1. Introduction / Juliette FritschPart 1 Situating interpretation in the museum context2. The Museum as a social instrument : a democratic conception of museum education / George E. Hein3. Invoking the Muse : the purposes and processes of communicative action in museums / Paulette M.McManus4. Interpretation and the art museum : between the familiar and the unfamiliar / Cheryl Meszaros, Twyla Gibson, Jennifer CarterPt II The role of interpretation in art galleries5. Towards some cartographic understandings of art interpretation in museums / Christopher Whitehead6. Art for whose sake? / Sue Latimer7,. The seeing eye : the seeing I / Sylvia LahavPt III Language and museum interpretation8. How can we define the role of language in museum interpretation? / Juliette FritschPt IV Interpretation, personal experience and memory9. I loved it dearly : recalling personal memories of dress in the museum / Torunn Kjolberg10. Welcome to my world : personal narrative and historic house interpretation / Mariruth Leftwich11. Narrative museum, museum of voices : displaying rural culture in the Museo della Mezzadria Senese, Italy / Marzia MinorePt V. Evidence-based practice12. An evaluation of object-centered approaches to interpretation at the British Museum / David Francis, Steve Slack, Claire Edwards13. The other side of the coin : audience consultation and the interpretation of numismatic collections / Effrosyni NomikouPt VI Interpretive strategies for specific audiences14. Designing effective interpretation for contemporary family visitors to art museums and galleries : a reflection of associated problems and issues / Patricia Sterry15. Interactive gallery interpretation for design students : help or hindrance? / Elizabeth Dyson16. Empower the audience! How art museums can become enriching creative spaces for a wider audience through deliberate and strategic use of experience and learning theories / Karen GronPt.VII Process and people17. Reading the walls : a study of curatorial expectation and visitor perception / Sarah Ganz Blythe, Barbara Palley18 Education is a department isn't it? : perceptions of education, learning and interpretation in exhibition development / Juliette Fritsch.

Museum Gallery Interpretation and Material Culture publishes the proceedings of the first annual Sackler Centre for Arts Education conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. The conference launched the annual series by addressing the question of how gallery interpretation design and management can help museum visitors learn about art and material culture. The book features a range of papers by leading academics, museum learning professionals, graduate researchers and curators from Europe, the USA and Canada. The papers present diverse new research and practice in the field, and open up debate about the role, design and process of exhibition interpretation in museums, art galleries and historic sites. The authors represent both academics and practitioners, and are affiliated with high quality institutions of broad geographical scope. The result is a strong, consistent representation of current thinking across the theory, methodology and practice of interpretation design for learning in museums.

A guide for museum and gallery staff in the development of provision for their visitors, to ensure survival into the next century.

MUSEUM PR ACTICE Edited by CONAL MCCARTHY Museum Practice covers the professional work carried out in museums and art galleries of all types, including the core functions of management, collections, exhibitions, and programs. Some forms of museum practice are familiar to visitors, yet within these diverse and complex institutions many practices are hidden from view, such as creating marketing campaigns, curating and designing exhibitions, developing fundraising and sponsorship plans, crafting mission statements, handling repatriation claims, dealing with digital media, and more. Focused on what actually occurs in everyday museum work, this volume offers contributions from experienced professionals and academics that cover a wide range of subjects including policy frameworks, ethical guidelines, approaches to conservation, collection care and management, exhibition development and public programs. From internal processes such as leadership, governance and strategic planning, to public facing roles in interpretation, visitor research and community engagement and learning, each essential component of contemporary museum practice is thoroughly discussed.

The International Handbooks of Museum Studies is a multi-volume reference work that represents a state-of-the-art survey of the burgeoning field of museum studies. Featuring original essays by leading international museum experts and emerging scholars, readings cover all aspects of museum theory, practice, debates, and the impact of technologies. The four volumes in the series, divided thematically, offer in-depth treatment of all major issues relating to museum theory; historical and contemporary museum practice; mediations in art, design, and architecture; and the transformations and challenges confronting the museum. In addition to invaluable surveys of current scholarship, the entries include a rich and diverse panoply of examples and original case studies to illuminate the various perspectives. Unprecedented for its in-depth topic coverage and breadth of scholarship, the multi-volume International Handbooks of Museum Studies is an indispensable resource for the study of the development, roles, and significance of museums in contemporary society.

The Material Cultures in Public Engagement volume seeks to document and explore the significant change in the relationship of Museums with collections of the Ancient World and their audiences. The volume establishes a new approach to the study of public archaeology as a discipline and application within Museums, by bringing together the voices and experiences of museum professionals (curators, conservators and researchers) and public engagement professionals. Chapters in this volume present clear case-studies of the variety and diversity of public engagement projects conducted currently within European Museums and beyond. While the majority of case studies presented in the volume’s chapters stem from European Museum programmes, plenty of reference is made on parallel strategies and successful public engagement programmes outside Europe (e.g. recently implemented projects by the Pointe-à-Callière Museum, Montreal, the Dallas and Cleveland Museums of Art, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, to name but a few). Case studies within the volume provide important insights as to why public engagement programmes have developed in different ways between Europe and the Americas, as well as whether these differences may stem from different curatorial practices. Finally, a number of studies included in this volume point out that methodologies and practices of public engagement applied currently by Museums in or outside Europe, are rarely the subject of theoretical and methodological scrutiny, unlike other fields of study of the Ancient World or other social sciences. In summary, chapters within the book promise to contribute to the advancement of public engagement with the Ancient World, as well as to the advancement of public archaeology itself as a practice.

The Things about Museums constitutes a unique, highly diverse collection of essays unprecedented in existing books in either museum and heritage studies or material culture studies. Taking varied perspectives and presenting a range of case studies, the chapters all address objects in the context of museums, galleries and/or the heritage sector more broadly. Specifically, the book deals with how objects are constructed in museums, the ways in which visitors may directly experience those objects, how objects are utilised within particular representational strategies and forms, and the challenges and opportunities presented by using objects to communicate difficult and contested matters. Topics and approaches examined in the book are diverse, but include the objectification of natural history specimens and museum registers; materiality, immateriality, transience and absence; subject/object boundaries; sensory, phenomenological perspectives; the museumisation of objects and collections; and the dangers inherent in assuming that objects, interpretation and heritage are ‘good’ for us.