Private museum as "a culture form": theoretical aspects

The article is devoted to some theoretical aspects of considering private museum as a culture form. An actuality of the topic is due to the contradiction: on the one hand the dynamic growth of private museums and their institutional ambiguity on the other. To sort out this contradiction the author uses the universal category, that allows to separate the concept from the object in its particular historical reality. The concept of a culture form is such a category. The article deals with the conception of a culture form which is viewed as a configuration including some characteristics and qualities of objects and phenomena and reflecting their functions as well. With reference to museums a culture form is interpreted as an essential category contributing to an institutional distinctness. The treatment of structural constituents of a culture form is set out. The author extracts genesis phases of private museums as a culture form and discovers the specifics, conveyed through a vast diversity of their institutions.