MUSEUMS IN CANADA

Yesterday to Today

"Today, at a time when more and more events and information are transmitted to us via electronic reproduction and distribution technologies, the museum is an exception in that it offers us a rare and precious product: the experience of actual perception, the "flesh and bone" of nature, art, technology and history, in short, the "live" version of the world."
Raymond Montpetit, Forces, no. 98, p. 87.

What is a museum?

The International Council of Museums (ICOM) defines a museum as "a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, and open to the public which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment."

What can be found in museums?

Our heritage, that collection of values and goods passed on from generation to generation. A heritage that is both collective and individual, natural and cultural, material and immaterial. The foundation of our cultures, heritage can be personal, familial or collective; it can be regional, national or global; it can be from time immemorial, the recent past, today or tomorrow. The artefacts, knowledge, traditions, cultures and expertise of our contemporary societies are the heritage of tomorrow. The heritage of each Canadian is the heritage of all Canada.

Museums focus primarily on art, history and ethnology, science and technology, the natural sciences and the environment. In addition to more traditional museums, the definition takes in as well natural, archaeological and ethnographic monuments and sites of a museum nature that acquire, conserve and communicate material evidence of people and their environment; institutions holding collections of and displaying live specimens of plants and animals, such as botanical and zoological gardens, aquaria and vivaria; science centres and planetaria; conservation institutes and exhibition galleries permanently maintained by libraries and archive centres; and nature reserves.

By taking a closer look everyone, including kids, are sure to discover the value of museums while appreciating the wide range of interesting knowledge museums have to offer.