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.

In this updated and revised second edition, Eilean Hooper-Greenhill incorporates recent and important articles that address the relationships of museums and galleries to their audiences. The Educational Role of the Museum covers broad themes relevant to providing for all museum visitors and also focuses specifically on educational groups. Contents include:
* new communication models for the museum
* problems in visitor orientation and circulation
* increased exhibit accessibility through multisensory interaction
* education: at the heart of museums.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203415167

This is a multi-disciplinary study that adopts an innovative and original approach to a highly topical question, that of meaning-making in museums. Focusing its attention on pedagogy and visual culture, this work asks such questions as - How and why is it that museums select and arrange artefacts, shape knowledge, construct a view? How do museums produce values? How do active audiences make meaning from what they experience in museums?
This stimulating new book provokes debate and discussion on these topics and puts forward the idea of a new museum - the post-museum, which will challenge the familiar modernist museum

At the beginning of the 21st century museums are challenged on a number of fronts. The prioritisation of learning in museums in the context of demands for social justice and cultural democracy combined with cultural policy based on economic rationalism forces museums to review their educational purposes, redesign their pedagogies and account for their performance. The need to theorise learning and culture for a cultural theory of learning is very pressing. If culture acts as a process of signification, a means of producing meaning that shapes worldviews, learning in museums and other cultural organisations is potentially dynamic and profound, producing self-identities. How is this complexity to be 'measured'? What can this 'measurement' reveal about the character of museum-based learning? The calibration of culture is an international phenomenon, and the measurement of the outcomes and impact of learning in museums in England has provided a detailed case study. Three national evaluation studies were carried out between 2003 and 2006 based on the conceptual framework of Generic Learning Outcomes. Using this revealing data Museums and Education reveals the power of museum pedagogy and as it does, questions are raised about traditional museum culture and the potential and challenge for museum futures is suggested.

What underlying philosophy and mission should museums pursue in the first half of the twenty-first century? In Museum Philosophy, twenty-four authors use the lenses of a variety of disciplines to answer this essential question. Museum professionals offer their answers alongside philosophers, historians, political scientists, educators, sociologists, and others in a wide-ranging exploration of institutions from art museums to zoos. Hugh Genoway's book offers philosophical and ethical guidelines, describes the ways specific institutions illustrate different philosophies, examines major divisions in the museum community, and explores outreach and engagement between the museum and its larger community. Both established museum professionals and students of museum studies will benefit from this insightful look into the foundations and future of their field.

At the beginning of the 21st century museums are challenged on a number of fronts. The prioritisation of learning in museums in the context of demands for social justice and cultural democracy combined with cultural policy based on economic rationalism forces museums to review their educational purposes, redesign their pedagogies and account for their performance. The need to theorise learning and culture for a cultural theory of learning is very pressing. If culture acts as a process of signification, a means of producing meaning that shapes worldviews, learning in museums and other cultural organisations is potentially dynamic and profound, producing self-identities. How is this complexity to be 'measured'? What can this 'measurement' reveal about the character of museum-based learning? The calibration of culture is an international phenomenon, and the measurement of the outcomes and impact of learning in museums in England has provided a detailed case study. Three national evaluation studies were carried out between 2003 and 2006 based on the conceptual framework of Generic Learning Outcomes. Using this revealing data Museums and Education reveals the power of museum pedagogy and as it does, questions are raised about traditional museum culture and the potential and challenge for museum futures is suggested.

Series Information:
Museum Meanings

In this updated and revised second edition, Eilean Hooper-Greenhill compiles recent and important articles that address the relationships of museums and galleries to their audiences. The Educational Role of the Museum covers broad themes relevant to providing for all museum visitors and also focuses specifically on educational groups.

This volume considers in depth the most up-to-date approaches to museum communication - museums as media, museums and audience and the evaluation of museums. Museum, Media, Message begins by placing museum communication in the context of mass communication and media studies. The book is divided into three sections, the first analysing how museums and galleries construct and transmit complex systems of value and legitimation through processes of collection and exhibition. The second section raises philosophical and management issues and explores examples of work with specific audiences. The third section uses examples and case-studies to introduce methods for studying the audiences' experiences of communication events in museums. Museum, Media, Message is compiled for people who want to develop a more critical and informed professional practice in relation to museum and gallery audiences. The mix of philosophical discussion and practical examples will enable readers to develop their skills of analysis and reflection on day-to-day activities. The book will also be of value to people in related fields who are interested in current debates and issues in museums.

What underlying philosophy and mission should museums pursue in the first half of the twenty-first century? In Museum Philosophy, twenty-four authors use the lenses of a variety of disciplines to answer this essential question. Museum professionals offer their answers alongside philosophers, historians, political scientists, educators, sociologists, and others in a wide-ranging exploration of institutions from art museums to zoos. Hugh Genoway's book offers philosophical and ethical guidelines, describes the ways specific institutions illustrate different philosophies, examines major divisions in the museum community, and explores outreach and engagement between the museum and its larger community. Both established museum professionals and students of museum studies will benefit from this insightful look into the foundations and future of their field.

Museum, Media, Message considers in depth the most up-to-date approaches to museum communication - museums as media, museums and audience and the evaluation of museums. Eilean Hooper-Greenhill looks at mass communication, media studies, as well as philosophical and management issues. There are examples and case-studies to help develop professional practice.