Museum Definition

ICOM’s museum definition is:

A museum is 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.

This definition was adopted to the ICOM Statutes by the 22nd General Assembly in Vienna, Austria, on 24 August 2007. The definition is currently being redrafted and this challenge of explained in the short film below.

The proposed new definition and debate can be found here.