<p> Early European travel literature was a prominent source from which information about the New World was presented to a general audience. Geographic regions situated within what is now referred to as Latin America were particularly visible in these accounts. Information regarding the religious customs and styles of dress associated with the indigenous peoples who inhabited these lands were especially curious points of interest to the European readers who were attempting to understand the lifestyles of these so-called &ldquo;savages.&rdquo; These reports, no matter their sources, always claimed to be true and accurate descriptions of what they were documenting. Despite these claims, it is clear that the dominant Western/Christian perspective from which these sources were derived established an extremely visible veil of bias. As a result, the texts and images documenting these accounts display highly flawed and misinformed representations of indigenous Latin American culture. Although it is now understood that these sources were often greatly exaggerated, the texts and images within them are still widely circulated in present-day museum exhibitions. When positioned in this framework, they are meant to be educational references for the audiences that view them. However, museums often condense the amount of information they provide, causing significant details of historical context to be excluded. </p><p> With such considerable omission being common in museum exhibitions, it causes one to question if this practice might be perpetuating the distribution of misleading information. Drawing on this question, I seek, with this research, to investigate how early European representations of Latin American culture in travel literature may be linked to current issues of misrepresentation. Particularly, my research is concerned with finding connections that may be present with these texts and images and the negative aspects of cultural appropriation. Looking specifically at representations of Aztec culture, I consult three texts and their accompanying illustrations from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries to analyze their misrepresentational qualities, and how they differed between time periods and regions. Finally, I use this information to analyze museum exhibition practices and how they could be improved when displaying complex historical frameworks like those of indigenous Latin American cultures.</p><p>

No description available.

<p> This study is an overview of how museums utilize informal learning as a primary source of engagement to improve overall visitor experience while building community interest. For this study, it was important to look at the history and purpose of museums origin and the evolution of their function from an art institution to an educational institution. The top 3 Los Angeles based museums; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty and the Museum of Contemporary Art were all put under the various scopes to deduce if they are utilizing their education department to be the best of their ability to create meaningful experiences for their visitors. They were evaluated based on their use of technology, use of dialogue and the overall experience within the museum. Lastly, this study stresses the importance of public art to incorporate all three areas of informal learning.</p>

<p> After years of courting public audiences, academic art museums have shifted their focus back to their campus constituents. These changes have meant putting a premium on attracting and engaging university students. Museums have been successful in doing so through classes. Yet, what about students as active constituents outside of class? Students' limited free time is one hurdle in engaging students outside of class, but students must know about their campus art museum and its programs before they can decide whether to attend or not. Therefore a study of the challenges, and successes, in marketing these museums and their programming to students was undertaken. Specifically, 29 campus art museums in the United States were surveyed on their relationship with students, current marketing strategies, what types of media are used, and how these forms of media are evaluated. Survey results revealed challenges of limited staff time and the lack of an analytical framework for some marketing materials. Successes in marketing to students were limited, but positive comments and feedback from respondents exhibit several best practices for marketing to students. These include enlisting the help of trusted resources around campus, creating positive word of mouth among the student body, and engaging students in both the creation and marketing of programs. Additionally, best practices from civic museums, and reports on marketing to student-aged individuals, were drawn on in order to offer prescriptive advice.</p>

This project examines whether recent changes to the relationships between museums and Aboriginal people are visible in the museum exhibits and narratives that shape public memory. It focuses on references to the fur trade found in the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s First Peoples Hall and Canada Hall and throughout the Manitoba Museum, using visitor studies, learning theory and an internal evaluation of the Canada Hall to determine how and what visitors learn in these settings. It considers whether display content and visual cues encourage visitors to understand the fur trade as an industry whose survival depended on the participation of Aboriginal people and whose impacts can be viewed from multiple perspectives.

This project examines whether recent changes to the relationships between museums and Aboriginal people are visible in the museum exhibits and narratives that shape public memory. It focuses on references to the fur trade found in the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s First Peoples Hall and Canada Hall and throughout the Manitoba Museum, using visitor studies, learning theory and an internal evaluation of the Canada Hall to determine how and what visitors learn in these settings. It considers whether display content and visual cues encourage visitors to understand the fur trade as an industry whose survival depended on the participation of Aboriginal people and whose impacts can be viewed from multiple perspectives.

<p> Stereotypes of Indigenous peoples, formed according to Western notions of cultural hierarchy, as savage, exotic, and only existing in a distant past, are still prevalent in the popular imaginary. These stem from misunderstandings and misrepresentations of Indigenous peoples that developed after contact between Indigenous peoples and European settler communities, and exist in concepts such as the noble savage, the wild heathen, or the vanishing Indian. In this thesis I argue that contemporary artist Gregg Deal (Pyramid Lake Paiute) successfully challenges and disrupts such stereotypes by re-channeling their power and reappropriating them through his strategic use of humor and irony in performances, paintings, and murals. Through these tools, Deal is able to attract audiences, disarm them, and destabilize their assumptions about Indigenous peoples. I frame Deal&rsquo;s use of humor and irony outside the trickster paradigm, drawing instead on Don Kelly&rsquo;s (Ojibway) theorization of humor as a communicative tool for making difficult topics accessible, and Linda Hutcheon&rsquo;s theorization of irony as a discursive strategy for simultaneously presenting and subverting something that is familiar. </p><p> In a second line of argument, I foreground Deal&rsquo;s agency as an artist through analysis of his strategies to reach audiences and gain visibility for his art. Contemporary Indigenous artists are often excluded from mainstream art institutions, and can struggle to find venues to exhibit their work. I argue that Deal&rsquo;s strategic use of public space and the internet to show and publicize his art is significant. It has helped him to reach audiences and gain recognition for his work. He now exhibits and performs in university and state museums. I argue that the authority of museum space, in turn, gives him a greater opportunity to disrupt stereotypes and educate people about misperceptions of Indigenous peoples.</p><p>

abstract: This research paper examines the close relationships between the visual arts and music and the implications of curatorial practice upon the work of conductors. While some conductors consider suitability the prime (or only) factor in determining which music to perform, curators use many more criteria. Five elements of exhibition design are particularly germane to musicians including setting, subject matter, visual weight, compositional direction, and narrative. Each of these five elements is discussed in terms of its impact on concert design with a goal of providing additional criteria to the conductor when planning concerts. Three concert experiences, designed with these principles in mind, are presented as examples. Upon consideration of the elements of exhibition design separately and corporately, one arrives at a new appreciation of the concert as a unified experience--capable of being much more than the sum of its parts. The aim of effective concert design is to eliminate unintentional communication--to present music in the most complimentary manner possible. To this end, this study has implications for conductors at all levels. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2012

<p> Recent advancements in the cost, availability, and capability of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices and software are spurring their mass distribution to the public. This fundamental shift in the use of AR and VR predominantly from military and academic research laboratories to the public presents new opportunities and challenges for the design of instructional technology. While studies of AR and VR have been conducted to inform the design of individual instructional products, few studies have focused on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) products in which AR and VR learners work together toward shared learning goals. </p><p> The museum education industry possesses unique and inherent characteristics that position it as a strong candidate for the development and deployment of CSCL-ARVR products. Tourism locations, such as museums, provide an exemplary environment for advanced learning technology experimentation in which information technology infrastructure and programs of instruction are often already in place and in which many tourists already possess smartphones and or tablets that may be used to mediate location-based educational experiences. </p><p> The goal was to conduct formative research to develop a tentative instructional design theory that can be used to guide the creation of CSCL-ARVR instructional products. Instructional design theory and software engineering practices were applied to guide the design of a CSCL-ARVR instructional product prototype to support museum education. The prototype, named Co-Tour, was designed and developed to enable remotely-located VR participants to collaborate with AR participants located within a tourism location to jointly navigate the location, examine exhibits and answer questions about exhibits related to a problem-based learning instance. Formative data were collected and analyzed, and the results were used to develop a tentative instructional design theory. </p><p> Mixed Reality Museum Co-Visit Theory is proposed to inform the design and development of CSCL-ARVR co-visitation experiences for museums. A theoretical framework was developed and was informed by CSCL, game-based learning, social constructivist theory, flow theory, and the construct of camaraderie. Five values supporting the goal were elaborated to guide theory methods production including fostering of collaboration, leveraging of informal learning activities, incorporation of motivational elements, favoring of loose organization, and provision an effective user interface. Future research should focus upon replication towards validation and generalizability of results and upon the broader museum going population.</p><p>

<p> An Egyptian archaeological textile, accessioned in the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) (Cat.No. 95/2444), from the Tomb of Hatnofer and Ramose, Eighteenth Dynasty (1550-1295 B.C.), Western Thebes was studied, with two textiles (Cat.Nos. 95/2443 and 95/2445) from the same tomb used as comparanda. The textile&rsquo;s finely spun fibers, plain-weave balanced structure with selvedge fringes and lower edge fringes, and with various weavers&rsquo; marks, stains, and losses, provide invaluable historical data about finely woven, royal linens of Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt. </p><p> Scientific analysis used for this study include: visual annotations, polarized light microscopy (PLM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) including fiber diameter measurements, and carbon-14 dating. Closely examining a textile and its fibers can provide information about the condition of the textile, linen quality, weaving techniques, and the life of the textile itself. While the linen fibers in the Study Textile (Cat.No. 95/2444) and the Comparanda Textile #1 (Cat.No.95/2443) have been identified, it is still uncertain whether or not the fibers in the Comparanda Textile #2 (Cat.No.95/2445) are of a different quality linen or of a different plant material which is very similar to linen within the bast fiber family. Further studies would be required to answer this and several other questions that remain.</p><p>