The worldwide community of museums celebrates this year’s International Museum Day on and around 18 May, 2015. With nearly 35 000 museums from 145 countries participating and deciding on their own dates of open doors.
The initiative was founded by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) back in 1977, with an aim to increase public awareness of the role of museums in the development of society.
This year’s theme Museum for a sustainable society highlights the role of museums to raise public awareness on the need to use resources in a way that respects living systems.
The ICOM’s own definition of a museum stands as: “a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment. “
The English word museum comes from Latin, from the plural form museums to name a place holy to the Muses. The word is Greek in origin and in Ancient Greece denoted a temple dedicated to the Muses – the Greek mythological patrons of art, and later a library or a building specially designed for study and arts. With one of the most famous Museums of the time – The Museum (Institute) for philosophy and research in Alexandria dated around 280 BC.
The word was adopted in the French language in 13th century, followed by Italian, Portuguese and Spanish in 16th century to, in all of those languages, be related to the Muses.
The word entered the English language at the beginning of 17th century when Philemon Holland produced the first translation into English of Plutarch’s The philosophy commonly called, the Morals. Plutarch’s collection of essays gave an insight into Roman and Greek life around 1st century AD and included a description of the role of the temples of the Museum, which was translated into English as the following:”In old time they..built the temples of the Muses, that is to say, houses ordained for students, which they named Museum, as far as they could from cities and great towns.“
The first time the word museum appeared in print in the English language to name an institution which collects and preserves heritage was in reference to the Museum of the Senate of Bologna. In 1653, a medical practitioner John Bulwer described how pieces of skin of a man – who inhabited an island where the population was extremely hairy to only their faces and palms be hair-free – were kept in a museum.: “A portion of the skin of such a savage, a certain Samartian sent unto Ulisses Aldrovandus [an Italian physician], and kept in the Museum of the Bolognese Senate.”
As part of the International Museum Day, the British Museum run the Museums at Night initiative from 14 until 16 May this year leaving its doors opened to the public after the regular exhibition hours.
The British museum was established in 1753, to firstly open to the public in 1759 and with nearly 7 million visitors in 2014, was named the top British tourist attraction.
