Beyond the Turnstile Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values

by Holo, Selma; Alvarez, Mari-Tere; Albuquerque, Lita; Anderson, Maxwell L.; Aoun, Joseph; Appiah, Anthony; Arango, Placido; Arnaldo, Javier; Brea, Leticia Azcue; Barkan, Elazar; Bassols, Marco Barrera; Barrios, Ivan Guillermo; Bomford, David; Causey, Faya;

• ISBN13: 9780759112216
• ISBN10: 0759112215
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-12-16
• Publisher: AltaMira Press

Summary

Beyond the Turnstile argues that museums are indispensable to civil society, especially in an era in which museums often are reduced to cultural businesses or "edu-tainment" sites. Is it inevitable that a museum's success will be measured solely by how many people come through the door and how much money they spend? The eminent contributors to this volume provide museum leaders with a different set of criteria for evaluating the success of their museums, proposing a set of sustainable values that can help museums preserve themselves and advance their social mission in hard times'¬ ;and help them thrive when times improve. While attendance and money will continue to count and be counted in our museums, numbers alone can never drive sustainable success. Only the unique dynamic identity that a museum can claim will do that.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The International Museum Institute: Origin and Cause	p. ix
Introduction	p. xiii
A Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste	p. xiii
The Set of Sustainable Values	p. xvii
Public Trust	p. 1
"Museum Values"	p. 5
"The Credibility of Museums"	p. 7
"Transmitting the Legacy"	p. 10
"Natural History Museums as Sentinel Observatories of Life on Earth: A Public Trust"	p. 12
"Including Cultural Justice in a Museum's Value System"	p. 15
The primacy Of Our Collections	p. 17
"It's All about the Permanent Collection"	p. 22
"Bringing Our Permanent Collections to Life"	p. 25
"What Are We Showing in Our Museums?"	p. 27
"From the Perspective of Turkey…."	p. 29
Relevance	p. 33
"The Revitalization of the Urban Environment: A Measure of the Museum's Social Value"	p. 38
"Ethnic-Specific Museums: Why They Matter and How They Make a Difference"	p. 40
"What Is the Relevance of Museums? Can You Imagine a World without Them?"	p. 44
"Will Museums Survive?"	p. 48
Inclusion	p. 53
"Remembering Abolition: Britain and the Slave Trade, 1807-2007"	p. 57
"Including Contemporary Art at the Musée du Quai Branley: A Way of Coming to Terms with the Colonial Past à la Frangaise?"	p. 61
"The Huntington's Decisions about Audience and Service: How and Where Could a Children's Garden Be Brought into Play?"	p. 63
"Museums (A Rapid View of Guided Tours): The Ruins of the Future Should Be in Shop Windows"	p. 66
"Grappling with Limits: Museums and Social Inclusion"	p. 72
Globalization: Finding and Claiming Your Niche	p. 77
"Defending the Universal (Encyclopedic) Museum"	p. 82
"Professional Museum Training Programs at the National Gallery of Art: From the Shores of the Potomac to a World View"	p. 83
"A Work in Progress: Cultural District, Abu Dhabi"	p. 86
"Two Museums, Two Visions of Mexican Artes Populates in the Era of Globalization"	p. 92
Creativity And Experimentation	p. 97
"In Service to Artists…."	p. 102
"Museums and Creativity"	p. 106
"Art and Science, Nature and Art in a Natural History Museum"	p. 108
"Creativity and Experimentation in the World of Archaeology"	p. 111
New Alliances	p. 115
"Setting Precedent"	p. 120
"Alliances, New and Renewed"	p. 122
"The Crossing of Art and Science: Expanding the Field"	p. 125
"Museums and Alliances/Allies"	p. 127
"New Alliances/New Philanthropies: The Alfredo Harp Foundation"	p. 130
Authentic Experience	p. 133
"When I Was a Youngster"	p. 138
"Authentic Experiences"	p. 142
"Mezcal for the Earth"	p. 144
"The 'Total' Museum: A Tool for Social Change"	p. 146
"Guernica Gernikara"	p. 148
Generation and Dissemination of Knowledge	p. 153
"Minds in Museums-Knowledge Evolving"	p. 158
"Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, and the Generation and Diffusion of Knowledge"	p. 160
"Art in the Making: Another View of Art History"	p. 163
"Interdisciplinary Work and Knowledge Management: A Dynamic for the Contemporary Museum"	p. 167
Communication	p. 169
"Reality Check"	p. 173
"Communication: One Mission, One Blog"	p. 176
"The Polished Edge"	p. 178
"Texts and Contexts in Museology"	p. 180
"Communicating through Design and Display: The New American Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston"	p. 182
Conclusion "Museumspace"	p. 187
Acknowledgments	p. 189
Index	p. 195
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.