This study focuses on objects and meaning in the museum. How do museum visitors interpret the collections they see on display and how are these interpretations influenced by the pedagogic approach taken by the museum? Questions about the character of visual narratives, cultural difference and the construction of identities present the museum as part of cultural politics. A new museum idea - the post-museum - is about to transform the familiar modernist museum. Eilean Hooper-Greenhill explores specific objects and collections in detail: the founding collections at the National Portrait...

This edition incorporates articles of the late 1990s that address the relationships of museums and galleries to their audiences. The text 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.