"Some museums like their culture dead and stuffed ...

This quote by Richard Kurin (2004) refers to the continuing focus of many museums on the exhibiting of physical objects, ignoring intangible cultural heritage (ICH), that is living heritage "embodied in people rather than in inanimate objects", and so includes customs, music, dance, performing arts, festivals, and traditional craftsmanship. The safeguarding of ICH by museums has been a theme in the past for International Museum Day and ICOM's General Conference, and this has translated into practice at many museums, especially in Asia and the Pacific. 

The term 'intangible cultural heritage' may not have caught on in museums in England, but that does not mean that they have no understanding of it. Its simply been expressed in different ways, using different terminology.  It also demands considerable imagination of museum professionals, and often more technology than the display of physical museum objects. 

Many English museums have successfully navigated the shift away from object led presentation, including the Towner gallery in Eastbourne. At the end of 2012, in conjunction with the Museum of British Folklore, it saw a two day festival of folk including performances by mummers, handbell ringers, sea shanty singers and morris dancers.  It also enabled children to make Punkie Night turnip lanterns and gingerbread men, and adults to make a hoodening horse. This led Cllr Carolyn Heaps to say that “This is set to be one of our busiest weekends of the year …” (Towner Gallery 2012)

                                 (c) Museum of British Folklore

Kurin (2004) has said that, "Museums are generally poor institutions for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage - the only problem is that there is probably no better institution to do so." So, for museums to engage in intangible heritage and embrace a more people-centred museology they have to include:

- Working with communities to preserve cultural knowledge and traditions,

- Empowering voices and narratives of different people,

- Rethinking meanings of collections (tangible and intangible),

- Using new media to document and communicate intangible heritage, and

- Creating spaces for the performance of intangible heritage

 (Alivizatou 2011)

  

Suggested reading: 

Alivizatou, M.  (2011)  The Role of Museums in Safeguarding ICH (Available at:  http://www.sac.or.th/databases/ichlearningresources/images/Lecture14-Eng-Summary_AD.pdf)

Alivizatou, M. (2012)  Intangible Heritage and the Museum.  New Perspectives on Cultural Preservation. Left Coast Press.

Jackson, A and Kidd, J. (2011)  Performing Heritage. Research, Practice and Innovation in Museum Theatre and Live Interpretation. Manchester University Press

Kurin, R. (2004)  Museums and Intangible Heritage:

Culture Dead or Alive?  ICOM News No.4 (Available at http://icom.museum/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/ICOM_News/2004-4/ENG/p7_2004-4.pdf)

This post was written by Suzy Brunyee, who will be undertaking her PhD on the Future of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the UK (its Challenges and Opportunities) at Nottingham Trent University from October 2014. She has begun to document and share her research on Britain's fascinating traditions and museums' uses of these online at http://www.intangibleheritageblog.com/