This thesis concerns collecting, an activity that, although widespread, is often misunderstood; an activity that is frequently treated with mild amusement as the harmless province of ecentrics, and, more seriously, as an antisocial or even an unhealthy pursuit. The thesis considers the question of why collectors do what they do. How can collecting be explained? Why do people collect what they collect in the way they collect it? Two independent discourse types are used to address the question: a fictional artefact and an exegetical study. / Thesis (PhDSocialScience)--University of South Australia, 2008.

This thesis concerns collecting, an activity that, although widespread, is often misunderstood; an activity that is frequently treated with mild amusement as the harmless province of ecentrics, and, more seriously, as an antisocial or even an unhealthy pursuit. The thesis considers the question of why collectors do what they do. How can collecting be explained? Why do people collect what they collect in the way they collect it? Two independent discourse types are used to address the question: a fictional artefact and an exegetical study. / Thesis (PhDSocialScience)--University of South Australia, 2008.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate art collectors’ specific method of developing and making critical judgments in the context of their understanding of art. Phenomenological research methods were employed to obtain data through interviews with collectors of Contemporary African American art, Latin American art, and Minimalist and Conceptual art. Based on the findings, collectors’ approaches to critical judgment can be categorized into three areas. First, critical skills are both intuitive and developed over time, through a holistic and aesthetic process set in the art world. Collectors’ edification requires commitment, and intense looking enabling them to see how works of art communicate. Second, key events that marked collectors’ methodological approaches were connections with artists and art, notable purchases, and exhibitions of their collection. These events resulted from an integration of the collectors’ identification with the art work, manifested over time in various forms. Finally, those objects that best reflected collectors’ specific development of critical judgment and understanding of art were noted either by specific artists in their collection or the collection as a whole, functioning as vital aspects of the collectors’ life and at the same time contributing to culture and society in its capacity to cause conversations. There is an opportunity to apply the information from collectors’ processes as an educational model for teaching and learning about appreciation and criticism in art education by thinking about art collections more broadly, as another way to look at life and the art in life.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1970. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 798-842).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1970. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 798-842).

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.

This thesis investigates the material culture of early modern England as reflected in the object collections of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon. The collection consists of nearly 300 objects and six buildings dating from the period 1500-1650 representing 'the life, work and times of William Shakespeare', with a particular emphasis on domestic and community life in Shakespeare's Stratford. Using approaches from museum studies and material culture studies together with historical research, this thesis demonstrates how objects add depth and complexity to historical and museological narratives, and presents a range of unique and never before examined material sources for the study of the social and cultural history of the period. For different reasons, collectors, scholars and museum practitioners have all tended to place the Trust's objects within existing historical narratives whilst neglecting the physical evidence of the objects themselves. By closely examining the object as well as the cultural context of its manufacture and use, this study seeks to rejuvenate the way this and similar collections are seen and used in studies of the early modem period.

No description available.

No description available.