In the context of critical museology, museums are questioning their social role, defining the museum as a site for knowledge exchange and participation in creating links between past and present. Museum education has evolved as a practice in its own right, questioning, expanding and transforming exhibitions and institutions. How does museum work change if we conceive of curating and education as an integrated practice? This question is addressed by international contributors from different types of museums. For anyone interested in the future of museums, it offers insights into the diversity of positions and experiences of translating the »grand designs« of museology into practice.

"The anthology Curating and the Educational Turn introduces twenty-seven critical essays describing this phenomenon and represents an extremely helpful tool for anyone interested in the future of curatorship and exhibitions. The book shows the huge potential that exists for art institutions to be laboratories and places of knowledge production."--Book jacket.

"'Thinking contemporary curating' is the first publication to comprehensively explore what is distinctive about contemporary curatorial thought. In five essays, art historian, critic, and theorist Terry Smith surveys the international landscape of current discourse; explores a number of exhibitions that show contemporaneity in present, recent, and post art; describes the enormous growth world-wide of exhibitionary infrastructure and the instability that haunts it; re-examines the phenomenon of artist-curators and curator-artists; and assesses a number of key tendencies in curating - such as the reimagined museum, the expanded exhibition, historicization and recuration, infrastructural activism, and engaged spectatorship - as responses to contemporary conditions." -- book cover.

It’s all Mediating: Outlining and Incorporating the Roles of Curating and Education in the Exhibition Context brings together thinkers and practitioners in the fields of exhibition curating and gallery education from different corners of Europe. The publication explores the two core functions of museums: exhibiting of the content and educational activities directed to audiences. These areas of activity – both committed to “mediating” between art and its audience – have existed since the birth of the public museum, but, as the result of professionalisation and specialisation of the museum field, they have developed into separate professions and have become the responsibility of specialised staff. “Curator” and “educator” are both relatively new titles in museums, and, in many countries, the professional education for these occupations is young or yet to be established. The volume sets out to encourage dialogue between the sectors. It discusses how the professional field is outlined at present: How do these aspects relate to each other? What is the division of labour between curators and educators and what are the models of collaboration? What kind of interests and values guide their work? It further examines how the specialists incorporate their roles: How are professional identities built? While specialisation has brought focus and quality to the practice, have the fields drifted too far apart from each other? The book is a source of information and insights for anyone working in curating and education, including both practitioners as well as researchers of these fields. With its international span, the book serves the interests of students in the fast growing fields of curatorial studies, museum education, and museology in different parts of Europe. The issues tackled in the book have pertinence also for cultural policy study and research. It’s all Mediating is produced by the Finnish Association for Museum Education Pedaali.

Visitor-Centered Exhibitions and Edu-Curation in Art Museums promotes balanced practices that are visitor-centered while honoring the integrity and powerful storytelling of art objects. Book examples present best practices that move beyond the turning point, where curation and education are engaged in full and equal collaboration. With a mix of theory and models for practice, the book: • provides a rationale for visitor-centered exhibitions; • addresses important related issues, such as collaboration and evaluation; and, • presents success stories written by educators, curators, and professors from the United States and Europe. • introduces the edu-curator, a new vision for leadership in museums with visitor-centered exhibition practices. The book is intended for art museum practitioners, including educators, curators, and exhibitions designers, as well as higher education faculty and students in art/museum education, art history, and museum studies.

Situated at the crossroads of performance practice, museology, and cultural studies, live arts curation has grown in recent years to become a vibrant interdisciplinary project and a genuine global phenomenon. Curating Live Arts brings together bold and innovative essays from an international group of theorist-practitioners to pose vital questions, propose future visions, and survey the landscape of this rapidly evolving discipline. Reflecting the field’s characteristic eclecticism, the writings assembled here offer practical and insightful investigations into the curation of theatre, dance, sound art, music, and other performance forms—not only in museums, but in community, site-specific, and time-based contexts, placing it at the forefront of contemporary dialogue and discourse.

Rethinking Research in the Art Museum presents an original and radical perspective on how research can function as an agent of change in art museums today. The book analyses a range of art organisations and draws on numerous interviews with museum professionals to outline the limitations of existing models of museum research. Arguing for a more democratic formulation in tune with the current needs and ambitions of the art institution, Emily Pringle puts forward a framework for practitioner-led, co-produced research that redefines how knowledge is created in the museum. Recognising that museums today negotiate multiple agendas, the book outlines the value of constructing the art museum professional as a practitioner researcher and their work as a mode of practice-based research, be they educators, archivists, curators or conservators. Locating these arguments within the framework of new museology, critical pedagogy, professional and organisational studies and epistemology, the book offers insights and guidance for those interested in how art museums function and the role research plays within these complex institutions. Rethinking Research in the Art Museum provides a timely and important resource for museum professionals and scholars, students, artists and community members. It should be of particular interest to those invested in exploring how art museums can continue to make the most of their unique resources, whilst becoming more collaborative, inclusive and relevant to the twenty-first century.