A Study On The Functional Evolution Of Modern Museums

Along with the fast development of modern society, the social environment for the museums constantly changes, and the society and the mass constantly put forward new demands. Thus how nonprofit museums survive the competition, become fused with the society and fulfill their responsibilities are both related to the functional development of museums and the effective fusion and harmonious development between museums and the society. The focus of this paper, based on the extension of museum functions and employing the basic theories and methods in modern management science and museology, to innovate the managerial theories, operational models and managerial systems for modern museums and, hopefully, come up with a new route for the harmonious development between museum functional extension and the society.The main research contents and findings of this paper include the following. (1) Based on the summarization and appraisal of the relations between museums and regional communities and the current researches in museum functional extension in home and abroad, the paper extends the functions of museums, and reconstructs the museum functional system. It is proposed that education is the core function of museums, economic efficacy is the marginal function of museums and, furthermore, based on the community museum and eco—museums, a new concept-'regional museum'is put forward. (2) In light of the properties and functions of museums and the various demands posed on museums by the society, the management philosophy and operational mechanism for the functionally extended modern museums are studied and it is proposed that modern museums should establish such concepts as sustainability, marketing, competition and people-orientedness. (3) In accordance with the objective demands posed by the museum idiosyncrasies, from the perspective of the synergism between its social effectiveness and economic effectiveness, a concept of differentiated systems for the museum's various events according to their different properties is put forward; the two different sets of institutional arrangements and operational models take museums as organizations for public benefit and as commercialized organizations respectively, and the synergistic patterns between the two organizational forms are also suggested. (4) With an analysis on the relationships between museums and such aspects as education, tourism, culture, economy and society, the principles and synergism between museums and schools are put forward, a dynamic CMB model is established, the design and employment of worksheet is first adopted in China and it is shown that worksheet is an effective tool in the museum-school cooperation.(5) With an analysis on their economic circumstances, it can be said that museums play important roles not only in the social and cultural aspects, but also in economic and political aspects, in building community and governmental image, and even in public relations. In light of the trend to emphasize the social efficacy of museums, this paper provides a systematic illustration on the roles of museums in increasing incomes, propelling the development of tourist industry and relevant industries, bringing about more job opportunities, influencing regional economy by distributing information, attracting funds and helping the withdrawal of currency from circulation.And the concepts have been tested on natural history museums. In accordance with the new operational museum management philosophy and the extended museum functional positioning, through three field cases, the feasibility of systematically differentiated operational models in museum management, the regional functional development for museums and the cooperation between museums and schools in education programs is examined, the importance of museum development in harmony with the regional society is demonstrated and the various social functions of museums are proven to evolve together with the social transition.