Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Museums are both the guardians of and communicators of our collective cultural heritage. Increasingly, copyright law (and especially moral copyright law) is shaping what items a museum chooses to include in its public exhibitions and to accept into its permanent collections, as aspects of limiting potential liability. This shaping of the collections affects what we will preserve of our societies; and of what future generations will understand about influential events and people throughout history. Currently, there is a lack of communication between legal scholars and the professionals working within the museum sector about the practical realities of interpreting moral copyright law into everyday working practices in a way that does not unnecessarily restrict the items that can be shared with the public. This presentation hopes to begin this discussion and bring together legal, curatorial, and archival knowledge to find solutions to the problem and allow us to holistically preserve our cultural heritage.