From Period Rooms to Public Trust: The Authority Debate and Art Museum Leadership in America

A recent lecture series at the Harvard University Art Museums titled “Art Museums and the Public Trust” marked the eightieth anniversary of the founding of Harvard's famed Museum Course. A graduate seminar begun in 1921 by the Fogg Art Museum's associate director, Paul J. Sachs, the Museum Course became the primary training ground for art museum leadership in the first half of the twentieth century. The 2001 commemorative lecture series was intended to foster a healthy debate on the place of the art museum in Anglo‐American culture. Instead, the speakers, veteran directors of America's and England's most prestigious art museums, invariably returned to one concern: authority—theirs and that of the art museum itself in contemporary society. Authority was at the heart of the Museum Course decades earlier, tellingly explored in annual debates around two significant topics. The first debate involved the pros and cons of including period rooms in American museums. In the second, students argued about whether America's established art institutions should collect the work of living artists. Questions of how museums should respond to the interests of audiences and communities, their responsibility to contemporary artists, and the meaning of a public trust trouble America's museum leadership now as then. This article explores the common ground between the Museum Course debates of the 1930s and Harvard's recent commemorative “debates” by America's contemporary museum leaders and comments on its significance for today's museums.     

A Synopsis and Perspective of Concerns and Challenges for the International Community of University Museums

University museums and their collections are among the oldest and most significant in the world, yet their role and future is being questioned. They have critical needs for facilities, staff, and support. At risk are millions of objects that document our natural and cultural history and programs for research, teaching, and public education and exhibits. The museums are attempting to redefine, reposition, and clarify their educational mission. Museums such as the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural history are successfully meeting the challenges through strategic planning and funding for new facilities. Other museums are finding solutions with partnerships, links, and tailor‐made service programs. New leadership and management will need to emerge for university museums to reestablish their stature and relevance. Physical and intellectual access to the museums and their objects is a key to their future. The new technologies are tools that museums can use to improve their interpretive programs and increase the depth of their research. Facing shared concerns and challenges, the museums are generating a growning sense of collective urgency and a call for intenational organization, advocacy, and cooperation, resulting in formation of the International Committee for University Museums and Collections.     

Looking Back to the Future: The Path of German Industrial Culture in the Rhine‐Main Region

Museums have the fine task of collecting and preserving history for future generations. By presenting the collections to the public, museums not only document different epochs but also try to look at them via new aspects, widening cultural understanding. In the Municipal Museum of Rüsselsheim, German industrial culture in the Rhine‐Main region is described and understood as a “route” that serves as a conceptual key identifying crucial architectural, historical and cultural resources of the region. In this cultural model, past, present and future are directly intertwined, and the invisible door between the world of museums and the “outside” world has vanished.     

国家达尔文博物馆与俄罗斯自然历史博物馆协会

创建于1907年的国家达尔文博物馆是俄罗斯历史最悠久的自然历史博物馆之一,由亚历山大·科茨等四人共同创办,该馆每年为不同的观众举办50~60个不同主题的展览。在国家达尔文博物馆中设立的俄罗斯自然历史博物馆协会发挥着联系俄罗斯各自然历史博物馆的作用。     

Museums and popular culture revisited: Kevin Moore and the politics of pop

This article recognizes the (soon to be) tenth anniversary of the publication of Kevin Moore's Museums and Popular Culture. An assessment of this book is made in relation to Moore's work in the National Football Museum and the International Football Institute. Included in the article is an interview with Moore, evaluating what he believes were the successes and failures of the project he instigated in Museums and Popular Culture.     

University Natural History Museums: The Public Education Mission

University‐based natural history museums are specialized cultural institutions that serve diverse constituencies. On one hand, these museums promote scientific research and collections through the work of curators and students and must advance the universities' missions. On the other hand, they must provide exhibition and public programs for the local community, or if they are a state museum, serve the citizens of the entire state through these activities. The challenge for university‐based natural history museums is to achieve a balance among their activities and services, given available resources. In the twenty‐first century, university natural history museums must further adapt by promoting social awareness of topics such as biodiversity and fostering learning in informal and formal settings. The Florida Museum of Natural History, an official State museum located at the University of Florida, is a prime example of a comprehensive university museum with a broad spectrum of programs that promote and enhance learning activities.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Learning In The Museum: By George E. Hein. New York, NY: Routledge. 1998. 203 pages. Hard cover, $85; soft cover, $25.99. Learning In The Museum: By George E. Hein and Mary Alexander. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums Education Committee. 1998. 54 pages. Soft cover; $8.50 (for members); $9.50 (for nonmembers); $4 (shipping and handling).     

Artifacts,Identity and Youth: A Cultural Intervention with Pacific Islander Young People Who Offend in Western Sydney,Australia

This article provides information on the evaluation of a project between the Australian Museum and the Juvenile Justice department in New South Wales, Australia, where young people who offend of Pacific Islander heritage were introduced to an extensive range of Pacific Islander cultural materials. The key assumption of the project was that young Pacific Islander people who offend struggled with cultural identity issues, and that a meaningful connection with their heritage would improve cultural knowledge and pride—thereby reducing their involvement in crime. However, this assumption was not borne out by the study's results. Firstly, the twenty‐two Pacific Islander young offender study participants were already proud of their heritage, and comfortable in their cultural identities. Secondly, though they enjoyed their visit to the museum, most did not want to visit again, so there was no sustained engagement. Thirdly, the Museum program was not designed as part of a holistic approach with multiple strategies which addressed the complex reasons for youth offending. Despite eight out of the twenty‐two participants reoffending after the Museum visit, there was enough potential for the rehabilitative intervention that the Museum was granted funding to take its program to the community and make it more user‐centered. This, it is hoped, will set it on a path towards more sustained engagement, and the potential for a greater influence on Pacific Islander youth.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Keyguide to Information Sources in Museum Studies. Peter Wood-head and Geoffrey Stansfield. London and New York: Mansell Publishing, 1989. Perspectives on Anthropological Collections from the American Southwest: Proceedings of a Symposium. Ann Lane Hedlund, Ed. Tempe, Arizona State University Anthropological Research Papers, Number 40, 1989.     

Ancient Carvings. Living Symbols. Sacred Space. Unlocking the Mysteries of Jeffers Petroglyphs

At Jeffers Petroglyphs, Historic Site, a team of American Indian elders and archaeologists working as colleagues have engaged in a day to day dialogue of researching and telling of American Indian history for 18 years. This research/education/management project explores the rich cultural landscape of JPHS located on the Red Rock Ridge in Southwest Minnesota's Cottonwood County. This 160‐acre site, owned and managed by the Minnesota Historical Society, is home to an estimated 5000 American Indian petroglyphs. The site is sacred to many American Indian communities and is situated in a Dakota homeland. The purpose of this article is to present one model for best research, education programming, conservation and operational management museum practice. This model privileges American Indian tradition knowledge, oral traditions spirituality, inquiry methods, and perspectives. Museum staff and non‐Indian inquiry methods play a supporting role. This model not only provides a telling of American Indian history from perspective of American Indian elders for museum visitors, but also satisfies the goal of these elders to recover, preserve, enhance and expand our knowledge of indigenous people before the coming of Europeans.     

Book Reviews

Cultural Connections: Museums and Libraries of Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley , by Morris J. Vogel Museum Collecting Policies in Modern Science and Technology Museums and the Public Understanding of Science , John Durant, Editor     

Do Museums Change Lives?: Ninth Stephen Weil Memorial Lecture

No museum is actually “neutral,” ever. This article presents the keynote address presented at the annual conference of the International Committee on Museum Management (INTERCOM) and of the Federation of International Human Rights Museums (FIHRM). In it, the author lays out the provocative case that museums not only are not, but should not be “neutral” when it comes to issues of human rights and social justice. Museums need not present both sides of every argument, or retain a lofty academic tone when it comes to the injustices of the present and the past. As an alternative course, the author presents a framework published by the British Museums Association, entitled Museums Change Lives, which offers a vision for museums to engage with challenging topics. He then offers a series of examples where Museums have embraced a new role as a promoter of social good.     

The Klaipeda University Library in Lithuania

Summary

The author, Library Director at the University of Klaipeda (Lithuania) and Washington State University Libraries' Library Fellow, writes about her own library in the context of other Lithuanian academic libraries and emerging consortia in Lithuania and the European Community. Both the Consortium of Lithuanian Libraries' project, the Lithuanian Integrated Library Information System (LIBIS), and the European Community's project, the Trans-European Cooperative Scheme for Higher Education (TEMPUS), are specifically noted. The author also offers both her impressions of American academic libraries gathered during her experience as a Library Fellow based at Washington State University Libraries and her hopes for the future of academic libraries in Lithuania.     

Multimedia Science Kits: A Museum Project on Women Scientists and Their Research

The University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM) is creating multimedia outreach kits on the research of women scientists. The collaborative effort has included Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, curricula developers, biographers, graphic designers, and evaluators. The goal of the project is to increase the number of girls interested in pursuing careers in science, and to this end, women scientists are presented as role models. Wonderwise kits target students in grades four through six through student-centered, inquiry-based activities, specimens and tools, videos of the scientists working in the field, resource-based CD-ROMs, and short biographies of the scientists. This project presents a model of how museums can collaborate with schools to improve science education on a statewide basis.     

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.     

Killing a culture softly: Corporate partnership with a Russian museum

Information communications technology provides a way on the World Wide Web for national museums to represent the cultural artefacts they house. Framed by the notion of cybercolonization, a colonizing of cultures and cultural institutions by computing ideas, this on-site case study of the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia examines computing ideas shaping information communications technology developments within the museum and, particularly, its current IBM sponsored website 〈http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/〉. The paper will illuminate subtle cybercolonizing influences by Global IBM evident in the website structure, design, targeting, esthetic choices, cultural content realignment, IBM corporate e-business underlay, and American English branding. The notion of cyberglocalization, an adapting of global cyber processes to local circumstances, is offered as an avenue to address colonization present in the Hermitage-IBM website. The case study offers museum professionals an illustration of the underlying assumptions about information communications technology (ICT) ideas, interaction, and appearance in the development of museum websites.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Museums, Objects and Collections: A Cultural Study By Susan M. Pearce Museum Governance: Mission, Ethics, Policy By Marie C. Malaro Mining the Museum: An Installation by Fred Wilson Edited by Lisa G. Corrin     

Investigating the Development of the “Mobile Museum” from the Perspective of Service

During economic development, modern museums face competition from various leisure activities and entertainment sites, and to achieve sustainable development, museums should reflect on providing high‐quality service to satisfy visitors’ expectations. Based on service design‐related theories, this research team conducted a case study to explore the planning, implementation, and meaning of Mobile Museums. It investigated design development from the perspective of public service design and summarized the policy, design, and service satisfaction results for Mobile Museums. Finally, the similarities in service processes are discussed between Mobile Museums and the general service industry. According to this study, attracting more visitors is the biggest issue facing museums today, as are the ways in which museums must actively provide service and become recognized to compete with others. This study identifies the onstage and backstage support of museums as well as their cultural features and non‐profit services.     

Museums and Indigenous People in Australia: A Review of Previous Possessions,New Obligations: Policies for Museums in Australia and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Previous Possessions, New Obligations was launched by Museums Australia Inc. in 1993, the International Year for the World's Indigenous People, as a policy framework to guide the development of relationships between museums in Australia and Indigenous Australians. The policy was based on consultation with Indigenous people to develop protocols, policies and procedures for more sensitive collection management and for including Indigenous people in research and public programs; and to address issues of governance. It expressed the values that would underpin new relationships between museums in Australia and Indigenous Australians. An evaluation of the policy was conducted in 2000 in a collaboration between the Australian Museum Audience Research Centre, Sydney, and Museums Australia Inc., Canberra. The evaluation found that the policy had substantially met its goals, particularly in establishing the primary rights of Indigenous people to control their cultural material in museum collections. However, a range of substantially new issues emerged which require new policy responses and initiatives.