LOVE AND PASSION FOR MUSEUMS

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I have been involving in museum improvement programs in Indonesia for several years now.  I visited several museums in various cities in Indonesia and noticed that museums are not only about collections and management. 

We can organize many trainings, many field visits as comparison and many discussions what the best museum is but in the end how we implement our knowledge and experience in running a museum. 

There is one thing that I noticed about lively museums: they have always a good brigade of volunteers! These volunteers have love and passions about subjects of their museums and that is why they never get bored to involve in many activities. 

It is love, it is passion that reflects back in aura of a museum so the museum doesn't look dead, dusty and soulless. Visitors see that, feel that and stay longer because of that. I know and experience it based on my own observation. Why some museums are lively and have good rate of visitors, other museums are simply empty and dusty. Nothing make me sad more than visiting museums with valuable and impressive collections but nobody care, nobody come and nobody do something. On the other hand, I was fascinated with museums that run by passionated volunteers such as these two museums, the Naarden Vesting Museum and the Smalspoormuseum (Small Track Museum) Valkenburg, Leiden. 

I am sure there are museums in Indonesia with a good brigade volunteers. I know that the National Gallery Museum in Jakarta has volunteers from the Indonesian Heritage Society who are mostly expats. I still do not know Indonesian volunteers yet, also in other museums. I want to believe that they are exist. 










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