Renewing museum meanings and action with intangible cultural heritage

In light of the development of a new International Council of Museums (ICOM) Museum Definition, I discuss here the benefits of prioritising intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in museum work, reflecting the values that have driven this process of redefinition and that museum professionals strive to espouse. Indeed, key concepts that have emerged during the process reiterate the importance of ICH – and ‘culture’ as encompassing ‘heritage, memory, and place’ in constituting a main focus of museological activity, a stance that gained solid footing in 2004 with the Seoul Declaration of ICOM on the Intangible Heritage (ICOM 2004). Moreover, emerging concepts signal the need for greater attention to ‘diversity,’ ‘inclusivity’ and ‘community participation’ as features of what can be considered 21st-century, outward-facing and proactive museum practice (ICOM 2021, 21–26).