Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Anthropology, August 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

This report is a case study of the presentation of craft at the Renwick Gallery, the craft museum of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). The Renwick, founded in 1976, is a curatorial department of SAAM, focusing in modern and contemporary American craft. Through an examination of the museum’s galleries and exhibitions, interviews with staff, and an analysis of educational programming, this thesis explores how the Renwick defines craft implicitly and explicitly. Giving a context for this study is a history of the Renwick Gallery, as well as history of craft and its definitions. With these histories as background, the ways that the Renwick, and thus its visitors, understand craft is explored. The qualities specific to craft in the literature and manifest at the Renwick are examined in order to determine how they influence the presentation of craft at the Renwick. / text

This thesis examined an interactive, intergenerational gallery entitled MoMA Art Lab: People, located within the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It is composed of various stations that visitors can explore, which include activities appropriate for people of all ages. The motivation for this research came after noticing a lack of family programming in art museums that truly engaged both the adults and children in family groups. Often the children would be active but the parents would sit passively nearby. This was not the case in the MoMA lab, where people of varying ages interacted with both the stations and each other as they explored the activities. This study sought to focus on the aspects of the lab that most often led to the engagement of adults who visited the lab as part of an intergenerational group. In order to examine possible reasons why the lab was able to engage adults, I conducted a case study that involved observing nine groups who entered the lab, interviewing seven of them, and also interviewing five educators in the Family Programs department who held significant roles in the development and running of the lab. The findings revealed that the aspects of MoMA Art Lab: People that most engaged adults were stations focused on art-making and were designed in a way conducive to conversation. / text

Repatriering av samiska föremål, mänskliga kvarlevor samt immateriellt kulturarv är en fråga som inte har något enkelt svar.Samtidigt är det en fråga som gång på gång uppkommer inom museisammanhang. Västerbottens museum är ett länsmuseumsom har utarbetat en repatrieringspolicy av samiskt kulturarv för att kunna bemöta denna fråga.Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka hur diskursen ser ut kring repatrieringspolicyn inom museet, problem ochmöjligheter. Undersökningen baseras på en djupintervju med anställda på Västerbottens museum och en representant ur museetssamiska referensgrupp.Under intervjun kommer ett antal teman fram som handlar om kontext samt identitet. Både från museets sida och från densamiska representanten anses det positivt med en repatrieringspolicy. Det handlar om en önskan om samverkan och attinvolvera samer vars kulturarv har samlats in och tolkats utifrån ett västerländskt sätt att se på kulturarv. / Repatriation of sami objects, human remains and intangible heritage is an issue which doesn't seem to have an easy answer.Although this is an issue that time and time again arise in the context of museums. The county museumVästerbottens museumhave created a policy regarding repatriation of sami heritage, to converge this issue.The aim of this examination paper is to study the discourse within the museum regarding the repatriation policy, problems andpossibilities. The study is based on an in-depth interview with the staff of Västerbottens museum and a representative of themuseums sami reference group.During the interview, a couple of themes where pinpointed that dealt with context and identity. It was acknowledged by boththe museum and the sami representantative that a repatriation policy is a good thing. It recognises a wish to co-operate andinvolve the sami people, whose culture have been collected and interpreted by a western point of view.

This thesis explores how heritage museums can engage more visitors to take part of cultural heritage in context to digital culture, and going deeper in on what implementation of gamification and alternate reality games can contribute with. Through the establishment of how the heritage museum space has changed since the implementation of technology, gives a response concerning new perspective in the experience economy. Connecting Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s characteristics of flow together with Jane McGonigal’s theory of alternate gaming can serve the visitor to invest in their own learning outcomes, thus invest more in cultural heritage. Nevertheless also how visitors can experience cultural heritage as one but at the same time as a community, participating through a common ‘goal’.

The goals of museum collaboration are several, as are its intended beneficiaries. Assuming the success of the practice, local communities can gain the opportunity for self-representation and self-determination, museums can contribute to the creation and dissemination of new kinds of knowledge, and visitors can take home better understandings of cultural difference. While these are the ideals of collaboration, they frequently go unrealized, in large part because, as research indicates, the visiting public fails to recognize the active involvement of communities at museums. This raises the question as to whether, in the absence of this audience awareness, museum collaboration can fully contribute to the realization of the tolerant society that it purports to support. The purpose of this research is to examine the role of museum visitors in achieving the goals of museum collaboration, as well as to consider why this public has difficulty recognizing community involvement at museums and how this may be remedied. “A Partnership of Peoples” is an extensive renewal project underway at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia (UBC), designed to facilitate collaborative research at the museum. It also serves as a case study for my consideration of the relationship between museums and the visiting public as a part of the collaborative process. By speaking with both MOA staff and visitors, I gained insight into the intended goals of the renewal project with respect to the museum’s relationship with communities and the general public, as well as visitor understandings of collaboration. With this fieldwork, in addition to a literature review, I found that the significance of collaboration rests in the personal interactions that occur between individuals. As the majority of visitors do not benefit from these interactions during their time at the museum, they are at a disadvantage when it comes to recognizing the engagement of others in the creation of displays or the facilitation of research. The task for museums, then, is to make contemporary peoples visible and audible, connecting objects to communities and increasing opportunities for visitors to experience these personal meanings.

This thesis provides a description and analysis of the process of developing a museum education programme at the UBC Museum of Anthropology (MOA). The programme Debra Sparrow: Weaving Two Worlds Together was developed collaboratively with Musqueam weaver, artist, and educator Debra Sparrow and myself, Jill Baird. At the time, I was temporary Education Coordinator at MOA between December 1993 and June 1995. The case study of this collaboration process is presented from the perspective of myself and Debra Sparrow and examines the working relationships and different individual cultural assumptions which we experienced in our collaboration. It also explores the evolving relationships between collaborators, and the institutions and communities each represents. The thesis contributes to the gap in the literature on museum and education collaborations by documenting the process, integrating theory and praxis, and stimulating the discussion within the discourses of museology and education on collaboration and change. More importantly, it illustrates that First Nations and non-First Nations museum workers can work together in a way which respects each other's world views.

This thesis explores how architecture, like literature and fi lm, uses narrative techniques to tell a story. The museum exemplifies this concept of architecture as a narrative medium, as its social mandate is to articulate a topic and educate visitors. Through the rehabilitation of the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, this thesis aims to improve the museum’s spatial qualities and configuration. A series of interventions are designed to frame spaces throughout the historic site, reflecting the historical events that took place there. These spaces tell the story of one million immigrants and Canadian military personnel who entered Canada at this site.

Muziejinė edukacija yra naujas ir daug dėmesio tiek Lietuvoje, tiek visame pasaulyje susilaukiantis reiškinys. Šiame bakalauro darbe pagrindinis dėmesys yra skiriamas Lietuvos (remiantis Kauno miesto muziejų pavyzdžiu) muziejų edukacinės veiklos tendencijoms, siekiant ištirti muziejinės edukacijos, kaip vienos iš šiuo metu daugiausiai dėmesio susilaukiančių muziejinės veiklos sričių, raidos, teorinę, praktinę ir metodologinę sritis. Šiandien, muziejinę edukaciją galima apibrėžti kaip mokymosi galimybę muziejaus aplinkoje, naudojant tam tikrus bendravimo su lankytojų auditorija būdus (edukacinės raiškos formos) ir mokymo metodus. Šiuolaikinės muziejinės edukacinės veiklos sampratos sklaidos atskaitos tašku Lietuvoje laikomi 1991 m., kai buvo perimta nauja muziejinės edukacijos samprata, susiformavusi pasaulyje XX a. pabaigoje. Didelis indėlis į muziejų edukacinės sampratos plėtotę įneštas į šią veiklą įsitraukus Atviros Lietuvos fondui, Lietuvos muziejų asociacijai ir 1997 m. prie jos įkurtai Švietimo sekcijai. Jų dėka pradedami rengti pirmieji seminarai, konferencijos, projektai, analizuojantys Lietuvos muziejų edukacinės veiklos plėtros galimybes. 1996 – 1999 m. Lietuvos muziejų edukacinės veiklos organizavimas pasižymi jos orientavimu į mokyklas. Laikotarpis nuo 2002 – 2003 m. iki 2009 m. taip pat sąlyginai pasižymi naujomis idėjomis. Prie tokių naujovių galima priskirti idėjų perimamumą iš Europos šalių muziejų, nuolat keliamą klausimą dėl edukacinės veiklos skalės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Museum education is a new phenomenon that gains a lot of attention in Lithuania and worldwide as well. In this work the main focus is concentrated to the tendencies of the educational activities of Lithuanian museums (on the basis of the museums of Kaunas city). The main object - extend museum education as one of the most popular museum activity evolutionary, theoretical, practical and methodology researches fields. Today museum education we can to characterize that the learning opportunity in museum, using some special communication with museum visitors audience ways (education expression forms) and learning methods. The spread point of the conseption of the educational acitivies of modern museum in Lithuania is regarded to be the year of 1991 when a new museum conseption that formed worldwide in the end of XX century was applied. A significant contribution to the development of the educational conception of museums started after the Open Lithuania fund, the Association of Lithuania museums and finally the Education section, that was established in 1997, began to paricipate in this activity. Courtesy of them, the first seminars, conferences and projects have been arranged. They participate in analysing the possibilities of the development of educational activity of Lithuanian museums. During 1996 – 1999 that kind of educational activity of Lithuanian museums is focused on schools. The period between 2002 – 2003 and until 2009 is also considered as a period of new ideas... [to full text]

This bachelor thesis consists of an analysis of museum environment. In the research, case studies have been done at the, Stockholm based museums, Swedish museum of Natural history’s exhibition Natur i Sverige (Nature in Sweden) and the Nordiska museet’s (Nordic history) exhibition Modemakt (Power of fashion) and learning environment Lekstugan (playhouse). The purpose of the research was to study how cultural heritage is used and developed within the museum pedagogy aimed at children. The research is based on a multimodal approach with focus on learning resources. The research examines the museums focus on children and youngsters, what the goals for this focus looks like on respective museum and how the focus is visible in the actual museums. The investigation has shown that both of the museums have a clear focus towards children and young people and follows the guidelines from the Swedish government. This thesis shows the differences between both museums in their separate ways of focus on children and youngsters. The different possibilities on focus on children and young can provide inspiration for either other museums or the specific museums in the thesis when developing or expanding their focus further. Both museums way to communicate with children and young people considered to have good potential for learning. / Denna kandidatuppsats består av en analys av museala miljöer. I undersökningen har fallstudier gjorts på Naturhistoriska riksmuseets utställning Natur i Sverige samt Nordiska museets utställning Modemakt samt lärmiljö Lekstugan. Syftet med undersökningen har varit att studera hur kulturarv används och utvecklas inom museipedagogiken riktad mot barn. Undersökningen utgår ifrån ett multimodalt perspektiv med fokus på lärresurser.   Frågeställningarna hanterar museernas riktning mot barn och unga, hur målen för detta ser ut samt hur det ser ut i verkligheten. Undersökningen har visat att båda berörda museer har en tydlig riktning mot barn och unga samt gott och väl följer regeringens riktlinjer för statliga museer.   I uppsatsen tydliggörs Naturhistoriska riksmuseets och Nordiska museets olika sätt att angripa frågan ”riktning mot barn och unga”. Detta kan utgöra inspiration för andra museer eller för de berörda museerna att utveckla sin riktning ytterligare. Båda museernas vis att kommunicera mot barn och unga bedöms ha goda förutsättningar för lärande.