire, flood or other disasters
is another hazard for museums. Effective collections security depends on effective protective
measures, appropriate security procedures and good building security.
There are many specific protective measures for collections. Display cases, whatever the
material made from, do not provide complete security. Glass cases and frames often have
weak points and can be broken by force. It is essential that case locks not be visible and

29

easily opened. In addition, details such as frames and joints need extra consideration, cases
should not be easily moved, and they must be alarmed or checked regularly by security staff.
Small or easily transferred objects like pictures are vulnerable to theft and damage and most
of the times need different types of alarm systems. Especially if collections are on open
display, physical barriers or other deterrents and notices, indicating visitor routes seem to be
appropriate.
Electronic security, although very expensive, is now used by the majority of museums.
These systems can be components of a museums overall security, they can prevent theft but
they cannot catch thieves. Alarms can alert the museums security staff. Sometimes alarm
systems are linked to an alarm company to ensure an immediate response, especially when
the museum is closed. Electronic detection systems include: magnetic contact to windows or
display cases, vibration detectors, broken-glass detectors, activity detection sensors, smoke
detectors or closed circuit television (CCTV). Any choice of alarm system depends on the
type of museum and the budget available.
Other security procedures are also important in museums. Security staff is an essential part
of a security system. They should be properly trained and ready to respond to emergencies,
having ready access to alarm systems. Security staff has a range of duties to be performed
on a daily basis. A number of points are related to security procedures. A daily record book
should be kept for the staff to sign on entry and exit. Visitors should also sign in when going to
areas not open to the public. Key control and supervision of contractors, delivery firms,
students or researchers are an extremely important part of security procedures.
Any museum should also meet safety standards for the protection of the artefacts in
emergency cases such as fire or flood. A complete fire detection system should be installed
so as to provide early warning of a possible fire. Adequate procedures for emergency
evacuation or disaster plans have to be taken into consideration. Disasters can occur at any
time and in any place. Disasters may be small or large scale and require a speedy reaction to
reduce damage to collections. A disaster plan should include both preventing and reacting to
disasters efficiently. Lots of museums have well trained reaction teams in case of an
emergency. The appropriate disaster control equipment, support services, the removal of
material in any disaster should not be matters of minor importance in museums.
Handling and packing are also part of preventive conservation procedures. All objects
should be treated with respect and handled with care. Handling museum artefacts or objects
of all types and of all sizes should be kept to a minimum. Apart from the damage handling can
do to artefacts, objects are exposed to a great number of risks when handled. Most damage
to museum collections comes from careless handling or transport. It is important to have a
clear plan in mind before handling or packing artefacts.
Moreover, if an artefact needs to be handled for any reason (for study, transit, restoration, or
display) it is better to be done by experienced and responsible persons. Wearing the
necessary protective clothing or gloves, understanding the special needs of different objects
and being focused are important procedures. Handling collections by students or researchers
without guidance and supervision, eating or drinking and doing many jobs simultaneously is
very dangerous.
Packing is a part of everyday museum work. It should not be a matter of luck as it must follow
standards. There are many special packing systems for museum collections. It is essential to
use inert tested packing materials such as acid-free tissue paper or acid-free storage boxes.
Packing for transit also implies movement, vibration and shock, so objects need to be
carefully protected and cushioned. Not all museum employees know how to pack in an
effective way, so the help of specialists or trained personnel is necessary.
Moving and transport of collections involves risk. Considering all aspects of the move in
advance, can seriously reduce possible problems. Moving of an object should not be done
alone. When moving three dimensional artefacts one should make sure all sides are well
protected, and corners as well and label all items in transit with notices (fragile) or put red
warnings on vulnerable parts. The route should be cleared of obstructions and doors should

30

be opened and wedged. A prepared destination for any objects being moved it is also
desirable. When moving an object within the museum it is better to use a trolley to reduce the
possibilities of accidental damage. Transferring objects outside the museum is also a very
complex matter. However, with careful planning, effective preparation and the adherence to
professional procedures, risks can be minimised while handling, packing or transferring
museum objects.
Storage
In most museums the majority of the collections are in storage rather than on display. A key
responsibility in museum work is to ensure that adequate storage facilities and methods are
provided for the collections. As with all collection storage, a suitable secure building is
required. There is also a need to control environmental conditions and to develop systems
and procedures as far as documentation of entry, exit and location of items is concerned.
Handling procedures are especially important and access or accessibility needs to be
assured.
Storage buildings for every collection have to be secure, weatherproof, well lit and adequately
provided with electricity. Especially for the storage of large and heavy items (collections that
include transport, industrial, monumental or architectural items) a suitable building is needed
to accommodate them. Rooms should be spacious, access ways, platforms and other
appropriate facilities should be provided. However, the large majority of museums are not
responsible for collections, which include particularly large or heavy objects. Different
categories of material require different attention. In general, storage facilities need to
maximise space without overcrowding or creating hazards for objects and staff.
Storage demands appropriate environmental conditions to be maintained like any other area
of the museum. Sufficient heating or dehumidification must be provided to ensure a stable
environment. Storage should be kept as clean as the display areas of the museum as well.
Equipment such as a variety of mechanical systems (pallets, lift trucks or hydraulic lift) are
very useful but require good training to avoid accidents.
Storage methods vary depending on the nature of the collection, which usually require special
treatment. As an example, metallic iron objects should ideally be stored at RH of 40% to avoid
corrosion and effort should be made to provide a kind of microenvironment within the storage.
Other objects made of different materials such as ceramics, paintings, textiles, photographs,
glass or geological specimens require different conditions and treatment that make museum
storage complex.
Preventive conservation seems to be the most effective way to preserve artefacts in
museums at low cost. However, museums are not only places where objects are kept but also
places for education, research or enjoyment. All these activities make preventive conservation
a very important matter and maybe more important than remedial conservation. Preventive
conservation can maximise the return on the investment in remedial conservation. Remedial
conservation needs to be repeated and loses its effectiveness in a museum environment,
which does not provide the appropriate conditions or follow professional procedures on a daily
basis. Planning for preventive conservation is the way to keep museum collections safe both
for present and future generations.

6.

PROGRAMMES FOR THE PUBLIC

Programmes for the public are the second major sector of the museums operation. This has
acquired outstanding importance in contemporary museum foundations, since through these
programmes the museums strategic direction, which is society as a whole, is essentially
realized. The public is the final recipient of plans and actions intended to educate and
entertain them. Not passively, as permanent and stable recipients of information, but
creatively, by participating with their opinions in the totality of museum events. The
management of all these programmes is thus a pivotal point in the management rationale of
the foundation and its goals.

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At the heart of all these programmes are the EXHIBITIONS, with which we shall deal first.
A.

EXHIBITIONS

Exhibitions are one of the most important functions of the museums contact with the public.
They are a powerful means of communication and their goal is to offer information and
knowledge, aesthetic enjoyment and essential entertainment. The visitor to the exhibitions
those with authentic material testimonies of human activity comes into direct contact with
the evidence of the authentic, touches the past or the reality at his own pace, interprets and
comprehends the values of culture and art.
On the one hand he lives the museum experience, through approaching the objects
themselves, on the other hand he exploits the mediation of the museum, which offers
interpretations and information, and seeks interactive behaviour: all these in a framework
why not of theatricality, as well as of scholarly work which is based on research and
scientific knowledge. In this way new interests are aroused in the visitor, a new disposition to
see aspects and to discover the value and the experience of the authentic.
On the other hand, we should point out that there are exhibitions that do not contain authentic
works but consist of photographs, drawings, plans, replicas, videos, visual or other
constructions, etc. which are very useful for educational purposes, for providing knowledge
about history and culture. These are low budget and can be easily moved and serve as
adjuncts to lectures or conferences.
Another division of exhibitions, not on the basis of the material exhibited but on their
character, is the following:
a. Permanent, b. Temporary, c. Mobile or Touring.
Permanent exhibitions should not be considered eternal, but exhibitions whose duration is
not calculated in months, like the temporary ones, but with a horizon of a decade or possible
a generation. Since the museum acts as an intermediary and interprets the past essentially
it creates it , another generation of people can give their own viewpoint and interpretation of
these material remains of the past.
Temporary exhibitions, which are usually of several months duration, can also include longterm exhibitions (at least three years), that is with more permanent goals. Temporary
exhibitions also include exhibitions of this type which are organized abroad by a country, with
different degrees of difficulty, other obligations and commitments.
Mobile or touring exhibitions can be organized at home or abroad, and these too demand a
different organization. The institution of exhibit of the month, special lighting and analysis of
an exhibit in the permanent exhibition, the hosting of exhibits from other bodies, are various
means of exhibition which invigorate the visitors interest.
Exhibitions Policy
The museum director, with the assistance of the personnel, plans and proposes to the board
or other administrative body, the institutions policy for each kind of exhibition it programmes.
This policy describes the aims of the programme, the philosophy of each exhibition, the type
and the number of temporary exhibitions. Thus, an exhibitions programme incorporating the
museums overall aims is constituted of annual, triennial or of several years duration.
It is worth noting here that the exhibition depending, of course, on its type is a complex
event that demands planning, design and long-range timetables.
Before dealing with particular characteristics of organizing exhibitions, we should point out the
general characteristics of the exhibition policy.
1.
First, to make clear the philosophy of the presentation. This is the way in which the
museum chooses to present the objects to the public. We should remember the beginning of

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this manual and the role the national museums played in the nineteenth as well as the
twentieth century. Their ideological role predominated and they presented the national
histories of a people without question. The exhibition was designed so that the objects served
this objective.
a.

So there were exhibitions with a national philosophy and organization.

b.
A large number of museums organized and continue to organize its exhibitions with a
more theoretical or aesthetic perception. In this case the works of art are presented as
such, through their individuality, and the visitors perceptions and enjoyment of them demands
artistic education and cultivation. In this case an audio or visual guide can help provide this
information. This mode is encountered mainly in art museums as well as in certain historical
or science museums. These museums usually exhibit collections or objects in which
aesthetics predominate.
c.
Many museums of cultural heritage, historical or natural sciences, as well as art
galleries, opt for the thematic presentation of the objects. With this philosophy of
presentation the objects do not lose their individuality but are included in a theme. There is a
story which narrates something from the historical and social framework that gave birth to or
left its mark on these objects. That is, the one is related to the other and they constitute parts
of a unity. Drawings, plans, photographs, texts, audio-visual aids, etc., allow the visitor not
only to take part more actively in the visit but also to comprehend the proposed interpretation,
to learn from and to enjoy the exhibition.
d.
The interactive mode of exhibition is the one which many museums or science
centres opt for, by using three-dimensional models, a host of electronic information, the goal
of which is the more active participation of the visitor in the proposed exhibition.
e.
Old modes of exhibition, such as the visible storeroom, continue to be used, as
well as the possibility of contact with at least some of the objects, not only by the blind but
also by children and the public in general.
We should note too that different modes of exhibition can be combined or new ones invented,
the goal of which is the optimum communication of the public with the exhibit.
2.
The exhibitions policy has to answer the question: what exhibitions should be
designed, organised and mounted? always in relation to the museums aims. For most
museums the permanent exhibition, which is associated with the type of museums and its
goals, is considered an important priority. The number, size, duration, character etc., of the
other kinds of exhibitions mentioned above, should be chosen.
Market research is extremely important for larger museums, which have the possibility of
long-term planning. This allows for the analysis of the prospective market for cultural goods
in its entirety, including social makeup, desires, geographical ambit, etc. In this way the
exhibitions policy is not designed in a vacuum, but is adapted to the needs of the community
itself.
However, we should point out that other, extraordinary reasons for organizing exhibits often
arise: an anniversary, a conference, the acquisition of an important object, etc. However, the
usefulness of the subject, its attractiveness to the public, and the overall cohesion of the
exhibits are examined so as to justify its organisation.
Organising the Exhibition
As we have already said, the exhibition is perhaps the museums most important tool of
communication. For this reason, the success of the final product, as shown to the public, is of
paramount importance. Consequently, it must have a clear aim, and a beginning, middle and
end. Given the complex nature of the undertaking, museums select an exhibition team to
carry it out.

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The administrative/organisational authority of the museum appoints a curator responsible

for the exhibition, selected on the basis of their knowledge of the specific subject,
organisational and communications skills, open-mindedness, breadth of views and ability to
collaborate. The curator collaborates with the directorate of the museum and transmits its
directives to the team. The other members of the team are drawn from all sectors of the
museum (collections programmes for the public administration).
A second curator - archaeologist, art historian, historian, or other - undertakes the
processing of the subject, the museological analysis and so on.
The architect-museographer (designer) is an essential member of the team, responsible for
the artistic design of the exhibition, its final functional and aesthetic appearance.
The programme-communication officer coordinates all educational programmes, lectures,
colloquia etc., as well as all publicity for the exhibition.
The conservator takes care of the suitability of the exhibition spaces and the condition of the
items to be exhibited.
The administrator is responsible mainly for financial matters.
All members of the exhibition team are chosen for their knowledge, experience and ability;
they work with a clear division of responsibilities, awareness of the hierarchy and in
collaboration with each other. They function as an effective team, exchanging and
synthesizing opinions.
The curator and the Exhibition Team define the tactics to be followed in organizing the
exhibition. They choose the methods, determine the timetables and keep to them. They seek
and secure funding. They check the expenses continuously, as well as the quality of all the
elements. They discuss the ways of presenting and projecting the exhibits, as well as their
scientific and aesthetic aspects. They examine any other element that arises, depending on
the kind of exhibition, such as agreements with other foundations or local authorities on the
tours, contacts with consular authorities for exhibitions abroad, etc.
Stages in Realizing an Exhibition
The mounting of an exhibition follows certain stages, in which specific tasks are carried out,
as referred to briefly below.
Stage 1: Preliminary work
The subject of the exhibition has been chosen, but here the whole idea is reviewed. The
target public and the ways of attracting it are examined. The desired result and the cost of the
exhibition are defined. A preliminary investigation is made of the exhibition venue (access,
security, etc.) as well as exploratory work on the objects to be exhibited, the possibilities of
loans, the state of preservation, etc. Investigated too are the estimated budget, additional
funds, possible sponsors, events accompanying the exhibition, external collaborators,
collaboration with other museums, the research of existing equipment etc. In short, the
Organisational Plan of the Exhibition is completed.
Stage 2: Preparation. On the basis of the plan, the museum proceeds with the following:
a) Monitoring of the objects and their condition.
b) Compiling the list of exhibits, drawings, photographs, etc.
c) Studying the sources, the archives and completing the literature search.
d) Examining all the educational media.
e) Studying the climatic conditions.
f) Charting the visitors route.
g) Examining the security of the public and the exhibits.
h) Drafting the first installation plan.
i) Reassessing timetables and budgets.

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Stage 3: Completion of the organisational plan

a) Compiling the final list of exhibition objects.
b) All texts and information material are selected.
c) Exhibition catalogue and/or album are completed and posters, leaflets etc. are
chosen.
d) The final organisational plan of the exhibition is detailed into ground plans, sectionselevations, perspectives etc. and the manner of mounting is decided on.
e) For exhibitions abroad, a study is carried out on best methods for packing and
transportation of item.
f) The condition reports are prepared (by conservator and curator), which will be
updated if necessary and emergency works take place. The objects are identified by
means of the condition reports, before, during and after the end of the exhibition.
g) Checking the lighting.
h) Completing condition reports, audio-visual materials etc.
i) Printing of invitations and organisation of the inauguration day.
j) Organising the publicity and all the parallel events.
k) For exhibitions abroad, insuring the exhibits, detailed scrutiny of the terms of
insurance, signing of contracts etc.
Stage 4: This is the stage of realisation.
At this point of the Organisational Plan of the Exhibition is implemented.
a) The works are mounted by specialists, adequately equipped.
b) The cases and objects are installed.
c) The final climatic conditions and the fire safety, security systems are checked.
d) The objects and the venue are lit.
e) The placement of informative texts and/or accompanying material is completed.
f) The costs are checked.
g) Works are completed for the inauguration day.
Stage 5: Operation of the exhibition
This is very important and is often neglected because those responsible for the exhibition
believe that their work is finished after the inauguration. During the operation of the exhibition
the following should be attended to:
a) Market research and recording of impressions, reactions and impact of the exhibition.
b) Monitoring the exhibits and the climatic conditions of the venue.
c) Examining the functionalism of the exhibition and all the services for the public.
d) Preparing final accounts and payment of outstanding invoices.
e) Generally, undertaking complementary measures to cover deficiencies that emerge
during the operation of the exhibition.
f) Holding the parallel events.
Stage 6: Dismantling of the exhibition
The objects should be removed from the venue with the same attention and care as they
entered it. That is:
a) The exhibits are transported with special packing, checking the condition reports and
safe transportation.
b) Loan objects are returned with a letter of thanks and a condition report.
c) Decisions are taken on the fate of the equipment (showcases, lights, video etc.).
d) The final financial statement is given.
Stage 7: Evaluation of the exhibition (feedback)
There should be special meetings of the Exhibition Team to evaluate the following:
a) Fulfilment of goals.
b) Response of the public.
c) Quality of the organisation.
d) Budget.
A detailed report is compiled, addressed to the administration, so that the weaknesses may
be avoided in the next exhibition.

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General remarks on organising exhibitions

As we have said, an exhibition is a complex, original creation which is presented to the public.
Its planning requires professional know-how as well as creativity and imagination. Each
exhibition created carries out a historical action, not only for the museum personnel or for
academia but also for the public in general. Enjoyment is combined with knowledge.
Consequently, all the actions planned must bear in mind these prerequisites. Let us look at
certain details.
The orientation of the public from the moment it enters the museum should be easy and
understandable, both in terms of physical access and what is offered. Exhibition routes, the
caf, the shop, WCs, information bureau, must be easily accessible.
Special attention must be paid to the texts and the captions accompanying the exhibits.
They must be short and easy to understand, without specialist terminology. They must be
popularized with scientific authority. If specialist terminology is required it should be put in
parenthesis. The type and size of font, the position, the size and the colour of the caption
should also be studied.
The information or audio-visual material must be informative and knowledgeable, yet must
not compete with the objects themselves.
The lighting of the venue and of the exhibits should be designed by an expert light engineer,
given its relation to both the preventive conservation of the exhibits (not all the objects can
stand the same light intensity of light) and to the readability of texts, information panels etc.
The essential access of the public to the exhibition should be planned from the outset. The
public is not a homogeneous mass. Measures should be taken for persons with special
needs, for the elderly, for the visually impaired, for children and so on. The lighting, the
position of the objects and the captions, and the equipment of the exhibition in general should
be designed with these specifications in mind.
The signposting of the exhibition and its function as a landmark in the museum should be
combined with the cultural marketing of the event. This not limited only to advertising but
covers a package of activities to make the exhibition attractive to the public.
Educational programmes, aimed not only at children but also at all categories of public,
should be part of the parallel events.
Special attention must be paid to the printed and electronic material produced. These
should be of high quality, because on the one hand they signify the museum even after the
event, and on the other they can be a significant source of income.
Finally, the appearance and function of the guards, as well as of all other personnel
dealing with the public, are important elements for the success of an exhibition. A guard who
is visibly identifiable, knowledgeable and polite immediately wins over the visitor.
We conclude with two references to permanent exhibitions in museums. Most of the stages
we have discussed also concern these exhibitions. The goal and basic idea of the permanent
exhibition must be analysed in depth. The type of exhibition is decisive: whether an aesthetic
approach or a thematic one with interpretative and interactive aims is chosen; whether the
visible storeroom may be useful in a section of the exhibition or in combination with audiovisual media.
The choice of the exhibits, their study and conservation are stages which we have already
mentioned.
The number of exhibits, that is the exhibition density, will depend on its type and goals. Very
often, fewer objects can offer greater enjoyment and comprehension.

36

Finally, the evaluation and feedback that must follow will indicate the necessary modifications
to be made, as well as the final duration of the exhibition.
B.

MUSEUM EDUCATION

Museums are first and foremost educational and scholarly institutions and as such have an
important role in providing education services to their users, whether these are children or
adults. They are also important resources for lifelong learning, as their collections and the
associated information can be used for educational purposes by visitors of all ages.
The form and extent of the educational services vary depending on the museums location,
collections, staff and available financial resources. Nevertheless, it is essential that every
museum draw up an educational policy and establish some form of educational service for
schools either within or outside the museum.
Education services: within museum
Before starting with the educational procedure, it is necessary to mention that every museum
should have at least one education specialist, normally a teacher who knows the museum
and its collections, and who can to help children learn. The role of this person is of enormous
value as their experience with child psychology helps present complex concepts in a simple
way.
Contacts with schools and planning a museum visit
It is of enormous importance for the museum to establish strong links with the local schools.
Museum staff is responsibility for maintaining contacts with schools, explaining in details the
museum displays and what pedagogical use can be made of them. After that, the teacher and
the museum educator can plan a school visit to the museum. It is essential that teachers visit
the museum before bringing their students that ascertaining the real educational value of the
visit. Moreover, it is necessary that part of the work take place at school. When the children
get to the museum, they must already have a good idea of what they are going to see and
what work they are going to do.
The Museum Education Room
It is useful for every museum to have an educational room. It should be big enough to
accommodate a normal sized school group, and designed for children. It would therefore
include paints and papers, boards, pencils and other school material in order to make children
at home in their own environment, while stimulating their imagination. If there is no extra
space, the educational programme can take place within the galleries of the museum.
Resource materials
Resource materials of value to children might include worksheets, information sheets,
children guidebooks, postcards, replicas and other relevant publications. Worksheets and
information sheets should be prepared by professional teachers and be well designed. They
should be presented in a way that encourages children to look at the museums collection and
ask relevant questions about museum items.
The school-visit
When arriving at the museum, children deserve a warm and friendly welcome by the educator
and museum personnel. They need to be shown where to put their things and also how to use
the toilets. An introductory talk, before going on with the educational program, is necessary,
in order to be familiar with what they are going to see and deal with. The follow-up work
depends on the museum policy; the key point to remember is to select a method for
transmitting information to children in a careful and imaginative way. This can be done via
direct interaction. In this case, children are encouraged to express their interests and respond
to a particular situation of relevance to the objectives of the educational programme. In this
way, children become more self-confident and, moreover, can overcome certain fears. Even
the program that was held in an American Museum concerning death- a theme that might be

37

expected only to frighten youngsters- became an enjoyable learning experience through an

afternoon of story-telling.
Another way of carrying out an educational programme is to have children view objects or
exhibits and describe their feelings. In their own words, they retell what they see in an object or
exhibition. In this way children learn to observe the objects in an exhibition and to process
information gained through observation. They can compare what they see with their own
environment and relate it to their daily lives. In addition, they become critical and develop a view
of how things change from one generation to another. Moreover, the follow-up work can include
making their own drawings or collages, using designs copied from museum objects. Museum
labels of the objects giving information on what it is, how old it is, how it was used etc., can be
used in matching games involving skill in reading, understanding, categorizing etc.
Education services: outside the museum
Some museums do not conduct educational programmes inside their premises. They take
their services out into the school community. This can be done in different ways.
Loan services
Museums can lend objects from their collection to schools for short periods. Teachers may
use them, presenting real examples of what they have taught their students. The objects are
provided in specially-designed boxes, and accompanied by notes for teachers. The benefits a
Loan Service can bring are great. Objects which might otherwise remain in store, are serving
an educational purpose both for teachers and children. Moreover, this encourages teachers
and children to visit the museum and see other exhibits from the museums collection.
However, any museum considering setting up a School Loan Service should also consider
some disadvantages. Borrowed objects have a great possibility of decay or damage.
Moreover, this procedure can be time-consuming and a further strain on the museums
resources.
Talks in schools
The museum educator or curator can give a talk to schoolchildren, making it more pleasant
and comprehensive with the aid of film and slides. Children appreciate someone else apart
from their teacher talks to them. Moreover, the use of photos slides and videos excites
childrens imagination and helps them express their feelings and impressions of the objects
presented.
Special events
Organizing special events is one of the most effective ways of providing an education service.
They can take all sorts of forms. A common approach is to choose one theme, which might
be an activity like dressing in a specific historical period and give children the chance to
develop it in their own way.
Publications
Museums should produce different types of publications aimed at children. Written resource
materials allow children and parents to take part of the museum home with them. A first step
is to give careful consideration to the layout and the design; when buying a book, children pay
attention to its colours and drawings. Parents want to buy something well written and easily
legible. Museum staff is required to research, write and illustrate these books. Although, this
procedure is time-consuming, it is an excellent way for museums to communicate with their
young audience, whether they are at the museum or at home.
Conclusion
There are no definite formulas for setting-up an educational programme. Different types of
museums can produce different types of educational services. Interactive displays are
increasingly in demand in modern society. Learning can be very enjoyable, especially when it
is fun and engaging as well as interesting. Interactive displays allow visitors -especially
children- to learn at their own place. Children get in touch with objects from different periods.
38

They investigate their social and cultural infrastructure thus stimulating their cognitive skills
and imagination. Through proper programming, museums can provide an enjoyable learning
opportunity for children.

7.
A.

MUSEUM COMMUNICATION
MARKETING THE MUSEUM

A look at events of modern society suggests that marketing is now part of everyday life and
can be at times unscrupulous and unethical. Such examples might include packaging of
politicians, war campaigns in the last years, image-making of entertainers. Sometimes even
the verdict of important trials underlines the presence and the control of marketing in every
aspect of everyday life.
So, the question that follows is why should the sacred halls of museums want to adopt this
arguably corrupt concept? What does marketing have to do with conservation, preservation,
research and education? Why has marketing become an imperative and what are the results
of its use for the museum? The idea of applying marketing to non-profit organizations, such
as museums, had its birth in a series of articles entitled Broadening the concept of
marketing by Kotler and Levy in 1969. According to these, museums need to be marketingled; this argument modifies the orientation of the museums purpose from the place to the
potential visitor.
The introduction of marketing into museums can be attributed to a variety of factors whose
importance ranges from one country to another. Museums are finding themselves in an
increasing competitive market-place, especially when the time is by definition limited and a
great number of alternatives if offered to the public: going to see a play, visiting an exhibition,
going out to a restaurant, watching a sports event Therefore, museums have moved a few
steps forward in catering for these new market developments, and have changed the patterns
of marketing in order to maintain audiences vividly interested by improving the individual visit
and by promoting their collections. Moreover, new social conditions have changed the
character of museums. Especially after the Second World War, the pace of change in society
has quickened and the rapid growth of new technologies has affected many traditional
patterns of economic and social life. Museums have been seriously affected by these
changes and their institutional nature has developed quite considerably. A new managerial
ethos has been imposed on museums. The collection has met bureaucracy and museums
became gradually synonymous with enterprises. Therefore marketing is an imperative for
museum management and museums became increasingly receptive to it.
Furthermore, the reduction in state funding and the need to find new financial resources in
order to allow museums to expand, forces them to find ways to generate supplementary funds
and to establish the means for better communication directed towards various target groups.
As mentioned above, it is important for all museums to open their doors to the public and
enrich their facilities for the public benefit. In this way, museums approach their visitors and
expand their sense of immediacy and participation, without necessarily imposing a deviation
from ones daily life. This can be achieved with the application of marketing theories.
In the case of museums, one such theory involves the mixing of a number of tools to execute
a particular strategy (known as the 4Ps). These combined tools facilitate the interaction
between the museum and its visitors. Traditionally, the tools have fallen into four broad areas:
what is being offered (product); how the museum meets its costs (price); the location of the
museum (place); the nature of its message and the means to communicate them to the public
(promotion).
Within the marketing mix, any museum has to strike a balance between these 4 factors. It has
to develop a product or services to meet the needs and interests of the market. It has to
ensure that the way in which that product is made available or priced will generate demand. It
also has to ensure that its physical position or outlets are effectively cited; and it has to

39

promote and publicize its services in the market context. It has to develop a good working
relationship or good public relations with its users/patrons in order to maintain and develop
interest in the museum services and to fulfil its mission. The analysis below defines the four
Ps and provides the core framework of the analysis and evaluation that follows.
a.

Product

The product is the key component of the marketing mix. It is an amalgam of different services.
The product is divided into two wide sections: the general facilities and the research facilities.
It comprises the basic component that shape the museums identity and personality.
General facilities include all the improved services that museums have in order to make the
museum experience easier.
A cloakroom should be situated at the main entrance of the building and be free of charge.
The area should be under continuous supervision for security reasons.
The museum should have at least two toilets for males and females, which should always be
clean, tidy, sufficiently supplied and effectively equipped for disabled persons as well.
Access for the disabled is important in all areas of the building. Even if the primary
architectural structure of the museum does not have such a provision, the construction of a
flat ramp from the street to the building and also near the lifts or the staircase or the use of a
wheelchair lift is essential for all modern museums.
Every gallery of the museum should have enough seating for visitors to rest while exploring
the collection.
An information point should be situated at the main entrance of the museum. Trained staff
should be able to cope with all kind of enquiries concerning the museum and the collection
while at the meantime supply the visitors with brochures and leaflets containing useful
information for an easier and comprehensible visit. The staff at the information points should
always be polite and willing to handle all kinds of visitors. The first and the last impression of
the museum are made by staff working at the information point; it is essential that the visitor
leave the museum satisfied.
The admission charges should not be removed, as this constitutes an income for the
museum; nevertheless they should be set for different groups of visitors and special discounts
should be made for students, pupils and senior citizens.
The opening hours must be convenient and flexible for all groups, so that the museum targets
a wide range of audience. It is preferable that the museum remains closed one or even two
days a week and stays open until late in the evening on the other days. A good idea may also
be to keep the museum open until early night hours and free of admission once a week. That
would encourage a wide range of people to visit the museum more often and make use of all
its services like the cafeteria and the shop.
A cafeteria or a restaurant area is of fundamental importance when planning a marketing
strategy. The museum must offer its visitors the chance for relaxing and provide some form of
refreshment, in order to encourage longer visits and attract additional income. Depending on
the resources, the frequency of visits and consumption, the museum must cover at least the
basic needs of a thirsty and slightly hungry visitor. On a more sophisticated basis, a selfservice or a tableservice restaurant would be ideal. The museum may employ its own
catering staff or perhaps operate such facilities under franchise arrangements. The decoration
of this area should be relative to the museum context. A modern museum should normally
have a modern caf and in any case such spaces should be decorated according to the
museums general style and type with references to its collection or exhibitions so that the
visitor does not feel detached from the museum when entering the cafeteria. The goal after all
is to open the doors of the museum to the public and not just another caf around the city. If it

40

is impossible to provide catering and refreshment facilities, it is worthwhile providing

information on their whereabouts in the vicinity of the museum.
The establishment of a shop can definitely generate income and succeed in covering a large
part of the museums operating costs. Ideally, the shop must produce and sell a wide variety
of exhibit reproductions, as well as works of art inspired by the main collection or selectively
by its temporary exhibitions. It is better for the museums profile to avoid the strictly
commercial objects and especially anything that can be found in a common department store.
The shop should carry all museum publications, guides, exhibition catalogues and
educational material. The presentation must be challenging to capture the visitors eye, so
special attention should be given to the proper lighting, easy access and quality of fittings.
Trained and polite shop staff must be capable enough to promote the products and increase
takings. The pricing policy depends on management costs, discount and VAT requirements. It
needs to be related to market prices for similar items outside the museum. Further,
collaboration with other museums or cultural institutions in producing publications or a variety
of museum objects may help to reduce costs. The shop must be effectively situated within the
museum either by the main entrance or by the exit (if different).
Research facilities include corporate presentation, study rooms, events and activities. A
specialized and updated library with a wide range of publications of museological, historical,
scientific, art historical, photographic interest relating to the museums content should be
among the museums first initiatives. It should be located within the museum and open to all
researchers, academics, students and to the general public. It would be better for the
museum not to have a lending library as this leads to loss of books and funds. Ideally, the
museums library should have separate study-rooms and on-line catalogue for visitors
convenience.
Apart from the educational programmes, dealt with in a pervious chapter, education in general
is one of the museums main roles and should contain a range of courses for all kinds of
visitors. Training, research, workshops, interactive programmes, talks, guided tours, lectures
and special events relevant to the museums main or temporary collection help museums, on
the one hand, to develop general interest in their work and, on the other, to build political and
public support for their services. Organising cultural or purely entertainment events is certainly
time-consuming and it requires at least one multipurpose room within the museum, as it is
preferable not to organize such activities within the galleries for security reasons. However, it
is a valuable financial benefit as the museum may rent this multipurpose room or the
restaurant area for such events. Preference should be given to individuals or organisations
already known to the museum as sponsors or benefactors. The planned event may be
combined with a tour of selected parts of the permanent and temporary exhibitions. The
nature and programme of the event, the decoration of the rented areas, the appearance of the
invitations, the publicising of the event etc. should always be discussed with the museum, in
order to fit with its profile. If there is not enough space, these events could be run outside the
museum in other locations, in conjunction with other organizations. Considerable
opportunities would be given to a museum if it started collaborating with other museums or
cultural institutions. It is important to share experience, let alone costs and resources. This
would raise the financial support by the various individual or state sponsors and would also
broaden the number of people involved in the museums activities.
b.

Price

The price is related to the way a museum meets its costs. For example, some museums meet
their cost entirely or in part by subsidies from public authorities; others may have only minimal
public funding and rely heavily on admission charges and retail sales (as described and
analyzed above) for their income. The reality nowadays is that, regardless of its legal status, a
museum should be active enough to search for its own financial resources and not rely
exclusively on the state funding, as this will never cover all the running costs it will encounter.
A pricing policy needs to be included in the consideration of price. The pricing policy is
determined by supply and demand. The museum will have to compare the price with other
museums or cultural organisations in order to ensure that its policy does not damage its

41

markets, while allowing it to meet the full range of its responsibilities. If the quality is high and
the services are good, the prices can be set above the average. However, what visitors are
prepared to pay for the facilities provided should be calculated. During the procedure of
determining the pricing policy it is a crucial to strike a balance between demand, competition
with other leisure sites and general costs of a museum.
Fundraising is another key-factor that needs to be taken into consideration when considering
price. Museum income comes from a variety of sources: shops, cafs, admission charges,
events, educational programmes and workshops (if a charge is required). Apart from these,
certain sources of income are donations in the following forms:
monetary donations and grants from individuals
monetary donations for the funding of a given expense or for one of the programmes
undertaken by its various departments (e.g. a purchase of an art work, the funding of
a temporary exhibition or the funding of the salary of one of the museums employees
like the curators or the librarian)
donation of assets, which include free banking services, free investment advice, free
building materials, free advertising of the museum in the media
donation of property, like detached houses, apartments and other types of property,
which it either sells or keeps for the purpose of housing various departments,
services and collections.
Private sponsorships contribute to an income increase. Companies should be approached for
sponsorship funding. It is very important to explain the policy to the patrons and make them
understand how their support helps the museum to meet its objectives. The museum must
establish a permanent relationship with all likely donors and benefactors, even if the
immediate benefits of their gifts are not directly apparent. The museum should be open and
flexible to a productive dialogue with all those who are interested in encouraging its work and
must find ways to recognise and honour its sponsor. After all, sponsorship is a business
relationship of value and benefit to both sides. All donors should be recorded, preferably in a
Book of Donations, which should be updated by the museum and be available for
consultation by all interested parties. The names of major donors and benefactors should be
inscribed on marble and bronze plaques at the entrance of the museum. A museum room or
building may be named after a donor if it is acquired or constructed in its entirety as the result
of a gift, or if all or most of the objects in the room were donated by a single donor or their
family. Donors of services or materials are acknowledged in the same way as other donors
(e.g. the names are recorded on the list of donors to a specific exhibition, or on the printed
material distributed at an event or on a printed advertisement banner).
Finally, the establishment of a Friends Organisation may help to increase the museums
income. It usually consists of a group of individuals who wish to provide moral and financial
support to the museum. "Friends" of all ages can support the museum by:
Publicising its activities
Providing for the enrichment of its collections
Organising fund-raising events
Encouraging its aims through donations, legacies, voluntary work and suggestions for
improvement.
Usually the Friends Organisation receives a special membership card, which entitles
members to:
Free entrance to the museum
Invitations to events and opening ceremonies of the museum
Participate in the programme of activities organised especially for their benefit,
including lectures, guided visits to the museum focused at improving knowledge of its
collections, and culturally oriented walking tours and excursions
c.

Place

Place is mainly concerned with the location of a museum. Museums are established in many
different types of locations in town and in the country, in specially-built or reused buildings, in
rich or poor communities. Their location is one of the key factors of their accessibility and a
determining factor for their visitors. Many museums have the luxury of being situated in
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central, well-known parts of the city/town, with easy access by means of a variety of
transportation (metro, bus, taxi, car) thus attracting a wide range of visitors. Others may be
located in remote areas with difficult access. In both cases the venue should be promoted so
that perspective users are informed of museums location, exact direction from the city centre
and ways (means of transportation) to get to it.
Whether the museum is centrally located or in a remote corner, adequate signposting will
direct the visitors to their destination. Signs should be placed on roads at appropriate points. If
car parking is limited, then there should be signs indicating where alternative parking may be
available.
Even if the location of a museum is pre-determined and far from a central point, museum
personnel can actually take advantage of this fact by making the museum an appealing
destination in its own right.
d.

Promotion

Promotion is synonymous with advertising; so this P refers to the ways that a museum
makes itself known to the public. The most common ways of promotion are the press,
posters, advertising, mail-outs, leaflets, the broadcasting media and the Internet. If there is
only limited funding available for a promotion campaign, it is better to effectively invest it.
Considerable funds can be wasted on poorly conceived promotional materials. The museum
should work and collaborate with a designer on these issues, getting creative advice.
Producing a leaflet, containing all the necessary information on the museum, is the least an
institution can do for its promotion. The leaflet should contain a small history of the museum,
a paragraph for its founder(s) and its purpose within society. Additionally, all useful
information like admission charges, opening hours, basic facilities, routes to the museum
need to be mentioned. It is also appropriate for the museum to have a logo to be used in all
printed materials and should be easily identifiable by its users. The museum should also have
banners or flags for its main or temporary exhibitions. These should be put outside the
museum as well as in other central places of the area/town. The banner must contain only
essential information: logo, address, telephone number and duration of the event. Apart from
that, photos from the exhibition/event as well as the details of the sponsor (if there is one) are
absolutely essential. A good working relationship with the museums sponsors is vital. The
museums sponsors can be central/local government agencies, corporate sponsors,
charitable trusts, individual donors, international funding bodies and local businesses. The
relationship is mutually beneficial; the better the museum advertises its sponsors, the more
funding will bring back to the museum.
The news and broadcasting media have an important role in presenting a profile and develop
a reputation. It is therefore useful to develop a good working relationship with the media,
based on the mutual understanding of each others requirements: the museum needs
advertisement and the media need news and information. Press conferences, press releases,
interviews and appearances on radio and television are promotional policies that can
contribute to the successful reputation of the museum. All these actions should be undertaken
with care and attention to details. The information given or sent to the journalists should be
clear and without mistakes because otherwise it may lead to bad publicity and damage the
museums profile and mission.
Finally, the enthusiastic participation of museum staff and its involvement in the promotion of
the museums profile can play a vital role. The director should be available for interviews
because this is a successful way to promote your institution. The director should also be
willing to meet its visitors, speak with them and inform them about the museum and its
collections. The immediacy of the director towards the visitors is very challenging for them
and may motivate them not only to visit the museum again but also to advertise it to other
people. In fact, word-of-mouth publicity from a satisfied audience is a very powerful means of
developing support for the museum.

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The application of marketing in museums

Through marketing, museums achieve their desirable goal, i.e. to increase the number of
visitors. By issuing free-entrances or entrance-fee reductions almost everyone is able to enter
a museum and spend a few minutes even during a job break - a luxury that was unreachable
and unbelievable a few decades ago. Today, more and more people visit museums and show
interest in their collections and exhibitions. These visitors cover a variety of ages: children,
adults and senior citizens. So, one can not talk about the public but of many different publics
according to age group, socio-cultural background and reasons for visiting the museum.
Museums develop different kind of interpretations and activities in order to keep their interest
vivid and alert. The museums educator, in terms of the educational role of the museums, is
occupying children. School sessions targeting different ages within museums appeal more
and more to schools. The interactive activities keep their interest intense and stimulate their
imagination. The success of the educational programmes and their appeal to a younger
audience may rouse the whole familys interest or curiosity to visit the museum. Juniors as
well as adults can enjoy educational services within museums. Augmented services such as
social events and continuing education for all ages are yet another service that museums
increasingly offer. A rich array of events is organized which deepen a visitors relationship
with the museum: e.g. opening night events for new exhibitions, special programmes for
targeted groups, such as art workshops for families with young children and young
professionals. They now enter museums with a greater familiarity. Today, no museum can
afford to ignore computer technology. The new style of living is increasingly revolving around
the use of multimedia. Computer technology has entered every section of human life;
museums could not be an exception. Displays become more interactive by means of
technology and adults become more familiar with the museum when they have the chance to
discover an artwork through multi-media appliances. In that way museums approach them
and expand their sense of immediacy and participation, without imposing something different
from everyday life.
Moreover, the museum-going experience nowadays, involves going beyond the traditional
emphasis on objects and collections and making the visits unique and memorable.
In making improvements in exhibits and programmes, managers can choice between exhibit
designs which offer different levels of information, reach different groups and employ different
formats such as interpretative text, story-telling, interactive elements and stimulation of an
environment, mood or historical situation. There are also a variety of other facilities provided
by the museums that resulted from marketing techniques and that can enrich the museum
visit improving its prestige. These services include convenient parking and access to mass
transit; outdoor lighting and security; ample seating; dining and shopping facilities; way-finding
and user-friendly gallery design that make it easier for visitors to move around the museum;
and furnishing richer information and context regarding objects, collections, and exhibits, such
as narratives, historical analysis, databases, biography and a variety of interpretive tools.
Finally the museum staff is the most valuable asset in the successful implementation of a
marketing plan.
Visitors now enjoy a variety of facilities within the museum. The issue is the extent to which
managers want to proactively influence or design the elements of the visitors experiences, as
opposed to the degree to which they want to leave their visitors alone. On the one hand,
museums seek to safeguard the visitors direct encounter with works of art, minimizing
distractions in the form of noise, congestion, and an abundance of printed material. On the
other hand, they should take into account that many visitors need information and
interpretative tools in order to appreciate the exhibits they are encountering.
So, there is no single formula which museums can employ to shape visitors experiences.
Different museums will strike different balances. Yet from a customers point of view,
managers should look upon their museum, in varying degrees, as a designed environment
and arrangement of activities, services and experiences that will be of value to their visitors.
After all, museums should be places that offer exceptional services, settings and ambiences
throughout the year.

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The flip side of the coin

Does the introduction of marketing place the museum and its integrity as well as its role in the
society at risk? Does it not, after all, by trying to please the greatest number, lower the quality
of the institution? As there are two sides to every question, the application of marketing on
museums has a dark side as well.
It can be argued that many museums are nowadays synonymous with shopping centres or
cafs and restaurants. Large museums especially have been transformed into famous and
publicly frequented places. A museum can be carnival-like (with musicians, jugglers, and
street performers of all stripes on the outside, and gawking, rude tourists within), a cultural
discotheque, a flea market for browsing-but not buying, a restaurant and rendezvous or
department store.
It is true that cafeterias, restaurants and shops are the most crowded places within museums.
People do visit a museum only to use its facilities. An English survey showed that shopping is
now the second most popular leisure activity in the UK, after watching television. Museum
shops especially are considered as very trendy places for shopping. Todays museums seek
to respond to cultural trends that promote versatility, de-partitioning, and curiosity. They must
also compete with television, film and video and take into account a faster pace of life, the
publics wide range of interests and competition with other museums. But the museum is not
a large conglomerate, nor is it a hamburger restaurant; nor is it a theatre. In addition it is not a
gala or a huge super-market. It is supposed to be a place dedicated to contemplation and
learning. This excessive use of the various marketing tools may lead (or it has already led in
some occasions) to a transformation of the museum, which may start to lose its character and
scope. The excessive use of technology as a means of interpretation can prove common and
boring, instead of helpful. Film and video cannot replace a work of art. On the contrary they
may sometimes distract the visitor (distract in both senses: to amuse and to disturb).
Visitors expect a cognitive experience as well, to encounter things in museums which contrast
with the routine of work and everyday life; and technology is definitely part of the daily life.
Some events and activities that have been recently organised by big museums could be
presented in cinemas or theatres. Educational programmes addressed to all ages can take
the form of storytelling. The potential danger in this case is that at times the enthusiasm to tell
a story compromises the authenticity of the presentation. The piece of information used for a
story-telling may not always be realistic. Moreover, given that tourists or leisure visitors are
not very demanding and that they may be easily satisfied by a fun experience, exaggerating
description of a work of art can be done on purpose, in order to increase the attendance
figure. However, museums have an obligation to deal correctly with their material, as they are
the essential backbone to the survival of material heritage.
Some museums have been urged to maximise their income not only through the operation of
shops, restaurants and a paying programme, but also by hiring out parts of their premises
under the motto art is trendy and sells, for birthdays or weddings celebration within the
exhibition areas. This is another objection to the marketing strategy as it diminishes
scholarship and professionalism, which lie at the core of the museum mission.
Museums are standard-bearers in which the public should place its trust; converting
museums into mere entertainment centres renders them no different from ordinary
entertainment media and robs them of their primary educational purpose.
The balance between education and entertainment in museums should be weighted in favour
of the former. Museums have a special nature, because they display authentic objects.
Activities that prioritise entertainment convert museums into places that have been
characterized as mumbo jumbo or Disneyfying museums. Such marketed activities become
synonymous with commercialism, which is alien to the world of museums.

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Marketing conclusion
The word museum has had a variety of meanings throughout the centuries. The examination
of their history suggests that during these different periods, museums have had different roles
and objectives depending on the characteristics of the epoque and on the society they
served. Changes became imperative in the first half of the 20th century and a complete
transformation was noticeable in the 1980s and 1990s. The sleepy and inactive days, which
existed for many years, are long gone. Museums have decided to dust down their glass cases
and to open them up to ever-accelerating change. The motto art for arts sake had to change
because arts assets should not be a luxury of the educated and the elite. So, museums have
assumed new roles as the demands and expectations of the public have developed.
Museums have decided to open their doors wide. The starting point was the expansion of
their purpose in response to the changes in their environment. Early and improved definitions
include a new purpose for the public benefit that gives the museum a push towards the new
marketing era. And, as mentioned previously, its applications can be both positive and
negative.
Since museums exist for the public benefit and their goals are social, their marketing needs to
reflect these goals. Marketing is necessary for the museum to achieve its purpose in relation
to its public. It is not a commercial tool, and should not commercialise or compromise the
integrity of the museum and its objects. It should be a philosophy that seeks to achieve the
purpose of the museum, namely to improve the museum-going experience. Improving the
museum-going experience involves going beyond the traditional emphasis on objects and
collections and even the emphasis in recent years on information and education. Generating
experiences involves activities in which visitors can participate directly. It also includes
stimuli combining sight, sound and motion, environments in which visitors can immerse
themselves rather than behave merely as spectators.
Marketing comprises all of the above. But marketing is not an end in itself; it can only be a
means at the service of the organization, intended to allow it to attain its pre-defined
objectives efficiently. It is only one branch of administration and it is the responsibility of the
institution leaders to determine in which area/areas it is to be applied. This discipline is
equally addressed in both extreme cases:
a. To those who fear that instead of a serious institution the museum may become a
place of popular entertainment with no standards of quality to govern the selection of
exhibits.
b. To those who glorify marketing and are attempting to transform the museum
experience into a Disneyland one.
The purpose of the museum has changed throughout history from a depository of a collection
to the conservation of a collection for future generations. More recently, it has started
operating for the public benefit. It can succeed in achieving that purpose with the help of
marketing. If marketing mission is precisely defined and if strategies are selectively
implemented, marketing will remain a valuable tool serving the museums educational,
scientific and cultural role in society.
B.

MUSEUMS AND THE PUBLIC

As the realization of the social role of the museum in the field of education and social
development has increased, museums have been preoccupied not only with proving that they
are not "elitist" institutions, but also in knowing their visitors, in understanding their needs and
in offering attractive services. An expanded role for museum education today should be
understood not merely as the provision of classes for organised groups but as the shaping
force behind the museums general policies and objectives. The educational potential of the
museum is expanding, together with new methods of working with audiences, as museums
gain a broader social relevance. The discussion of this dimension has moved from education
as a department within a museum to the assessment of education as the mission of the

46

museum. The expansion of the broad educational role of museums is altering the balance of
functions within museums and the relationship between school knowledge-museum education
that can cooperate in new approaches for teaching and experiencing knowledge. However,
education is a matter connected with the wider use of communication, one of the primary
functions of museums. Communication is a vast area that includes activities that, apart from
attracting visitors to a museum (publicity and marketing), investigating their education and
entertainment needs also provides for their intellectual needs.
Within this framework, museums should offer these services in order to communicate.
Permanent displays, temporary exhibitions, educational programmes for various target groups
(school teams, adults, families, people with disabilities etc.), workshops, other demonstrations
are the necessary tools in increasing access to any institution. When thinking about a
response to visitor needs, it is important to remember the audience diversity, the multiethnic
nature of many societies, different cultures, first languages or intellectual level.
An important aspect relating to education and communication is the interpretation of displays
and exhibitions. Exhibitions tend to be the predominant form of communication between a
museum and its public. Often the public's perception of a museum is based on their
experience of its exhibitions. Most major museums around the world are undertaking
temporary exhibitions more and more frequently. The number of people involved in mounting
and consuming of exhibitions becomes larger, thus reinforcing the visitor's experience and
making it more vivid, lasting and memorable than previously. However, the key point of
displays and exhibitions is interpretation. Interpretation is the act or process of explaining,
clarifying, translating and presenting a personal understanding of a subject or an object. As
museums have adopted a more proactive stance, the information on collections is
increasingly related to the viewer through a planned and directed explanation giving it
meaning. A museums collection is of no value unless it can successfully lay claim to the logic
of classification that removes it from the arbitrary or the occasional.
Museums use a range of communicating media to achieve interpretation, but mainly texts or
speech. Museums and exhibitions are "kinds of texts", structured to persuade the visitor that
what is being seen is important, attractive and true. From the advent of the thematic
exhibition, the importance of the written word in educational environments has gained greater
recognition. Events such as the redisplaying of large institutions in themed exhibition spaces
indicate that the proliferation of text as an educational support has become a ubiquitous fact
of a museum's life.
Interpretation has to do with presenting information in ways that excite curiosity and stimulate
the desire to learn. Interpretation is a process undertaken on behalf of someone else; the
emphasis is on the mediation between the collections and the visitors. It is now important that
museums move from a traditional model of communicating with the public by transmitting
authoritative facts to passive receivers to a more constructivist model of education.
One of the most important aspects as far as the relationship between museums and their
visitors is concerned is its accessible to all members of society. According to Museums
Association in the UK (1999), ".museums belong to everybody. All members of the society
have a right to visit and use them. Museums have a duty to share knowledge and to give
delight, to be approachable at every point of contact, to reach out to audiences, to offer
reasonable access to their collections". Access refers both to physical and to philosophical
elements.
In recent years, a more radical approach to physical access to buildings has come into being.
Buildings are more hospitable for everyone and lots of improvements have been made to
ensure that a variety of audiences gain access to all (or most) areas of a museum.
Architectural provision, planning for the total visitor experience, design and creativity try to
take into consideration disability issues, thus presenting an attractive, well-designated and
unique building while simultaneously solving practical problems. The key to design special
needs individuals is often to design for a universal environment. Disability issues should be
taken into a serious consideration so as to provide equal opportunities for everyone.

47

In order to be community-focused, open to the public and to communicate with a diverse

audience, museums use new ways of making visits possible, interesting and useful. These
include a greater variety of exhibition subjects, providing multiple layers of interpretation,
using new communication media (such as video and computers) and other ways of exploring
collections, such as interactive exhibits or 'hands on exhibits allowing a multi-sensory
approach to an exhibition. Moreover, the so-called "outreach programmes" (portable or
mobile exhibitions, lending of authentic material, information through Internet) have become a
major part of the museums function. The concern of providing access to museums has
increased. Museum visiting is a cultural phenomenon that has to be available to everyone. A
widening museum audience is a product of wider education and improvement in museum
practice. Only in that way, can the museum become a place of cultural changes, a "forum" of
promoting civilization
Education and entertainment are closely-related, complementary aspects of every museum
experience. Although museums are fundamentally more educational in character, museums
can use entertainment as a method of education by offering the chance for people to increase
knowledge and experience through new, exciting and potentially valuable programmes, where
learning can better achieved via enjoyment. Exploring history or civilization in the museum
space, by means of dynamic and imaginative projects or walking through remains of the past
can be much more fun than just reading about it in the classroom.
Who visits museums?
Museums are complex social phenomena that have modified their role many times throughout
history in response to different needs. Although they have been open to the public for more
than three hundred years, it is only in the last twenty years that they managed to find common
ways of communicating with their audiences. New museological theories have been
developed as the need for museum transformation has not only been understood but has also
become an imperative in the face of new missions and increased demand. However, a
museum does not change only if its building and certain museographical practices alter. It
revolutionizes when the perceptions of its purpose are transformed and when wider social
needs force it in a certain direction. Nowadays, museums cannot survive only by preserving
their collections for future generations. They have to prove that they also offer a range of
varied services to the community, that they justify the funds spend and that they can compete
with other forms of cultural industry.
In order for museums to develop a number of strategies aimed at unravelling the needs of this
vast mass people the public they must break it down into constituent groups, with both
differences and characteristics in common. All visitors have a variety of physical, intellectual,
social and other special needs. The potential museum audience comes from a variety of
backgrounds. The crucial point is how a museum can work closely with the community and
how the public can be represented efficiently in a museum. Merriman argues that one of the
principal tasks of critical museology is the removal of cultural barriers to widespread
participation in museums. To open up to the public, museums should insist on 'cultural
empowerment not only by achieving a visitor profile representative of the overall population
but also by representing those groups whose past and interests have been overlooked.
Making provision for common needs and reviewing the museum experience from a separate
point of view (of each visitor or groups that have common needs) museums go a long way
towards enabling most people to partake of this experience. The concept of target groups in
museums has been borrowed from market research theory and approach.
Responding to the question why museums should be concerned with their audiences, the
answers can be summarised as follows: museums deal with a common heritage and
museums are (often) publicly funded. The accountability for those funds implies that all of the
public should have access to the museum.
However, people are deterred from visiting museums for a number of reasons. On the one
hand, structural deterrents such as physical and sensory access (how difficult the museum is
to get to, opening times, provision for special needs) or cost of visiting (transport, admission
charge, money spent in the museum) are a few of the reasons given. On the other hand,

48

cultural deterrents such as the image of the museum (as a building and as a cultural
institution) and the perceived relevance of the masses (do museums have anything for me?)
are other reasons. Today it is generally accepted that cultural deterrents outweigh structural
ones, not mainly because structural barriers are not insurmountable but because museum
visitors can be divided into three types:
1. Regular visitors, who are familiar with museums, go often, choose between different
kinds, various exhibitions and are well informed consumers.
2. Potential visitors, to whom museums are within their range of leisure choices but they
do not go often. Details of admission charges, distance etc., determine their specific
choices.
3. Non-visitors, who do not even think of visiting museums and for whom therefore,
structural factors are irrelevant.
Evaluation-Research
In order to understand why certain people visit museums, how museums can broaden their
audiences and how people feel or react during a visit, visitor surveys are carried out mainly in
Western Europe and in North America. The general principles of research-evaluation are an
indispensable task for museum management. Visitor research is an essential management
information tool, including both qualitative and quantitative results and should be undertaken
regularly by means of a systematic programme. Although it may appear difficult, useless,
costly or time consuming, it is the best way to find out who visitors are (or not), why they
come, what they think thus ensuring museum effectiveness and attractiveness to the public.
Failing to see the relevance of researching-evaluating museums and their activities is
tantamount to a lack of professionalism and a lost opportunity to offer better services for the
public benefit.
Studying visitors can be helpful for the following reasons:
1) to justify the value of the institution itself
2) to gather useful information for long term planning
3) to assist the formulation of museum activities
4) to assess the effectiveness of running activities such as exhibitions or
educational programmes and improve them
5) to increase general understanding of how people use, feel/react in museums and,
improve research and evaluation itself formatting a basis for professional
dialogue and constructing new museological theories
Research and evaluation should not be confused. Research involves the generation of new
knowledge and other information that offer material for new theories but that is not necessarily
of immediate use. Evaluation is the systematic collection of data/information on exhibitions
and other programmes that are useful in decision- making or in their improvement. While
research is characterised by the need to increase knowledge for professional results and the
development of conceptual frameworks, evaluation is connected with the need for specific
action and short-term results.
Both processes follow models that have been developed in educational and social studies
(sociology-anthropology), and business management. As it is difficult for a museum to carry
out a well-organised evaluation programme, co-operation with a more experienced institution
or with an agency is also a solution.
Evaluation can take place at three main stages of a museums activity::
a)
Front-end evaluation is carried out at the start of the idea, the beginning of the
development of a museum activity (e.g. an exhibition). Collected information can help the
working team to find a common point of communication with the public, in order to cover
various needs or a greater area of interests. The museum can collect information relating to
the expected visitor reaction. Front-end analysis aims to identify and eliminate errors which
might occur before the detailed activity planning begins. Issues to be considered include

49

subject and concept, titles, communication tools (objects, texts, audiovisuals, and interactive),
overall design.
b)
Formative evaluation tests ideas and sections of the work while developing the
activity. In practice, this is difficult as it is time consuming and only a few museums use it
regularly. However, it can be particularly helpful with regards to the understanding of specific
aspects of the work such as texts and interactive exhibits
c)
Summative/remedial evaluation tests the activity (exhibition) after the opening. The
information collected relates to the entire organisation and its effectiveness, detailing how
visitors act in the museum space, how they interact with objects-texts, how long the visit lasts
and how they feel in comparison to other visitors etc. This information is helpful for remedying
specifications, avoiding mistakes and gaining new ideas in the future.

Plan

Evaluate
Present

Methodologies used include interviews, observations, focus groups and questionnaires.

Basic demographic information is crucial material to outline a museum visitor profile, including
age, sex, place of residence, occupation, social-economical level, education, frequency of
visit. This information can be compared with general public demographic material in order to
understand the results in a more general context. Statistics, taken from an extended part of
the public are useful but they do not always reflect the whole truth. The key point is that
before structuring, organising a specific type of evaluation, the museum should be in the
position to answer the following questions: 1) What exactly do we want to know, 2) For what
reasons, 3) How will we use the results. The answers should underline every type of
museum evaluation.
Evaluation is a tool for museum managers to reconsider the standard of judging the success
of their work and decision-taking. It is a means to evaluate visitors in order to comprehend the
social needs of the museums existence. The proper and systematic use of researchevaluation can contribute to the development of an institution that, in the future, will have
more clearly defined social functions.
8.

BY WAY OF AN EPILOGUE

There can be no epilogue to this attempt at small handbook on Museum Management. The
issues briefly raised in the preceding pages can all be expanded on in considerable breadth
and depth, and each could be the subject of a manual itself. After all, the international
bibliography offers notable examples. There are also issues concerning museum
management which have not been sufficiently analysed or have only been hinted at.
Issues such as the insurance of collections and objects, of buildings, equipment and so on, as
well as more specific issues of security and safety in the museum can be analysed in greater
detail.

50

The particularities of the permanent exhibitions in museums, their climatic demands, the
subjects of texts and captions as well as additional information and interpretation in relation to
the exhibits themselves, are other issues which require further analysis. The particularities of
national, provincial and local, as well as thematic museums should always be borne in
mind. The terms of the museums founding and the preconditions and requisites of the
construction should also be taken into account. A manual can be written on museological
demands and the problems that must be solved when existing buildings are converted into
museums, especially if these buildings are themselves monuments of cultural and
architectural heritage.
Two terms are highlighted as particularly important in the overall organisation of museum
management: policy and planning.
At the heart of the philosophy of sound cultural management with regard to the museum are
the policies which will be outlined for each department and the planning which will lead to
their implementation.
Handbooks are often useful. However, they should not be seen as hard and fast rules to be
applied blindly, but rather as a framework and principles that should govern professional
management of this type. They should be considered more as guidelines to which the
peculiarities of each place, national or local, legal or administrative, collective or individual,
should be adapted. It is clear, nonetheless, to us at least, that this synoptic management
proposal for a cultural organisation at once complex and symbol as is the museum should be
read with certain provisos in mind. These are condensed in the following: Recognition of the
role of the specialist disciplines concerning the objects; trust in the citizen and his social
groups; democratization of relations within the museum; combination of a hierarchy with more
collective decisions, without reducing efficiency. The professionalism of the museum
personnel is a precondition for the organisations success.
The principle of assistance should become a mode of administration, in parallel with
dialogue, briefing and evaluation. Finally, museums, as complex organisations, also have a
dynamic developmental dimension. However, it should never be forgotten that their primary
and paramount role is to disseminate cultural values to society. These are magnitudes that
are difficult to quantify but which contain qualitative characteristics without which societies
would be poorer.
In the exposition of the text in this manual some repetitions might be encountered. This, I
believe, is natural. Issues of communication are also concerned in the management of
collections and of exhibitions. Issues of environmental conditions are identified in the museum
itself, its collections or its exhibitions. The same applies to the public or to other sectors of
activity.
We believe that for all its brevity, this booklet will be a useful vademecum.

9.

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