Dynamics in the Field of Museums: Contemporary Challenges for Polish Museologists

The aim of this text is to present and analyze the attitudes of Polish museologists towards the changes currently taking place in the field of museums. More specifically, it will focus on their opinions regarding the evolution of museums—from the traditional model, based on symbolic violence, to the contemporary model, which accents the subjectivity of the audience. Its conclusions, based on analyses of 26 qualitative interviews with employees of Polish museums, are as follows: the organizational changes taking place in Polish museums do not relieve museologists from bureaucratic work; the collections in museums distinguish them from other institutions of culture; there is a struggle for symbolic advantage among actors in the field of museology; museologists do not know their audience well. The interviews also revealed that the assumptions of the New Museology have less impact on practice than is suggested in literature, and that everyday museology combines elements of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ philosophies.