Tales of Two “Chinese” History Museums: Taipei and Hong Kong

The article describes and compares two museums: the National Palace Museum in Taiwan and the Museum of History in Hong Kong. The two present widely divergent versions of Chinese “history.”     

John Dewey's Experience and Education: Lessons for Museums

John Dewey, one of the preeminent educational theorists of our time, wrote Experience and Education 60 years ago, toward the end of his career, as a review of his educational philosophy and the progressive schools it had spawned. Based on the principle that all genuine education comes about through experience, Dewey's ideas are still current and particularly relevant to the theory and practice of museum education. They are, nevertheless, not widely cited within the museum profession. This article comments on Experience and Education, a slim, readable volume, in the hope of giving it wider readership. Major ideas from each chapter of the book are summarized along with comments on their application to various museum issues. Dewey distinguishes two fundamentally opposed ideas: that education is development from within and that it is formation from without. Believing that experience is the basis for education, he basically takes the within position, although he also warns against either-or thinking. Dewey identifies two aspects of experience and two criteria for judging it which have implications for such things as setting exhibit goals, evaluating exhibits, developing exhibit content, and untangling education and entertainment. He goes on to look at problems of implementing experience-based learning such as maintaining social control, moving people from initial impulses to more purposeful inquiry, and developing organized subject matter from individual experiences. All of this applies to museums as well as schools.     

“Loving,Knowing Ignorance”: A Problem for the Educational Mission of Museums

In this essay, I suggest that Mariana Ortega's concept of “loving, knowing ignorance” (2006) provides a useful conceptual tool for museum practitioners who seek to advance a progressive mission. This form of ignorance assumes authority in describing and acting on behalf of a subject, even as it fails to take seriously the subject's self‐knowledge and agency. While Ortega initially coined this term to describe the stance of white feminists toward women of color, here I extend the concept to describe a wider range of knowers—in this case, the institutional museum. Using a case study at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to illustrate this problem, I will suggest that becoming aware of instances of loving, knowing ignorance and learning to avoid it is a key skill for museum professionals who hope for their institutions to fulfill their educational mission in a diverse and democratic society.     

“It’s Time to Pause and Reflect”: Museums and Human Rights

Abstract As museum professionals become more aware of their institutional ability to promote the realization of human rights, so too are the missions, exhibitions, and programming initiatives of many museums around the globe responding to an evolving human rights culture. Here, we will briefly discuss the museum institution’s past relationship with the concept of rights, and identify some of its challenges in taking up a more activist role.     

Thinking about “Scenes”: A New View of Visitors' Influence on Museums

Abstract Sociologists have described “scenes” as voluntary social groupings or figurations that are “… thematically focused cultural networks of people who share certain material and/or cognitive forms of collective stylization,” according to Hitzler, Bucher, and Niederbacher (2001, 20). This terminology is quite useful for thinking about Stephen Weil's assertion that visitors play a role in shaping museums. Through “scenes,” we see how this might happen, and how visitors might already be exerting subtle pressure on the forms and contents of museums. The study of scenes could help us develop a tool that would offer a unique vision of the influences that visitors have on museums.     

Museums and the Future of a Healthy World: “Just,Verdant and Peaceful”

Museums hold the physical and intellectual resources, abilities, creativity, freedom, and authority to foster the changes the world needs most. The authors offer a mantra for the field's role in creating a world where people and cultures flourish as the environment thrives. The text includes a variety of international calls‐to‐action, and provides example institutional responses. The authors are all members of PIC Green, the American Alliance of Museums’ professional network on environmental sustainability.     

“Let's Go to MY Museum”: Inspiring Confident Learners and Museum Explorers at Children's Museums

Abstract Not a month goes by at the Brooklyn Children's Museum without a call or visit from a group of enthusiastic educators and community leaders on a mission to start their own children's museum or gallery. Recent guests have arrived from as far away as Israel, Ecuador, Japan, and Australia, and as nearby as the Bronx. In the United States, children's museums represent one of the youngest and fastest growing cultural sectors. Our field was founded in 1899 with the opening of the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Anna Billings Gallup, an influential curator and director at the museum from 1902 to 1937, spoke widely about the value of bringing the child into the forefront of museum activities. In the United States, the field grew slowly but steadily to four children's museums in 1925 and to approximately 38 by 1975. In the last three decades, sparked by the groundbreaking work of Michael Spock at the Boston Children's Museum, the field has been energized by an extraordinary boom in new and expanding children's museums. Today there are approximately 350 worldwide.     

“The Enchanted Palace” at Kensington

Abstract Kensington Palace, London, has been home to kings and queens, dukes and princesses for 300 years. It was the focus for the tremendous public outpouring of grief following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Recently, the historic building was transformed into “The Enchanted Palace at Kensington,” which sent visitors on a quest through the sumptuous rooms to find seven of the palace’s princesses. On their journey, visitors discovered fantastical, fairy‐tale‐like installations, some of them by the best British fashion designers, and inspired by Kensington Palace’s incredible history.