The cultural and educational activity in museums of universities: foreign experience

The most outstanding museum complexes and museums of 15 universities and colleges, located in 11 countries, such as: Australia, the Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Colombia, Poland, the USA, Chile and Czech Republic were selected on the site of the International Committee for University Museums and Collections (UMAC) from the number of universities that are participants of this committee. The wide and varied collections of the advanced foreign museums of universities allow them to involve people despite their age, social and national identity, activities, as well as interests into the educational process. The university museums begin to involve the audience from pre-school age. Then a lot of attention is paid to school groups. Forms of activity with school children are diverse - there are tours, lectures, workshops, competitions, scientific and educational events and museum educational programs. Initially, the museum collections of universities were created as visual-training base for research and support of the educational process, i.e. as academic museums. Therefore, students play a significant role in the structure of museum education in university. On the basis of the museum, students receive a lot of practical knowledge and experience with help of various lectures, excursions, seminars and training courses. On the basis of the museum's collections student can begin to engage in research activity. In addition, students can be involved not only as students, but also as a volunteer, who will actively participate in museum activities, provided the guided tours. The university museums don't forget about the older generations. There are adult and elderly humans, so-called the «third age». For them the variety of tours, lectures, conversations, and so on is designed too. Some activities and programs are designed specifically for a family audience to satisfy the interests of children and adults. Traditions of the museum education in foreign universities of the world are efficient for many years. Keeping the basic museum forms of activity for visitors (lectures, tours, conversation, etc.), university museums upgrade educational and training practices: new methods of work with visitors as well as modern informational technologies to be used, that allow them to make the educational process is interactive and exciting. Thanks to the efforts of special museum associations and their staff, today university museums abroad is a big open education platform, designed for public and provided needs of different social groups.

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