Study On The Development Strategy For Association Of Small Museums In Gulou District,Nanjing

The continuation of an in-depth social and economic development in China heralds uninterrupted pursuit of cultural consumption by the people at diversified levels.The role of public cultural services was traditionally addressed mainly by the government.That was a unitary mode in supply side,which is now more and more difficult to meet people's increasing spiritual and cultural needs.To encourage social strengths to actively participate in public cultural construction will expedite the processes in expansion of the main body from the supply side for the development of public cultural services.This process will also promote the innovation and reform to the existing system on the public cultural services.It is an inevitable trend.Gulou District is centrally located in Nanjing city.Here there existed only a few large-sized professional cultural venues.The limited capacity in receiving public audiences in large-sized museums has set a sharp contrast versus richness in the social cultural resources in terms of contents and diversities.In this area,there are many social sites of nonprofessional museums alike.In order to arouse the enthusiasm of the social culture resources,turning them into the public accessible cultural platform,Gulou District creatively initiates a concept of "small museum",adding"small" ahead of the "museum",this wording vividly shows that,in comparison with the State-run professional museums,they are micro in size and toddling in professional technology.However,they are recognized to certain extent for their social status and value in terms of museum,given the differences from the professional large-sized museums.By taking advantages of the propelling forces ejected by local government functional departments,Association of Small Museums in Nanjing Gulou District comes to existence in response to the realistic background.This Association focuses on the services to its cooperative partners-small-sized social museums.It is the first of its kind in Jiangsu province.Its establishment,practice and development construct a typical and realistic model for the study on the third sector capable of providing the social communities with the public goods,in particular,public cultural services.By making emphasis on the analysis about the case of small museum association,this Paper mainly adopts literature research,comparative analysis and case analysis methods.Based on combining case study with comparative analysis and theory with concrete practice,the analytic discussions of this Paper covers the background cause and motivation of said Association's establishment,setting up procedures,working mode,operating principle and characteristics,its functions in the public service sector,its existing difficulties,deficiency and causes of problems,its path for future development and so on.The establishment and development practice of said Association reflects a major breakthrough in Gulou District on social undertaking management methodology concerning the cultural and museum sector.A series of practical activities conducted in line with the services to its member units as well as the vast social communities well demonstrate that the social cultural resources are capable of playing the role as provider of the public cultural services,thus assuming the function of a major body from supply side for public goods.Currently,however,there also exist problems,namely,a lack of delimitation between administrative department and social organization,insufficient independence,feeble autonomy and service capability,pale self-identity and social perception,fund shortage,vacancy on law provisions and regulations,inability on supervisions and so on.In order to comb and clear up the government-social organization relationship,this Paper would recommend that two parties be separated and each party be caused to become a main body at the starting point,thus leading to a reasonable path and planning for said Association's existence and future development.For the government departments,efforts should be made to expedite functional transformation in the direction of(a)delimitation on administrative power,(b)causing its administrative functions be well performed as supporter,lawmaker and supervisor,(c)causing its administrative function shifted from "culture operator" to "culture guardian",(d)magnifying scheme on fiscal support to association,(e)setting up special funds " assisting in public cultural services",(f)including the association's public cultural services capabilities into the government procurement category from supply side for the public service resources,etc.Through government procurement route,it shall be able to comb and clear up relationship between the government and social organization.Equally important shall be the formation of a complete set of preferential policies to promote substantial delegation of the examination and approval authorization power on the museum status recognition from the provincial level authorities to the municipal and/or district namely grassroots competent authorities;Start as soon as possible the legislation procedures so as to regulate the association formation,construct audit mechanism and supervision performance;Government officials shall initiate transformation of mentality and embrace the social force awakening by substantially encouraging,assisting,nurturing and supporting their development.The association itself shall strengthen self-construction by establishing independent responsibility consciousness and reshaping the self-identity in an all round manners including human resources,operational funds,services,and marketing,etc.All that will be followed by the social recognition to the Association Organization.