Only a decade ago, the notion that museums, galleries and heritage organisations might engage in activist practice, with explicit intent to act upon inequalities, injustices and environmental crises, was met with scepticism and often derision. Seeking to purposefully bring about social change was viewed by many within and beyond the museum community as inappropriately political and antithetical to fundamental professional values. Today, although the idea remains controversial, the way we think about the roles and responsibilities of museums as knowledge based, social institutions is changing. Museum Activism examines the increasing significance of this activist trend in thinking and practice. At this crucial time in the evolution of museum thinking and practice, this ground-breaking volume brings together more than fifty contributors working across six continents to explore, analyse and critically reflect upon the museum’s relationship to activism. Including contributions from practitioners, artists, activists and researchers, this wide-ranging examination of new and divergent expressions of the inherent power of museums as forces for good, and as activists in civil society, aims to encourage further experimentation and enrich the debate in this nascent and uncertain field of museum practice. Museum Activism elucidates the largely untapped potential for museums as key intellectual and civic resources to address inequalities, injustice and environmental challenges. This makes the book essential reading for scholars and students of museum and heritage studies, gallery studies, arts and heritage management, and politics. It will be a source of inspiration to museum practitioners and museum leaders around the globe.

UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles Aimed at helping readers improve the accuracy of their survey, Litwin′s book guides in assessing and interpreting the quality of their survey data by thoroughly examining the survey instrument used. The book also explains how to code and pilot test new and established surveys. In addition, it covers such issues as how to measure reliability (e.g., test-retest, alternate-form, internal consistency, inter-observer, and intra-observer reliability), how to measure validity (including content, criterion, and construct validity), how to address cross-cultural issues in survey research, and how to scale and score a survey. "I found this work to be of very high quality with respect to both content and writing. It is commendable in terms of communicating and facilitating understanding of sometimes difficult concepts. It will make an excellent text for my introductory course on survey research and, I imagine, for many similar or related courses in the social sciences or education. All the pedagogical features, including the exercises, are excellent, and the level of writing throughout not only is appropriate for an introductory volume, but also engaging and lively." --Daniel U. Levine, Department of Education, University of Nebraska

The function of the painted wooden object ranges from the practical to the profound. These objects may perform utilitarian tasks, convey artistic whimsy, connote noble aspirations, and embody the highest spiritual expressions. This volume, illustrated in color throughout, presents the proceedings of a conference organized by the Wooden Artifacts Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) and held in November 1994 at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia. The book includes 40 articles that explore the history and conservation of a wide range of painted wooden objects, from polychrome sculpture and altarpieces to carousel horses, tobacconist figures, Native American totems, Victorian garden furniture, French cabinets, architectural elements, and horse-drawn carriages. Contributors include Ian C. Bristow, an architect and historic-building consultant in London; Myriam Serck-Dewaide, head of the Sculpture Workshop, Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels; and Frances Gruber Safford, associate curator of American decorative arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A broad range of professionals—including art historians, curators, scientists, and conservators—will be interested in this volume and in the multidisciplinary nature of its articles.

“Nidors (2) arrives both as a discrete text and as the second entry in a lopsided trilogy. The 'poems' herein sprang their specious little helices from the rebuke for which they were built. However, something of the swarf has escaped via negative poetotaxis and is ready to interrogate the masters in its meat. How will poetry work out its particular roboclasm under the climate of the internet? Skim the phytoplankton of this eutrophic milkshake and leave your notes!”-- back cover.

Helping to delight in the drawings of Caravaggio, Carracci, Michelangelo, Urbino, Tavarone, Vasari, Veronese, and others, this book looks at this key period in the development of drawing in Europe.