Browsing by Subject "cultural heritage"

Aim of the study. Society has become more diverse during the last decade. Tolerance is the key to today's society. Knowing cultural heritage helps to construct cultural identity. Understanding cultural heritage and cultural identity helps to understand other cultures better. Museums have an important role in cultural heritage education. Museums can offer visitors things they can relate to and identify with. In this way museums can help to construct cultural identity. The aim of this study is to find out how different cultures are taken into account in museums according to professionals. The aim is also to find out how museums can help to construct cultural identity. Methods. This study is a qualitative case study. The data was collected from two professionals in museum field. The research data was collected by individual interviews using theme interviews. Data from the interviews was analysed by qualitative content-based analysis. The data was analysed by themes utilizing the themes from the interviews. Results and conclusions. The results show that the aim in museums is to have an interactive relationship with the museums visitors. Museums have also tried to get more diverse spectrum of visitors. The professionals consider multiculturalism as an important topic. Multiculturalism and the increasing diversity of society create new challenges for museums. Multiculturalism also brings new possibilities and new perspectives. Museums have an important role in the society as an advocate of tolerance. The professionals are worried that tolerance education is not appreciated enough in the society though. Museums can increase tolerance by providing information about different cultures. It is important to provide culture for the minorities also. Professionals see that museums can support the process of constructing cultural identity. It is important that museums highlight the issues visitors can identify with.