Ignorare - to ignore : forgotten publics and museum materiality

Abstract

Museums have come to recognize accessibility as a fundamental requirement guiding all facets of their management and curatorial practice. Access would generally concern the experience that the museum provides within its musealized perimeter, oftentimes centred around museum materiality that is prevalently more often than not a collection of objects and artefacts. It is a given, at least at face value, that the museum would exhibit and interpret tangible and intangible heritage to which publics are given access, both physical and intellectual, occasionally also empowering them to participate in the «varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.» This somewhat superficial understanding of accessibility sits within the proviso that access concerns museum publics rather than museum collections. Indeed, as museums invest their time and energies in becoming more and more accessible, these oftentimes forget that the content presented within their musealized container might be the real challenge to engage with. It might be a case of choice, which could also be the direct outcome of a historic process, but also a matter of interpretation. Translating the historic museum, conceived as a place to conserve material culture, and make it more accessible to its publics and corresponding communities is far from being a linear process of change. Could it be that the museum’s very own raison d’etre and underlying values are lost in translation as the museum transitions from an object centred to a people-centred institution or would this transformation achieve the right equilibrium between historic identity and contemporary necessities? [excerpt]