Exhibition Ethics - An Overview of Major Issues
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5334/jcms.1021213Keywords:
museum ethics, human remains, sacred objects, exhibition content, interpretationAbstract
Museum ethics are about value judgements. In making such judgements museum personnel is constantly valuing one option over another. This holds true for every aspect of museum work; from collecting policies and conservation to store priorities and exhibition. In recent decades there has been a growing concern in addressing ethical issues in museums as museum workers have developed cultural sensitivity and social responsiveness to a degree unseen before. Most codes of ethics urge museums to give appropriate consideration to represented groups or beliefs. In light of this, it has been recognised that exhibition of sensitive material, for example, must be done with great tact and respect for the feelings of religious, ethnic or other groups represented. Another issue concerns the display of unprovenanced material and repatriation.
Yet, these are not the only ethical issues which exhibition developers are faced with. As museum workers we should constantly be reminded that exhibitions are active agents in the construction of knowledge. This paper discusses the hidden assumptions on which museum presentation and interpretation are often based. Decisions about what to include and what to exclude, what is valued and what is not, the means of presentation, language, and so on, all lead to presentational styles which may shape the public’s perception in unintended ways.
Published
License
Copyright (c) 2014 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms. If a submission is rejected or withdrawn prior to publication, all rights return to the author(s):- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Submitting to the journal implicitly confirms that all named authors and rights holders have agreed to the above terms of publication. It is the submitting author's responsibility to ensure all authors and relevant institutional bodies have given their agreement at the point of submission.
Note: some institutions require authors to seek written approval in relation to the terms of publication. Should this be required, authors can request a separate licence agreement document from the editorial team (e.g. authors who are Crown employees).