What does a museum do?

That definition, which had little modification since the 1970s, was straightforward: Museums are nonprofit institutions “in the service of society.” They exhibit “the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.”

What is University Settlement?

Situated at the corner of Eldridge and Rivington Streets stands University Settlement, a non-profit social justice organization that has a deeply-rooted place in Lower East Side history. While a familiar institution to neighborhood residents today, it would have been just as familiar to the families whose stories we tell at 97 and 103 Orchard.

Are museums having an identity crisis?

LONDON — Museums are having an identity crisis. Answering the question of “What is a museum?” might seem easy to anyone who’s visited one, but it has provoked a furor at the International Council of Museums, a Paris-based nonprofit that aims to represent the interests of museums worldwide.

When was a museum invented?

The word museum was revived in 15th-century Europe to describe the collection of Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence, but the term conveyed the concept of comprehensiveness rather than denoting a building. By the 17th century, museum was being used in Europe to describe collections of curiosities.