A short brief on the UNESCO 2015 Recommendation concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, their Diversity and their Role in Society

JUNHI HAN

CHIEF, CULTURE SECTOR UNESCO Regional Office for South Asia

New Delhi

Museums are not merely places where our common heritage is preserved- they are key space of education, inspiration and interaction within societies. They provide opporunties to foster creativity, imagination and respect for self and others. Since its inception, UNESCO has recognised museums as one of its most important partners for building peace in the minds of women and men, by adopting in 1960 the first universal instrument dedicated to preserving and managing museums ‘Recommendation concerning the Most Effective Means of Rendering Museums Accessible to Eveyrone’ recognising their essential role in education and sharing the cultural diversity of the World.

Recent years, the mission of museums has been significantly enriched. Apart from their primary role as institution for care, preservation and display of heritage, which will always remain as their core function, today museums are increasingly diversifying their role for social cohesition, source of creativity and fostering innovative ideas, and finally as engines for driving sustainable development, notably by playing a crucial role in various urban regeneration projects across the globe. They also often serves as platforms where intercultural and inter- generational inter-cultural dialogue, and cultural diplomacy principles can be applied. Nowadays, through the use of new technologies, museums play an essential role in democratising access to culture also.

Reflecting those much enlarged functions and roles museums, UNESCO adopted in November 2015 the ‘Recommendation concerning the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, their Diversity and Their Role in Society’, which constitutes a new step towards developing and implementing an innovative and open vision of museums in the 21st Century. The elaboration of the Recommendation was triggered from the wish to supplement the application of standards and principles laid down in existing international instruments referring to the mandate of museums, as well as to their related responsibilities, especially the last international one entirely dedicated to museums dates back to 1960 (see above).

The Recommendation recognises Education and Research, along with Preservation and Communciation, as primary function of museums. The Recommendation stipulates that it is only through the knowledge obtained from research including the study of collections that the full potential of museums can be realised and offered to the public. Research constitutes also a critical way for the interpretation, representation and preservation of collections.

Finally the Recommendation places the compilation of inventories in line with international standard at the centre of research and education, there by digitisation of museum collections is highly important in this digital era. However, this should not be considered as replacement for the conservation collections. Last but not least, every country is invited to support museums, in particular, in playing its fundamental roles, such as preservation, research, communication and education, through appropriate policies equiped with appropriate funding. In this regards, partnerships with private sectors becomes increasingly important.

India’s museums display one of the richest collections in the world which potential to support local communities’ well-being, health, lifelong learning as well as creation of social capital remains largely untapped. We hope that the celebration of the Museum Day offers us an opporunity to reflect on the importance of and contribution to our socieity and stimulate both public and private stake holders to levarage their full potential towards our goals to achieve inclusive sustainable development.

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