“There are taboos for museums”: prohibitive practices in the culture of Russian museums

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2020-52-4/125-135

Abstract

This article analyzes the institute of museum taboos. The relevance of this study is due to several factors, primarily the development of relationships between the museum and the visitor in the last three decades. The prohibitions also influence the shaping of professional ethics, and, consequently, the status of the profession. The main aim of this work was to show the ambiguity of the contemporary taboos in Russian museums and their impact on the functioning of the museum itself.
The research was mainly based on a survey of museum employees and analysis of the systems of prohibitions in museums of the Russian Federation. The main conclusion of the research is as follows: the contemporary system of museum taboos was formed not only by attitude to the museum as a sacred space, but also by the culture of Soviet prohibitive practices. Part of the professional community is aware of the problems with the quantity and quality of prohibitions, however, in general, the discussion of prohibitions is taboo itself. This entails a number of problems, the key one being the absence of a unified system of standards in working with a visitor, which is a cause of potential conflicts. The study showed that in the professional museum community there is still no consensus not only on external prohibitions, but also on basic issues of internal corporate culture.

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