Re-Imagining the Museum : Beyond the Mausoleum

ISBN-13: 9780415220996 / Angielski / Miękka / 2002 / 208 str.

Andrea Witcomb;Witcomb Andrea

Opis

This text presents interpretations of museum history and practice through a range of case studies and by engaging with theoretical approaches to thinking about museums. Museums have faced increasing demands for a popular mode of address. Some commentators have aligned themselves with such demands, representing museums as mausoleums weighed down by the past and captive to the interests of elites. Others argue that contemporary museums have broken with the past to become open, democratic institutions. Andrea Witcomb rejects both positions, arguing that museums have a long history of engaging with popular culture and addressing a variety of audiences. Rather than belonging clearly to one or other side, they have been key mediators between high and popular culture and between governmental and other discourses. Witcomb traces this function, both past and present, by looking at relations between museums and other areas of public culture, particularly the media.

Recenzje

'Refreshing ... well written ... a thought-provoking and worthwhile read.' - Journal of Museum Ethnography

Spis treści

Introduction; Chapter 1 Unmasking a different museum: museums and cultural criticism; Chapter 2 Floating the museum; Chapter 3 FromBatavia toAustralia II: negotiating changes in curatorial practices; Chapter 4 ‘A place for all of us’? Museums and communities; Chapter 5 Beyond the mausoleum: museums and the media; Chapter 6 Interactivity in museums: the politics of narrative style;

O autorze

Witcomb, Andrea