Читать книгу Museum Practice - Группа авторов - Страница 47

Barry Lord

Museums seem to be about objects, but they are really about people. Museums seem to be buildings with things in them, but they are really means of communication between people – people of all countries, people of the distant past, and the people of future generations. The three-dimensional objects in museum collections are the ways in which people of all times and places communicate with each other.

The governance of museums is therefore a trusteeship. Those who are given the honor and responsibility of governing our museum institutions hold the objects through which we communicate to each other over time and place in trust. The people of past generations and foreign countries must trust those who govern our museums to preserve the heritage held in them. Those museum governors are equally entrusted to hand down the legacy of the past and the present to future generations.

In order to fulfill this trusteeship, museum governors have a duty of loyalty and a duty of care. The duty of loyalty means that they put the interests of their institution ahead of any personal interests. The duty of care extends not only to the preservation of the heritage, but to its effective presentation and interpretation to museum users today. This trust is fiduciary, meaning that those charged with the responsibility should exercise the same care in managing its assets as a prudent person normally would for his or her own possessions.