ABSTRACT
Some museums positively encourage acts of devotion within their premises, whether to explain their objects better, or to attract minority communities into the museum. One of the most famous objects in Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is the Sultanganj Buddha. For the Buddhists, a major aim was 'the desire to sensitise people to the mindset of faith and encourage them to express and champion their own moral values in the face of the liberal/secular attack upon them'. Museum people have a tendency to believe that their generation is the first to throw off the dusty elitism of 'old' museums, and to discover a new public-oriented inclusive museum service—the 'new museology'. Museums are very selective in what objects they allow visitors to worship. Many open-air museums include places of worship reconstructed or moved from elsewhere, and these are very commonly actually used for worship.
