The book presents four of the most important contemporary museums of the world. Easch essay details the unique design concepts of each museum, illustrated with interior and exterior details.

Revisiting Museums of Influence presents 50 portraits of a range of European museums that have made striking innovations in public quality over the past 40 years. In so doing, the book demonstrates that excellence can be found in museums no matter their subject matter, scale, or source of funding. Written by leading professionals in the field of museology, who have acted as judges for the European Museum of the Year Award, the portraits describe museums that had, or should have had, an influence on other museums around the world. The portraits aim to capture the moment when this potential was identified, and the introduction will locate the institutions in the wider history of museums in Europe over the period, as well as drawing out common themes of change and innovation that unite the portraits. Providing many very diverse portraits, Revisiting Museums of Influence captures the immense capacity of the museum to respond to changing societal needs. As a result, the book will be essential reading for students of museology and museum professionals around the world in shaping the museums they wish to create. Scholars and students of art history, archaeology, ethnography, anthropology, cultural and visual studies, architecture, memory studies and history will also find much to interest them.

Communities and Museums in the 21st Century brings together innovative, multidisciplinary perspectives on contemporary museology and participatory museum practice that contribute to wider debates on museum communities, heritage, and sustainability. Set within the context of globalisation and decolonisation, this book draws upon bi-regional research that will enrich our understanding of the complex relationships between Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean through museum studies and practice. Chapters reflect upon the role of museums in defining community identities; the importance of young people’s participation and intergenerational work for sustainability; the role of museums in local development; and community-based museums and climate change. Contributors examine these issues through the lens of museum partnerships and practices, as well as testing the continued relevance of the notion of ‘integral museum’ and its relatives in the form of ecomuseums. With its focus on regional museums in Latin America and Caribbean, this book highlights how the case studies promote greater intercultural dialogue, global understanding and social cohesion. It also demonstrates how the methodology can be adapted to other communities who are facing the perils of climate change and unsustainable forms of development. Communities and Museums in the 21st Century proposes creative and sustainable strategies relevant to a globalised future. With its focus on global societal challenges, this book will appeal to museologists and museum practitioners, as well as those working in heritage studies, cultural studies, memory studies, art history, gender studies, and sustainable development.

Based on solid theoretical and empirical analyses, this book provides a first and fresh introduction to the recent development of children’s museums in China, along with their educational and social impacts as an informal learning environment for children, families, and society in general. To understand the benefits of children’s museums and in providing stimulating, informal education to children, the book looks into the origin and historical development of these institutions and how they have been influenced by informal learning theory, museum education, and early childhood education while providing case studies of children’s museums in China and the learning that takes place in them. This research analyses the process of informal learning and provides guidance on ways of elevating children’s cognitive and noncognitive development in the informal space. Different stakeholders of children's museums, including parents and educators, practitioners and designers, researchers of informal education, early childhood education, and policy makers will benefit from the insights provided in this book.

Researching Visual Arts Education in Museums and Galleries brings together case studies from Europe, Asia and North America, in a way that will lay a foundation for international co-operation in the future development and communication of practice-based research. The research in each of the cases directly stems from educational practice in very particular contexts, indicating at once the variety and detail of practitioners' concerns and their common interests.

We live in a "museum age," and sport museums are part of this phenomenon. In this book, leading international sport history scholars examine sport museums including renowned institutions like the Olympic Museum in the Swiss city of Lausanne, the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore, the Marylebone Cricket Club Museum in London, the Croke Park Museum in Dublin, and the Whyte Museum in Banff. These institutions are examined in a broad context of understanding sport museums as an identifiable genre in the "museum age", and more specifically in terms of how the sporting past is represented in these museums. Historians explain, debate and critique sport museums with the intention of understanding how this important form of public history represents sport for audiences who see museums as institutions that are inherently reliable and trustworthy.