Using the example of New Walk Museum, Leicester, and its collections, the complexity, multi-causality, and reasons for change in museums are examined and explained. The 170 years history of New Walk provides an original basis and innovative approach to be adopted towards explaining museum change.
The book makes use of original interview and archive material to examine how and why social, economic, political, and professional developments affected the work that was undertaken in New Walk. The time-span covered is much longer than is normal for a book on museum history and is longer than for almost all the national museums in the UK, with this allowing for a nuanced understanding of the causes and consequences of museum change over time. The problems and possibilities of undertaking museum history research are also discussed. Detailed examination of the ways in which a variety of societal developments fed into museum change is a key feature of the book.
The book is aimed at all those with an interest in understanding how and why change affects museum practice and will be of interest to museum professionals, academics, and students in museum studies, history, politics, and sociology as well to the general museum visitor who would like to discover more about the institutions that they visit.
Author(s): Clive Gray
Series: Routledge Research in Museum Studies
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 210
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
1 The Changing Museum
Introduction
Researching Museum History
Locating Historical Time
Questions of Change
Museums and Policy
Conclusions
References
2 Origins and ‘One Damn Thing After Another’
Introduction
Analysing New Walk
‘The Establishment of a Public Museum’
Leicester City: A Brief Overview
Meanwhile, Back at the Museum
The Museum and the Public
Assessing Museum Change
Conclusions
References
3 Collections and Practices
Introduction
Making Sense of the Collection
The New Walk Collection
The Collection
The Meaning of the Collection
Conclusions
References
4 The Museum in Society: Social Change and the Museum
Introduction
Which Changes?
The Active, Reactive, and Unreactive Museum
Women in Society and in the Museum
Ethnic Diversity in the City and the Museum
Conclusions
References
5 Paying the Piper: Finance, Economics, and the Museum
Introduction
Funding New Walk
Maintaining the Museum
Financing the Museum
Demands on the Museum
Conclusions
References
6 And Calling the Tune: Local Politics, National Politics, and the Local Museum
Introduction
Museum Change and Party Politics
The Other Politics of Museum Change
Conclusions
References
7 The Professionalised Museum: Changing Museum Managements
Introduction
Organising the Museum
Changing Rationalities, Changing Museums
Professional Strengths and Political Weaknesses?
Conclusions
References
8 The Instrumentalised Museum: Whose Interests Does the Museum Serve?
Introduction
What Is the Museum For?
Museums, Purposes, and People
Choices, Structures, and Agents
Conclusions
References
9 ‘Semper Eadem’?: Stability and Change at New Walk
Introduction
Change, Choice, and Imposition
Stability and Change in the Museum
Conclusions
References
Bibliography
Index
