Museene mellom konservering og konsum. Nye tider og nye utfordringer for museenes verdigrunnlag og målsetting

Museums between preservation and consumption Today, museums are faced with challenges of vital importance in defining their goals and values. Through- out time, museums have been expressions of their contemporary society. The central theme of this article is changes in museums through the ages and today’s challenges. The perspective of the article is general, including museums for culture, nature, science and art. Early museums were exclusive institutions, tailored to a limited and often private audience. In the 18th and 19th centuries, museums have to a large extent became part of the modern project of enlightenment and the development of the nation state. In our post-modern age, museums to a large degree have become part of an entertainment and heritage industry; an industry defined by the demands of mar- ket economy. The article concludes that the conflict contemporary museums experience between the modern tradition of enlightenment and the post-modern trend towards entertainment might be solved by developing museums based on “constructed knowledge”. The new challenge for a museum today will be to include “the knower” as “an intimate part of the known”. This, along with the institution’s ability to engage an audience and stimulate personal engagement, will be a demanding task for any museum.