What Is a Museum?

Perspectives from National and International Museum Leaders

The United States National Committee of the International Council of Museums, Kate Quinn, Alejandra Peña Gutiérrez

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781538167816
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Museum Administration
• Index: Business

What makes a museum, a museum in the 21st century? This is a transformative moment in the history of museums. Traditionally, the museums have been defined by the functions of collecting, preserving, documenting, researching, exhibiting and in other ways, communicating and interpreting evidence of human culture and history for the benefit of everyone. But what is the future of museums in a fast-changing world of economic uncertainty, social disruption, health challenges and climate change? Can museums reflect the accountability and transparency under which they are expected to acquire and use their material, financial, social, and intellectual resources?
What Is a Museum? Perspectives from National and International Museum Leaders shares perspectives from dedicated professionals investigating how museums can meet their ethical, political, social, cultural, and environmental responsibilities in the years to come. In a series of essays, well-known leaders in the museum sector and related fields contribute to our understanding of the current and future challenges facing museums around the world. ICOM-US Co-Chair and Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie G. Bunch III, summarizes the issues and provides guidance for the future of museums.
Questions explored include:
What lessons have we learned from the needs of the communities we claim to serve and how can we better adapt to shift our priorities in a faster and more efficient way? How can museums not only chronicle the past, but depict the present and become touchstones for the future of their communities?In a world aimed towards political correctness, how do we address collections resulting from power and colonization?This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in why museums matter today, what their future holds, and how to change them

Table of contents

• Foreword Alberto Garlandini
• Preface Kate Quinn
• Epigraph
• Part One: What Is a Museum?
• Chapter 1: Framing the Question Alejandra Peña Gutíerrez
• Chapter 2: Public Trust at American Museums Today:Observations and Priorities Thomas J. Loughman
• Chapter 3: How Do We Center People in Museums? Elaine Heumann Gurian
• Chapter 4: Museums Must Be More: ICOM’s Definition of “Museum” Needs to Take into Account How the Field Has Changed and Where It Is Heading W. Richard West Jr.
• Part Two: Safe Places or Social Spaces?
• chapter 5: The Purpose of Place Diana Pardue
• Chapter 6: Museums and Place Alejandra Peña Gutíerrez with Andrés Roldán
• Chapter 7: Yes, and: Museums as Safe Places and Social Spaces Linda Norris
• Chapter 8: Crossing Museum Boundaries:From Gallery Space to Protest Place Ihor Poshyvailo
• Part Three: The Function of Collecting
• Chapter 9: Why Do Museums Collect? William Underwood Eiland
• Chapter 10: KonMari in the Museum: Collecting Front, Center, and Back Danielle Kuijten
• Chapter 11: On Museums and Collecting Kate Quinn with Anne Pasternak
• Chapter 12: Beyond Colonial Collecting Tukufu Zuberi
• Part Four: The Whiteness of Museums
• Chapter 13: Assymetries of Power: Museums and Whiteness Lyndel King
• Chapter 14: What Makes a Museum a Museum:From the African Experience George Okello Abungu
• Chapter 15: The Work Is Never Done:Reckoning and Reparation in Museums Christopher Bedford
• Chapter 16: “Dysmantaling” a Museum Christina Woods
• Part Five: Museums as Influencers
• Chapter 17: The Museum with the Community Diana Pardue
• Chapter 18: To Be of Influence Starts with Being Open to Influence Kelly McKinley
• Chapter 19: Can a New Definition Convert Museums into Influencers? Lauran Bonilla-Merchav and Bruno Brulon Soares
• Chapter 20: Redefine the Museum: Making a Case for Embracing Our Inner Agent of Change Lisa Sasaki
• Part Six: Crisis: Environmentalism, Sustainability, and Museums
• Chapter 21: Beyond Crisis: Museums and Sustainability William Underwood Eiland
• Chapter 22: Imagining Another World at the National Public Housing Museum Lisa Yun Lee
• Chapter 23: ICOM and Sustainable Futures: On Sustainability and Implementing Agenda 2030 Morien Rees
• Chapter 24: The Museum’s Role in the Global Effort to Create a World Where Everyone and Everything Can Thrive Sarah Sutton
• Part Seven: What Now/Now What?
• Chapter 25: Seizing the Moment: The Evolution of the Twenty-First-Century Museum Lonnie G. Bunch III
• The United States National Committee of the International Council of Museums
• About the Contributors
• About the Editors