Muzeum lokalne – trzecie miejsce?

Abstract

A LOCAL MUSEUM – THE THIRD PLACE?

Civilizational changes, including the socialones, necessitate changes in our thinking about contemporary museology. The vector of this change has been oriented towards locality, identity, and participation understoodas engaged involvement. One of the methods of realizing this form of operation of museums may be the sociological concept of the third place developed by Ray Oldenburg. Its assumptions, combined with socially engaged museum work experience, have led the authoress of the paper to associate the concept of the third place with the tasks set to all museums, not only the local ones, by the contemporary recipient – a participant, a creator, and a narrator. The paper is an attempt to analyse thiscorrelated theory as a tool for creating a new space for the meeting of the museum’s world with the world of the recipient, using the examples of several (mostly local) selected museums. I try to show how great the potential this theory holds really is, how many ways there are to successfully put it into practice, and also what risks and threats this theory entails. For the Podgórze Museum in Kraków, as well as many other museums in this part of Europe, the assumptions of the concept of the third place seem like a journey into the unknown, full of adventures, challenges, and uncertainties.