Peter van Mensch


Peter van Mensch, born June 7, 1947 in Gouda, Netherlands is a Dutch scientist in the field of museology and a professor of Cultural Heritage at Amsterdam School of Arts.

Life and career

Peter van Mensch earned an MSc degree in Zoology and Archaeology at the University of Amsterdam. He worked in the field of archaeology at the Government Agency for Field Archaeology and later at the University of Amsterdam. He devoted 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 the 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 served as the director of the academy's . He earned his PhD degree at the University of Zagreb on the basis of a thesis Towards a Methodology of Museology. He was appointed as the first professor of cultural heritage at the Amsterdam School of the Arts and as such, he is responsible for the academy's research program. He was active in the ICOM International Committee for Education and Cultural Action, the ICOM International Committee for Training and the International Committee for Museology, the last of which he was president. As chair of the preliminary board, he played a role in the creation of a new ICOM international committee, called the International Committee for Collecting . Peter van Mensch has been a guest lecturer at many international museology programs, such as the museology program of the University of São Paulo, the International Summer School of Museology at Brno, the Baltic Museology School and the International School of Museology at Celje.

Work

Van Mensch is an acknowledged scientist 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 Methodology of Museology, he epitomizes the current achievements of museology and formulates principles that are recognised by all museology codes. Van Mensch played a significant role in developing the curriculum of the bachelor and master programs of the Reinwardt Academy and was instrumental in building the reputation of this academy as a prestigious professional training institution.

Select bibliography 2000–2011