When most people think of museums, they imagine buildings full of old stuff. However, there is more to museums than just their collections – they are cultural institutions with the mission of protecting, preserving and learning about the past in order to help future generations understand and appreciate it.
Museums are democratising, inclusive and polyphonic spaces for critical dialogue about the pasts and the futures. They hold artefacts and specimens in trust for society, safeguard diverse memories for the future, and promote equal access to heritage. They foster human dignity and social justice, global equality and planetary well-being.
In this way, museums contribute to the development of a culture that is based on universal values and respect for diversity and that includes knowledge and learning as key tools for understanding humanity and the world. In this sense, it is not surprising that museums have always played a leading role in developing the educational field, from designing and building educational facilities to offering training in the design of learning experiences.
The new definition of museum reflects these shifts. It is a more comprehensive and inclusive concept than the previous one, which was adopted in 2007. The wording of this new definition was carefully chosen to avoid controversies that could lead to excluding important museums, for example by using terms such as “museums that exhibit objects to the public” instead of just “museums”.
While the new definition does not include decolonisation or repatriation, it is clear that these issues are at the heart of many museum’s missions. This was reflected in the consultation process that accompanied its development. A total of 126 Icom’s National Committees, and over 50,000 individual museum members were consulted over an 18-month period during four distinct rounds of consultation by the Icom Define committee.
One of the most significant examples of this new approach is a project by architect Renzo Piano in the city of Turin, Italy. Rather than a grand and immobile building, this soaring structure has a strong urban presence, with a series of sloping walkways that connect the different parts of the site and create a continuous spatial continuity. Its façade, reminiscent of the shape of an eagle’s wings, is made up of long and narrow slats that modulate intense natural light while framing the surrounding mountain scenery.
Inside, the museum is a vast volume articulated by staircases and passageways that allow for a maximum degree of flexibility. This allows exhibitions to be organised according to the different needs of each disciplinary sector: archaeology and history, art and applied arts, and modern and contemporary art. This radical approach sparked some initial controversy, but today the museum is considered a groundbreaking experiment in the way that architecture can respond to cultural demands. It is a museum that challenges the traditional notion of the ‘museum as temple’ by making it a space for the activation of art’s social functions. Designed to be a “social condenser”, it is a place that reflects the spirit of the times, in which it is crucial to make museums active and responsive to their communities.