Museum
A museum is a place or an institution that collects and displays items within one or more subject areas, such as natural science or visual art, usually to some degree for the purpose of education.
A more precise definition is found in the statutes of the International Council of Museums: "A museum is a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, and open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment."
Types of museums
Several different types of museums are found throughout the world.
Art museum
Natural science museum
History museum
Open-air museum
Art Museums around the world
It is considered that the most important art museums are: Musee du Louvre, Paris, France, Vatican Museums, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles, California, Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Tate Modern, London, England (part of the Tate group), Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. [1]
Also important are:
- Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek and Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
- Berlin National Gallery.
- Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
- British Museum, London.
- Buehrle Collection, Zurich.
- Centre Pompidou, Paris.
- Cleveland Museum of Fine Art.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.
- Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK.
- Frick Collection, New York, NY.
- Gemaldegalerie - Berlin.
- Guggenheim Museum, New York.
- The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
- Houston Gallery of Fine Art.
- Los Angeles County Museum Of Art.
- Liechtenstein National Museum.
- National Gallery, London.
- National Gallery of Denmark.
- Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA.
- Philadelphia Museum Of Art.
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
- San Francisco Museum of Fine arts.
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington
- St. Louis Art Museum.
- Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Art, Madrid.
- Tretyakov Gallery Moscow.
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
- Wadsworth Aetheneum, Hartford, Connecticut.
- Worcester Museum, MA.
History
Originally, museums developed from the collections of rarities and pieces of which many European monarchs and gentlemen assembled in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 18th century, it became common to put such collections in dedicated suites or buildings and make them accessible to select individuals.
The first museum to offer more general, although still not universal, public access was the British Museum, which was established in 1753. The foundation for the British Museum was the extensive natural scientific and ethnographic collection of the scientist Sir Hans Sloane, who had bequeathed the collection for the purpose of creating such a museum.
See also
External links
