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MA/PhD Theses Abstracts of Current Students & Alumni |
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Bond, Samuel (MA). Changing Voices: The Evolution of the Public Role in Policy, Procedure and Programming for Cultural and Historical Museums. (Weisman). 2001.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the changing role of the public in the planning, development and implementation of policies, procedures and programming in cultural and historical museums. Within this thesis I will discuss the identity and purpose of museums, from both an historic and a contemporary perspective, and includes a variety of insights into the future of the relationship between museums and the public that they serve. Roles and purposes for museums such as educational institutions, entertainment facilities, public forums, tourism destinations, storehouses, and others are discussed from both the internal perspective of museum professionals and the external perspective of visitors and communities.
The study is also intended to explain some of the processes of change that museums are going through in an effort to become more meaningful in the modern world, and to utilize their resources to more effectively transmit information, initiate and participate in a public dialogue, and provide useful education to the public.
The work includes a look at the changing roles of the administrative Boards, the professional staff members, the volunteers and the public who are seeking new ways to work together, with new tools and technologies, and with greater overlapping responsibilities, to produce accurate, entertaining and useful exhibits and programs.
The research for this study includes reference from texts, research papers, professional journals, institutional reports, internal institutional memos, surveys, and other printed sources. Information was also distilled from lectures, seminars, personal interviews, work experience, and observation.
Within this thesis I will conclude that historical and cultural museums are changing in the way that they communicate, work with, and represent the public. And that these changes are proving to be mutually beneficial to their administrative, operational and curatorial staffing. They are seeking new partnerships with individuals, societies and cultures as a way to broaden their understanding and interpretation of, and their accessibility to, their ever growing audiences. Museums are beginning to have confidence in their ability to address contemporary social issues, and to represent living societies. They are expanding their role as educational institutions and they are reaching out into the communities that they serve in new, creative and challenging ways. The public has never been more active in the museum process, and this partnership is the way of the future.
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