New Museum Theory and Practice: An Introduction

New Museum Theory and Practice is an original collection of essays with a unique focus: the contested politics and ideologies of museum practice. This lively introduction, comprised of essays authored by curators, archivists, scholars, teachers, and conservators from around the world – including the Tate, the Smithsonian, and the Experience Music Project – and from all levels of museum studies, examines the incendiary issues currently raging in the field. Complete with editorial introductions, questions for students, and a comprehensive bibliography, the volume surveys the concerns of the museum in language accessible to undergraduate and graduate students of art history, studio art, and museum studies.

List of Figures. Preface: How to Use this Book. Acknowledgements. Introduction (Janet Marstine) . Part I: Defining New Museum Theory. A Surveys and Groundwork. 1. Editor′s Introduction. The Architecture is the Museum (Micheala Giebelhausen). Questions for Discussion. 2. Editor′s Introduction. Feminist Curatorial Strategies and Practices Since the 1970s (Katy Deepwell). 3. Editor′s Introduction. New Art, New Challenges: The Changing Face of Conservation in the Twenty–First Century (Rachel Barker and Patricia Smithen). Questions for Discussion. B. Case Studies in Contemporary Practice. 4. Editor′s Introduction. How We Study History Museums: Or Cultural Studies At Monticello (Eric Gable). Questions for Discussion. 5. Editor′s Introduction. Spectacle and Democracy: Experience Music Project as a Post–Museum (Chris Bruce). Questions for Discussion. 6. Editor′s Introduction. Revealing and Concealing: Museums, Objects, and the Transmission of Knowledge in Aboriginal Australia (Moira G. Simpson). Questions for Discussion. 7. Editor′s Introduction. Restructuring South African Museums: Reality and Rhetoric Within Cape Town (Julie L. NcGee) . Part II: Looking to the Future: Theory into Practice. 8. Editor′s Introduction. The Critical Museums Visitor (Margaret Lindauer). Questions for Discussion. 9. Editor′s Introduction. Visiting the Virtual Museum: Art and Experience Online (Lianne McTavish). Questions for Discussion. 10. Editor′s Introduction. Reframing Studio Art Production and Critique (Helen Klebesadel). Questions for Discussion. 11. Editor′s Introduction. The University Museum and Gallery: A Site for Institutional Critique and a Focus of the Curriculum (Lyndel King and Janet Marstine). Questions for Discussion. 12. Editor′s Introduction. Museum Archives as Resources from Scholarly Research and Institutional Identity (Lois Marie Fink). Questions for Discussion. Bibliography. Index.

Janet Marstine is an art historian who has taught at Bowdoin College and Central Washington University. She has curated several exhibitions and is now working on new approaches to student and faculty exhibitions.

“This is an ambitious book, setting out as it does to explore the gamut of ‘new’ museum theory and practice. The essays in this book are diverse, but together they suggest virtually all of the recent major intellectual and political shifts within the museum world.” ( Museum Anthropology , Summer 2008) “This book is inspiring and ... offers an excellent vision of why and how the museum will matter more in the 21 st century.” ( Muse )