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Museums and heritage
... If policy is considered to be one of the 'societal' changes mentioned here, the current state of the nationally funded (DCMS) museums in the UK has been subject to a significant shift in emphasis. Babbidge (2015) stresses that these museums are now viewed more as a part of the tourism infrastructure than as a tool for social change, education and inspiration. Baxter (2015) explains that this has led to some consternation as to the possible effects of 'mainstreaming' heritage, reducing it to 'nothing more than a commodity' (Hyslop, 2013, in Baxter, 2015. ...
... Baxter (2015) explains that this has led to some consternation as to the possible effects of 'mainstreaming' heritage, reducing it to 'nothing more than a commodity' (Hyslop, 2013, in Baxter, 2015. The increasing pressure on museums to generate income in view of reduced levels of public funding has to an extent been a financial success; income levels of national museums have increased overall since reductions in public funding (Babbidge, 2015). McPherson (2006) presaged this with her description of museums whose 'market-oriented ideology' embraced income generation and new technologies as much as visitor engagement. ...
This book explores the ways in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer a powerful tool for the development of smart tourism. Numerous examples are presented from across the entire spectrum of cultural and heritage tourism, including art, innovations in museum interpretation and collections management, cross-cultural visions, gastronomy, film tourism, dark tourism, sports tourism, and wine tourism. Emphasis is placed on the importance of the smart destinations concept and a knowledge economy driven by innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. New modes of tourism management are described, and tourism products, services, and strategies for the stimulation of economic innovation and promotion of knowledge transfer are outlined. The potential of diverse emerging ICTs in this context is clearly explained, covering location-based services, internet of things, smart cities, mobile services, gamification, digital collections and the virtual visitor, social media, social networking, and augmented reality. The book is edited in collaboration with the International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism (IACuDiT) and includes the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Cultural and Digital Tourism.
... If policy is considered to be one of the 'societal' changes mentioned here, the current state of the nationally funded (DCMS) museums in the UK has been subject to a significant shift in emphasis. Babbidge (2015) stresses that these museums are now viewed more as a part of the tourism infrastructure than as a tool for social change, education and inspiration. Baxter (2015) explains that this has led to some consternation as to the possible effects of 'mainstreaming' heritage, reducing it to 'nothing more than a commodity' (Hyslop, 2013, in Baxter, 2015. ...
... Baxter (2015) explains that this has led to some consternation as to the possible effects of 'mainstreaming' heritage, reducing it to 'nothing more than a commodity' (Hyslop, 2013, in Baxter, 2015. The increasing pressure on museums to generate income in view of reduced levels of public funding has to an extent been a financial success; income levels of national museums have increased overall since reductions in public funding (Babbidge, 2015). McPherson (2006) presaged this with her description of museums whose 'market-oriented ideology' embraced income generation and new technologies as much as visitor engagement. ...
In Portugal, the recognition of “Cultural Landscapes” is due to the UNESCO category. Many of the local and regional initiatives aims this classification, which are majority disregarded due to unfulfilled and thus abandoned, resulting in lost opportunities. Understanding the territory as a rhizome in which architectural heritage is the catalysing element, despite its density or its expectant value, is the research’s core. Taking as premise the European and North American proposals and projects of Cultural Landscapes that revitalized ancient industrial areas and their role within a new international paradigm of territorial development and planning, the research was developed from four Alentejo mining sites—Lousal, Aljustrel, S. Domingos and Pomarão—which embody the proposal of the Cultural Landscape of the Alentejo Pyrite. From the common and specific analysis of evolutional, geographical, urban, architectural and heritage contexts, it is presented the structural, classifying and compositional synthesis of the public, semi-public and dwelling spaces, which underlie the proposal’s contexture. This paper reflects upon the future of this body of work from the academic scope to being operative in the public planning sphere and regional/local interventions.
... in this period, visitor experience, education and entertainment have been incorporated into mission statements alongside more traditional curatorial functions. the evolving role of the museum is a recurring theme that urges us to examine current trends and changes in its approach (Babbidge 2015;Booth and Powell 2016). however, with the help of the internet, museums have been able to be present and develop low-budget marketing strategies (Chung, marcketti, and Fiore 2014). in light of the above, it is clear that the current situation of these museum organisations and the way they communicate has changed completely in a very short time, but this new way of communicating is here to stay (Rodríguez-Veras, De las heras Pedrosa, and lugo-ocando 2023). ...
In recent years, new technologies have made it possible to reproduce cultural content through new social media tools, thus ensuring the development of cultural heritage on a global scale, but museums have not always seen the introduction of these media in their strategies in a positive way. This article focuses on the analysis of public engagement with the collections of the five most reputable museums in Europe through the visual social media platform, Instagram. The study explores public engagement through a mixed-methods approach, with data mining using the Fan Page Karma monitoring tool. The findings show the value of active listening and interaction with user-generated content as a key component of reputation and image, reflecting the importance of two-way communication. The research may also be useful in the future to help improve strategies in the digital ecosystems of museum institutions.
The paper discusses the relationship between the state, historic buildings preservation and nationalism in Britain from the nineteenth century to the present. It argues against the idea that, because of comparatively continuous nation and state formation, state preservation in Britain until the mid twentieth was exceptionally weak. By suggesting a broader understanding of ‘the state’, the paper shows the variety of ways in which institutions within the state were, and remain, involved. Through spotlights on major turning points in the administrative framework, it further argues that nationalism has been more often mobilized to foster state preservation than the other way round and suggests to place nationalism alongside other motive forces to understand the rise and transformation of state involvement in preservation.
The evolution of the museum in society has been extensively considered in both the museums and marketing literature. Museums began life as private collections assembled as spectacles for the benefit of a chosen few (‘cabinets of curiosity’). Over time, in response to changes in society, a broader vision of their role evolved, anchored in ideas of public benefit and community engagement with common cultural heritage. Organisations such as ICOM (the International Committee on Museums) have been established (1946) to monitor and regulate approaches to their management worldwide.
Scholarly and custodial functions are now rooted at the heart of the museum, but museums have also gradually embraced an outward perspective towards the visitor. Since the 1990s visitor experience, education and entertainment have become embedded into general mission statements alongside the more traditional curatorial roles. The theme of evolution in museum role is perennial and leads to the consideration of current trends and changes in its emphasis.
As cultures of consumption have increasingly become pervasive in Western society, and economic constraints have led to cuts in Government funding of culture, the UK’s nationally-funded museums have now become adept at generating income from trading and other sources. An emergent strand of literature suggests that alongside the—now, in the main accepted—visitor focus of museums, is the idea of the future of the museum as a ‘cultural shop’, implying a growing organisational orientation towards income generation. The parallel perspective on museums as part of the economic infrastructure, valued for multiplier effects related to tourism, leads to the central theme of this work—how is the increasingly commercial role of the museum influencing its visitor provision and hence its relationship to its publics?
The paper will provide an overview of the role and evolution of the museum to date prior to considering the development of role and function in one of the UK’s leading nationally-funded museums, London’s National Gallery. This museum is one of the UK’s flagship visitor attractions, the second-best attended in the country. A content analysis of visitor provision will be undertaken and the conclusions related to a framework based on visitor profiling, to try to understand how trading outlets and paid interpretation is currently influencing the museum product and its audiences.
In recent years, geographers have paid attention to the practices and spaces of care, yet museums rarely feature in this body of literature. Drawing on research conducted with two large museum services – one in England, and one in Scotland – this paper frames museums’ community engagement programmes as spaces of care. We offer insights into the practice of community engagement, and note how this is changing as a result of austerity. Our focus is on the routine, everyday caring practices of museum community engagement workers. We further detail the new and renewed strategic partnerships that have been forged as a result of cutbacks in the museum sector and beyond. We note that museums’ community engagement workers are attempting to position themselves relative to a number of other institutions and organisations at the current moment. Drawing on empirical material from the two case study sites, we suggest that museums’ community engagement programmes could be seen as fitting within a broader landscape of care, and we conceptualise their activities as expressions of progressive localism.
On the 26th June 2013, plans were announced to split English Heritage - the public body responsible for the protection of England’s historic environment—into two separate organisations. In December 2013, the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport released a consultation document outlining the proposed changed and the justifications for them in greater detail. Under the plans the statutory duties toward heritage that English Heritage currently fulfils will remain under government auspices, while the management of its 400+ properties will be spun off into a self-funded charitable company by 2023. This paper lays out these proposed changes as clearly as possible, considers their feasibility, and speculates on the effects they could have for English Heritage, the public it serves, and the wider heritage sector, both in England and the UK.
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