This research is a pioneering study focusing on the museum governance system. Governance in museums has been under-researched; however, recent disputes and development have drawn the public’s attention to this subject. Furthermore, there is still no proper theory or model to explain the decision- and policy- making process in museums. Regarding the scope of this thesis, a focus on national museums of the UK and Taiwan has been chosen because of their historical similarities. A literature review was conducted to aim at answering the question of ‘what is governance?’, including its definition and theories, not only in the private sector, but also in the public and non-profit sectors. Museum governance has been identified and compared with the application of marketing and management as well as museology. It was also significant to investigate the historical development of museum governance in the two selected countries. It has enabled the author to find out the most influential factors in the governance systems of museums and create a preliminary model. Six national museums were selected as cases and three trips of fieldwork were achieved in a period of more than a year. A background analysis of each case provided a fundamental understanding of their history, organisational structure and importance. Data collected was later analysed in detail and compared, to understand governance practices as well as to test the proposed model. This has proved that the Interactive Model of museum governance helps to explain the governance process in the museum; however, a minor change has also been made to refine this model. A further literature review was conducted to update the information and also to ensure the originality of this research. There are some suggestions for future research on this subject, and it is the hope of the author to have widened interest in museum governance both in academia and among museum professionals.

This doctoral investigation examines educational relationships between museums and schools, and more specifically between art museums and secondary art education. The author's analysis of literature pertaining to museum/school relationships and previous research conducted within Honours research establishes systematic contradictions as permeating the public role of museums and educational engagements with museums. In seeking explanation, a theoretical framework, derived from the social theories of Pierre Bourdieu is developed. The framework is used to interrogate the practices of school-based art education and art museums, and the agents involved, to examine how social relations operate to enable and constrain the representation and engagement of secondary school-based perspectives in the museum setting. Aspects that have previously remained unacknowledged are examined to reveal the interplay of factors that influence educational experiences in the art museum setting. Using the findings from the first stage of the analysis, in concert with the Bourdieuan framework, the author develops a model for learning in art museums that explores and articulates a new pedagogical terrain in the art educational use of art museums. A socio-cognitive framework is developed to reflect the strategic incorporation of museological knowledge, contemporary art education philosophies and practices and sociological theory. The aims of the model are to engage secondary art education and art museums using a sociological perspective, provide the tools for secondary art educators to be autonomous in the art museum setting, recognize that individuals relate to cultural materials and experiences in varying and multiple ways and develop educational encounters that predispose learners to engage in the cultural practice of art museum visiting. In intrinsically valuing art museum experiences as distinctive learning opportunities, the model provides teaching and learning strategies that allow for a multi-faceted, developmentally appropriate and cognitively based educational involvement. As the ultimate outcome of the research the model has significance for secondary art students, secondary art educators, teacher educators and art museum educators. It is unique in providing a secondary school-based art educational perspective on learning in art museums that is designed to establish a foundation for cultural practice, within and beyond the school years.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-150). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

19th century dime museums were a North American phenomenon that flourished in urban centres from the mid- to late-1800s. Named thusly due to their low admission cost, dime museums provided democratic entertainment that was promoted to all classes as affordable and respectable. The resulting facilities were crammed with art, artifacts, rarities, living human curiosities, theatre performances, menageries, and technological marvels. The exhibition Dr. Soanes’ Odditorium of Wonders strives to recapture the spirit and aesthetic of the dime museum to invoke wonder in the viewer and to combine art, artifacts, and oddities to provoke questions about the boundary between education and amusement. Both the academic and curatorial texts utilize a mix of methodological approaches appropriate to museology, art history and cultural history: theoretical research into historiographical issues concerning theories of display and spectacle; archival research and discourse analysis of historical documents, and material culture analysis (including the semiotics of display). / iv, 60 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

The purpose of the investigation was to collect information from ninety representative art museums in Europe and North America, with visits made to forty-five and a validated questionnaire sent to the others; to study their research-oriented publications as to contents; and to organize the data so that they would be of value to graduate art students. Although this information will be of value to scholars, undergraduate students, and museum personnel, the study was restricted to the graduate art student because some museum libraries restrict their facilities to this educational level.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Colonial stronghold, gateway to the west, forge and hearth for the industrial growth of the United States, the City of Pittsburgh, like few others, lays strong claim to prominence in all eras of the nation's development. The thesis is a design proposal for a museum facility in which to exhibit a collection of artifacts and documents of that particular heritage, a place in which the city's people and visitors will be informed of the roles Pittsburgh has played in the history of the country. The objective is to create a center which not only provides a home for research and display, but which also communicates the public nature of its offerings. It is, therefore, a proposal to study the manner in which architecture both specifically and emblematically contributes to cultural and historical understanding. It is my thesis that with care, a building can be designed which both in form and content creates an environment organizing perceptions of history. The intent lies in a means of defining the potential for architecture to strengthen memories of particular civic interest. / by August G. Schaefer. / M.Arch.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

In North America, art museums have rendered services to elementary schools since the early 1900s. Although the scope and number of these services have expanded in the past several decades, the nature of the art museum-elementary school collaborative relationship can be problematic, and even counterproductive to the enhancement of quality of art education. There are some crucial issues related to the nature of and factors underlying collaboration among elementary schools and art museums, that need to be carefully considered in order for these efforts to be successful and fruitful. Since the relationship between attitudes and behavior is reciprocal, the attitudes of art museum educators in regard to art museum-elementary school collaboration are crucial to the quality and effectiveness of any collaborative endeavors and directly impact art museums' contribution to elementary art education. Therefore, this study explores art museum educators' attitudes in regard to art museum-elementary school collaboration. The present investigation is the only study of its kind in Canada to date. From the fall of 1997 to the spring of 1998, I conducted a survey of art museum educators in the province of British Columbia, Canada as well as interviews involving nine informants working in two art museums. Moreover, in order to meaningfully interpret the interview data, I observed the informants' daily routines in these galleries and collected documents related to the two study sites. This mixed method design was used to study BC art museum educators' attitudes in regard to art museum-elementary school collaboration relative to six specific issues: 1) models of art museum/gallery-school collaboration; 2) pedagogy and methods of art museum/gallery programs for elementary schools; 3) art museum/gallery programs and resources for elementary school teachers; 4) elementary school teacher participation in school-oriented art museum education; 5) content of art museum/gallery programs for elementary schools; and 6) linkage of art museum/gallery school programs and elementary school curricula. The results of this study suggest important implications to the future of collaborative endeavors bringing together elementary schools and art museums by highlighting issues related to the dynamics of the art museum educator - elementary school teacher relationships, professional knowledge and expertise, and curriculum links that strongly impact on such partnerships. They also provide guidance for future related research.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Karlsruhe, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-268).