Development of museum as an educational form of culture

Social transformations taking place in the development of society contribute to the formation of new cultural needs that lead to the generation of new cultural forms. A cultural form is a matrix which is filled with a specific socio-historical situation. The need of society for the transfer of social experience, due to the need to ensure the continuity of generations and, therefore, the development of civilization has led to the emergence of a museum as an optimal cultural form that solves the problem of documentation and translation of collective experience. Formation of a museum as a cultural form, which began in Antiquity, was completed in the 19 century, and in the beginning of the 20 century a museum has reached a level of a cultural norm. The development of a museum as a cultural form paralleled with its conversion into an educational form of culture. The beginning of this process was initiated in the ancient period when the Agon of Muse Arts was included in the educational process. In the Middle Ages the religious education and awareness, including by means of temple meetings, was actualized. Despite the narrowness of the direction, it facilitated the accumulation of experience in the use of collections and educational purposes. The development of rational knowledge resulted in the prevalence of scientific and practical purposes at the meetings, subordinated to the study of certain aspects of reality that proved the priority of museums’ educational mission in the Renaissance. The 18 century was marked with the emergence of a number of programmes and conceptual projects related to the use of museums in teaching and education. In practice these ideas were tested in the 19 century when the processes of democratization made a museum a mandatory element of the cultural space. This factor increased its educational function and cemented its educational mission. In the 20 century the theory and conceptual approaches to education and training through museum resources and their integration into school curricula were developed, the experiments in the field of museums’ educational activities were carried out, the museums for kids were created and authors’ techniques were approved. A special role in the development of a museum as an educational form of culture was played by museum pedagogy which advanced forms and technologies of cultural and educational activity. The formation and development of a museum as a cultural form, its philosophic understanding as a social institution, awareness of its opportunities in the preservation and transmission of historical and cultural experiences contributed to the disclosure of its educational potential. All these processes have led to the emergence of a museum’s pedagogical sovereignty and fixation of its status of an educational form of culture.

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