Museums

Museums are institutions dedicated to the collection and/or conservation of objects and experiences of cultural importance for educational or esthetic purposes. Museums vary in size and scope, and the term includes a wide variety of institutions, including, but not limited to, aquariums, arboretums, art museums, botanical gardens, children’s/youth museums, historic houses/sites, history museums, natural history/anthropology museums, nature centers, planetariums, science/technology centers, and zoos. In addition to this variety of content focus, museums may be operated under a variety of governance structures: nonprofit or charitable/nongovernmental organization; governmental units; for-profit; or a combination of any of these. Finally, although all museums concern themselves with some type of collection or conservation of ideas or objects, there may also be variation in the purpose of the collection(s) for either ...