SOCIETY MUSEUMS AND POLICIES TOWARDS INCREASING VISITOR DIVERSITY: THE CASE OF THE MUSEUM OF EUROPEAN AND MEDITERRANEAN CIVILIZATIONS (MUCEM)

Year 2019, Volume: 4 Issue: 7, 1 - 15, 31.07.2019

Bahar Aykan

Abstract

Following the 1980s, there has been a crisis in the ethnography museums in Europe, which were
established during the colonial period to exhibit non-Western cultures. In the context of France, this
crisis led to the transformation of several ethnography museums into society museums (musée de
société). The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (Musée des Civilisations de
l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, MuCEM) that opened in Marseille in 2013 is also part of this trend.
This article aims to examine the policies of MuCEM to increase its visitor diversity in the context
of its renewed participatory and inclusive museum approach as a society museum. Drawing on indepth
interviews with the museum personnel, participatory observation in museum settings and
analysis of visitor books, this study will focus particularly on the strategies and programs developed
to communicate with those who do not visit MuCEM because they perceive the museum as an
institution of “high culture.” With the new museum movement that gained momentum after the
1980s, many museums have adopted visitor-oriented approaches and begun to produce policies to
reach different segments of society in terms of socio-economic status, cultural background, age, and
educational status. As the MuCEM example demonstrates, in the context of society museums, which
have emerged as an aspect of this new museum movement and thus prioritize cultural dialogue and
collaboration among different segments of society, ensuring visitor diversity becomes a fundamental
institutional policy.

Keywords

Society museum, Inclusive museum, Visitor-oriented approaches, MuCEM

TOPLUM MÜZELERİ VE ZİYARETÇİ ÇEŞİTLİLİĞİNİ ARTTIRMAYA YÖNELİK POLİTİKALAR: MARSİLYA AVRUPA VE AKDENİZ MEDENİYETLERİ MÜZESİ (MUCEM) ÖRNEĞİ

Abstract

Kolonyal dönemde Batı-dışı kültürleri sergilemek amacıyla kurulan Avrupa’daki etnografya
müzelerinde 1980’lerden sonra baş gösteren kimlik krizi, Fransa’daki birçok etnografya müzesinin
toplum müzesi olarak yeniden işlevlendirilmesine neden olmuştur. 2013 yılında Marsilya’da açılan
Avrupa ve Akdeniz Medeniyetleri Müzesi (Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée,
MuCEM) de bu trendin parçasıdır. Bu makale, “toplum müzesi” (musée de société) olarak katılımcı
ve kapsayıcı bir müzecilik anlayışıyla yenilenen MuCEM’in ziyaretçi çeşitliliğini arttırmaya yönelik
politikalarını incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Müze çalışanlarıyla derinlemesine mülakatlar, müze
ortamlarında katılımcı gözlem ve ziyaretçi defterlerinin analizine dayanan bu çalışma, özellikle
müzeyi bir “yüksek kültür” kurumu olarak algıladığından dolayı MuCEM’i ziyaret etmeyen
kesimlerle diyalog kurmak için geliştirilen stratejilere ve programlara odaklanacaktır. 1980’lerden
sonra ivme kazanan yeni müzecilik hareketi ile birçok müze ziyaretçi odaklı anlayışlar benimsemiş
ve sosyo-ekonomik durum, kültürel geçmiş, yaş ve eğitim durumu açısından çeşitli kitlelere
ulaşabilmek için politikalar üretmeye başlamıştır. MuCEM örneğinin gösterdiği gibi, bu yeni müze
hareketinin uzantısı olarak ortaya çıkan ve dolayısıyla toplumun farklı kesimleri arasında kültürel
diyalog ve etkileşime öncelik veren toplum müzeleri bağlamında ziyaretçi çeşitliliğini sağlamak
temel bir kurumsal politika haline gelmektedir.

Keywords

Toplum müzesi, Kapsayıcı müze, Ziyaretçi odaklı yaklaşımlar, MuCEM

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