Museum Specializations and Types

Museum Specializations and Types

Most often, educational tours and school field trips include in their itineraries a visit to museums. Museums are building and/or institutions which collect and care for a range of objects with scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits. There are different types of museums available which feature assorted subjects and topics. Some are held permanently in large cities while others are open for viewing temporarily or over a short period of time in small areas. Curators are people in charge of the collection and of the exhibits.

Displays of archeological artifacts is often held at Archeological Museums. The exhibits could either be held in the open air or inside buildings.

Whereas the exhibition of artworks are usually held in an Art gallery or Art museums which could either be public or private. The ownership of the collection is what makes the distinction. The most common items displayed in art museums are paintings but also display other sculptures and illustrations pieces. Art galleries also showcase sculptures, decorative arts, furniture, textiles, costume, drawings, pastels, watercolors, collages, prints, artists’ books, photographs, and installation artworks. Apart from displaying visual object works of art, art museums may also host other artistic activities like performance art, musical concerts or poetry readings.

History and its relevance to the present and future are mostly covered by Historical Museums. The featured curatorial aspect of history may be on a particular locality or broader and general aspect. The wide range of object in a history museum may range from documents to artifacts to other archeological items. A particular type of history museum is a historic house. This could be a building of special architectural interest and interesting history or the birthplace and home of a famous person. Historic sites, particularly marked with public crimes can also become museums. A living museum is one where individuals recreate a time period from buildings to clothes and even to the language used.

While Maritime Museums specialize in displaying objects relating to water creatures and travel such a ships and boats. Military histories is the focus of Military and War Museums which are organized based on a national point of view. Exhibits, including weapons, uniform, military equipments, war propaganda items and even civilian decorations during wartime, are presented which highlights the military conflicts that have taken part in a particular country.

There are displays and exhibits which are held not only in stationary locations but in vehicles and vans as well, these types are called Mobile Museums. Such museums feature a certain portion of a collection that travels to sites away from the main museum for educational purposes. Others may not have a home site and traveling is the major means of presentation.

Science Museums are technology centers whose exhibits are about scientific achievements, phenomenon and history. Science museums are quite interesting since interactive programs and thought-provoking media are utilized in order to explain complicated inventions. Topics of a science museum may be about computers, aviation, railway museums, physics, astronomy, and the animal kingdom.

A recently emerging type of museum called Virtual Museums employs technological advancements of the internet in showcasing image collections about a certain topic. There are also other museums such as specialized musical museums which features musical instruments and artists or toy museums on toys.