The transformation of museums from the 'dreary, dusty places' they used to be to places that people want to be in, alongside objects they want to be near and ideas they want to understand and then share has been extraordinary. During the last twenty-five years, millions of pounds have been poured into our national museums in the UK: as a result, they are certainly brighter and fuller. It is against this background that Dinah Casson has opened the service entrance of the museum a little. This book is not an explanation of what an exhibition designer does or how to do it. Instead, by means of a series of essays punctuated with comments from collaborators and visitors, it explores exhibition design and alerts the visitor's eye to this invisible craft. It explores questions such as: why are most paintings in carved, gilded frames, regardless of artist, period or subject matter? Why do so few contemporary art galleries have windows? If a label text irritates us, what should it say instead? Why do facsimiles make some people so uncomfortable? Why do we keep all this stuff? What is it that visitors want from our museums? In doing so, it offers enjoyable insights, which will add depth to our future visits through the front door (which is usually closed on Mondays) and will make us question what is shown, why it's shown where (and how) it is, what's written about it and how the interaction between museums and their designers has encouraged each to change.

Shaila Bhatti's immersive study of the Lahore Museum in Pakistan is one of the first books to offer an in-depth historical and ethnographic analysis of a South Asian museum. Bhatti thus presents an alternative example of visitor experience and museum practice to that of the West, which has been the dominant museological model to date. This examination of the Lahore Museum's objects, staff, and visitors (past and present) provides an informative case study that reveals local perceptions and uses of museums in non-Western societies to be fraught with social, political, and cultural implications and appropriations. Through Lahore, Bhatti examines the history of exchange between Britian and South Asia and advances our current understanding of what constitutes postcolonial museum interpretation and its public.

In this comparative, international study Marilena Alivizatou investigates the relationship between museums and the new concept of "intangible heritage." She charts the rise of intangible heritage within the global sphere of UN cultural policy and explores its implications both in terms of international politics and with regard to museological practice and critical theory. Using a grounded ethnographic methodology, Alivizatou examines intangible heritage in the local complexities of museum and heritage work in Oceania, the Americas and Europe. This multi-sited, cross-cultural approach highlights key challenges currently faced by cultural institutions worldwide in understanding and presenting this form of heritage.

The last two decades have seen concerns for equality, diversity, social justice and human rights move from the margins of museum thinking and practice, to the core. The arguments -- both moral and pragmatic -- for engaging diverse audiences, creating the conditions for more equitable access to museum resources, and opening up opportunities for participation, now enjoy considerable consensus in many parts of the world. A growing number of institutions are concerned to construct new narratives that represent a plurality of lived experiences, histories and identities which aim to nurture support for more progressive, ethically-informed ways of seeing and to actively inform contemporary public debates on often contested rights-related issues. At the same time it would be misleading to suggest an even and uncontested transition from the museum as an organisation that has been widely understood to marginalise, exclude and oppress to one which is wholly inclusive. Moreover, there are signs that momentum towards making museums more inclusive and equitable is slowing down or, in some contexts, reversing.Museums, Equality and Social Justice aims to reflect on and, crucially, to inform debates in museum research, policy and practice at this critical time. It brings together new research from academics and practitioners and insights from artists, activists, and commentators to explore the ways in which museums, galleries and heritage organisations are engaging with the fast-changing equalities terrain and the shifting politics of identity at global, national and local levels and to investigate their potential to contribute to more equitable, fair and just societies.

Museum Objects provides a set of readings that together create a distinctive emphasis and perspective on the objects which lie at the heart of interpretive practice in museums, material culture studies and everyday life. This reader brings together classic and up to date texts on the nature and definition of the object itself, the senses and embodied experience of objects. No other volume brings together such perspectives in this way, and no other volume includes such a focus on the museum context.

Museum Objects incorporates both theorised and more practical readings from a range of international academic and contextual perspectives. The overall result is a definitive set of readings that offers a comprehensive understanding of objects and their place within the museum context.

Over recent decades, many museums, galleries and historic sites around the world have enjoyed an unprecedented level of large-scale investment in their capital infrastructure, in building refurbishments and new gallery displays. This period has also seen the creation of countless new purpose-built museums and galleries, suggesting a fundamental re-evaluation of the processes of designing and shaping of museums.

Museum Making: Narratives, Architectures, Exhibitions examines this re-making by exploring the inherently spatial character of narrative in the museum and its potential to connect on the deepest levels with human perception and imagination. Through this uniting theme, the chapters explore the power of narratives as structured experiences unfolding in space and time as well as the use of theatre, film and other technologies of storytelling by contemporary museum makers to generate meaningful and, it is argued here, highly effective and affective museum spaces. Contributions by an internationally diverse group of museum and heritage professionals, exhibition designers, architects and artists with academics from a range of disciplines including museum studies, theatre studies, architecture, design and history cut across traditional boundaries including the historical and the contemporary and together explore the various roles and functions of narrative as a mechanism for the creation of engaging and meaningful interpretive environments.

Today's museum educators are tackling urgent social issues, addressing historic inequalities of museum collections, innovating for accessibility, leveraging technology for new in-person and virtual learning experiences, and cultivating partnerships with schools, businesses, elders, scientists, and other social services to build relationships and be of service to their communities. Despite the physical distance the pandemic placed between museums and their visitors, museum educators have remained essential -- sustaining connections with the public through virtual or modified programming, content development, and conversations that they are uniquely qualified to execute. Educators require updated resources to guide their efforts in navigating these new challenges and building upon the opportunities presented by current events and changing audiences. This book and its accompanying on-line resource share lessons from innovators in the field to support ongoing professional development efforts with essays about current issues. Additionally, it provides new models and tools to guide individual or group reflection on how today's museum educators can adapt and thrive in a dynamic and ever-changing cultural sector. The additional resources include discussion prompts and adaptable templates to allow readers to customize the content based on current events, institutional discipline, size, budget, and staffing scenario of their organization. The book's essays are divided into three sections: Changing expectations of visitors - inclusion, participation, and technology Training and preparation for responsive, resourceful educators Models for the future While a book can share ideas in the hope of inspiring change, the accompanying online resource (www.EvolveMuseumEd.com) provides a more flexible and responsive forum for sharing ongoing and evolving resources to encourage professional development for museum educators as they respond to the changing needs of today's audiences.

1. The book provides practical guidance that will support the reader as they develop and deliver a costumed-interpreted character of their own. 2. The book provides a variety of examples for the reader to draw upon in their own practice. Comprehensive guidance on verbal techniques, such as voice tone and the use of accents, is provided. The importance of non-verbal communication is also covered, ensuring that the book will be useful to practitioners working at museum and heritage sites around the world. 3. This is the first practical guide to provide a non-US approach to costumed interpretation. The author demonstrates how it is possible to enhance visitor experience and on-site engagement through the use of costumed interpretation.

In his book, Graham Black argues that museums must transform themselves if they are to remain relevant to 21st century audiences and this root and branch change would be necessary whether or not museums faced a funding crisis. It is the result of the impact of new technologies and the rapid societal developments that we are all a part of, and applies not just to museums but to all arts bodies and to other agents of mass communication.

Through comment, practical examples and truly inspirational case studies, this book allows the reader to build a picture of the transformed 21st century museum in practice. Such a museum is focused on developing its audiences as regular users. It is committed to participation and collaboration. It brings together on-site, online and mobile provision and, through social media, builds meaningful relationships with its users. It is not restricted by its walls or opening hours, but reaches outwards in partnership with its communities and with other agencies, including schools. It is a haven for families learning together. And at its heart lies prolonged user engagement with collections, and the conversations and dialogues that these inspire.

The book is filled to the brim with practical examples. It features:

• an introduction that focuses on the challenges that face museums in the 21st century
• an analysis of population trends and their likely impact on museums
• boxes showing ideas, models and planning suggestions to guide development
• examples and case studies illustrating practice in both large and small museums
• an up-to-date bibliography of landmark research, including numerous websites

Sitting alongside Graham Black 's previous book, The Engaging Museum, we now have a clear vision of a museum of the future that engages, stimulates and inspires the publics it serves, and plays an active role in promoting tolerance and understanding within and between communities.

Preventive Conservation in Museums makes available and comprehensible the diverse literature and ideas of preventive conservation to an audience with a limited scientific background, principally those studying museum studies or engaged in the museum profession. It bridges the gap between the basic museum generated literature and technical and detailed conservation literature.

The area of preventative conservation has developed greatly in recent years and has adopted a far more holistic approach. The development of the concepts of risk analysis, management of conservation and how preventative conservation relates to the importance of traditional beliefs and approaches to artefacts have all made an impact on the subject in recent years along with the advance of instrumentation over the last thirty years. The next generation of ideas that will affect preventive conservation practice are just starting to emerge, including: detailed modelling of the environments of buildings and the sustainability of the artefactual and building heritage.

Preventive Conservation in Museums highlights the wide variety of threats, develops the concept of an holistic appreciation of these threats, and too appreciates the need to prioritise the appropriate forms of response. It uses a careful balance of sources, some technical, some theoretical, some practical as well as case studies to explore threats and their mitigation. For all those people involved in preventive conservation, be they students or professionals, this volume will be an invaluable summary of the past, present and future of the discipline.

The key to the survival of museum collections is a stable indoor environment and vital to this is a well-maintained building with effective environmental services. Environmental Management sets out clearly the theory and practice of achieving an appropriate museum environment for both collections and people. The book emphasises the need for planning and places the environmental needs of museum collections at the forefront of the responsibilities of museum managers. May Cassar stresses the role of the building as the first line of defence against environmental instability, recognising the importance of regular environmental monitoring and control, and the division of museum spaces into critical areas housing collections and non-critical areas accommodating offices, cafes and communal spaces. Environmental Management presents a strategic approach to environmental management, in contrast to the piecemeal approach to environmental monitoring and control still practised by many museums. However, rather than providing ready solutions and rigid rules, the book introduces principles and ideas on which to base decisions about creating the appropriate environment.

Museums are at a critical moment in their history. In order to ensure survival into the next century, museums and galleries must demonstrate their social relevance and use. This means developing their public service functions through becoming more knowledgeable about the needs of their visitors and more adept at providing enjoyable and worthwhile experiences. Museums and Their Visitors aims to help museums and galleries in this crucial task. It examines the ways in which museums need to develop their communicative functions and, with examples of case-studies, explains how to achieve best practice. The special needs of a number of target audiences including schools, families and people with disabilities are outlined and illustrated by examples of exhibition, education and marketing policies. The book looks in detail at the power of objects to inspire and stimulate and analyses the use of language in museums and galleries. This is the first book to be written to guide museum and gallery staff in the development of provision for their visitors. It will be of interest to students of museum, heritage and leisure and tourism studies, as well as to international museum professionals.

This book presents an innovative application of strategic and experiential marketing in the museum sector, which uses a new cultural mediation model to enrich the visitor experience via increased audience engagement. Leveraging a case study of the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Arts in Rome, the book helps readers understand how to apply marketing management to cultural mediation, enabling museums to segment the visitors' market to drive improvements to arts accessibility and engagement. By running a comprehensive and multi-method research project, the authors propose a customized cultural mediation model to support museums in facing the current challenges and build their future. By adopting the model presented in this volume, museums will not only be able to learn how to segment the visitors' market and design cultural mediation able to enrich the visitor experiences; readers will also learn how to invest, manage, hire, and train staff members devoted to this service, resulting in more engaging and successful experiences. This book will be a valuable resource for educational services offices at museums worldwide. This book will also be of interest to researchers, academics and scholars carrying out research in the fields of museum management, cultural mediation and communication, and marketing.

Museums as Agents for Social Change is the first comprehensive text to examine museum practice in a decolonised moment, moving beyond known roles of object collection and presentation. Drawing on studies of Mutare museum, a regional museum in Eastern Zimbabwe, this book considers how museums with inherited colonial legacies are dealing with their new environments. The book provides an examination of Mutare museum's activism in engaging with topical issues affecting its surrounding community and Chipangura and Mataga demonstrate how new forms of engagement are being deployed to attract new audiences, whilst dealing with issues such as economic livelihoods, poverty, displacement, climate change and education. Illustrating how recent programmes have helped to reposition Mutare museum as a decolonial agent of social change and an important community anchor institution, the book also demonstrates how other museums can move beyond the colonial preoccupation with the gathering of collections, conservation and presentation of cultural heritage to the public. Museums as Agents for Social Change will primarily be of interest to academics and students working in the fields of museum and heritage studies, history, archaeology and anthropology. It should also be appealing to museum professionals around the world who are interested in learning more about how to decolonise their museum.

Routledge Companion to Museum Ethics is a theoretically informed reconceptualization of museum ethics discourse as a dynamic social practice central to the project of creating change in the museum. Through twenty-seven chapters by an international and interdisciplinary group of academics and practitioners it explores contemporary museum ethics as an opportunity for growth, rather than a burden of compliance. The volume represents diverse strands in museum activity from exhibitions to marketing, as ethics is embedded in all areas of the museum sector. What the contributions share is an understanding of the contingent nature of museum ethics in the twenty-first century -- its relations with complex economic, social, political and technological forces and its fluid ever-shifting sensibility. The volume examines contemporary museum ethics through the prism of those disciplines and methods that have shaped it most. It argues for a museum ethics discourse defined by social responsibility, radical transparency and shared guardianship of heritage. And it demonstrates the moral agency of museums: the concept that museum ethics is more than the personal and professional ethics of individuals and concerns the capacity of institutions to generate self-reflective and activist practice.

Visitors to museums, galleries, heritage sites and other not for profit attractions receive their information in changing ways. Communications channels are shifting and developing all the time, presenting new challenges to cultural PR and Marketing teams. Marketing and Public Relations for Museums, Galleries, Cultural and Heritage Attractions, as well as providing some of the theory of marketing, provides the latest available case studies coupled with comments and advice from professionals inside and outside the cultural sector to describe the possibilities and outline strategies for the future. A strong theme of change runs through each chapter. The economic climate is already affecting the publicly funded sectors and business and private sponsorship. How will it change over the next few years? The print media is contracting; reading and viewing patterns are changing as online and mobile media grow. What are the trends here, in Europe, US and elsewhere? Sustainability and global warming are not just buzz words but will have a real impact on public and private institutions and their visitor patterns. Population patterns are also changing with new immigrants arriving and the proportion of over 60s increases in Western countries. Cultural tourism has enjoyed a great surge in popularity and huge investments are being made in museums, galleries and events. Marketing and PR play a crucial role in the success of such ventures and will be illustrated with case studies from the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Middle East and China. Marketing and Public Relations for Museums, Galleries, Cultural and Heritage Attractions is aimed at students of marketing, museums, culture and heritage as well as professionals working in a range of cultural organisations from small to large and at different stages of market development from new entrants to those offering mature products. This includes museums, galleries, heritage and visitor attractions, community organisations, as well as organisers of festivals, markets, craft fairs and temporary exhibitions.

1. The book presents an interdisciplinary examination of museum practice and constructs a useful theory of museum use as formative societal activity. 2. The book will be of interest to academics and students engaged in the study of museums and social justice. It will also be essential reading for practitioners with an interest in theory and museum transformation. 3. There are very few sole-authored titles that focus on museums and social responsibility and even fewer that focus on the theory behind the social role of museums. The proposed book will fill that gap.

1. This will be the first book to provide a true library, archival and museum (LAM) perspective, as every chapter will focus on all three types of institution and not just one of the three. 2. The book will provide a Scandinavian perspective on LAMs and convergence, but the challenges described are universal. The book will be valuable to students and academics around the world who are working in the Library and Information Science, Archival Science and Museum Studies fields. 3. The proposed book will be unique, as it will be the first to take a true LAM perspective and it will also be the first to provide a Scandinavian perspective on convergence. It will be written and edited by well-respected senior researchers working at institutions of higher education throughout Scandinavia and there is no other book out there that will compete directly with it, as a result.

1. The author explains how cultural heritage organizations, such as museums, libraries, archives and historic sites, can forgo the "best" in favor of "good" and "better" approaches to collections care. Giving examples of implementation and easy-to-follow guides, Forsko demonstrates how preservation can become a component of any collections care program - even one with little to no resources. 2. The book will be an essential tool for anyone who cares for collections, particularly collections managers, registrars, and archivists. It will be suitable for professionals working in any type or size of institution and will also be of interest to students who are learning how to become practitioners. 3. The book will be the first to take a realistic, sustainable approach to collections care, rather than a "best practices" approach. Drawing on more than a decade of experience working with over 40 libraries, museums, archives, and other historic sites, the author encourages the reader to start by taking small, manageable steps and explains that even the smallest of actions can make a difference that will ultimately help to preserve collections

Gender, Sexuality and Museums provides the only repository of key articles, new essays and case studies for the important area of gender and sexuality in museums. It is the first reader to focus on LGBT issues and museums, and the first reader in nearly 15 years to collect articles which focus on women and museums. At last, students of museum studies, women's studies, LGBT studies and museum professionals have a single resource.

The book is organised into three thematic parts, each with its own introduction. Sections focus on women in museum work, applications of feminist and LGBT theories to museum exhibitions, exhibitions and collections pertaining to women and individuals who are LGBT. The Case studies in a fourth part provide different perspectives to key topics, such as memorials and memorializing; modernism and museums; and natural history collections. The collection concludes with a bibliographic essay evaluating scholarship to date on gender and sexuality in museums.

Amy K. Levin brings together outstanding articles published in the past as well as new essays. The collection's scope is international, with articles about US, Canadian, and European institutions. Gender, Sexuality and Museums: A Routledge Reader is an essential resource for those studying gender and sexuality in the museum.

On the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, rural villages, traditional artefacts, even atmospheres and experiences are considered heritage. Heritage making not only protects, but also produces, things, people, and places. Since the Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, heritage making and Europeanization are increasingly intertwined in Greek-Cypriot society. Against the backdrop of a long-term ethnographic engagement, the author argues that heritage emerges as an increasingly standardized economic resource, a "European product." Implemented in historic preservation, rural tourism, culinary traditions, nature protection, and urban restoration projects, heritage policy has become infused with transnational market regulations and neoliberal property regimes.

The influence of digital media on the cultural heritage sector has been pervasive and profound. Today museums are reliant on new technology to manage their collections. They collect digital as well as material things. New media is embedded within their exhibition spaces. And their activity online is as important as their physical presence on site. However, 'digital heritage' (as an area of practice and as a subject of study) does not exist in one single place. Its evidence base is complex, diverse and distributed, and its content is available through multiple channels, on varied media, in myriad locations, and different genres of writing. It is this diaspora of material and practice that this Reader is intended to address. With over forty chapters (by some fifty authors and co-authors), from around the world, spanning over twenty years of museum practice and research, this volume acts as an aggregator drawing selectively from a notoriously distributed network of content. Divided into seven parts (on information, space, access, interpretation, objects, production and futures), the book presents a series of cross-sections through the body of digital heritage literature, each revealing how a different aspect of curatorship and museum provision has been informed, shaped or challenged by computing. Museums in a Digital Age is a provocative and inspiring guide for any student or practitioner of digital heritage.

This comprehensive history of museums begins with the origins of collecting in prehistory and traces the evolution of museums from grave goods to treasure troves, from the Alexandrian Temple of the Muses to the Renaissance cabinets of curiosities, and onto the diverse array of modern institutions worldwide. The development of museums as public institutions is explored in the context of world history with a special emphasis on the significance of objects and collecting. The book examines how the successful exportation of the European museum model and its international adaptations have created public institutions that are critical tools in diverse societies for understanding the world. Rather than focusing on a specialized aspect of museum history, this volume provides a comprehensive synthesis of museums worldwide from their earliest origins to the present. Museums: A History tells the fascinating story of how museums respond to the needs of the cultures that create them. Readers will come away with an understanding of: the comprehensive history of museums from prehistoric collections to the present the evolution of museums presented in the context of world history the development of museums considered in diverse cultural contexts global perspective on museums the object-centered history of museums museums as memory institutions A constant theme throughout the book is that museums have evolved to become institutions in which objects and learning are associated to help human beings understand the world around them. Illustrations amplify the discussions.

Understanding the visitor experience provides essential insights into how museums can affect people's lives. Personal drives, group identity, decision-making and meaning-making strategies, memory, and leisure preferences, all enter into the visitor experience, which extends far beyond the walls of the institution both in time and space. Drawing upon a career in studying museum visitors, renowned researcher John Falk attempts to create a predictive model of visitor experience, one that can help museum professionals better meet those visitors' needs. He identifies five key types of visitors who attend museums and then defines the internal processes that drive them there over and over again. Through an understanding of how museums shape and reflect their personal and group identity, Falk is able to show not only how museums can increase their attendance and revenue, but also their meaningfulness to their constituents.