Welcome!

With this first blog post I would like to welcome you to the website Museum Communties. This website is part of the Erausmus University research project Community Museum Past and Present. This partly research (partly postdoc, partly PhD) focusses on the history of the community museum, the relations between museum and community theory and the challenges to and opportunities for contemporary history museums.

If you want to know more about the exact purpose of this website and our research, click on the About us button above. Furthermore, we will regularly inform you about our research proceedings and experiences through our weblog, which will also include some food for thought, links to other interesting websites and the occasional guest contribution.

Another important element of this website is the articles database. In this database you will find practical examples of museum-community topics, including matters of policy, collections, exhibitions, communication and special activities. If you would like to share your experiences, you are free to send us your own article by e-mail! Read the About us section for more details.

Most important though is your contribution. We encourage you to react on our blog posts and articles, send your own articles and engage in our discussions.

To conclude this first post, I would like to refer to our conference held in the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam at 11 Novemer 2010. Entitled Beyond the object: authenticity, performativity, the public and community this conference is dedicated to a lively debate on the role of the history museum in society, its relations with the public and communities and the function and relevance of authentic (or not) objects.