Before the Museums Came
Before the Museums Came

Author: Leo J. Harris

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-03-05

Total Pages: 126

ISBN-13: 8376560050

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Before the Museums Came: A Social History of the Fine Arts in the Twin Cities gives an engaging portrayal of the fine arts scene of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota in the United States, spanning from the appearance of the earliest artists in 1835 to the opening of the first permanent museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1915. Readers will learn about the institutions and organizations that were created in support of the fine arts, the early art exhibitions and events, and the collectors, dealers and artists whose efforts made all of that come to fruition. The text – enriched and supplemented by reproductions of artworks, photographs of various personages, exhibition venues, studios, art galleries, catalogues, and ephemera – presents a clear understanding of the period and breaks new ground for future scholars to research. Leo John Harris had pursued three different careers before retiring to follow yet another vocation, this time as a writer. He served in the U.S. Department of State and Foreign Service; he was an international lawyer; and he founded a niche publishing house devoted to books on the arts, history, and popularculture. In his retirement he has written articles and books on philately, the arts and regional history, and this passion has now resulted in a well-researched and richly illustrated publication.

The Brutish Museums
The Brutish Museums

Author: Dan Hicks

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781786806833

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Walk into any European museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objectsare all stolen. Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of brass plaques and carved ivory tusks depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of BeninCity, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections. The story of the Benin Bronzes sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. In The Brutish Museums, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism.

The Participatory Museum
The Participatory Museum

Author: Nina Simon

Publisher: Museum 2.0

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 0615346502

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Visitor participation is a hot topic in the contemporary world of museums, art galleries, science centers, libraries and cultural organizations. How can your institution do it and do it well? The Participatory Museum is a practical guide to working with community members and visitors to make cultural institutions more dynamic, relevant, essential places. Museum consultant and exhibit designer Nina Simon weaves together innovative design techniques and case studies to make a powerful case for participatory practice. "Nina Simon's new book is essential for museum directors interested in experimenting with audience participation on the one hand and cautious about upending the tradition museum model on the other. In concentrating on the practical, this book makes implementation possible in most museums. More importantly, in describing the philosophy and rationale behind participatory activity, it makes clear that action does not always require new technology or machinery. Museums need to change, are changing, and will change further in the future. This book is a helpful and thoughtful road map for speeding such transformation." -Elaine Heumann Gurian, international museum consultant and author of Civilizing the Museum "This book is an extraordinary resource. Nina has assembled the collective wisdom of the field, and has given it her own brilliant spin. She shows us all how to walk the talk. Her book will make you want to go right out and start experimenting with participatory projects." -Kathleen McLean, participatory museum designer and author of Planning for People in Museum Exhibitions "I predict that in the future this book will be a classic work of museology." --Elizabeth Merritt, founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums

Do Museums Still Need Objects?
Do Museums Still Need Objects?

Author: Steven Conn

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0812221559

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In this broadly conceived study Steven Conn examines the development of American museums across the twentieth century with a historian's attention and a critic's eye. He focuses on an array of museum types and asks illuminating questions about the relationship between museums and American cultural life.

Museum of Fine Arts Boston: 1870 To 2020
Museum of Fine Arts Boston: 1870 To 2020

Author: Charles Giuliano

Publisher:

Published: 2021-09-10

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780996171571

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In 1970 the Museum of Fine Arts commissioned a two-volume Centennial history by its trustee, Walter Muir Whitehill. That was a time of turmoil as then director Perry T. Rathbone was forced to resign resulting from the questionable acquisition of a portrait by Raphael later returned to Italy.Instability followed with the quick succession of acting director, Cornelius Vermeule, the ill-fated Merrill Rueppel, then Asiatic curator, Jan Fontein promoted from acting to full time director. Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1870 to 2020: An Oral History is only the second publication chronicling 150 years of a great museum with aspects of its collection second to none. The book summarizes events of the first century with a vivid update of what has occurred since then.The fascinating story of a world-class museum is updated in the words of each of its directors from Perry T. Rathbone to Matthew Teitelbaum. There are also interviews with curators, trustees, art historians, administrators, and arts journalists.The founders were individuals of class and privilege who gave generously. The tone of Brahmin elitism changed by the 1950s as the museum expanded and become more costly to maintain. There was a search for new money and expansion of the board to include Jews and people of color. By the 1960s the museum drew broad criticism for its elitism and indifference to modern/ contemporary art and Boston's contemporary artists, including the Jewish Boston Expressionists. Charges of racism have accelerated in the past few years as they have for all cultural institutions. The MFA has been charged with a transition from the "Our Museum" of its founders to a "Museum for all the people of Boston" under current director Matthew Teitelbaum.As an observer and writer, Charles Giuliano is a consummate insider. In 1963 upon graduation from Brandeis University he worked for two and a half years as a conservation intern for the Egyptian Department. He later became one of Boston's most influential art critics covering the museum for a range of publications. This book is the culmination of that coverage since the 1960s.

Guide to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Guide to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Author: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published: 1972

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 0870991183

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"When the Metropolitan Museum came into being in 1870, the founders stressed its role in giving popular instruction. Ever since then its public has expressed interest in obtaining a general guidebook to all the multiple facets of its encyclopedic collections. But a museum is a living, constantly changing institution, and the preparation of such a guide presents many problems. The scope and depth of the Museum's holdings are described with flexibility in mind, so that alterations to the building and changes in the collections can be readily accommodated in future editions of this Guide. The number of pages allocated to each department is restricted to multiples of eight pages; this will permit revisions in future editions. A guidebook, however, should not be a straitjacket. It is impossible to locate accurately all works at all times because paintings and objects are constantly being cleaned, restored, loaned to other museums, or rehung within the Metropolitan. In designing a guide that is easily portable and of interest to a large public, severe restrictions have had to be imposed. The text serves an introductory function and is not intended to give the kind of detailed information found in a catalogue or scholarly publication. Many other books published by the Museum are available to anyone wishing to follow his own special interests: a series of popular handbooks and comprehensive catalogues of various aspects of the collections are available in the Museum's bookshops; the Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a general interest magazine covering all phases of Museum activity, appears regularly throughout the year; and the Journal of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a collection of scholarly monographs, is issued annually. An independent guide covers the collection at The Cloisters, our branch museum of medieval art at Fort Tryon Park"--Introduction

Visitors to Versailles
Visitors to Versailles

Author: Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published: 2018-04-16

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 1588396223

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What was it like to visit one of the most magnificent courts of Europe? Based on a wealth of contemporary documents and surviving works of art, this lavish book explores the experiences of those who swarmed the palace and grounds of Versailles when it was the seat of the French monarchy. Engaging essays describe methods of transportation, the elaborate codes of dress and etiquette, precious diplomatic gifts, royal audiences, and tours of the palace and gardens. Also presented are the many types of visitors and guests who eagerly made their way to this center of power and culture, including day-trippers and Grand Tourists, European diplomats, overseas ambassadors, incognito travelers, and Americans. Through paintings and portraits, furniture, costumes and uniforms, arms and armor, guidebooks, and other works of art, Visitors to Versailles illuminates what travelers encountered at court and what impressions, gifts, and souvenirs they took home with them. In bringing to life their experiences, this sumptuously illustrated volume reminds us why Versailles has enchanted generations of visitors from the ancien régime to the present day.

The Museum
The Museum

Author: Samuel J. Redman

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2024-10

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1479835315

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Celebrates the resilience of American cultural institutions in the face of national crises and challenges On an afternoon in January 1865, a roaring fire swept through the Smithsonian Institution. Dazed soldiers and worried citizens could only watch as the flames engulfed the museum’s castle. Rare objects and valuable paintings were destroyed. The flames at the Smithsonian were not the first—and certainly would not be the last— disaster to upend a museum in the United States. Beset by challenges ranging from pandemic and war to fire and economic uncertainty, museums have sought ways to emerge from crisis periods stronger than before, occasionally carving important new paths forward in the process. The Museum explores the concepts of “crisis” as it relates to museums, and how these historic institutions have dealt with challenges ranging from depression and war to pandemic and philosophical uncertainty. Fires, floods, and hurricanes have all upended museum plans and forced people to ask difficult questions about American cultural life. With chapters exploring World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic, the Great Depression, World War II, the 1970 Art Strike in New York City, and recent controversies in American museums, this book takes a new approach to understanding museum history. By diving deeper into the changes that emerged from these key challenges, Samuel J. Redman argues that cultural institutions can—and should— use their history to prepare for challenges and solidify their identity going forward. A captivating examination of crisis moments in US museum history from the early years of the twentieth century to the present day, The Museum offers inspiration in the resilience and longevity of America’s most prized cultural institutions.

The Whole Picture
The Whole Picture

Author: Alice Procter

Publisher: Cassell

Published: 2020-03-19

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1788402219

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"Probing, jargon-free and written with the pace of a detective story... [Procter] dissects western museum culture with such forensic fury that it might be difficult for the reader ever to view those institutions in the same way again. " Financial Times 'A smart, accessible and brilliantly structured work that encourages readers to go beyond the grand architecture of cultural institutions and see the problematic colonial histories behind them.' - Sumaya Kassim Should museums be made to give back their marbles? Is it even possible to 'decolonize' our galleries? Must Rhodes fall? How to deal with the colonial history of art in museums and monuments in the public realm is a thorny issue that we are only just beginning to address. Alice Procter, creator of the Uncomfortable Art Tours, provides a manual for deconstructing everything you thought you knew about art history and tells the stories that have been left out of the canon. The book is divided into four chronological sections, named after four different kinds of art space: The Palace, The Classroom, The Memorial and The Playground. Each section tackles the fascinating, enlightening and often shocking stories of a selection of art pieces, including the propaganda painting the East India Company used to justify its rule in India; the tattooed Maori skulls collected as 'art objects' by Europeans; and works by contemporary artists who are taking on colonial history in their work and activism today. The Whole Picture is a much-needed provocation to look more critically at the accepted narratives about art, and rethink and disrupt the way we interact with the museums and galleries that display it.