Muzeum w rytmie miasta – nowe wyzwania dla tradycyjnej elity

Abstract

Museum in the rhythm of the city – the new challenges for traditional elite

City museums have been guardians of city treasures. They illuminate the city’s finest hours and the high points of its history. A careful observation of changes happening in ways and styles of life in societies of late modernity shows limitations resulting from the Enlightenment museum discourse. A postmodernist blurring of a borderline between a high and low culture constitutes a starting point for going beyond fixed modes of thinking about museums as just dignified art institutions and temples of knowledge. Thus, museologists make efforts to make new exhibition arrangements adjusted to the present‑day expectations of the audience building and supporting bonds with the visitors, encouraging for discovering a potential of the artefacts presented, stimulating for a discussion with a suggested vision of the world or, generally speaking, to encourage undertaking cultural practices. Today is perhaps a greater recognition than before that city museums are dealing not just with city treasures, but with the lives of people and their interaction with each other and with their urban environment. Museum can be a unique resource for the better understanding of the city’s present – it can provide an informed platform for planning the city’s future, it can be a forum for debate and discussion to enable city people to contribute actively to their city’s development.