No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Museum Ethics
Abstract
The Philosophical Origins of EthicsCodifying Museum EthicsAccountability: To Whom?Collections: Ethical Management of a Core ResourceApplying Ethics in the MuseumEthics and the LawConclusion
... In order for museum codes of ethics to be effective, they have to, as already suggested, be constantly debated, revised, and distributed. Museum codes do need to encourage a new perspective on museum research and to focus more on the institutional responsibilities towards society in its entirety (Marstine 2011b;Besterman 2009). ...
... 1 For the history of codes of ethics see Besterman 2009;Hein 2000: 93-98;Boyd 1991;and Macdonald 1991. For a list of codes of ethics by various organizations see Nicholson and Williams 2002. 2 The parameter of enforceability of museum codes of ethics is discussed in Andrei and Genoways 1997. ...
This paper aims to focus on museum codes of ethics and discuss their provisions on museum research. Museum research is an important part of museum work; it is an ethical responsibility of museum professionals to perform this work for society and to encourage this undertaking in their institutions by other stakeholders. But how do codes of ethics in their current form encourage that? Instead of promoting a contemporary idea of research – multi-faceted, complex, open to the participation of many different interested parties, such as different professionals and communities of knowledge – they seem to understand research as a rather single-faceted phenomenon, object-oriented and collections-based. If codes of ethics are the epitome of museum professionalism and museum values, then these ethics should be embodied in new provisions for museum research. Notions like social inclusion, public accountability, and transparency, are central in museum research, and should be included in all codes of ethics as well, reflecting the efforts museums make to embody democratic ideals and share both research and writing of history with their audience, thus creating communities of knowledge. This paper aims to contribute to the debate on museum codes of ethics and to provide some ideas for future revisions.
... Adherence to professional ethical codes is critical within the self-regulating museum sector. Besterman (2006) notes that because museums are the unique "custodians of an intergenerational equity" they are accountable to global stakeholders of the past, present and future. Competing claims are hence unavoidable as international and national priorities shift in response to technology, economics, politics, and so on (p. ...
... That his repatriation campaign can be so quickly perceived as politically motivated reiterates the necessity of critically examining nationalist rhetoric. Besterman (2006) notes that as public institutions, it is critical to avoid "the taint undermining public trust" and that modern museum policies must be diligently transparent and media-sensitive (p. 439). ...
Presented to the Arts Administration program at the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master's of Arts in Arts Management.
... According to Willis, "In all cases, whatever the historical cause, objects are divested of context, meaning and power", attributing to museums the connotation of places of amnesia rather than of memory (2015, p. 145). That is, identifying that the Universalist approach derived from the Enlightenment set of beliefs is basically the consecration of only one hegemonic perspective, which has historically neglected, omitted or forgotten the incorporation of others' voices in the interpretation of their own inheritance (Besterman, 2010;Curtis, 2012;Maranda, 2015). Consequently, it might be held that the universal museum not only detaches indigenous sacred objects from their spiritual meaning, but also hierarchically displays them in ways that perpetuate the idea of Western supremacy over the cultures these artworks represent. ...
This article investigates the potentials of the concept of soteriology in museology. It is claimed that modern museum politics and policy can be analyzed as a soteriology built around the idea that culture is a means to promote peace, and that it can offer salvation from the inhumane horrors of World War II. The UN in general, and UNESCO in particular, played key roles as soteriological institutions after WWII, akin to that of the modern nation-state in the Westphalian order after the so-called Wars of Religion of the 17th century. The soteriological element in the nation-state is the nation, in UNESCO it is culture and heritage. Building on this as a premise the text explores the museological potentials of the concept of soteriology.
... According to Willis, "In all cases, whatever the historical cause, objects are divested of context, meaning and power", attributing to museums the connotation of places of amnesia rather than of memory (2015, p. 145). That is, identifying that the Universalist approach derived from the Enlightenment set of beliefs is basically the consecration of only one hegemonic perspective, which has historically neglected, omitted or forgotten the incorporation of others' voices in the interpretation of their own inheritance (Besterman, 2010;Curtis, 2012;Maranda, 2015). Consequently, it might be held that the universal museum not only detaches indigenous sacred objects from their spiritual meaning, but also hierarchically displays them in ways that perpetuate the idea of Western supremacy over the cultures these artworks represent. ...
... Museums, galleries, theatres, and concert halls were expected to develop participation among diverse communities, build educational infrastructures, and generally establish a substantial social, educational, and economic role. The new Museums Association definition echoed those aspirations by emphasising public service and the social contract between the museum and its users, and it sought to reposition museums as being central to the national political agenda (Besterman, 2010). In doing so, it added a legal stipulation: that museums had to keep their collections 'in trust for society' (Anon, 1998). ...
Surveys of the UK museum sector have all had subtly different remits and so represent the sector in a variety of ways. In the last three decades, surveys have almost invariably focused on accredited institutions, thereby omitting almost half of the museums in the UK. In this article we examine how data collection became tied to the accreditation scheme, and its effects on how the museum sector was and is represented as a professionalised sphere. Yet, while is important to understand the role of surveys in constructing the museum sector, this article goes beyond critique to show how the inclusion of unaccredited museums drastically changes the profile of the museum sector. We outline the inclusive approach that the Mapping Museums project team has taken with regards to data collection, and compare our findings with those that are produced when a survey is limited to accredited museums. In so doing, we sketch out an alternative, heterogeneous version of the UK museum sector and make recommendations based on that evidence
... En este sentido, los lugares tradicionalmente asignados al sujeto y al objeto de estudio se han visto trastocados (a través de relatos polifónicos y de la participación de los representados en la representación) (Baxandall, 1991;Berlo y Phillips, 2004;Simpson, 2001). Otro tanto se puede decir del interés por conectar los museos con el mundo virtual creando museos accesi bles sólo a través de la web (Witcomb, 2010), o la preocupación creciente y sostenida por los aspectos éticos de las exposiciones de los museos (piénsese en los reclamos de repatriación de objetos y colecciones que fueron en su día botín del expolio colonial o en las exi gencias de devolución de los restos humanos de comunidades originarias) (Simpson, 2001;Besterman, 2010). Éste es sólo un breve y sintético esbozo de lo mucho que está en juego detrás del tema de los museos y de una política de la representación que hasta hace no tanto se escudaba en una presunta cientificidad para mantenerse al margen de toda crítica. ...
Museums are social and cultural texts crossed by their reply to other ideas and the reflections of their own. In these spaces things are said, ideas enounced and things made, in other words -the reality is ordained, valued and given a hierarchical structure, which transmit a way of seeing the world. This work attempts to find out what the Museum of America in Madrid does, to whom challenge and how it builds up its position in relation to the past and present of a continent and its relations with the old metropoli.
... It is widely acknowledged that in the museum context the ethics surrounding choices ' are rarely between right and wrong but often involve informed judgment about "competing goods"' (Besterman 2006: 432). A major incentive for ethical values to be subject to systematic review is the fact that ethical concerns, in societies that change rapidly, very often shift and evolve continually (Besterman 2006). One could very well ask then: what is the role of ethics in debates between tangible and intangible values? ...
This paper reflects on the challenges living religious heritage poses to contemporary museum ethics and specifically with regard to public display and accessibility. Drawing on extensive research conducted in the monastic community of Mount Athos, Greece, this study outlines the development of the museum concept through the organisation of treasury displays and exhibitions. It examines the ethics that underlie current approaches in the monastic community towards displaying and providing access to collections. It is emphasised that the perceived threats of touristification and museumification are at the centre of an apparent reluctance towards embracing widely adhered to principles of contemporary museology. Nevertheless, it is argued that the role of museum and heritage professionals is crucial in respecting the different value systems of the monasteries while advocating solutions that render Athonite heritage more open to the public.
"The representation of tangible and intangible heritage from the socialist period in Romania has increased and diversified since the House of the People opened for visitors in 1994. Permanent and temporary exhibitions focused on various aspects of life under socialism—from food, housing, and entertainment to the lifestyle of the Ceaușescu couple—have flourished especially in the 2010s. In this article, I examine the different ways in which exhibitions represent the socialist past by displaying objects linked to consumption, leisure, and domesticity and by organizing interactive experiences around the material culture and spaces associated with socialism. The main questions addressed are: Whose perspectives and experiences of the socialist period do these exhibitions represent? What are the direct and indirect ways in which these exhibitions make political commentaries? What are the ethical issues raised by the strong interactive component of some of these experiences? In order to answer these questions, I will look at four exhibitions opened after 2010: Casa Ceaușescu (Ceaușescu Mansion) and 80east in Bucharest, Muzeul Consumatorului Comunist (Museum of the Communist Consumer) in Timișoara, and Muzeul Traiului în Comunism (Museum of Living in Communism) in Brașov. My analysis is informed by research on the representation of socialism in museums since 1989, by reflections on the ethical responsibility of museums and on the political commentary they generate. Based on the analysis of the exhibitions and on interviews with the founders of these initiatives, I discuss the dimension of space and issues of representation, the interactive component as a source of authenticity and its relation with trust, and the political relevance and position of these exhibitions."
The focus of this article is upon objects in museum collections where legal title is uncertain (“orphans”), where the owner is unknown (deposited objects), or where the owner cannot be found (uncollected loans). Museums may have little choice but to continue to care for these objects even where they are unsuitable to be retained within the permanent collections. It is argued that the current law in the United Kingdom prevents museums from managing their collections properly and rationalizing them where necessary. New legislation has been proposed that would assist Scottish museums. It is argued that all museums in the United Kingdom need new legislation that would enable them to manage their collections more effectively and to approach the review of collections and the disposal of unsuitable objects in a proper and balanced manner, acting for the benefit of the public.
Since December 2015, a set of twelve Ethical Principles for
Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage enriches the
paradigm of the 2003 UNESCO Convention. At the meeting of its
Intergovernmental Committee at Windhoek where those
principles were endorsed, and where a whole chapter of new
operational directives was fine-tuned in order to respond to the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN General
Assembly, 25 September 2015), the UNESCO Secretariat was
instructed to build an on-line platform with a toolkit about
ethics and safeguarding intangible heritage. Accredited NGOs
were also finally invited to collaborate and play a role in
developing and updating the 2003 UNESCO Convention and its
operational directives. This is a major breakthrough. In this
article we trace and discuss this ‘hop’ (1999), ‘skip’ (2012-2015)
and ‘jump’ process (2016 onwards) in the emerging paradigm of
safeguarding ICH. Why twelve principles and not a supermodel
code of ethics for (safeguarding) intangible heritage?
How do innovations like ‘sustained free and informed consent’
or ‘benefit sharing’ open new doors? What do anthropology,
folklore studies and museology have to offer? Is the online
platform a good idea, in the light of recent developments in
international conventions on biodiversity, bioethics or the work
of WIPO and other organisations ?
This paper looks particularly at the ways in which artists have employed photography in projects and interventions, which act to disrupt the established discourse of authenticity in museum narratives. Using four examples the article considers how photography has been used by artists to problematise museological constructions of ethnographic and historic veracity. In particular it focuses on the ways in which categories, such as “real” and “authentic”, which have traditionally been stabilised through photography’s “truth effect”, can be made permeable and discursive through the same medium. It examines photography performed, manipulated and appropriated and considers its role in (de)stabilising facts and fictions which contribute to a critical and ethical understanding of past events and their role in shaping possible futures.
Rooted in anthropologists' long-standing roles as producers, users, and disseminators of images, this brief article takes the pulse of ethical considerations related to visual media in the discipline. Reflecting on the intent, content, and implications of the Society for Visual Anthropology–sponsored visual ethics discussion sessions at the 2007–9 American Anthropological Association meetings, we seek here to situate these events in the context of recent disciplinary engagements with image-based responsibilities and to assess their relationship to comparable endeavors in allied fields. Our considerations come together in a discussion of why, how, and to whom visual ethics matter. Ultimately, we put forward a series of tentative proposals for the Society for Visual Anthropology's future navigation of these issues.
This paper seeks to contribute to the critical debate about curatorial practices and how museums can be transformed into cultural centres that are 'decolonising' their objects whilst simultaneously providing social agency to marginalised groups such as indigenous peoples. An exploration of new media theory, installation art and online museums allows us to examine to what extent an online museum might provide scope to further the debate how indigenous heritage can be displayed and curated. Through a case study of a hypothetical online museum of the San's culture, we theorise and explore in what shape and form an online museum may play a role in the communication, support, and safeguarding of the culture and heritage of the San. While online museums may and have taken various forms, we argue that a digitized reproduction of three dimensional objects within virtual rooms is not a valuable method for achieving inclusivity. Instead, inspired by new media art, we engage with a new way of classifying material which allows interactivity and communication between the visitor and curator (i.e. indigenous peoples) through the creation of both the database of, and the interface(s) to, the material archived in the online indigenous museum.
The Dead and their Possessions: Repatriation in Principle, Policy and Practice
- C. Fforde
- J. Hubert
- P. Turnbull
American Association of Museums Forum: Occasional Papers and Readings on Museum Issues and Standards
- R. W. Lovin
Ethics: The Classic Readings
- D. E. Cooper
Code of Ethics for Museums
- ICOM