The Analysis Of The Contents And Functions Of Friends Of American Museums

Nowadays, our country is undergoing a period of reform and development, the museum has also faced with new challenges. It needs to get out of the narrow mode of collection and research. (In fact, the museum has done very little in the area of education.)It has to integrate into the society, and become an indispensable consciously self-education institution. The government policy opens a close contact between the museum and the public. But in practice, to achieve a combination of both, this is only the beginning. There must need many experiments. The broad establishment of "Friends of the Museum" organizations can give us a good lesson from abroad.Friends of the Museum, also known as museum volunteers stem from the eighties of the nineteenth century the United States. This paper introduces and discusses the content and function of Friends of Museum in USA. Our country can learn from this lesson. For this reason this article intends to explore the following:The first part focused on the contents of the Friends of the Museum. In this paper, volunteers, museum volunteers and WFFM was introduced. Friends of the museum can be the museum's volunteers (organization or individual), professional researchers, the donors, sponsors, foundations and manual workers. They economically and in spirit support the cause of the museum. Practicality is one of three basic characteristics of museum volunteers.The second part analysis and introduced the theoretical basis and practical experience of the Friends of the Museum. the new museology and community museum was introduced. The article introduced the successful activities of Friends of the American Museum of Natural History and Metropolitan Museum of Art. The author pointed out that, friends of museum will help complete two important tasks: on one hand, it absorbed rich social resources. On the other hand, it helps the museum integrate into the society. Therefore, their experience is worthy of consideration.The third part analyzes the function of the Friends of the Museum deeply. In this section focus on two major functions of the Friends of the Museum: First, the museum plays an important part in using and absorbing social resources, which includes museums'cultural security and self-promotional publicity, museums'social capital and human support, museums'audience research and the implementation of the educational function; Second, as a third of civil society organizations, the Friends of the Museum is an embodiment of civil strength and national spirit, which is different from the third organizations (voluntary organizations) of business and government. The main reason for its dynamic is the fact that its members show themselves while give better serve to the society, therefore, it is the perfect combination of the nature of museum and the spirit of volunteerism."Stones from other hills, we can learn." Museum will be effective abroad, experience the reality of our country, to carry out the activities of the Friends of the museum, the museum will not only make up for current lack of professional manpower,save the museum costs and improving the level of internal management, but also greatly improve the quality of service of the current museum, so that it really integrate into the society, and provide better service to the public.