Museums must focus more on social responsibility than on displays in keeping with global trends, Deputy Minister of Culture Hsiao Tsung-huang (蕭宗煌) said on Wednesday ahead of International Museum Day today.
The theme for this year’s International Museum Day is “Museums as Cultural Hubs: the Future of Tradition,” which advocates centers of creativity and knowledge.
In the past, the function of museums was to collect and display items for educational purposes, but now they must think more about social responsibility so they can contribute to the future of the human race, Hsiao said.
In keeping with the theme, the National Taiwan Museum said that it would highlight the results of a 3D scan of its buildings’ architecture.
Digital images of the interior and exterior of the museum’s main building and Land Bank Exhibition Hall are accurate to 3mm to 5mm and could be used in animation, film or online navigation systems to show the significance of the structures, National Taiwan Museum Director Hung Shih-yu (洪世佑) said.
A similar scan of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris has proved invaluable now that sections of it have to be rebuilt in the wake of a fire on April 15, Hung said.
The digital scan of the 856-year-old cathedral was done by Belgian art historian Andrew Tallon using special laser technology, and is to provide precise data to the people who rebuild it, Hung said.
The National Taiwan Museum is also a national monument that one day will become a classic exhibition site in its own right, he said.
The oldest museum in Taiwan, it was established in 1908 as the Taiwan Governor Museum by the then-Japanese colonial government to commemorate the opening of the West Coast Railway, the museum’s Web site says.
International Museum Day was launched in 1977 by the International Council of Museums with the goal of conserving cultural heritage, and promoting events and activities around the world, according to the council’s Web site.
Taiwan has observed International Museum Day since 2009.
Forty-nine museums in the nation, including the National Palace Museum and the National Taiwan Museum, are offering free admission today, the ministry said.
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