Curating convergence: interpreting museum objects in integrated collecting institutions

This article is concerned with the phenomenon of convergence (institutional integration) of museums, libraries, archives and other cultural facilities. It investigates how such amalgamations impact the capacity of curatorial and collections staff to carry out interpretive practices, including object research, documentation and exhibition development. Through thematic content analysis of staff interviews conducted at five case studies of local government-run converged collecting institutions in Australia and New Zealand, the paper suggests that administrative restructuring – often predicated on the dual imperatives of financial efficiency and improved cultural provision – produces institutional frameworks that undermine the capacity of collections staff to interrogate the meanings of objects. In turn, impediments to interpretive practice limit the extent to which collections are rendered intellectually accessible to visitors.     

Middle of nowhere: contesting rural heritage at the World Famous Gopher Hole Museum

Abstract

The World Famous Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, Alberta, Canada, is a rural museum located in a relatively isolated hamlet of less than 200 people. Inside the museum, small diorama boxes feature taxidermied gophers dressed in tiny clothing and posed as townspeople dining in restaurants, shooting pool and chatting at a beauty parlour, among other activities. Drawing on methods stemming from critical museum theory, critical rural studies and critical heritage studies, this article analyzes the ways in which both local residents and visitors from outside the region understand the museum, considering why it is indeed world famous, attracting over 5000 international tourists each year. It argues that the Gopher Hole Museum succeeds in part because its organisers are active agents who take pride in the museum without attempting to refute the sometimes negative responses to it, or control the ways in which outsiders interpret it. The museum in Torrington is a complex ‘open text’ that both employs and critiques the conventional methods used in natural history and heritage museums to offer multiple narratives about childhood, heritage and rural life, addressing local people as well as tourists.     

博物馆电化教育的功能和作用

本文在阐述博物馆教育职能与社会公众受教群体紧密相关的基础上,对博物馆电化教育、电教技术以及现代电化教育媒体进行讨论分析,阐明了博物馆目前应该如何有效利用传统视听媒体和计算机网络等,充分发挥博物馆的宣传教育职能,为历史唯物主义和爱国主义教育做出更大贡献.     

湖北省博物馆观众行为调查报告

博物馆观众行为,主要是指观众在博物馆环境中带有目的性的行动的连续集合。观众行为的跟踪调查和定点观察,是博物馆观众研究的重要手段。湖北省博物馆"曾侯乙墓展览"的观众行为、参观时间、展品参观率、博物馆标识利用率等的调查研究和统计分析,折射出博物馆在展线安排、服务设施等对外服务方面的大致情况,可以为我国博物馆开展观众服务提供可资借鉴的参考数据和建议。     

Foucault and museum geographies: a case study of the English ‘Renaissance in the Regions’

This paper explores the subject of museum geographies, focusing particularly on the development of museum policies in a changing political context. The empirical focus is the emergence and transformation of the museum programme Renaissance in the Region, which is linked to the concepts of primary, secondary and tertiary spatialisations presented by Michel Foucault. The paper discusses the development of the programme and how it transformed aspects of the primary, secondary and tertiary spatialisations of museums in England, before focusing attention on the geography of school visits to museums. The results of two extensive studies of school visits to museums in the programme suggest that large numbers of visits come from schools located in areas with high indices of multiple deprivation and income deprivation affecting children. It is argued that this social geography reflects the tertiary spatialisation of museums linked to their emergence in areas of past industrial development, although practices linked to reconfigurations of the primary and secondary spatialisation as part of the Renaissance in the Regions programme may also have played some role. The paper concludes by discussing recent changes in government policy and the degree to which the ‘New Renaissance’ policy may signify reductions in the social reach of museums into areas of social deprivation and exclusion.     

美术馆:从展览馆向博物馆的回归

从博物馆的发展史来看,美术馆无疑是博物馆的重要类型之一。在我国,由于种种复杂原因的影响,美术馆与博物馆在体系上一度呈现分离状态,它们之间的业务联系也非常疏远。近年来,美术馆界开始了从"展览馆"向"博物馆"转变的路程,致力于使美术馆成为最具特色的博物馆类型之一。     

博物馆视角下的近代中国知识体系的蜕变

近代以来,西方人把博物馆这一事物移植到中国,并伴随博物学引进西方现代知识体系;中国人在加深了对博物学和博物馆的认识的同时,也把中国传统学术按西方现代学科体系进行分类、整合。于是,近代中国的知识体系潜移默化地发生了蜕变。     

促进“认同”是当代博物馆的重要任务

"认同"是个人对自我社会身份的认知,与特定社会群体的关系及归属感,是当代社会发展重要的心理保障。文化遗产与特定群体的发展历程和发展需求紧密联系,在认同中起到催化和强化的作用。促进认同将对博物馆的收藏、研究、陈列、教育及观众服务等各项工作提出新的任务、带来新的活力。博物馆必须运用其收藏的文化遗产,揭示遗产蕴涵的多层面信息,帮助人们了解自己的发展历程,认清自身特点,强化自我认同。加强公众的民族认同、文化认同、社会认同和国家认同,是当代中国博物馆不容推卸的社会责任。     

台湾地区博物馆发展文化创意产业的理念与实践

文化创意为近年来发达国家地区竞相发展的经济力,我国台湾在地方政府的鼓励扶持下,利用文化创造活力强、文物资源丰富等优势,积极发展文化创意产业,成果突出,其中台北"故宫博物院"具有台湾地区博物馆发展文创产业指标的地位。台北"故宫博物院"通过精心设计展览内涵、向社会开放文物数字资源、培养民众美学素养等方式,吸引并固定了一大批观众;同时还积极开拓商机,征求厂商合作开发文物衍生商品,并结合典藏文物特色设计餐饮空间,文化创意产业获得了可观的产值和显著的社会效应。     

陈列展览策划与博物馆建设

陈列展览是博物馆最基本的职能之一,是博物馆开展公共文化服务的直接载体和最佳切入点。陈列展览策划作为创造性运作陈列展览的有效手段,与陈列展览水平及博物馆建设密切相关。陈列展览策划能力是博物馆核心竞争力的主要构成要素,加强陈列展览策划是适应博物馆事业发展的需要,深化陈列展览策划有助于提升博物馆的文化影响力。探析陈列展览策划与博物馆建设之间的关系,有助于深化对陈列展览策划的理性认识与实践探索,有益于增强对陈列展览策划与博物馆建设重要性的认识。