[Download] "Heritage Preservation: Museum Conservation and Frist Nations Perspectives." by Ethnologies # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Heritage Preservation: Museum Conservation and Frist Nations Perspectives.
- Author : Ethnologies
- Release Date : January 01, 2002
- Genre: Social Science,Books,Nonfiction,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 183 KB
Description
The recent history of the museum field has sometimes been described as a shift in central focus from objects to audiences. Rather than existing primarily for the benefit of their collections, museums are increasingly understood as existing for the benefit of the communities that host and support them (Rounds 2001: 4). Conservation became a professional field when museums "existed for the benefit of their collections." If one understands the phrase "benefits of the communities" to include the originators of the collections, which today most ethnographic museums in Canada and many internationally believe they should do(1), then museum conservation is doubly challenged. Not only can the preservation of the collections be considered "old hat" within the competing claims for prioritization and funding of the diverse mandates of the contemporary museum, but the museum's stakeholders include groups with legitimate claims for unprecedented access to collections, and often with requests to borrow and use objects from the collections. Conservators traditionally view handling and use as posing potential risk to the physical integrity of the object. Professional museum standards and practices regarding preservation and access have been seen as being in conflict with First Nations needs and requests. This paper will focus on the differing definitions museum conservators and First Nations have of "heritage preservation."