Peter van Mensch

Life and career

Peter van Mensch earned MSc degree in zoology and archaeology at University of Amsterdam and the worked in the field of archaeology at the Government Agency for Field Archaeology and then University of Amsterdam. Later on he decided to devote his professional career to Museology and worked between 1967 and 1982 for several museums of history, applied arts and natural history in the Netherlands as an assistant curator, registrar, educator and exhibition coordinator. Since 1977 till 1982 he was director of educational programmes and exhibitions for National Museum of Natural History in Leiden. In 1982 he became a senior lecturer in theoretical museology and museum ethics at the Reinwardt Academy. There he was also the director of the academy’s International Master Degree Programme in Museology (1998-2001 and 2005-2010). He earned his PhD. degree at the University of Zagreb on the basis of thesis Towards a Methodology of Museology (1993). He was appointed as the first professor of cultural heritage at the Amsterdam School of the Arts (2006) and as such he is responsible for the academy’s research programme. He was active in the ICOM International Committee for Education and Cultural Action (CECA), the ICOM International Committee for Training (ICTOP) and the ICOM International Committee for Museology (ICOFOM), of which last committee he was president (1989-1993). As chair of the preliminary board, he played a role in the creation of a new ICOM international committee, the International Committee for Collecting (COMCOL) (2010). Peter van Mensch has been guest lecturer at many international museology programmes, such as the museology programme of the University of São Paulo (Brazil), the International Summer School of Museology at Brno (Czech Republic), the Baltic Museology School (Latvia) and the International School of Museology at Celje (Slovenia).

Work

Peter van Mensch is one of the most acknowledged scientists engaged in theoretical museology. He is interested in the new trends in museology and he also focuses on the development of museology as an integral and integrated approach to cultural heritage. In his thesis Towards a Metodology of Museology he epitomizes the current achievements of museology and formulates principles that are recognised by all museology codes. Peter van Mensch played a significant role in developing the curriculum of the bachelor and master programmes of the Reinwardt Academy (Amsterdam) and was instrumental in building the reputation of this academy as a prestigious professional training institution.

Peter van Mensch: „A museum studies curriculum should combine the study of an academic specialty with the study of museology and museography acknowledge the diversity among museums and recognize uniformly high methodological and theoretical standards.“