A Companion to Museum Studies

by Macdonald , Sharon

• ISBN13: 9781444334050
• ISBN10: 1444334050
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-09
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

A Companion to Museum Studies captures the multidisciplinary approaches to the study of the development, roles, and significance of museums in contemporary society. It is an indispensable reference for art historians, museum curators, and art and culture lovers. Collects first-rate original essays by leading figures from a range of disciplines and theoretical stances, including anthropology, art history, history, literature, sociology, cultural studies, and museum studies Examines the complexity of the museum from cultural, political, curatorial, historical and representational perspectives Covers traditional subjects, such as space, display, buildings, objects and collecting, and more contemporary challenges such as visiting, commerce, community and experimental exhibition forms

Author Biography

Sharon Macdonald is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. Her books include Theorizing Museums (edited with Gordon Fyfe, Blackwell 1996), Reimagining Culture (1997), The Politics of Display (ed., 1998), Behind the Scenes at the Science Museum (2002), and Exhibition Experiments (edited with Paul Basu, Blackwell 2007).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgments

Bibliographical Note

Expanding Museum Studies: an Introduction

Perspectives, Disciplines, Concepts

Introduction

Cultural Theory and Museum Studies

Sociology and the Social Aspects of Museums

Art History and Museology: Rendering the Visible Legible

Museums and Anthropologies. Practices and Narratives

Collecting Practices

The Conundrum of Ephemerality: Time, Memory and Museums

Histories, Heritage, Identities

Introduction

The Origins of the Public Museum

World's Fairs and Museums

Making and Remaking National Identities

Museums and Community

Re-staging Histories and Identities

Heritage

Architecture, Space, Media

Introduction

Museum Architecture: a Brief History

Insight versus Entertainment. Untimely Meditations on the Architecture of 20th-Century Art Museums

Civic Seeing: Museums and the Organisation of Vision

Spatial Syntax: the Language of Museum Space

New Media

Visitors, Learning, Interacting: Introduction

Living in a Learning Society: Museums and Free-Choice Learning

Museum Education

Interactivity: Thinking Beyond

Studying Visitors

Globalization, Profession, Practice

Introduction

Globalization: In-Corporating the Museum

Cultural Economics

The Museum Profession

Museum Ethics

Museum Practice: Legal Issues

Non-Western Models of Museums and Curation in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Culture Wars, Transformations, Futures

Introduction

Incivilities in Civil(-ized) Places: "Culture Wars" in Comparative Perspective

Science Museums and the Culture Wars

Postmodern Restructurings

Exposing the Public

The Future of Museums

Index

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