New Wave Museums

Museums have evolved over the centuries from the mouseion of antiquity to the curiosity cabinets or Wunderkammer of the 17th century, and to the museum as we know it today in it's various incarnations: art, history, general, specialized, science, etc. Museums have gone from their earliest manifestations as spaces dedicated to study and the arts (house of the muses) to being viewed as mere repositories of artifacts. Today this static view of the role that museums must play in society has been exchanged for something more akin to how the Greeks viewed museums. Museums are given the task of intellectual conservation and expected to study, interpret, catalogue, and evaluate cultural objects as well as negotiate with society questioning and modifying the sociological environment. In order to remain relevant museums must continue to utilize and find new ways to use technology.

Anonymous, Cabinet of Curiosities (late seventeenth century)
Oil on canvas, Florence, Opificio delle Pietre Dure
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