The boundary between our two types of institution seems very porous. However, in certain contexts at least, the museum seems to be a much more socially palatable concept than the zoo. Museums are seen as inarguably a ‘good thing’, deserving of public and political support, and somehow part of a generally improving, ‘civilising’ process. There is no such thing as an anti-museum lobby, and museums tend to benefit from a variety of financial encouragements from their respective national authorities.
Emmen Zoo in the Netherlands, universally acknowledged as the premier education zoo, hosts what is clearly an excellent natural history museum, which has won several national prizes. Yet, to the best of my understaning, it does not officially qualify as a museum under Netherlands law.
Yet good zoos and aquariums clearly fit most (all?) the criteria of good museums. They conserve a orecious heritage asset for the benefit of future generations. This link provides a whole list of official definitions of the word museum. http://www.city.ac.uk/ictop/mus-def.html In the USA, Australia and on an international level, zoos are included, but not in the UK.
Is it time for a re-think?
1 Comment
December 2, 2007 at 11:27 am
Yes, it is; I think fusing zoo, botanical garden and Natural History Museum into one institution would be one smart thing to do. Besides of mentioned Emmen, this “Biopark” concept is also present in the form of the Arizona Desert Museum.
The advantages:
1. Instead of spending money on three different institutions, the combined amount could be used for optimising just one.
2. Visitors could gain more entertainment & education from this combination; Nature is not just animals or plants or “rocks”, but these elements are interwoven with each other. Showing and educating this interaction could be much more copious than each of the institutions on its own. This combination could also reach a vaster array of visitors, as having the positive reputation of a museum/botanical garden than the sometimes “negative” term “zoo” and offer more activities (f.e. visiting the museum building on an rainy day).