ICOM Standing Committee Museum Definition, Prospects and Potentials (MDPP)
The Standing Committee explores the shared as well as the profoundly dissimilar conditions, values and practices of museums in diverse and rapidly changing societies. Combining broad dialogue across the membership with dedicated expert fora, the Committee will address the ambiguous and often contradictory trends in society, and the subsequent new conditions, obligations and opportunities for museums, and advise the Executive Board and Advisory Council on these issues.
Approaching the ICOM General Conference in 2019, on the background of information gathered, new trends observed and documented, the Committee will advise the Executive Board and the Advisory Council on museological and epistemological problem areas in the existing museum definition. The Committee will make recommendations regarding the potential gains as well as the complication in revising the definition as a shared, international framework, to reflect and include more current conditions, potentials and priorities for museums.