Reflections of the academician of AUAS Fedor Schmitt on the museum audience of 1910-1920s and the relevance of their study in the context of museum sociology in Ukraine (1990-2000s years)

• Main Author: T. O. Kutsaeva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Publishing House "Grani" 2017-06-01
• Series: Granì
• Subjects: Fedir Schmitt; museum sociology; museology; museum audience; history of museums in Ukraine
• Online Access: https://grani.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/921

The aim of the research is to study the origins of the actual direction of the museum activities  development in Ukraine — museum sociology, which has been described in the significant array of publications starting from the early 1990’s. Those publications are focused on different aspects of learning of needs, motivations, expectations, behaviors, a social-demographic portrait and categories of the museum audience. It has been shown that the attention of the Ukrainian museum staff to the discussed aspects is not only limited by year 1991. The scientific heritage of the academician of All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Fedor Schmitt (1877-1937) has been analyzed by the author of the study in order to separate aspects of his activity that can become the certain foundations of the study of the museums audience (museum sociology) both in the days of the scientist and in modern Ukraine. The Soviet system not only denied his progressive views, but condemned them to death. It has been summarized by the author that most Schmitt’s papers on the issues of the museum audience were published during the scientist’s work in Kharkiv in 1912-1921. It is quite predictable that the issue of the museum audience was studied by the heritage saver and art scientist. Beginning of Ukrainian school of museology, where the leader was Mykola Bilyashivsky, the director of Kiev Museum of Antiquities and Arts (National History Museum of Ukraine), happened within the Archaeological Commission under the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. It was led by F. Schmitt. The draft charter of commission, designed by him, pushed to the study of the theory and practice of museology in all its spheres. Schmitt’s ideas on museums that had to be built on the territory of  the Russian Empire, which suffered from the First World War, were formed under the influence of his travels to cultural centers of Europe. Although none of F. Schmitt works before the beginning of 1920s included direct mentioning of the sociological studies in the museum, but he outlined the foundations for the study of social-demographic, psychological parameters, an attitude of various social and professional groups to the museum, the impact of the museum on the society and vice versa and so on. In the middle 1920s, working outside Ukraine already, the scientists saw that the value of sociology was understood by the government. The situation changed in less than 10 years, when attacks on intellectuals began. It is possible to make the conclusion that part of Schmitt’s scientific heritage and his steps in practical museum activities can be used as certain foundations of the modern Ukrainian Museum Sociology. Works, published by Schmitt, have never been reissued. However, his original views on the audience should attract the attention of the Ukrainian museum staff. It is also actual as there exists the lack of knowledge about the lower chronological bound of the arising interest of the Ukrainian museum staff to the study of the audience, at least in the 20th century.