Museum transition toward market-oriented identity: between social issues and public policy

Abstract

The museum as a cultural institution was created as a part of the nation-state, according to nationalism ideology, and for the transmission of the historical heritage of a particular society and culture. It resulted in organisational assumptions as rules of practices and style of operations or management. The transformation of public management in cultural institutions, such as museums, is part of the model of the “big” transformation based on the neoliberal turnaround in thinking and acting in the late twentieth century. The paper constitutes an analysis of the mechanisms of contemporary public policies of cultural institutions. It examines the role of the museum at the market-oriented levels of analysis as production, exchange and consumption. This study is based on desk research analysis and argues that a new identity of the museum has appeared that is still shifting towards a new direction created by the SARS-COVID-19 pandemic.