Since the inception of new museum theory, and the emphasis it places on the social purpose of museums within society, museum professionals and museum studies theorists have struggled to define what role museums must take in combating prejudices and fostering better understating of difference. Richard Sandell is one such theorist who writes about the importance of, and need for, greater inclusion of disabled artists and works of art containing themes of disability into exhibitions and display. This thesis examines Sandell’s scholarship, noting its foundation in new museum theory and disability studies, and then, employing a case study of the American Visionary Art Museum, illustrates the issues illuminated in Sandell’s writing. Finally, utilizing the case study, this thesis will offer aims for further research within museum studies not yet considered by Sandell, especially within educational goals and activities of the museum.

Museums are culturally constructed as places dedicated to tastemaking, preservation, historical record, and curation. Yet the contemporary isn’t yet absorbed by history, so as museums incorporate contemporary art these commonly accepted functions are disrupted. Through case studies, this thesis examines the successes and failures of three New York museums (MoMA, Dia:Beacon and New Museum) as they grapple with the challenging, perhaps irresolvable, tension between the contemporary and the very idea of the museum.

This thesis is a study of the origins and rationale of two categories of house museum - here named "Great Man" and "Social History" - in the United States and Australia. An examination of cultural, social and historical change provides the context for the genres' evolution. The Great Man genre was born in mid nineteenth-century America when two houses associated with George Washington - Hasbrouck House and Mount Vernon - were preserved and translated to museum status. Mount Vernon quickly became the exemplar for house museums. Civil religion, a secular nationalism that adopted the forms and rituals of church religion, focusing on hero worship, pilgrimage and contemplation of transcendent collective purpose, provided the ideology that sustained the new museum type. Great Man house museums became the shrines at which such rituals could be practiced. In the early twentieth-century the specialization of heritage organizations encouraged a new breed of heritage professional. Largely fabric focused, these "new museum men" influenced philosophy, management and conservation practice at house museums throughout the century. Social history made its impact upon house museums in the latter decades of the twentieth century. The paradigm encouraged the creation of a new category of house museum. Existing Great Man house museums adopted some of its characteristics though never lost their hero worship foundations. In fact, I posit that the idea of hero worship was transferred to the new genre. The birth and evolution of the two categories of house museum is demonstrated through four biographical studies: Vaucluse House in Sydney; Monticello in Charlottesville VA; the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City; and Susannah Place Museum in Sydney. I believe the findings demonstrate an argument that applies at hundreds of house museums in the United States and Australia.

Submitted by Luciana Figueiredo Avelar (lucianafavelar@gmail.com) on 2015-04-16T13:33:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_AVELAR, Luciana.pdf: 1455127 bytes, checksum: 02e67f5d28bf0f511132fbf90a9c599c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rafael Aguiar (rafael.aguiar@fgv.br) on 2015-05-04T19:10:57Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_AVELAR, Luciana.pdf: 1455127 bytes, checksum: 02e67f5d28bf0f511132fbf90a9c599c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2015-05-06T14:53:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_AVELAR, Luciana.pdf: 1455127 bytes, checksum: 02e67f5d28bf0f511132fbf90a9c599c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-06T14:53:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_AVELAR, Luciana.pdf: 1455127 bytes, checksum: 02e67f5d28bf0f511132fbf90a9c599c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-20 / The Taquaril Museum, created in 2010, is studied as a contemporary museum institution, as a community museum, as an initiative driven by the government sector through the Pilot Action of the program Pontos de Memória, carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Museums (Ibram). With inquiry conducted through desk research and interviews, supplemented by consulting other sources, are described and analyzed: the emergence context of Taquaril Museum, stages and processes of its creation and its establishment, faced challenges and prospects for continuity. The study is made from literature review about the development, the transformation and the diversification of the museums in the West. These ones considered as tools used in social processes of memories construction and identitys affirmation. Are focused the so-called new museology and the emergence, in recent years, of socially oriented museums, engaged in satisfy society interests in a more democratic way. It is addressed the current national development context of inclusive cultural policies and a specific national public policy for the museum sector. It is observed that the trajectory of the Taquaril Museum, within this scenario, is impacted by agents and circumstances of the internal context of the institution and of the local community. And it is also impacted by the external environment, especially the operation of Ibram and the program Pontos de Memória. It is concluded that there are still obstacles to be faced by Taquaril Museum for its consolidation as a community museum. / O Museu do Taquaril, criado em 2010, é estudado como instituição museológica contemporânea, como museu comunitário, como iniciativa impulsionada pelo setor governamental por meio da Ação-Piloto do programa Pontos de Memória, do Instituto Brasileiro de Museus (Ibram). Com investigação realizada por meio de pesquisa documental e entrevistas, complementada por consulta a outras fontes, são descritos e analisados: o contexto de surgimento do Museu do Taquaril, etapas e processos de sua criação e de seu estabelecimento, desafios enfrentados e perspectivas para sua continuidade. O estudo é feito a partir de revisão de literatura sobre o desenvolvimento, a transformação e a diversificação dos museus no ocidente, observados como ferramentas utilizadas em processos sociais de construção de memórias e afirmação de identidades. São focalizados a chamada nova museologia e o surgimento em anos recentes de museus de cunho social, associados ao atendimento mais democrático de interesses da sociedade. É abordado o contexto nacional atual de implementação de políticas culturais inclusivas e de uma política pública nacional específica para o setor museal. Observa-se que a trajetória do Museu do Taquaril, iniciativa inserida nesse cenário, é impactada por agentes e circunstâncias do contexto interno da instituição e da comunidade local, assim como do contexto externo, especialmente a atuação do Ibram e o programa Pontos de Memória. Conclui-se que ainda há obstáculos a serem enfrentados pelo Museu do Taquaril para sua consolidação como museu comunitário.