Museums vary in size, purpose, collections, support, and public audience. As Alpha and Oumar Konare put it, the plurality of cultures and the divergence of social and economic situations in all parts of the world necessarily result in different museum concepts. However, certain basic principles can be identified with the primary aim of preserving and making good use of our heritage.
First-generation sets of museum definitions attempted to define what a museum is, but presently, what a museum attempting to achieve has become more important than what it is and this makes the efforts at arriving at a definition increasingly difficult given the rapid increase in the types and composition of the museums.
Late Albert Ten Eyek Gardner, the curator of the Metropolitan Museum, New York puts it this way “Museums are pluralistic in conception”. It is a modern hybrid of a shrine in a royal palace, the theatre, the school, the library, and even the departmental store, as the emphasis of interest on creativity shifts, the character of an organization changes in the family if social institutions invented by man, the place of a museum is not fixed. It is like a plant and can develop in many directions or sometimes more simultaneously in several directions.
Above all, there is a definition given by the International Council Of Museums (ICOM)that is widely acceptable, it states that a Museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethnically processionally and with the participation of communities, offering var
ied experience for education, enjoyment, reflection, and knowledge sharing”.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF MUSEUM
The primary aims and objectives from the inception of the museum are based on the following major foundation namely: Collecting, Consecrating/Preservation, Documenting, Securing, and Exhibiting for setting/showcasing culture to members of the public and for the public benefit free of charge and to educate by using its collections as an exhibit.
ACTIVITIES IN THE MUSEUM.
The keeping of adequate records about the Provence or origin, identification, and location of a museum holdings/contents and the application of current professionally accepted methods to their security and the minimizing of damage and deterioration.
The museum provides education, inspiration, aesthetic (appreciation of beauty, objects, or arts) enrichment for the people, development of the individual, and cooperation with other public educational agencies for research and references.
People come to the museum for entertainment, amusement, and relaxation (picnic) These are made possible through the aid of the museum content locations, environment, purposes, and organized function and converts.
Important objects in an educational and or aesthetic program, significant objects not curiosities, relics, or collected items (rarities) are gathered and assembled under one roof called a museum.
The museum has a space within a building significantly for the exhibition of the collections and their interpretations, the illustration of the phenomenon of nature and the works of man, and the utilization of these for the increase of knowledge and the cultural enlightenment of the people.
A museum makes a situation, event, or activity more active, lively, or efficient. The culture that was hitherto regarded as spent and dead is brought to the limelight through reviving it e.g. Tie and dye, black soap making, traditional hairstyles, etc.
BENEFITS OF MUSEUM TO THE HOST COMMUNITY
Museums have the power to create unity on both social and political levels but on a local one. Local museums can provide a sense of community participation by celebrating a collective heritage, offering a great way to get to know the history of a particular area.
The presence of the Federal Government in sitting museum in that community had led to the recognition of that community nationally and internationally especially those museums in the rural areas such as Esie in Kwara State, owo in Ondo State, Koko in Delta State e.t.c, people come from different part of the world for a visit. It also affords the immediate community the luxury of appearing on the world heritage and cultural map.
There is no doubt that the existence of a museum in the host community has increased the population of that community. Two factors responsible for this are the drafting of museum Staff to the community and childbirth by the museum staff.
Indigenes were and still are being offered employment by the museum. This has greatly raised the standard of living of those employed. It reduces poverty and empowers the economies of the members of the host community.
Idiare write from National Museum, Akure.