This thesis examines the dynamics in the process of cultural policy concerning the museum and gallery sector in Taiwan and Scotland of the United Kingdom. By applying a cross-national comparative methodology, it explores the factors influencing policy development for museums in relation to individual national contexts. The historical outline of the development of museums in relation to the political, economic, social and cultural settings of Taiwan and Scotland respectively informs the various ways in which museums have been perceived and reflects historical outcomes in contemporary policy issues. The study of the structural context of each political system brings to light institutional issues underlying the policy process. Focusing on the governance of publicly funded museums, the thesis investigates the positions of museums within public sector structures, the relationship between museums and relevant bodies at national and local level, and the role of a governing body or representative agency. Also, it looks into approaches to museum governance and resource allocation in relation to the governance models. In order to specify causes and consequences of a museum’s internal operations in response to external forces in the policy process, the thesis investigates six case studies: three cases of Taiwan are the National Palace Museum, the National Taiwan Museum and the Taipei Story House, and three cases of Scotland are the National Galleries of Scotland, Glasgow Museums and the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery. Different features, diverse operational approaches and challenges facing individual museums with regard to their roots, funding sources and contents are indicated, whereby their relevant contexts are also examined. The research explores the diversity of the museum sector and demonstrates the links between museums’ operation, functions and engagement in policy. To conclude the study, it specifically discusses a number of main points arising from the previous contextual and empirical examination and identifies national differences and limited similarities between Taiwan and Scotland, which ultimately contributes to the knowledge of the complex relations between governments, museums and changing environments in the policy process.

This thesis explores important aspects of the debates and practices that since the First World War have both extended the meaning of museums and museology, and renovated what was seen by many as a stagnated 19th century model of museum policy and communication. For the purpose of illustrating the manifold nature of these debates this thesis examines the life and work of French museologist and innovator of modern French ethnographical practice, Georges Henri Rivière (1897 – 1985). It draws on the conceptual distinction made in some international museum literature between museology and museums. This distinction stems from the different assumptions introduced by two long term projects of cultural development: the 18th century projects of enlightenment and the 20th century promotion of an anthropological conception of culture. The former is closely related to the European system of fine art understood as a system of promotion and popularization of the arts. The latter is part of the efforts of the human and social sciences to insert museums in the society they serve and/or to give a democratic representation to the variety of cultures existing in a society at large. The consequence was the development, in the course of the 20th Century, of two often opposing managerial policies and cultures, one inwards looking, aiming at modernization and professionalization of internal museum functions, the other focusing on closing the relationship of museology and its natural and social environment. The first was essentially administrative and scholar-based, and has thrived with the adoption of a culture of mass consumption and multiplied its functions according to an ever-dominant division of labour. The second is proactive and externally driven, a policy and managerial culture aiming at the management of processes and resources, and at the identifications and development of the living cultures existing in a society. In this line of thought this research explores the museology of Rivet-Rivière’s Musée-Laboratoire as part of a national project of cultural development aiming at changing the relationship of French citizens to their material culture and heritage. As the museological embodiment of the myth of primitivism, Rivet-Rivière’s ‘structural museology’ was shaped by the convergence of avant-garde movements in contemporary arts with the object-based ethnology of Marcel Mauss. It eventually led not only to Rivière’s most famous concept, the Ecomusée, but also to a ‘museology without walls’ and to the diversification and multiplication of local museological practices by which every activity existing in a territory could be given museographical expression. As cultural activist, Rivière was at the crossroads of major events and personalities of his time, and his museological talent was placed at the service of their concerns and expectations, particularly through his long involvement with the UNESCO-linked International Council of Museums (ICOM). Furthermore, his privileged positions in the culture of its time made him a significant witness, not just of the debate about museums, but of 20th century French cultural life.

In this thesis, I address the role of museums in contemporary Scotland, with specific reference to Glasgow Museums, the city of Glasgow’s municipal museums service. The empirical research focused on both the policy landscape within which Scottish museums are emplaced, and the activities and practices of museum staff. The research involved interviews with museum professionals, and participant observation within the museums service. The research findings emphasise the complexity of the role that museums play in contemporary society. In the thesis, I attempt to articulate the policy concept of social inclusion insofar as is it articulated within Glasgow Museums. I argue that in recent years Glasgow Museums has attempted to re-orientate its service around social inclusion, and yet the diffuse nature of the concept, coupled with the complexity of the institutional and organisational configurations within which it is implemented, means that many different – and extremely diverse – activities come to be considered part of the social inclusion agenda. The complex set of power relations through which social inclusion is articulated often results in conflict between different museum venues, departments and cohorts of staff. Through an examination of the theory underpinning the concept of social inclusion, and the practices privileged as part of Glasgow Museums’ commitment to social inclusion, I argue that it could usefully be understood as a therapeutic technology. I also suggest that community engagement has become an increasingly important part of socially inclusive practice within Glasgow Museums, yet I contend that community engagement represents a new and largely uncharted territory for many museum professionals. Through an exploration of the planning and execution of a community engagement project – entitled Curious – I argue that community engagement could usefully be thought of as a form of care. As a result, I contend that community engagement requires distinctive skills, and that these skills are often explicitly gendered.

This thesis aims to go beyond the concept of so called ‘virtual museums’. In this work I will attempt to trace a new definition of the term ‘virtual museum’ providing the concept with renewed dignity, comparable to ICOM’S definitions of museums and other existing definitions of the concept. To do so the main part of this thesis is about creating a meta-model of taxonomy capable of including all the experimentations that have taken place in the field of ‘virtual museums’ in the last 20 years. In this direction I have investigated the concept of the museum as a medium as described by McLuhan and other thinkers, both within and outside the field of museology. The discovery of an unabridged work by McLuhan on technology in museums endorses, and opens a discussion on how technology is intended to be used for the communication of heritage. Another aim of this thesis is to investigate how museum professionals can deal with the new role of Information Technology in communicating heritage. In this thesis I intend to respond to the need of museum professionals both inside and outside ICOM for definitions and clearer understanding concerning the following questions ‘What is a virtual museum? Can it be comparable with a ‘real’ museum? What different kinds of virtual museums can be discerned in past experimentations? Can they be included in a taxonomy? How does this change the day to day work of museum professionals in accordance with the new technological potential for the communication of heritage?

By critically analyzing trends in museum fashion exhibition practice over the past century, this thesis defines and describes the varied representations of historical fashion within museum exhibitions in Britain and North America. Evidence collected through archival research on past exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Bath Fashion Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the McCord Museum, and supplemented by media reports, academic reviews, as well as secondary theoretical literature, suggests that the discourses of historical fashion exhibitions have been heavily influenced by the anxieties and values placed upon fashion more generally. The discipline of fashion curation is deeply rooted in and dependent upon much earlier display practices in museums, galleries, and shops. The interplay between personal and world-historical narratives in exhibitions, the celebration of consumerism and corporate brand identity, as well as claims to aesthetic universality and quality, continued to surface across historical fashion exhibitions in all the institutions studied over the period 1913 to the present. Moreover, historical fashion, as it has been displayed in the case study institutions, also reflects the function of the museum institution itself, especially its visual marking of time and social contexts. This thesis contributes to a growing literature on the history of museums and on fashion curation and provides a historical framework for exhibitions of historical fashion to both disciplines. The worksheet generated during data-gathering provides an objective vocabulary for evaluating the physical and intellectual content of a historical fashion exhibition, and is a potentially useful tool for future researchers. Furthermore, as this dissertation investigates the role of display as a means of communication about material culture, it provides new and original insights into this important aspect of museum practice and therefore, also contributes to theoretical debates within the larger field of cultural heritage.

The university art museum can make a significant contribution to the academic and cultural life of the parent institution. While there are many roles of art museums within institutions of higher education, there is a common thread -- the conviction that interdisciplinary exhibitions and programs expand the relevance of the art museum within the academic community. In this study, I examine interdisciplinary collaborations between the university art museum and faculty from diverse academic disciplines at American institutions of higher education. What relationships, if any, exist between academic programs and art museums at universities? What institutional structures are keys and barriers to successful collaboration between the university art museum and academic programs? What factors determine the success of interdisciplinary collaboration between the university art museum and diverse academic programs? In order to fully explore the possibilities of interdisciplinary collaboration, qualitative analysis of current initiatives at university art museums throughout the United States was necessary. The conceptual framework of interdisciplinary exhibitions and programs is thus established. Secondly, case studies examine the organizational culture of the institutions and challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration at the University of Virginia Art Museum, the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art of Art at the University of Richmond, and the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College. As well, my professional experience, through a retrospective account of projects at the Daura Gallery at Lynchburg College, provides insights into both the potential and process of interdisciplinary collaboration. While I am mindful that this informs my conviction that interdisciplinarity and collaborative practice is essential to the university art museum, the partiality that existed at the onset of the study was recognized and subjected to a rigorous research and methodology that imparts validity and authenticity to this inquiry. While the “publish or perish” convention of the academy supports discipline-specific research and individual publication, I contend that the university art museum must engage in interdisciplinary dialogue through which perceptions are changed and new meanings are unveiled while respecting the integrity of the disciplines involved. This study of institution-wide interdisciplinary collaboration between university art museums and the academic institutions of which they are part reveals what is being done through innovative exhibitions and programming to promote the interconnectedness of ideas and issues. Collaboration with diverse academic disciplines reaffirms the traditional expectations of the museum of investigation, inquiry, and intellectual challenge. Purposive exhibitions grounded in collaboration between academic disciplines can generate debate, critique, and conversation. In doing so, the university art museum is an indispensable component of the university’s mission and asserts its relevance to the institution and its role in the educational experience through collaboration between the university’s academic programs and the university art museum.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, cultural policy in Scotland was dominated by the political ideas and priorities of New Labour. Post-devolution government in Scotland, in line with wider British policy, encouraged a new role for the heritage and culture sector, with a new insistence on the language and implementation of a ‘social inclusion’ agenda. However, more than a decade after devolution, changes in government and economic crisis have reconfigured the priorities of the Scottish museum sector. Central questions posed in this thesis are: Has the Scottish museum’s societal role (as promulgated by Labour) been disrupted and altered by recent political and economic shifts and by the threat of future upheavals? And if so, how? What is the current direction of reform within the Scottish museum sector? What are the current narratives of education promulgated within the sector? What symbolic traits are projected by the contemporary museum in Scotland? Building on previous research and theory in museological studies, this thesis offers a fresh perspective on the educational and social role of the contemporary museum in Scotland. Following on from Hewison (1987), I argue that museums in Scotland are responding to post-industrial malaise and fear of decline. Unlike Hewison, however, I argue that this response carries little nostalgia or naïve adoration of the past, but instead seeks to position the museum as an exemplar of stability, business sense and creative thinking in a context of societal anxiety. The National Galleries of Scotland provides an appropriate case study to explore the role and response of the Scottish museum sector to the economic and political uncertainty of the modern era. NGS is one of Scotland’s most prominent and oldest ‘heritage’ institutions, attracting over one million visitors a year. It is also a multisited, national institution, directly supported by government and closely aligned to official cultural policy. This thesis uses archival research and ethnographic methods such as interviews and observation to reveal shifts in educational and reform narratives within the Scottish museum sector as well as underlying ideas that shape these narratives. Conducted over the course of three years, from 2011 to 2013, this research is situated at an interesting time for the Scottish museum sector, as Scottish society wrestles with the economic uncertainty of the early twenty-first century.

This thesis examines the use of social media by museums aiming to establish collaborative relationships with the public. Social media platforms have been widely espoused as transformative in allowing diverse, new or previously excluded audiences to enter into egalitarian, participatory relationships with museums. This thesis deconstructs the concepts of participation and collaboration and identifies the various factors that constrain the extent to which social media enables participatory relationships between previously unequal actors. These factors include the historical disciplinary aims and cultural authority of museums, persistent social inequalities, and the motivations of social media followers. It elucidates crucial questions such as, are various publics enabled to participate on an equal level with each other and with museums? Who benefits from collaborative projects in general and which parties benefit from the use of social media in particular? What are the factors that limit the establishment of collaborative practice? And, conversely, what are the factors that define truly collaborative practice? This research examines museums' use of and discourses surrounding social media as well as social media followers' motivations for engaging with museums online. A large body of quantitative and qualitative data gained through in-depth web-based surveys is analysed, primarily using critical discourse analysis, and informed by other critical orientations including media archaeology and the sociology of expertise. The analysis indicates that museums consider social media to be a transformative, democratising technology. However, museums' acceptance of technologically determinist arguments significantly inhibits positive societal change and the extent to which collaborative relationships can be established with various publics. This research contributes significantly to the existing archaeological and museum studies literature by providing a theoretically and empirically informed critical analysis of the prevailing positive discourses surrounding social media and participation. It has important practical implications for museums in arguing that targeted, critically informed and ethically aware projects are necessary to achieve situations resembling 'collaboration'. It provides a significant body of data that will inform the formulation and continuation of collaborative projects in museums. Furthermore, it informs broader archaeological debates on involving various publics in archaeological practice. This thesis also demonstrates the importance and effectiveness of critical discourse analysis and related critical approaches for analysing large bodies of qualitative data.

This thesis investigates the evolution of curatorial practice in Britain and the United States in the first four decades of the twentieth century through an analysis of the formative years of two museums, the Wallace and Frick Collections, and of two academic programmes, the Fogg Art Museum Course at Harvard University and the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London. Through these case studies, this study charts the emergence and development of a specialised curatorial knowledge base that was influenced by traditions of connoisseurship and criticism and shaped by discussions surrounding art history’s disciplinary parameters taking place in the museum, the press, the art market and the university. This investigation makes visible the processes through which art museum curators, keepers and directors collaborated in the creation and standardisation of their own expertise and contends that this quest was fundamentally intertwined with struggles for authority, agency and professional recognition. The manifestation of this expertise resulted in a renegotiation of institutional power dynamics and gave rise to a new type of art museum leader: the connoisseur-scholar, who performed an important function in the art museum’s transition from a space dominated by gentlemanly amateurs to one in which academically trained art historians increasingly assumed positions of authority. Asserting that the formation of this knowledge base cannot be separated from the academic institutionalisation of art history and curatorial training, this study demonstrates that individuals operating in the spheres of the art museum and the university were engaged in a dialogue through which the core values of these respective endeavours were realised. Detailing these processes and relationships and locating them within the context of a shift towards aesthetic idealism, this thesis provides insight into the historical origins of modern-day curatorial practice in Britain and the United States.

Die Idee des Puzzles wird Ausgangspunkt zur Entwicklung eines experimentellen Ausstellungsprojektes im Neubau der Leipziger Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, das sich auf die Sammlung des Hauses und deren Kontexte stützt. Das flexible Raumgefüge und das Verständnis der Sammlung als Narration einer spezifischen an den Ort gebundenen Geschichte führen zu einer Form des dynamischen Kuratierens. Gemeinsam mit acht verschiedenen Protagonist*innen oder Gruppen entstehen insgesamt 34 Puzzle-Teile in Form von Projekten, Ausstellungen und Installationen, die in zehn Raumzonen teils gleichzeitig, teils nacheinander präsentiert werden. Im Prozess wurde „Puzzle“ zu einem offenen System, das im Zusammenfügen nicht nur eine Gestalt annehmen kann.