Museums Helping in Age-Friendly Communities Construction

Rumei Wang

Integrated Affairs Center of Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau, Beijing, China

Keywords: Museum, Education, The Elderly, Community, Smart Museums.

Abstract: With the gradual deepening of population aging, satisfying the spiritual and cultural needs of the elderly has

become an important work to promote the realization of "cultural endowment". Giving play to the social

education function of museums and building friendly community humanistic environment are the ways to

improve the spiritual and cultural life quality of the elderly. By analyzing the policy basis and successful

cases, the paper discusses the form of offline museums into communities, points out the content, form and

service mode of smart museums to serve communities, and puts forward suggestions to improve service

capacity. Museums entering communities make the elderly enjoy the "dividend" of museums and help

create a liveable environment for the elderly, which is the direction of museums development.

1 INTRODUCTION

Population aging is the basic national condition of

China for a long period of time in the future.

According to relevant forecasts, during the 14th

Five-Year Plan period, the national elderly

population will exceed 300 million. With the

acceleration of aging process, the problem of

providing for the aged has been elevated to the

height of national strategy. Nowadays, the elderly

gradually turn their attention to the pursuit of

spiritual and cultural needs on the basis of the basic

satisfaction of material life. Therefore, enriching the

spiritual and cultural life of the elderly and

promoting the elderly to participate in social and

cultural activities is an important aspect of coping

with the aging population actively. The realization

of "cultural endowment" is of great significance to

individuals, families, society and the country

(People's daily 2021).

Museums play a very important role in

promoting excellent traditional culture and

practicing socialist core values. Community is the

basic spatial unit of a city. It’s pointed in the

<Establishment of a Model of National Age-friendly

Community> jointly issued by the National Office

on Ageing and Health Commission (National Health

Development On Ageing (2020) No. 23) : "Enrich

the spiritual and cultural life of the elderly", "enrich

the contents and means of education for the elderly",

"encourage the elderly to study independently",

"carry out community activities conducive to

promoting intergenerational interaction and mutual

assistance between neighbors, and enhance cultural

integration and social identity between different

generations". According to this spirit, the museum's

service for the elderly in the community is an

important work to realize the "enjoyment for the

elderly" and "support the elderly" and promote the

construction of the elderly friendly community

through the "cultural endowment". Museums have

become an enabler of community public cultural

development, one of the cultural service providers. It

is not only the demand of society, but also one of the

mainstream directions of contemporary museum

development and one of the important starting points

of participatory museum (Kang 2020). How to

improve service quality needs serious thinking and

continuous exploration and practice.

2 ENTRY OFMUSEUMS INTO

THE COMMUNITY

The social education function is one of the important

functions of museums. The number of museums in

provincial administrative units (except Hong Kong,

Macao and Taiwan) is as Figure 1. From the analysis

of the data on the figure, we can draw a conclusion

that the number of museums is not evenly

distributed. There are more museums in Shandong,

718

Wang, R.

Museums Helping in Age-Friendly Communities Construction.

DOI: 10.5220/0011757000003607

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Public Management, Digital Economy and Internet Technology (ICPDI 2022), pages 718-723

ISBN: 978-989-758-620-0

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Zhejiang, Shanxi, Beijing and other places, and

fewer museums in Yunnan, Qinghai, Tibet and other

places. Therefore, in addition to offline museums,

Online Museums will provide deeper and broader

service ability in cultural education. Modern

museums, combined with traditional ways and

scientific and technological innovation, will become

one of the backbone forces in the cultural field to

improve humanistic literacy, carry forward excellent

traditional culture and establish cultural confidence.

Figure 1: Museums quantity.

In 2021, it’s pointed in the <Guiding Opinions

on Promoting the Reform and Development of

Museums (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions)

jointly issued by the Publicity Department of the

CPC Central Committee, the Development and

Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the

Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of

Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry

of Human Resources and Social Security, the

Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the National

Cultural Heritage Administration: "to develop the

smart Museum with business needs as the core,

supported by modern science and technology,

gradually achieve smart service, smart protection,

and smart management ""support joint exhibitions,

roving exhibitions, exhibition show on the net,

increase the utilization level of this display"

"deepening the museum and community

cooperation, promote virtual museum exhibition into

urban public space," "Strengthen cooperation with

financial media and digital culture enterprises,

innovate digital cultural products and services,

vigorously develop cloud exhibition and cloud

education of museums, and build a museum

communication system integrating online and

offline. Strengthen the audience survey, promote

mass communication, and optimize the whole

process of visiting services ". The <Opinions> are

policy support for promoting museums to serve the

elderly in communities online and offline. In

accordance with the requirements of the Opinions

and the service concept of "people-oriented",

museums in communities are highlighted to serve

specific groups, realize on-demand communication,

and solve the contradiction between unbalanced and

inadequate development of museums and people's

needs for a better life. To build a geriatric friendly

community, it is urgent to improve the spiritual and

cultural life quality of the elderly and create a

friendly cultural environment. Museums in the

community will also play a greater role.

Museums enter the community in two ways:

online and offline.

2.1 Entry of Offline Museums Into the

Community

Offline entry of museums into communities is a

traditional way of museum publicity and education,

and there are three main forms:

2.1.1 Community Museum

The Notice of the State Administration of Cultural

Heritage on Promoting the Development of

Ecological (Community) Museums (Cultural Relics

Development No. 15, 2011, hereinafter referred to as

the Notice) states: Ecological (community) museum

is a new type of museum that reproduces the

development track of human civilization through

comprehensive protection and display of traditional

culture and ecological environment such as village,

block architecture pattern, overall style, production

and life. Shijia Hutong Museum is a community

museum in Beijing. It is located at No. 24 Shijia

Hutong in Dongcheng District. It is built by hutong

and former residences of celebrities. The museum

courtyard of primitive simplicity, old photos, display

of old objects with strong traditional folk customs,

are attracting elderly visitors to visit together. Many

elderly people volunteered to explain to the

audience, and some of them lived at the same time

as the famous people who lived in Shijia Hutong, by

telling history, their cultural resonance are inspired.

The elderly in the community are also willing to

participate in various activities organized by the

museum and become participants and disseminators

of culture. This Museum is a successful example of

a museum serving the elderly in the community.

Museums Helping in Age-Friendly Communities Construction

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2.1.2 Entry of Flowing Museums Into

Community

The emergence of mobile museums has solved the

contradiction between the growing spiritual and

cultural needs of the people and the reality, made

full use of the science popularization resources of

museums, further promoted the development of

science popularization education, and greatly

expanded the social education function of museums

(Zhang 2016). The main forms of the exhibition are

panels, exhibitions of low-level cultural relics,

knowledge lectures and interactive exchanges. Due

to the advantages of flexible time, diverse contents

and low site restrictions, it is convenient for the

elderly to visit, and being in a familiar environment

will also bring them a sense of intimacy and

security. On the premise of voluntarism, some

elderly volunteers can be trained as temporary

interpreters to guide them to participate deeply,

deepen their understanding of the cultural

background of the exhibition theme, and improve

their social service ability. Interactive and interesting

activities are designed, and the elderly can "bring the

museum home" by making relevant handcrafts and

sending out articles to create products. The

exhibition will radiate as much as possible to the

elderly community, and improve social education

efficiency.

2.1.3 To Build Exhibition Areas by Using

the Community Space

Unlike the former two forms, the use of community

space to build exhibition areas is more flexible, and

exhibits and activities are less restricted. From the

museum-guided to the community and even the

elderly, to lead the display activities, highlighting

the personalization will stimulate the enthusiasm of

the elderly more to participate in the activity venue

set in the elderly life circle, it is also convenient for

them to participate. Give full play to the role of

property management in the community, to help

solve the practical difficulties encountered in the

community.

2.2 Entry of Online Museums Into the

Community

The popularity of the Internet has brought a new

way for museums to enter the community. The

application of “Internet plus” enables museums to

enter the community without time and space

restrictions, and the concept of "community" has

been expanded to cyberspace. In particular, the

impact of COVID-19 on offline museum visits has

made the advantages of online museums more

obvious. Technological innovations such as artificial

intelligence, big data, cloud exhibition, and cloud

broadcasting have promoted new intelligent

application scenarios of museum services and social

education, which not only improves the utilization

rate of digital resources of collections, but also

expands the definition of smart museum. Smart

museum is the concentrated presentation of the

application of information network technology in

museums. It is a new mode of museum operation

and maintenance formed by using the latest

information network technology on the basis of

integrating the achievements of museum information

construction and digital museum construction. It

focuses on solving the problem of sharing the “man-

object-space” data fusion and intelligent application

under the latest information network technology

(Wang 2020).

Smart museums began to emerge in China in

2012. In recent years, with the development of

Internet technology, they focus on the service,

protection, management and decision-making aid of

museums, as well as the service of the Internet. The

public education activities of museums are moving

from physical exhibition halls to virtual spaces, and

the online and offline service modes will certainly

promote the maximum development of museum

functions in the industry (Liu 2022). To provide

community service for old people, online museums

combine online services with museum

informatization through “Internet +”, making the

elderly, especially disabled elderly people enjoy the

museum's collection and create products without

leaving home, and get service information in time,

so that the efficiency of the museum’s cultural

transmission is improved, and also smart, safe and

efficient age-friendly communities are built. The

main ways for the elderly to obtain online museum

resources are websites, APPS, mini programs,

Weibo and Wechat, etc. Museums can innovate the

digital display and dissemination of all kinds of

information, and provide relevant helps from the

aspects of content, form and service.

2.2.1 In Terms of Content

It mainly includes basic museum information, such

as the institution; the services of museum, for

example, exhibition information and reservation

way; the knowledge information like the collections;

cultural and creative product attribute information;

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professional explanation; academic columns; live

programs, etc. Professionals can be organized to

plan online thematic exhibitions for the elderly, so as

to shorten their distance with museums and deepen

their understanding of the exhibits in a pleasing

digital form. In order to facilitate the elderly to

browse, the plate design should be concise and

generous, and the content should be with emphasis.

Museums with rich collection resources and a high

degree of digitization are encouraged to open online

special exhibitions. For example, museums whose

collections and culturally creative products are paid

to high attention and recognition and whose content

is popular among the elderly, can integrate online

resources to promote digital information suitable for

the elderly and regularly update thematic content to

form brand effect. We will support museums with

large folk art collections to accelerate the

digitalization of their collections, and launch special

sections for the elderly through various channels.

Digital collection information should focus on both

knowledge and interest. For example, the “Digital

Collection of Cultural Relics” section of the Palace

Museum website displays professional profiles, clear

pictures, and high-definition pictures can be clicked

to enlarge. The "Palace Museum wallpaper" created

by Internet celebrities can also add elegance to the

online life of the elderly, and various forms of

information expression can increase the fun of

browsing websites for the elderly. Museum services

such as exhibition information and reservation

channels, can be unified and integrated by

administrative departments and released to the

society through network channels that are easily

accessible to the elderly.

2.2.2 From the Form

The digital expression of online museum can be in

the form of text, pictures, audio and video, high-tech

digital products and so on. According to the

characteristics of the elderly, it can be considered to

reduce the amount of text reading as much as

possible, and adopt other forms such as high-

definition pictures, audio and video, three-

dimensional digital methods, etc., to innovate

display means, develop VR exhibition halls and

other digital products, and build online experience

zones such as digital museums. For example, the

Palace Museum has organized online exhibitions,

webcast and launched a comprehensive all-media

online service platform called "Cloud Tour of the

Palace Museum", enabling Chinese and foreign

visitors to visit the Palace Museum, watch

exhibitions, appreciate cultural relics and learn

history without leaving their homes. In 2020, the

audience who clicks, views and broadcasts of the

live broadcast activities reached nearly 1 billion

times (Xiao 2022). In the "Panorama Palace

Museum" column of “Digital Palace Museum”

released on Wechat, click the map to enter each

exhibition area to provide virtual immersive

experience. "Digital multi-treasure pavilion" column

can help to appreciate cultural relics in 360 degrees

from multiple angles. The above variety of display

forms can bring the fun of cultural leisure to the

elderly. The remote location of Dunhuang Mogao

Grottoes, one of China's four largest grottoes,

restricted access to the site, have prevented many

elderly people from visiting. The “Digital

Dunhuang” website gathers the digital achievements

of grottoes and murals. Panoramic tour of grottoes

can be realized without logging in, and even higher

resolution images can be brow seen after logging in.

The introduction to the caves highlights key words

in red font hyperlinks to more relevant information.

Wechat mini program “Cloud Tour Dunhuang”

presents digital results on the mobile terminal, which

is more convenient for the elderly to appreciate, and

relaxing and lively columns such as “New cultural

Creation” have brought more fun to netizens. The

precious digital resources mentioned above can

strengthen the publicity and promotion for the

elderly, and encourage the industry to explore more

high-tech means to help the elderly obtain more

accessible online digital resources. Museums with

conditions can also develop related scientific

research projects.

2.2.3 From the Service

Museum websites and public service apps can be

organized to build and transform functions suitable

for aging or the disabled, optimize interface

interaction and other functions. Mobile APP can be

designed as elder mode version. Reducing the

operation steps, optimizing the process, the font easy

to see, simple to understand the operation

instructions, also, easy for the elderly to access, and

basically achieving barrier-free online information

exchange, the elderly can easily enjoy interactive

services. Small programs, cloud services and other

channels can explore and promote one-click

reservation for museum visits, avoiding complex

operation or repeated submission of basic

information by the elderly, and timely push

important information services such as opening and

closing of museums and visit reminders.

Museums Helping in Age-Friendly Communities Construction

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Explorations are made to connect the mature and

suitable module with old-age care service platform

with wide coverage, open up the online reservation

channel for the elderly, and make full use of 5G, big

data, cloud computing and other technologies to

realize real-time data fusion and sharing. Through

online live training or video recording, guidance

provision are available for the elderly to operate

online and visit the museum. Online and offline

collaboration, intelligent service innovation

combined with manual windows, service phone and

other traditional ways, through manual services,

information signs and guidance, the elderly are

helped to enter the museum after booking, and are

provided a more humanized museum visiting

experience.

The Internet has brought convenience to the

elderly in promoting cultural services assisted by

museums, but the current situation that most of the

elderly cannot skilfully use smart devices also

hinders its development to a certain extent.

However, the advantages of online museum, such as

diverse display ways, high interaction, convenient

service and low temporal and spatial dependence,

make it a new form of cross-temporal dialogue

between the elderly and culture, and is becoming the

main way for museums to serve the aging

population. Therefore, the Internet solution of the

smart museum should be based on the reality, pay

attention to the real demand, emphasize the interest

and knowledge of the content supply, improve the

acceptability, do a good job in the use of training,

help the elderly to cross the “digital divide”, and

maximize the role in the elderly project.

3 SOME SUGGESTIONS

3.1 The Government Aid

It is advisable to draw up relevant policies based on

public opinion, improve service measures, integrate

these services into the overall planning of old-age

assistance projects, and increase financial input.

3.2 Industry Management

Communities with suitable conditionals should be

supported to build museums; Mobile exhibitions

planned for the elderly should be refined and in-

depth, and publicity and promotion plans should be

done properly. We will build high-end think tanks,

actively train talents at the grassroots level and

encourage volunteers to participate.

3.3 Industrial Convergence

Platforms can be built to attract enterprise

investment, enhance their capital willingness, and

jointly cultivate the silver economy with enterprises

developing suitable industries. Through the market-

oriented operation of multi-channel financing

mechanism, reduce costs and increase efficiency.

3.4 Elderly Participation

The elderly can play the role of self-service and self-

support, and actively participate in the construction

of museum culture in the community; strive to

overcome barriers to the use of smart electronic

products and increase cultural acquisition ability.

4 CONCLUSION AND PROSPECT

The way that museums enter communities to serve

the elderly is one of the research directions of

museum construction, and with the progress of

science and technology, cultural products and forms

closer to the life of the elderly should be studied, so

as to truly "make cultural relics come alive". At the

same time, the joint participation of various forces in

the inheritance and dissemination of museum culture

and the promotion of community cultural

construction can increase the mode of cultural

supply for this particular group, promote the

upgrading of old-age care industry, and make the

community cultural life burst out new vigor and

vitality.

In the future, museums should further sort out

their needs based on education, life experience and

demand levels, provide smarter and more accurate

services for the elderly, help to build new geriatric

friendly communities and create a liveable

environment for the elderly from the aspects of

government urban governance, service innovation

for the people and industrial ecological support.

PROJECT FUND

The paper is the phased achievement of the research

project "Research on Elderly Friendly Community

Construction" of Beijing Dongcheng District Jiusan

Society in 2022.

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722

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