Heritage/archaeology blog directory... thing.

Blog from Centre for Museology, University of Manchester

'This is why “curate” is still a word to conjure by in our culture.  It still promises transformative power.'

Cited him in my dissertation. RT @costisd: P van Mensch's farewell talk heretical leader of European #museology

People hold strong opinions about museums. Some assert that their ­primary function should be scholarship, others insist that it’s more important to communicate with a wide audience. In pursuing either of these goals, should museums focus on exploring objects or investigating their contexts—are they about looking at things or telling stories? Adding to the debate, there’s lingering anxiety about relativism; some commentators (and probably many visitors) think museums should strive to be objective, others relish a variety of views.

Review Essay: A Future for Museums?*Do Museums Still Need Objects? Steven Conn. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. 272 pp.Museums in a Troubled World: Renewal, Irrelevance or Collapse. Robert R. Janes. New York: Routledge, 2009. 224 pp.

"This is an innovative interdisciplinary book about objects and people within museums and galleries. It addresses fundamental issues of human sensory, emotional and aesthetic experience of objects. The chapters explore ways and contexts in which things and people mutually interact, and raise questions about how objects carry meaning and feeling, the distinctions between objects and persons, particular qualities of the museum as context for person-object engagements, and the active and embodied role of the museum visitor. "

The master of Museology provides graduates with a wide range of theoretical knowledge, an academic attitude towards museology combined with applied professional competencies, equipping them for careers at policy-making, curatorial or managerial level within heritage organizations.

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies (SCEMS) assists the museum community in acquiring and strengthening its understandings and practices of museology. This website is one of the Center's tools for serving the educational and informational needs of the field.