The “Active Museum”: How Concern with Community Transformed the Museum

The concept of community continues to engage those who work in and with museums, guiding collecting and exhibition projects as well as other forms of museum engagement. The association between museums and community reveals the complexity of museums. To uncover that complexity, this chapter suggests a threefold framework: the role of museums as a symbol of community; the connections between museums and community policy; and the use of museums for community action. This framework is used to explore the agency of museums through the new museology and the idea of the ecomuseum, the debate concerning museums as an “instrument” of social policy, and the rise of new museum ethics. The conclusion argues that the essence of contemporary thinking about museums and their communities is bound up in the notion of the “active museum.”