Ecomuseum and Community Empowerment: A Reflection Cum Museum Definition

Recently, a common denominator within cultural postulations is that, museums being people and community centric institutions be deconstructed to engage communities within an inclusive spectrum. Whereas this may be a ‘tall task’ with many traditional and institutionalized museums, new museology advocate workable principles of engaging with communities to create robust people and community centered museum practice. Ecomuseum is a community-centered initiative that epitomizes the concept. This paper reflects on ecomuseum in this light as a community empowerment module. Following from that, it examines the definition debate within the museum space, and concludes with propounding a definition that, in the author’s opinion accommodates diverse variables within museum practice as a possible universal one.