Museums as Landscape Activists

Abstract

The article discusses the issue of the “extended museum”, raising questions about how museums become active actors in current topical discussions on the shape of cities, what their role is in the processes of city management and how this engagement in external spaces affects the overall mission of museums. The point of reference is the ICOM Resolution on the responsibility of museums towards landscape adopted in 2016, which offered museums legitimacy in taking actions with regard to their environment, beyond museum walls. On the grounds of four case studies of Polish museums I present strategies whereby relations between the museum, authorities and communities are negotiated (regarding the protection of post-industrial and Second World War heritage, the contextualisation of socialist heritage and the struggle for greenery).