Introduction
Even though museums are frequently dismissed by tourists and local residents, these institutions still play a prominent role in modern society. In fact, they help preserve and promote cultural heritage, as well as foster a deeper understanding. In addition to traditional museums, there are virtual museums that use digital technologies. Moreover, underground museums are tremendously popular as they present collections of artifacts in unique exhibition spaces. For example, the 9/11 Memorial Museum and Chengde Museum serve the functions of bringing communities together and educating future generations.
Traditional and Innovative Museums
Nowadays, scientists classify all museums into several main groups that are united by the idea of providing information on a specific topic. For instance, the most popular groups of museums are general ones, as well as museums related to natural history, science, technology, history, and art. In turn, the importance of building museums is based on the fact that these institutions serve the functions of collecting essential artifacts, educating the audience, and projecting a sense of the nation (Koslow, 2019). At the same time, there are numerous factors that have a negative effect on the development of museums and are related to cultural heritage institutions. Today, museums contribute approximately $50 billion to the U.S. economy annually (Kletchka, 2018). Therefore, in order to prevent the global collapse of museums, authorities take into consideration digital technologies.
As a matter of fact, traditional museums are not as popular as they were in the past due to the loss of interest of people and the vast spread of COVID-19. For example, it is estimated that the global pandemic causes a loss of nearly $33 million per day for museums (Network of European Museum Organizations, 2020). Therefore, policymakers, scientists, and researchers take appropriate measures in order to engage the general public in this type of attractions. First, numerous authorities support the idea to create online museums that have the opportunity to make people plunge into the atmosphere of virtual reality. This initiative is supported by the fact that nearly 56.1% of the world’s population has internet access (Puspita & Rohedi, 2018). As a result, it was predicted that a huge number of individuals would be able to enjoy the exhibitions of globally-known museums.
From the perspective of the institutional definition of the term, virtual museums do not have the unique qualities of a traditional museum. However, the advantages of these projects are collections of digitally recorded images, sound files, and text documents. The most popular virtual museums in the world are the British Museum in London, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and Musée d’Orsay in Paris (Recupero et al., 2019). Digital technologies used in these museums offer the opportunity to engage in virtual painting, researching, virtual collaging, and editing of the artistic effects. Moreover, Internet users are able to navigate an area of the interactive map and select any room for visiting.
In conclusion, it is essential to note that museums have always been an integral part of the cultural life of any region in spite of the numerous difficulties experienced by the supporters of these institutions. As a result, to avoid the potential collapse of museums, it has been created a variety of interesting options for their visitors. Virtual museums, underground museums, and open-air museums have rapidly become popular among modern population groups.
References
Koslow, J. (2019). Museums and digital culture: New perspectives and research. Museum Management and Curatorship, 34(5), 537-539. Web.
Kletchka, D. (2018). Toward post-critical museologies in U.S. art museums. Studies in Art Education, 59(4), 297-310. Web.
Network of European Museum Organizations. (2020). The impact of the COVID-19 situation on museums: Final Report. Web.
Puspita, R., & Rohedi, D. (2018). The impact of Internet use for students. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 306, 012106. Web.
Recupero, A., Talamo, A., Triberti, S., & Modesti, C. (2019). Bridging museum mission to visitors’ experience: Activity, meanings, interactions, technology. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. Web.