Brno museology : Τhe context of museological thinking in the second half of the 20th century
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | The External Chair of Museology/Department of Museology in Brno (former Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, today Czech Republic), founded in 1963, is known to the professional community mainly for its specific and original concept of museology. Researchers engaged in museology regarded and still regard it as an autonomous scientific discipline, for which they defined its particular object of study based on social and anthropological aspects, with its own system, terminology and methodology. As far as the so-called Brno School of Museology is concerned, its most significant representatives were Jan Jelínek (1926-2004), Chairman of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in the 1970s, and Zbyněk Zbyslav Stránský (1926-2016). Stránský was the main author of the general concept; he saw the primary objectives of the discipline in the establishment of theoretical foundations for the professionalisation and higher functional quality of Czechoslovak museums and the related education of museum workers. His ideas went in many regards beyond the boundaries of ideologized science in former Eastern Bloc countries and reacted to topical social problems. It was also for these reasons that these ideas met with a wide international response, which was supported to a considerable extent by the founding of the International Committee for Museology (ICOFOM) in 1976 with the active participation of the Brno academic department, and since 1987 also by the International Summer School of Museology (ISSOM) courses organised by the above-mentioned department. The curriculum and professional profile of the present day museology department in Brno in many regards builds on some of Stránský’s ideas by addressing mainly the problems of historical museology, museum exhibitions and museum pedagogy. |