Do all people know this? Do they understand and believe this fact? May be “yes”, but may be – “no”. Why? The answer of this question is complicated, but we will not try to give it.

Here we will give some facts and evidences about the real functionality of the museum institution today – what happens in the museum, who visit it most frequent and why.

If we – the museum professionals think that people come in our museums only because we’ve done a great work and have presented unique exhibitions – we lye ourselves. If we think that the cultural heritage attract people, only because they know how important it is – we lye ourselves again. The reason people to like visiting museums is the chance to communicate with the heritage, with us /museum professionals/ and with other people as well.

That’s why the contemporary museums first of all are communicative focus, place, where people expect to communicate and to feel well, doing it. In details – the communication in the museums have few aspects.

The most important and first aspect is the communication with history, or the past. People know that all types of museums show the human history. It means – archeology, ethnography, technology, art etc.  In the museums - all human activities in the previous ages are presented from different point of view. It depends on the personal interest of every visitor which museums are preferred. People want to get in touch with the historical artifacts, because they want to know the objective truth for the human past. They want to know what scientists say about it. That’s why - the first motivation for communication in museums is the scientific interest of the visitors.

From another point of view – people are interested in art – not only as history of the artifacts and of the famous authors. Even not in the art technologies, as well. The visitors want to communicate with the art masterpieces – to feel the inspiration of the authors, to feel their own, personal emotions and to receive an impulse for creativity, to spend pleasant hours together with the artifacts and to feel better from ethical and aesthetical point of view. This is the main reason the galleries to be full of people. The percentage of well educated in art history visitors in the galleries is very small. But most of the people like communicating with art and that’s why they are visiting them. The same is with the other museums.

Another motivation of the museum visitors is to learn something new. Even though they are not well acquainted with the fact, that museums and the cultural and natural history heritage can give huge amount of knowledge, they feel that can obtain a lot of new information in the museums and this information can be useful, can help them feel better qualified, or even to feel better informed in their everyday contacts with friends and family. So, people really need to learn in the museums. The museums, for sure are important educational recourse.

And the other important reason for museums - to be so popular and interesting for the public is that they give possibilities for entertainment. All contemporary museums know this fact and have their policy for museum entertainment. It is a specific model of entertainment – with different elements that give the public pleasant moments in communication with the heritage. For example – it is amusing to see something “alive” - from the prehistoric era, to do something traditional, to learn something in process of doing it - in a way, typical for the 18^th century for instance… Sometimes it is a great fun to transform your life or everyday practices into similar from the past. You are amusing and learning at the same moment.

Please, look at the examples:

Dinosaurs Exhibition | Museum for Kids in San Antonio, Texas - YouTube

Science Museum Lates - YouTube

A Wonderful Day Out With Thomas at the Gwili Railway Carmarthenshire 24/04/2011 - YouTube

The Samsung Children's Museum - YouTube

 

The given examples show how many different ways for amusing in museums exist. And it is visual, that this is amusement, based on obtaining knowledge and new experience, taken from the past. Museum revitalization of the past can be real fun and in the same time – unique knowledge, gained by practical activities. It is long lasting knowledge, because it is obtained not only by looking and listening, but by practice and pleasant emotions as well. 

Having in mind these factors – museum staff arrange its activities with professional care for their public. The researchers in museology recommend museums to apply products that combine at least 3 of these components: science, art, education and entertainment. There is a   variety of good practices in all over the world.

Storytelling Meshes with Kinetic Sculpture: Museum Proper - YouTube

Ontario Science Centre: Teachers & Students

 

What does it mean “Good practices” in the museums? If we speak about the 4 components – reasonable is the question – what about the heritage itself, what about the exhibitions and the classical guided tours that we are in a habit. The answer is – all practices in the museums that work well and that are well accepted from the public are good. But they should be changed very often, because the public change its expectations. The tradition to have guided tour is good, but not enough today. The visitors usually have short time, even when they have a tourist trip/vacation. They want to see more, to learn more, to amuse more etc. That’s why if they decide to visit this or the other museum – they want to receive – the most and the best for the shortest time, if possible.

Maybe this is not very good for the museum experts, but this the reality. That’s why – the museum staff should offer different tours with a lot of interaction, education elements, quick and large information, pleasant moments of amusement and nice memories…left after the end of the visit. Good museum practices are those, who offer most of these elements on a base of the heritage /exhibits, exhibitions etc./ And the new technologies are very important part of this process. We will explain this in the next units of  this e-course, but here you can see some examples of good museum practices with or without using ICTs.

Открий съкровището - Децата и културното наследство на Югоизточна Европа - otkrivam.com

Living History Naper Settlement -- A Tour of the Museum - YouTube

Stanford lab makes virtual reality more life-like - YouTube

!!!Amit Sood: Building a museum of museums on the web - YouTube

 

The uniting base of the good museum practices for visitors is the communication. In its different aspects of manifestation – the museum communication gives the public feeling for completeness of the visit and reasonableness. The positive result of the good museum communication is the positive attitude towards heritage, towards the museum and towards the country.