New Museology
A movement that shifted the focus of museums from objects and collections toward audiences, communities, and social purpose, giving rise to the ecomuseum and community-based models.
Definition
New museology is an approach that prioritizes the social roles and relationships of museums — with communities, territories, and visitors — over the traditional emphasis on collecting and conserving objects.
Scope
This topic covers the new museology that emerged from the late 1960s and was crystallized in Vergo's 1989 volume, together with the French nouvelle muséologie associated with Georges Henri Rivière and the ecomuseum. It addresses the reorientation of museums toward territory, intangible heritage, participation, and social action, and the redefinition of the museum's purposes around publics rather than possessions.
Core questions
- How does new museology redefine the purpose of the museum?
- What is an ecomuseum and how does it differ from a conventional museum?
- How can museums serve and be governed by their communities?
- What does it mean to shift from collections to relationships?
Key theories
- Museums as social practice
- The contributors to Vergo's volume argued that museums should be understood and reformed in terms of their social functions and effects rather than as neutral storehouses of objects, opening museology to questions of purpose, politics, and audience.
- The ecomuseum
- Rivière defined the ecomuseum as an institution rooted in a place and managed with its community, integrating heritage, environment, and population so that the territory itself becomes the museum.
History
The roots of new museology lie in the social ferment of the late 1960s and the 1972 Santiago de Chile Round Table, which called for museums to serve society and development. The French nouvelle muséologie, the ecomuseum movement led by Rivière and de Varine, and Vergo's 1989 collection consolidated the term, and its ideas continue to inform participatory and community museology today.
Debates
- Social mission versus collections care
- New museology's emphasis on social purpose and community has been criticized by some for displacing the museum's core duties of collecting, documenting, and conserving, while advocates argue the two are complementary rather than opposed.
Key figures
- Peter Vergo
- Georges Henri Rivière
- Hugues de Varine
- Peter Davis
Related topics
Seminal works
- vergo1989new
- riviere1985
- davis2011
Frequently asked questions
- What is new museology?
- New museology is a movement, named in Peter Vergo's 1989 book, that reorients the museum away from objects and toward its social roles, audiences, and community relationships.
- What is an ecomuseum?
- An ecomuseum is a community-based institution, defined by Georges Henri Rivière, that conserves and interprets the heritage of a specific territory in partnership with its population, treating the place and its people as part of the museum itself.