Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice

9781800087040.pdf[1].jpg

Dublin Core

Title

Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice

Subject

collections management;decolonisation;repatriation;access;critical heritage studies;museum studies;conservation;community engagement;museums;museums practice

Description

There is a common misconception that collections management in museums is a set of rote procedures or technical practices that follow universal standards of best practice. This volume recognises collections management as a political, critical and social project, involving considerable intellectual labour that often goes unacknowledged within institutions and in the fields of museum and heritage studies. Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice brings into focus the knowledges, value systems, ethics and workplace pragmatics that are foundational for this work. Rather than engaging solely with cultural modifications, such as Indigenous care practices, the book presents local knowledge of place and material which is relevant to how collections are managed and cared for worldwide. Through discussion of varied collection types, management activities and professional roles, contributors develop a contextualised reflexive practice for how core collections management standards are conceptualised, negotiated and enacted. Chapters span national museums in Brazil and Uganda to community-led heritage work in Malaysia and Canada; they explore complexities of numbering, digitisation and description alongside the realities of climate change, global pandemics and natural disasters. The book offers a new definition of collections management, travelling from what is done to care for collections, to what is done to care for collections and their users. Rather than ‘use’ being an end goal, it emerges as a starting point to rethink collections work. Praise for Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice 'A groundbreaking volume that critically assesses collections management from alternative perspectives. The book’s contributors destabilize the orthodoxy of “best practices” by shifting the focus to culturally appropriate models of stewardship, pushing for a more integrated, holistic praxis. Reaching beyond the typical domains of collections management, chapters cover the most salient topics in museology today. A ‘must read’ for museum anthropology and museum studies students, practitioners, and scholars.' Christna Kreps, University of Denver, Colorado

Creator

Contributor(s)
Krmpotich, Cara (editor)
Stevenson, Alice (editor)

Source

https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/92439

Publisher

UCL Press

Date

2024

Contributor

Upload by Nurma Harumiaty

Rights

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Format

PDF

Language

English

Type

Textbooks

Identifier

DOI 10.14324/111.9781800087040
ISBN 9781800087064, 9781800087057, 9781800087071, 9781800087040

Coverage

Museology and heritage studies
Exhibition catalogues and specific collections

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