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Museum and Gallery Studies: The Basics is an accessible guide for the student approaching Museum and Gallery Studies for the first time. Taking a global view, it covers the key ideas, approaches and contentious issues in the field. Balancing theory and practice, the book address important questions such as:








What are museums and galleries?







Who decides which kinds of objects are worthy of collection?







How are museums and galleries funded?







What ethical concerns do practitioners need to consider?







How is the field of Museum and Gallery Studies developing?





This user-friendly text is an essential read for anyone wishing to work within museums and galleries, or seeking to understand academic debates in the field.

Museum and Gallery Studies: The Basics

Introduction





What this book will do





Who is this book for?





What are museum and gallery studies?





Museum and gallery studies around the world





'Theory' and 'practice'?





Why study museums and galleries?





Culture as 'soft power'





Conclusion





Further reading





Chapter 1: First principles





What is a museum or gallery? *





'New museology'





Origins of museums





The Louvre: a turning point





Museum development: nationalism and colonialism





Do all cultures have museums?





Can anyone call any space 'a museum'?





What is an art gallery? What is an art museum or a museum or art?





How many different kinds of museums and galleries are there?





What are museums and galleries for?





Why do societies have museums and galleries?





Public Trust





Heritage





Heritage as institution, adjective or tradition





Elite or 'everyone's' heritage





Conclusion





Further reading





Chapter 2: Collecting and Collections





Curating and collecting





Collecting the past





Reconceptualising the discipline of 'history'





Acknowledging your own standpoint





Tradition versus history





Collecting 'the present' for the future





Collecting historical art





Collecting contemporary art





Collecting the intangible





Collecting the digital





The lives of objects





Acquisitioning and accessioning





Disposal and de-accessioning





Creating Value





Priceless objects and 'market value'





Regimes of Value: Exchanges and Exclusions





Protecting the nation's interest: exports of cultural property





Managing and caring for collections





Conservation, preservation or restoration?





Conclusion *





Further reading:





Chapter 3: Visitors and Audiences





Who are museums and galleries for?





Who visits museums and galleries? Understanding visitor profiles and global trends





Understanding the statistics: an example





Does it make a difference if museums are free or charge?





Why do people visit? Understanding visitor motivations.





Audience segmentation





What is the difference between audiences, visitors and communities?





Understanding 'non-visitors' motivations





Understanding access, and barriers to access





Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital





Are museums and galleries 'white spaces'?





Visiting patterns in relationship to staff demographics





Inclusion initiatives and policy agendas





Audience Development





Building new audiences through community engagement





Models of 'community engagement'





If communities can tell their own histories do we still need curators?





Is working digitally one answer?





Conclusions





Further reading





Chapter 4: The Business of Culture





Who pays for what, for whom, and on whose behalf?





What it costs: capital and revenue





External funding sources: the state, the lottery, charities, donors, business





The museum as entrepreneur: income generation and enterprise





Fundraising, sponsorship, philanthropy, and 'the gift'





Autonomy and instrumentalisation





Implication of cultural policy





Governance, legal status and funding models





The public interest and the private market





Tourism, leisure and marketing





Regeneration through culture (the 'Bilbao effect')





The 'museum boom', 1980-2010 - costs and consequences





Conclusions





Further reading





Chapter 5: Display, interpretation and learning





What does 'display' mean in a museum or gallery context? *





Classic exhibition genres





Telling and showing histories in space and time





Working with spaces





What are the relationships between display and knowledge?





The gallery as 'white cube'





The 'poetics' and 'politics' of display





Taking responsibility?





Co-producing displays and sharing authorship





Can objects 'speak'?





Making sense of what we see: the active visitor *





Visitor behaviour in gallery settings





From 'education' to 'learning'





Creating accessibility for everyone





Conclusions





Further reading





Chapter 6: Looking forward





Power and politics





Museums as a means to foster mutual understanding





Museums and galleries as social activists





Globalisation





Changing perspectives





Valuing culture





Visitor trends





Further reading





Index.....................