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.

"Andrew McClellan's well-conceived, thoughtfully argued book provides a much-needed history of the art museum as well as an astute assessment of critical issues facing museums today. There has been a pressing need for a synthetic, even-handed overview like this one. It will find a large readership among those concerned with museums, art history, and cultural policy, and I predict it will be widely used in courses in museum and curatorial studies."--Martha Ward, author of "Pissarro, Neo-impressionism and the Spaces of the Avant-Garde"
""The Art Museum from Boullee to Bilbao" is extremely important to the growing field of museum studies. It will make an excellent text and will also be important to museum professionals, who must be aware of the complexity of the critical issues it covers. It is the only book that addresses museum architecture, ideals and missions, collecting and display, restitution and repatriation, commercialism, and the public."--Harriet F. Senie, author of "The Tilted Arc Controversy: Dangerous Precedent?"
"The increasing number of people interested in the history of museums have benefited greatly from Andrew McClellan's contributions over the past two decades. In this exemplary volume, McClellan summarizes and extends his perspectives on museums as institutions 'of hope and aspiration' as he establishes a much needed context for the rhetoric of celebration and critique emanating from within and without these organizations. It is a useful as well as an important book and one that will be read by many--students and lay public alike--as they attempt to make sense of these institutions and the sometimes conflicting accounts of their purpose and programs."--MichaelConforti, Director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
"Combining powerful critique with a grounded utopianism, Andrew McClellan dissects the art museum's past in order to identify its emancipatory potential for the future. The result is a tour de force that reinvigorates our sense of why art museums matter. This is a book that will leave its mark on debates about the social role of museums for some time to come."--Tony Bennett, Director, ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-cultural Change
"With its long historical view of ongoing controversies and debates, "The Art Museum from Boullee to Bilbao" represents a much-needed contribution to the discussion of the role of museums in contemporary society. Museum professionals, scholars, and lay readers alike will find much to ponder in its pages.--Alan Wallach, author of "Exhibiting Contradiction: Essays on the Art Museum in the United States"
"Timely and topical, "The Art Museum from Boullee to Bilbao" is a comprehensive study of the evolution of the art museum as a social institution. Andrew McClellan's clear-eyed and insightful analysis places key issues faced by museums today in historical perspective and gives us a better understanding of current debates about museums and their place in society. Combining a deep knowledge of history and critical theory with an understanding of practice, this text makes a significant contribution to museum studies and should be required reading for museum professionals and academics alike."--Christa Clarke, Curator, The Newark Museum

Founded in the final years of the Enlightenment, the Louvre--with the greatest collection of Old Master paintings and antique sculpture assembled under one roof--became the model for all state art museums subsequently established. Andrew McClellan chronicles the formation of this great museum from its origins in the French royal picture collections to its apotheosis during the Revolution and Napoleonic Empire. More than a narrative history, McClellan's account explores the ideological underpinnings, pedagogic aims, and aesthetic criteria of the Louvre. Drawing on new archival materials, McClellan also illuminates the art world of eighteenth-century Paris.

From 1921 until 1948, Paul J. Sachs (1878-1965) offered a yearlong program in art museum training, "Museum Work and Museum Problems," through Harvard University's Fine Arts Department. Known simply as the Museum Course, the program was responsible for shaping a professional field-museum curatorship and management-that, in turn, defined the organisational structure and values of an institution through which the American public came to know art. Conceived at a time of great museum expansion and public interest in the United States, the Museum Course debated curatorial priorities and put theory into practice through the placement of graduates in museums big and small across the land. In this book, authors Sally Anne Duncan and Andrew McClellan examine the role that Sachs and his program played in shaping the character of art museums in the United States in the formative decades of the twentieth century. "The Art of Curating" is essential reading for museum studies scholars, curators, and historians.