The Art of Access: A Practical Guide for Museum Accessibility is a one-stop guide to the incremental ways your museum can build a comprehensive approach to accessibility that can be easily integrated into the fabric of your museum. Highlights include: Consultation with leaders in the field and calling on practitioners from across the disciplines (art, science, history, business, living collections) Concrete examples and specific resources Partnerships Physical/environmental access Sensory access Inclusive spaces, exhibitions, and programs Staff training and institutional buy-in Each chapter presents practical actions that any museum or cultural institution (regardless of the size, budget, or scope) can take to better engage and welcome visitors of all ages and abilities. This book will illuminate the incremental ways in which accessibility can be easily integrated into the fabric of museums, thus enabling institutions to better engage with audiences who would otherwise not visit the museum.

In an era cross-cut with various agendas and expressions of national belonging and global awareness, "the nation" as a collective reference point and experienced entity stands at the center of complex identity struggles. This book explores how such struggles unfold in practice at a highly symbolic battlefield site in the Danish/German borderland. Comprised of an ethnography of two profoundly different institutions - a conventional museum and an experience-based heritage center - it analyses the ways in which staff and visitors interfere with, relate to, and literally "make sense" of the war heritage and its national connotations. Borders of Belonging offers a comparative, in-depth analysis of the practices and negotiations through which history is made and manifested at two houses devoted to the interpretation of one event: the decisive battle of the 1864 war in which Otto von Bismarck, on his way to uniting the new German Empire, led the Prussian army to victory over the Danish. Working through his empirical material to engage with and challenge established theoretical positions in the study of museums, modernity, and tourism, Mads Daugbjerg demonstrates that national belonging is still a key cultural concern, even as it asserts itself in novel, muted, and increasingly experiential ways.

This book brings together contributions from scholars from intersecting disciplines. Arguing that we are witnessing a paradigm shift concerning the place of historic spaces and museums in the contemporary imaginary, the volume shows that such institutions are merging traditional scholarly activities tied to historical representation and inquiry with novel modes of display and interpretation, drawing them closer to the world of entertainment and interactive consumption. The book concludes that museums and historic sites are reinventing themselves, in order to remain meaningful and to play a role in societies aspiring to be more inclusive and open to historical and cultural debate. This book will be of interest to students and faculty who are engaged in the study of museums, art history, architectural and design history, social and cultural history, interior design, visual culture, and material culture.

The Art of Access: A Practical Guide for Museum Accessibility is a one-stop guide to the incremental ways your museum can build a comprehensive approach to accessibility that can be easily integrated into the fabric of your museum. Highlights include: Consultation with leaders in the field and calling on practitioners from across the disciplines (art, science, history, business, living collections) Concrete examples and specific resources Partnerships Physical/environmental access Sensory access Inclusive spaces, exhibitions, and programs Staff training and institutional buy-in Each chapter presents practical actions that any museum or cultural institution (regardless of the size, budget, or scope) can take to better engage and welcome visitors of all ages and abilities. This book will illuminate the incremental ways in which accessibility can be easily integrated into the fabric of museums, thus enabling institutions to better engage with audiences who would otherwise not visit the museum.

Understanding Disability Throughout History explores seldom-heard voices from the past by studying the hidden lives of disabled people before the concept of disability existed culturally, socially and administratively. The book focuses on Iceland from the Age of Settlement, traditionally considered to have taken place from 874 to 930, until the 1936 Law on Social Security (Loeg um almannatryggingar), which is the first time that disabled people were referenced in Iceland as a legal or administrative category. Data sources analysed in the project represent a broad range of materials that are not often featured in the study of disability, such as bone collections, medieval literature and census data from the early modern era, archaeological remains, historical archives, folktales and legends, personal narratives and museum displays. The ten chapters include contributions from multidisciplinary team of experts working in the fields of Disability Studies, History, Archaeology, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Folklore and Ethnology, Anthropology, Museum Studies, and Archival Sciences, along with a collection of post-doctoral and graduate students. The volume will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, history, medieval studies, ethnology, folklore, and archaeology.

Museums, libraries, and cultural institutions provide opportunities for people to understand and celebrate who they are, were, and might be. These institutions educate the public and civilize society in a variety of ways, ranging from community events to a single child making a first visit. The Museum Effect documents this phenomenon, explains how it happens, and shows how institutions can facilitate this process. Cultural institutions vary dramatically in size, nature and purpose, but they all allow visitors to hold conversations with artists and authors perhaps long dead. These conversations, sometimes with others present, and sometimes with artists, scientists, explorers, or authors not present, allow visitors to explore their lives and their "possible selves." Cultural institutions inspire personal reflection, and help visitors better themselves, in that they leave having contemplated what is noble, excellent, or exemplary about the society in which they live. The "museum effect" is a process through which cultural institutions educate and civilize us as individuals and as societies. These institutions allow visitors to spend some time with their thoughts elevated, and leave the institution better people in some meaningful fashion than when they entered. This visionary book presents the underlying idea and the argument for the museum effect, along with empirical research supporting that argument. It will help those working in museums, libraries, and archivists to facilitate this process, and study how this is working in their own institutions.

There is a vast body of international and national law that regulates cultural heritage. However, the current regulation remains quite blind to the so called "transnational heritage". This is heritage where there is no community recognized in law that it can be directly attributed to and that can be responsible for its safekeeping and preservation. It can also be items of heritage where the claim of ownership is disputed between two or more peoples or communities. Transnational heritage challenges the idea of monolithic, mono-cultural, ethno-national states. There are a number of examples of such cultural heritage, for instance the Buddhist Bamiyan statutes in Afghanistan, Palmyra in Syria, the Jewish heritage of Iraq, or various items that are currently housed in large, often Western, museums, as a result of colonial practices. This book explores the regulation of transnational heritage. By discussing many cases of transnational heritage and the problems that arise due to the lack of regulation the book analyses the manifestations of memories and constructions of communities through heritage. It focuses particularly on the concept of community. How are communities constructed in cultural heritage law and what falls outside of the definitions of community? The book underlines that the issues surrounding transnational heritage involve more than a communal right to culture. It is argued that transnational heritage also directly affects wider matters of law such as citizenship, human rights, sovereignty, as well as the movement of people and cultural goods.

Museums and the Act of Witnessing examines how representations of traumatic histories and the legacies of the twentieth century in museums and heritage sites across the world shape political, social and cultural identities. Drawing on an interdisciplinary analysis of a variety of museum exhibitions around the globe, the book demonstrates how the narrative of 'witnessing' has shaped representation of war, genocide, repression and violence. Revealing that this form of presentation is inherently Western in its origins and nature, Wilson goes on to argue that witnessing the past is to colonise the future, as we project a certain view of the events of the past onto the present. Detailing the character, content and meanings of representation that focus on the traumatic events of the twentieth century, the book demonstrates the way in which visitors are cast as 'witnesses' and questions what the true purpose of witnessing really is. Museums and the Act of Witnessing draws attention to the fact that we have inherited a distinct, and often limited, mode of seeing the past and considers how we can more effectively engage with the past in the present. The book will be of interest to academics and students engaged in the study of museums, history, sociology, conflict, politics and memory.

Museums and the Act of Witnessing examines how representations of traumatic histories and the legacies of the twentieth century in museums and heritage sites across the world shape political, social and cultural identities. Drawing on an interdisciplinary analysis of a variety of museum exhibitions around the globe, the book demonstrates how the narrative of 'witnessing' has shaped representation of war, genocide, repression and violence. Revealing that this form of presentation is inherently Western in its origins and nature, Wilson goes on to argue that witnessing the past is to colonise the future, as we project a certain view of the events of the past onto the present. Detailing the character, content and meanings of representation that focus on the traumatic events of the twentieth century, the book demonstrates the way in which visitors are cast as 'witnesses' and questions what the true purpose of witnessing really is. Museums and the Act of Witnessing draws attention to the fact that we have inherited a distinct, and often limited, mode of seeing the past and considers how we can more effectively engage with the past in the present. The book will be of interest to academics and students engaged in the study of museums, history, sociology, conflict, politics and memory.

Presenting an image of the built environment of migration as one shaped by the ongoing flows of people, ideas, objects and money that circulate through migration corridors, the author proposes that houses and other structures built by migrants in their home villages in China over the period 1840-1940 should be seen as crystallisations of the labour, aspirations and longings enacted and experienced by their builders while overseas. Demonstrating that the material world of the migrant is distributed across transnational space, the book calls for an approach to the heritage of migration that is similarly expansive. It proposes and illustrates new methods and strategies for heritage practice. The Heritage Corridor is a book for scholars and students in the fields of critical heritage studies, migration studies and Chinese diasporic mobilities. It is designed to be accessible to heritage practitioners, readers with an interest in the material worlds of migration, past and present, and to all those with an interest in the 'archaeology' of transnational migration.

It's been more than forty years since the second edition of this landmark guide to the preservation and restoration of gardens and landscapes at historic sites was published. Since the last edition came out, author Rudy Favretti, the nation's foremost authority in this area, has worked on many significant sites including both Monticello and Mount Vernon. New to this edition are: *Personal case studies from the authors' extensive experience in landscape restoration-preservation * An in-depth look complete with color images of the archaeological excavations at Bacon's Castle and Monticello in Virginia *Seventy-three illustrations including eight color photos *An enlarged and comprehensive bibliography *Fully updated and added chapters based on new and emerging information in the field Further, Landscape and Gardens for Historic Buildings covers a wide array of topics including researching and planning, maintaining restored landscapes, identifying authentic flora, and selecting the right historical period, or a series of periods to show the evolution of the historic landscape.

Although much has been written in recent years on what museum visitors actually experience, there is little research-backed guidance available for developing meaningful exhibits and programs for specific educational purposes. Deborah Perry looks at what we know about the experiences of people in museums and other informal learning settings, and then shares a set of tested principles and strategies known as the Selinda Model for the design of effective museum exhibits. Along the way, she showcases examples of both effective and ineffective exhibit designs drawn from two decades of work in the field.

This book includes contributions from academics, artists and heritage practitioners, the volume explores decolonial heritage practices in politics, contemporary history, diplomacy, museum practice, the visual arts and self-generated memorial expressions in public spaces. The comparative focus of the chapters includes examples of internal colonization in Europe and extends to former European colonies, among them Shanghai, Cape Town, and Rio de Janeiro. Examining practices in a range of different contexts, the book pays particular attention to sub-national actors whose work is opening up new futures through their engagement with decolonial heritage practices in the present. The volume also considers the challenges posed by applying decolonial thinking to existing understandings of colonial heritage. This book examines the role of colonial heritage in European memory politics and heritage diplomacy. It will be of interest to academics and students working in the fields of heritage and memory studies, colonial and imperial history, European studies, sociology, cultural studies, development studies, museum studies, and contemporary art.

The second edition of Public History: A Textbook of Practice offers an updated guide to the many opportunities and challenges that public history practitioners can encounter in the field. Historians can play a dynamic and essential role in contributing to public understanding of the past, and those who work in historic preservation, in museums and archives, in government agencies, as consultants, as oral historians, or who manage crowdsourcing projects need very specific skills. This book links theory and practice and provides students and practitioners with the tools to do public history in a wide range of settings. This new edition reflects how much the field of public history has changed in the past few years, with public history now being more established and international. New chapters have therefore been added on the definition, history, and international scope of public history, as well as on specific practices and theories such as historical fictions, digital public history, and shared authority. Split into four sections, this textbook provides approaches, methodologies, and tools for historians and other public history practitioners to play a bigger role in public debates and public productions of historical interpretations: Part I focuses on the past, present, and future of public history. Part II explores public history sources, and offers an overview of the creation, collection, management, and preservation of materials (archives, material culture, oral history, or historical sites). Part III deals with the different ways in which public history practitioners can produce historical narratives through different media (including texts, fictions, audio-visual productions, exhibitions, and performances). Part IV discusses the opportunities and challenges that public history practitioners encounter when working with different collaborators. Whether in public history methods courses or as a resource for practicing public historians, this book lays the groundwork for making meaningful connections between historical sources and popular audiences.

In Museum Metamorphosis, over forty cultural innovators and changemakers in contemporary art share strategies for building sociocultural relevancy and responsiveness in museums. Representing diverse perspectives from across the entire arts and culture ecosystem, the book offers tools to reshape museums into collaborative platforms for collective impact and social change. Part One features seven roundtables in which practitioners discuss best practices for dismantling barriers to entry and building reciprocal, sustained engagement with diverse constituencies. Part Two documents four case studies in structured collaboration, prompting museums to invest in both hyperlocal relationships and cross-sector partnerships. And Part Three features four interviews with thought leaders who discuss how to shift equity from a measure of compliance to a vital daily practice of organizational accountability and sustainability. Compiled during a moment of heightened social action, cultural transformation, and institutional critique, Museum Metamorphosis considers and responds to the following prompts: how will museums learn to embrace real-time change and adapt to meet the evolving needs of a rapidly shifting sociopolitical landscape? How can this metamorphosis open new pathways for engagement and encourage museums to meet more audiences where they are? And, how might reconstituting the essential DNA of the museum recalibrate the power dynamics between communities and institutions, producing a sustainable model for engaged cultural citizenship? In addressing these questions, Museum Metamorphosis looks to innovation transpiring beyond the museum echo chamber and lays bare both the opportunities and challenges of adopting new ways of working. It dares readers to identify their respective position within the social change ecosystem, and empowers them with tools to reorient their work towards cultural equity and social justice.

Almost nine million people from all over the world flock to the Louvre in Paris every year to see its incomparable art collection. Yet few, if any, are aware of the remarkable history of that location and of the buildings themselves, and how they chronicle the history of Paris itself-a fascinating story that historian James Gardner elegantly tells for the first time. Before the Louvre was a museum, it was a palace, and before that a fortress. But much earlier still, it was a place called le Louvre for reasons unknown. People had inhabited that spot for more than 6,000 years before King Philippe Auguste of France constructed a fortress there in 1191 to protect against English soldiers stationed in Normandy. Two centuries later, Charles V converted the fortress to one of his numerous royal palaces. After Louis XIV moved the royal residence to Versailles in 1682, the Louvre inherited the royal art collection, which then included the Mona Lisa, given to Francis by Leonardo da Vinci; just over a century later, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly established the Louvre as a museum to display the nation's treasures. Subsequent leaders of France, from Napoleon to Napoleon III to Francois Mitterand, put their stamp on the museum, expanding it into the extraordinary institution it has become. With expert detail and keen admiration, James Gardner links the Louvre's past to its glorious present, and vibrantly portrays how it has been a witness to French history - through the Napoleonic era, the Commune, two World Wars, to this day - and home to a legendary collection whose diverse origins and back stories create a spectacular narrative that rivals the building's legendary stature.

In Museum Metamorphosis, over forty cultural innovators and changemakers in contemporary art share strategies for building sociocultural relevancy and responsiveness in museums. Representing diverse perspectives from across the entire arts and culture ecosystem, the book offers tools to reshape museums into collaborative platforms for collective impact and social change. Part One features seven roundtables in which practitioners discuss best practices for dismantling barriers to entry and building reciprocal, sustained engagement with diverse constituencies. Part Two documents four case studies in structured collaboration, prompting museums to invest in both hyperlocal relationships and cross-sector partnerships. And Part Three features four interviews with thought leaders who discuss how to shift equity from a measure of compliance to a vital daily practice of organizational accountability and sustainability. Compiled during a moment of heightened social action, cultural transformation, and institutional critique, Museum Metamorphosis considers and responds to the following prompts: how will museums learn to embrace real-time change and adapt to meet the evolving needs of a rapidly shifting sociopolitical landscape? How can this metamorphosis open new pathways for engagement and encourage museums to meet more audiences where they are? And, how might reconstituting the essential DNA of the museum recalibrate the power dynamics between communities and institutions, producing a sustainable model for engaged cultural citizenship? In addressing these questions, Museum Metamorphosis looks to innovation transpiring beyond the museum echo chamber and lays bare both the opportunities and challenges of adopting new ways of working. It dares readers to identify their respective position within the social change ecosystem, and empowers them with tools to reorient their work towards cultural equity and social justice.

A Representation of Nationhood in the Museum examines how the National Museum of Korea, as a national repository of material culture and the state's premier exhibition facility, has shaped and been shaped by Korean nationalism. Exploring the processes by which the museum has discovered and interpreted material culture, using concepts of ethnic nationalism in the historical and political contexts of South Korean society, the book analyses how this nationalist interpretation has regulated South Koreans' understanding of their material culture. Issues considered include: cultural and political relations with China; Japanese colonial rule, cultural imperialism and its legacy; the division of Korea since 1945; the Korean War and nation building since liberation in 1945; and domestic political upheavals, including military coups in 1961 and in 1979. Demonstrating that authoritarian regimes' emphasis on the promotion of national unity drove national museums to establish national identity through material culture, Jang argues that international political and diplomatic factors also affect the process of the formation of national identity in a specific political context. Concerning itself with issues such as the relationship between politics and identity, museums and authoritarian regimes, this book should be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in museum studies, nationalism studies, Asian studies and history departments.

This book examines cultural participation from three different, but interrelated perspectives: participatory art and aesthetics; participatory digital media, and participatory cultural policies and institutions. Focusing on how ideals and practices relating to cultural participation express and (re)produce different "cultures of participation", an interdisciplinary team of authors demonstrate how the areas of arts, digital media, and cultural policy and institutions are shaped by different but interrelated contextual backgrounds. Chapters offer a variety of perspectives and strategies for empirically identifying "cultures of participation" and their current transformations and tensions in various regional and national settings. This book will be of interest to academics and cultural leaders in the areas of museum studies, media and communications, arts, arts education, cultural studies, curatorial studies and digital studies. It will also be relevant for cultural workers, artists and policy makers interested in the participatory agenda in art, digital media and cultural institutions.

This volume is a critical study of recent archaeology in the Western Wall Plaza area, Jerusalem. Considered one of the holiest places on Earth for Jews and Muslims, it is also a place of controversy, where the State marks 'our' remains for preservation and adoration and 'theirs' for silencing. Based on thousands of documents from the Israel Antiquities Authority and other sources, such as protocols of planning committees, readers can explore for the first time this archaeological 'heart of darkness' in East Jerusalem. The book follows a series of unique discoveries, reviewing the approval and execution of development plans and excavations, and the use of the areas once excavation has finished. Who decides what and how to excavate, what to preserve - or 'remove'? Who pays for the archaeology, for what aims? The professional, scientific archaeology of the past happens now: it modifies the present and is modified by it. This book 'excavates' the archaeology of East Jerusalem to reveal its social and political contexts, power structures and ethics. Readers interested in the history, archaeology and politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will find this book useful, as well as scholars and students of the history and ethics of Archaeology, Jerusalem, conservation, nationalism, and heritage.

This book undertakes a critical reappraisal of Minimalism through an examination of three key painters: Robert Mangold, David Novros, and Jo Baer. By establishing their substantive engagements with Minimalist discourse, as well as their often overlooked artistic exchanges with their sculptor peers, it demonstrates that painting crucially informed the movement's development, serving not only as an object of critique but also as a crucible for its most central tenets. It also poses broader disciplinary implications as it historicizes and challenges Minimalism's "death of painting" critiques that have been so influential to theories of modernism and postmodernism in the visual arts.

Museums and the Working Class is the first book to take an intersectional and international approach to the issues of economic diversity and class within the field of museum studies. Bringing together 16 contributors from eight countries, this book has emerged from the significant global dialogue concerning museums' obligation to be inclusive, participate in meaningful engagement and advocate for social change. As part of the push for museums to be more accessible and inclusive, museums have been challenged to critically examine their power relationships and how these are played out in what they collect, whose stories they exhibit and who is made to feel welcome in their halls. This volume will further this professional and academic debate through the discussion of class. Contributions to the book will also reinforce the importance of the working class - not only in collection and exhibition policy, but also for the organisational psychology of institutions. Museums and the Working Class is essential reading for scholars and students of museum, gallery and heritage studies, cultural studies, sociology, labour studies and history. It will also serve as a source of honest and research-led inspiration to practitioners working in museums, galleries, libraries, archives and at heritage sites around the world.

As a contribution to cultural policy studies, this book offers a uniquely detailed and comprehensive account of the historical evolution of cultural policies and their contestation within a single democratic polity, while treating these developments comparatively against the backdrop of contemporaneous influences and developments internationally. It traces the climate of debate, policies and institutional arrangements arising from the state's regulation and administration of culture in Ireland from 1800 to 2010. It traces the influence of precedent and practice developed under British rule in the nineteenth century on government in the 26-county Free State established in 1922 (subsequently declared the Republic of Ireland in 1949). It demonstrates the enduring influence of the liberal principle of minimal intervention in cultural life on the approach of successive Irish governments to the formulation of cultural policy, right up to the 1970s. From 1973 onwards, however, the state began to take a more interventionist and welfarist approach to culture. This was marked by increasing professionalization of the arts and heritage, and a decline in state support for amateur and voluntary cultural bodies. That the state had a more expansive role to play in regulating and funding culture became a norm of cultural discourse.

Heritage Politics in China: The Power of the Past studies the impact of heritage policies and discourses on the Chinese state and Chinese society. It sheds light on the way Chinese heritage policies have transformed the narratives and cultural practices of the past to serve the interests of the present. As well as reinforcing a collective social identity, heritage in China has served as an instrument of governance and regulation at home and a tool to generate soft power abroad. Drawing on a critical analysis of heritage policies and laws, empirical case studies and interviews with policymakers, practitioners, and local communities, the authors off er a comprehensive perspective on the role that cultural heritage plays in Chinese politics and policy. They argue that heritage-making appropriates international, national, and local values, thereby transforming it into a public good suitable for commercial exploitation. By framing heritage as a site of cooperation, contestation, and negotiation, this book contributes to our understanding of the complex nature of heritage in the rapidly shifting landscape of contemporary China. Heritage Politics in China: The Power of the Past is essential reading for academics, researchers and students in the fi elds of heritage studies, cultural studies, Asian studies, anthropology, tourism and politics.

Museums, libraries, and cultural institutions provide opportunities for people to understand and celebrate who they are, were, and might be. These institutions educate the public and civilize society in a variety of ways, ranging from community events to a single child making a first visit. The Museum Effect documents this phenomenon, explains how it happens, and shows how institutions can facilitate this process. Cultural institutions vary dramatically in size, nature and purpose, but they all allow visitors to hold conversations with artists and authors perhaps long dead. These conversations, sometimes with others present, and sometimes with artists, scientists, explorers, or authors not present, allow visitors to explore their lives and their "possible selves." Cultural institutions inspire personal reflection, and help visitors better themselves, in that they leave having contemplated what is noble, excellent, or exemplary about the society in which they live. The "museum effect" is a process through which cultural institutions educate and civilize us as individuals and as societies. These institutions allow visitors to spend some time with their thoughts elevated, and leave the institution better people in some meaningful fashion than when they entered. This visionary book presents the underlying idea and the argument for the museum effect, along with empirical research supporting that argument. It will help those working in museums, libraries, and archivists to facilitate this process, and study how this is working in their own institutions.