Museum and Nation-Building

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Introduction
Background To The Study
Statement of Problem
Aims and Objectives
Significance of Study
Scope and Limitation
Research Methodology
Literature Review
Conclusion
End Notes

Chapter One
Introduction.

Background to the study

Doubling as educational hubs and conservation centers, museums play a pivotal role in the preservation of culture. While these institutions range in size and speciality, each museum’s mission revolves around the display and care of its collection, which often comprises art, artifacts, and other objects.¹

Today, many museums are among the most visited sites in the world. In order to grasp how this important cultural phenomenon came to be, it is important to understand its origins, explore its evolution, and trace how its role has changed over time.

In its most basic sense, a museum is an institution that houses, cares for, and displays objects. Usually, these objects are of cultural, artistic, historical, or scientific significance.²

The word “museum” is derived from Latin which was, in turn, inspired by mouseion, the Greek term for “a shrine to the Muses.” In Classical Greek mythology, the nine Muses are the goddesses of the arts and sciences, making them perfect patrons for these knowledge-based institutions.

Earliest museums were private collections that were not of open nature and were only accessible to narrow circle of people. They displayed rare and curious natural objects and artifacts. Some of them worked as “wonder rooms” or “cabinets of curiosities”.

Oldest known museum was Ennigaldi-Nanna’s museum, collected by Princess Ennigaldi and dated from 530BC.³ It was located in the state of Ur and it held Mesopotamian antiquities. It was apparently visited enough that it had to have clay labels in three languages. Museums opened for public started opening in the Renaissance but many important museums started opening in 18th century. Oldest public collection of art is Capitoline Museum and it started in 1471 with donation of sculptures by Pope Sixtus IV to people of Rome. Oldest museum in United Kingdom opened in 1660, is Royal Armories in Tower of London. City of Basel bought private collection Amerbach Cabinet in 1661 and opened it to public in 1671. From it developed Kunst museum Basel.⁴

Nation-building

To begin with, there is a need to stem from an integrative ideology in order to build up a national feeling and give the people, through this, a national identity. Therefore, a common ground for all different groups in this emerging nation needs to be found. This could be, for example, religion, language or history.

Obviously, the more in common, the bigger is the chance to build up one society. It is important to state, that, in this case, ideology should be understood in neutral terms as “systems of thought and fundamental philosophies that explain the past, present and future according to certain value models.”⁵

When we look closer on the national identity, we can find several definitions. We have decided to connect two of them theoretically. It is also very important that this ideology comprises ideas applicable to everyone and idea of national cohesion must be stronger than the idea of separation.[8]

Connecting ideology with national identity, different people have their own individual identities. “As long as the primary identity and loyalty lies with the tribe, clan or an ethnic or ethno-religious group and the ‘national’ identity level remains subordinate or missing, a nation-state will continue to be precarious.”⁶

The history of this development is linked to the pursuits of establishing empirical cultural sciences and nation-building in times of the competing loyalties and rivalling movements of regionalism, nationalism and imperialism.⁷

However, the commence and the national museums in the long established European states and what may be called ‘pre-modern’ nations, followed by the analysis of the national museums in Europe’s ‘modern’ and ‘post-imperial’ nations. National museums are also analysed within a framework of nations-empires religions, from the late eighteenth century to the present time. National values and notions of a ‘Western civilization’ are expressed in the national museum culture in Europe, including the values of the Enlightenment, which results in a variety of interpretations about universal, national and transnational phenomena, values, loyalties and identifications. The implications of such Interpretations have taken
different forms and have had different consequences depending on the formation of transnational ideas.⁸

Statement of Problem

The recent upsurge in the construction of new museum buildings is an important contemporary phenomenon. In recent years every major city has engaged in the creation of some new museum. This has happened for two specific reasons: the renewed interest in global institutional culture and the museum’s function in relation to art itself and its comprehension.

The way museums are designed today is the product of an ever-changing design model, in all aspects of museum development since the British Museum (the first independent museum in the world) was founded in 1759 to the present day. A main focus of study would be specifically of what major shifts occurred in museum design and why changes were made.⁹

This study is also required to determine the next logical step in museum evolution following the contemporary design trends of museums. The visitor’s perspective has come to play a never more important role in museum design. The purpose of this study will be to understand the museum experience from a visitor’s personal point of view, visitor expectations and how the visitor’s personal background would impact on his experience of the museum building.¹⁰

This study aims to create as pace that both appeals to and fools the senses without alienating the visitor,
while still providing a maximum amount of entertainment. This study includes an investigation of the visitor’s personal, social and physical context.

This study investigates the concepts of museum globalization and the design of a museum for the third millennium. It comprises the integration of Modularity, Theme, Dynamics and Networking. The aim is to create a museum that reflects cultural ideals and today’s social needs, as well as the visitor’s relationship with the exhibit.¹¹

Aims and Objectives

The aim of this project is to carry out a study and determine suitable exhibition and
preservation spaces for museum and Nation-building.

The objective of this is to;

  • Carry out a case study of museums and Nation-building.
  • Generating a unified concept that will address the contributions of Museums to Nation-building
  • Identifying and analyzing the economic importance to Nation-building.
  • Producing a design that will respond to the problem facing museum and Nation-building.

Significance of Study

This project is intended to serve as a recreational and vacation center for tourists and
travellers its design incorporates exhibition and preservation spaces. This will be seen in
its form. Also, a tourist centre for the state to generate revenue and also create employment opportunities, promoting rural enterprises and national integration among other things.

  • This project will serve as a reference towards future museum designs.
  • It will contribute to the enrichment of architectural books.
  • It will serve as a body of reserve knowledge to be referred to by researchers.

The research method to be adopted shall be data collection from primary and secondary sources; while primary sources shall involve mainly oral interviews, participants observation, personal interviews and site investigation.¹² Secondary sources shall include data collected from published and unpublished materials, literary research, magazines and internet. It shall also include case studies on existing museums and related facilities within and outside the country. The information obtained from various methods of research shall culminate into analysis of data collected, deduction from analysis, postulations of solutions and design proposals.¹³

Scope and Limitation

The scope of this project will be limited to investigating the contributions of Museums to Nation Building. It will also design a modern museum that shall be a cultural complex that houses ancillary/support facilities. Some of the facilities will include, Reception Desk/counter, Permanent Exhibition Spaces, Temporary Exhibition, Restaurant and Kitchen, Snacks Bar, Museum Shops, Administrative Offices, Library, Conservation Laboratories, Storage spaces, Conveniences for male and females, Mini Auditorium (300
seater), Amphi-Theatre, Sculptural Garden.¹⁴

Museums play a crucial role in preserving local culture. With careful documentation and artifact preservation, a culture can be recorded and remembered regardless of its future. It can also be shared and understood by those from different cultural backgrounds.

 It describes about the museum’s collection section wise.
 It helps to plan activities for the public, volunteers, and donors as well as staff, field management.
 It is the roadmap which can guide to a museum in evaluating new acquisitions, in budgeting, prioritizing resources, and overall planning and management of different sections of collections.
 Defining scope of collections can be especially useful in justifying donation refusals.
 It can help museum to decide on selective acquisition which museum objects might be appropriate for hands-on use, and which might be appropriate for deaccessioning.
 It also helps in financial planning including manpower, cost of curation, maintenance, storage, security, inventory control, and energy costs to provide a stable environment for collections.
 It helps to maintain higher ethical standard followed by the appropriate legislations of the country.

Research Methodology

The aim of the research is to gain information about the situation of domestic museums reflected in the services provided by them. The key question is to what extent the museums have put the idea into practice that the museum is not an end in itself, it is not a “closed” scientific institution, but it is open for the needs and opinion of the public, in fact it is a cultural institution providing services to the public in accordance with these needs.¹⁵

The research studies have a double aim: on one hand it is a review of the state of museums, namely, if they have elements that can be considered as germs of quality management, and studying the quality management systems used in the cultural sector (primarily in higher education an at libraries) and in for profit institutions on the other, as well as surveying and analysing the experience of quality management systems applied by museums over the border.¹⁶

Currently, the museum sphere does not have a system of quality management in Hungary. Working out a quality management system for museums will create the basis for a career path model for museum staff, which can give a long term perspective to people working in the museum sector, and can contribute to retaining highly qualified professionals, ensuring the next generation of museum professionals, and to the
museum profession becoming more attractive.¹⁷ Working out a museum quality management system will release new perspectives for museum education programmes and sessions to be fitted in the national curriculum, too.

Literature Review

This dissertation is in museum studies, a field of enquiry which considers the history, theory and practice of collections, exhibitions and programmes within museums today. Collections are an essential aspect of current professional museum practice. As Sharon MacDonald notes “the assembly, preservation, and display of collections – is fundamental to the idea of the museum, even if not all museums directly engage in it” (2006,241). Tristram Besterman similarly asserts that collections are at the heart of museums and form “their life-blood and raisond’etre” (1992,29).

Within the field of museum studies much has been written about museum collections. Literature is available on how museum collections have been amassed (see MacDonald2006;Young, 1999), and what museum collections mean to their various audiences (see Pearce1994; Dudley2010).

The aim of this research is to explore an aspect of institutional collecting and museum practice, whereby accessioned objects are permanently removed in order to improve the overall quality and manageability of a museum collection. It is informed by an understanding of how and why objects enter collections, which often provides the rationale for deaccessioning. It specifically investigates whether the quality of a
museum’s collection can be improved as much by the removal of objects as it is by the acquisition of new ones. Implicit to this research is examining how museums develop strategies for reviewing and developing their collections and how deaccessioning is utilised within these strategies. It is important to note that this research only examines deaccessioning undertaken explicitly to improve the overall quality of collections and not for other reasons. For instance, it does not include deaccessioning for ethical reasons, such as the disposal of human remains or deaccessioning of hazardous material.

There is a general consensus amongst most authors writing on institutional collecting that the current way in which museums collect and hold their existing collections is unsustainable. James Gardner (forthcoming 2014), Keith Thomson (2002), Mycal Brown (2012) and John Holt (2011) all cite rising costs for caring, preserving, insuring and storing collections along with the reduction in funding pools as the reason museums are reconsidering their approach towards their collections and collecting practices. Gardner also adds, with the cost of care being “relentlessly cumulative” each year ,museums are having to dedicate more and more funds towards their collections as they continue to acquire more objects thus placing a heavy financial burden on future generations (forthcoming 2014,8). A 2006 study conducted by Nick Merriman and released by UK Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) also concluded that “the continued indefinite expansion of museum collections is not a realistic option especially in the light of ongoing difficulties with documentation, conservation and adequate storage of existing collections”(Merriman 2006,24). As a result, museums will need to dedicate more and more funds toward collection maintenance with fewer funds available for other museum programmes and activities (Thomson 2002,59).

According to Patricia Ainslie, collections should not be viewed as ‘absolute entities’ and deaccessioning and disposal area“ direct consequence of acquisition’(1999,178). Ainslie’s view of institutional collections suggests a cyclical approach whereby the character and emphasis of a collection is continuously shaped through the process of acquisition and disposal. In this model accessioning and deaccessioning are
complementary processes that are both used to focus and refine the quality of a collection. What are the advantages of a focused collection and how do museums define what should be in the collection? Weil defines what should be collected or retained by the institutional collector as an evaluation of the utility of an object and its usefulness to a museum in carrying out their institutional mission (2004,290). The advantage of a well focused and defined collection is that it arguably places museums in a better position to serve their audiences. The result of a wide ranging collection that lacks focus, according to Warner Haldane, is that it provides limited material to draw upon for any one topic and is not able cover any subject in great depth. Marketing a museum under these circumstances becomes problematic as the museum lacks specific themes to attract an audience (1992,3).

Conclusion

Major reconstructions have occurred in museums in Britain in recent years, and these have some resonances for Commonwealth developments. Some in the Commonwealth seem to be preserved in aspic, as in some galleries in the Indian Museum, Kolkata, or the Pacific ethnography display in the South Australian Museum, Adelaide. Notable examples of overall reconstruction and reformulation can be found in Victoria, British Columbia and Melbourne or Singapore. The colonial museum mutated into the ‘national’ (sometimes meaning provincial in federations) very quickly. Studies of museums need to pay them much greater attention. Some museums continue to play a significant role in scientific research.

Endnotes

1Afigbo, A.E & Okita, S.I.O (1985). The Museum and National Building. Owerri: New Africa Publication.
²Allen, O.A (1974). The Organization of Museums: Practical Advice, the Museum and its Functions (3rd edition). Paris: UNESCO Publications.
³Aloi, R (1962). Museum–Architecture–Technics. Italy: Ulrico Hoepli Ching, F.D.K (1995). A Visual Dictionary of Architecture. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
⁴DeChiara, J & Crosbie, M.J (2001). Time-Saver Standards for Building Types (4th edition). New
York: McGraw-Hill Companies.
⁶Duerden, D (1974). African Art: An Introduction. London: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd.
Ekpo, E (1997). Two Thousand Years of Nigerian Art. Lagos, Nigeria: Federal Department of
Antiquities.
⁷Glancey, J (1998). 20th Architecture: The Structures that shaped the Century. The Overlook
Press, Woodstock, NewYork.
⁸Hudson, K (1977). Museum for the 80’s: A Survey of World Trend. New York: UNESCO
Publications.
⁹Levin M.D (1983). The Modern Museum. Faber & Faber Ltd
¹⁰Lewis, J.A (1968). Principles of Natural Lighting. London: Applied Science Publishers.
¹¹Lord, G.D & Lord, B (1991). The Manual of Museum Planning. United Kingdom: HMSO
Publications.
¹²Neufert, E & Neufert, P (2001). Neufert Architect’s Data (2nd & 3rd edition.). UK: Blackwell
Publishing Company.
¹³Peter, I.O (1980). The Growth and Development of the Federal Department of Antiquities,
Nigeria.
¹⁴Zevi, B (1949). Towards an Organic Architecture. London: Faber & Faber Ltd.
¹⁵Barbara, D.M. 2002. Cultural Anthropology; Museums, Art and Culture. U.S.A; AHyn and Bacon.
¹⁶Ekechukwu, L.C. 1990. “Encouraging National Development through the Promotion of
Tourism: The Place of Archaeology” in Andah, B.W. (ed.) Cultural Resource Management; An
African Dimension. Ibadan; Wisdom Publishers Limited.
¹⁷Etounga-Manguelle, D. 1998. “Culture and Development: African Responses”, in Serageldin,
and Taboroff, J. (eds.) Culture and Development in Africa. Washington, D.C; World Bank.
¹⁸Federal Ministry of Information. 1979, Decree No.77 of 1979 Establishing the National
Commission for Museums and Monuments. Lagos; Government Press.
¹⁹Jelinek, J. 1973. “The Modern Living Museums”. Museum; XXVII 2:52-58.
²⁰Jones, A.L. 1993. “Exploding Canons” The Anthropology of Museums.

– Olaniyan, Akinwale Oluwafemi
Museum of Colonial History, Lokoja.


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