The Small Museum Toolkit

The Small Museum Toolkit
Author: Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2012
Genre: Communication in museums
ISBN: 0759119503

"As a small museum staff person, you are responsible for a lot, including areas outside of your expertise or training. You need a quick reference that makes the process of becoming a sustainable, valued institution less overwhelming. The Small Museum Toolkit is a collection of six books that serves as a launching point for small museum staff to pursue best practices and meet museum standards. These brief volumes address governance, financial management, human resources, audience relations, interpretation, and stewardship for small museums and historic sites." --Amazon.

Starting Right

Starting Right
Author: Gerald W. George
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2004
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780759105577

Here in this second edition, updating the original by Gerald George and Cindy Sherrell-Leo, you will find out in straightforward language what a museum is--philosophically and historically--some pros and cons of establishing your museum, up-to-date resource lists, and good basic advice on all aspects of museums from the choice of a building through collections care, registration, exhibitions, conservation, staffing, financial management, and fund raising.

Registration Methods for the Small Museum

Registration Methods for the Small Museum
Author: Daniel B. Reibel
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2008
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780759111318

Daniel B Reibel's Registration Methods for the Small Museum has been the definitive guide to registration methodology since 1978. Covering all aspects of the registration of museum collections, Registration Methods for the Small Museum provides practical solutions for any museum professional in a concise, readable manner. The new fourth edition brings the classic handbook up-to-date with the electronic registration techniques that are available for today's museum.

The Participatory Museum

The Participatory Museum
Author: Nina Simon
Publisher: Museum 2.0
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2010
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0615346502

Visitor participation is a hot topic in the contemporary world of museums, art galleries, science centers, libraries and cultural organizations. How can your institution do it and do it well? The Participatory Museum is a practical guide to working with community members and visitors to make cultural institutions more dynamic, relevant, essential places. Museum consultant and exhibit designer Nina Simon weaves together innovative design techniques and case studies to make a powerful case for participatory practice. "Nina Simon's new book is essential for museum directors interested in experimenting with audience participation on the one hand and cautious about upending the tradition museum model on the other. In concentrating on the practical, this book makes implementation possible in most museums. More importantly, in describing the philosophy and rationale behind participatory activity, it makes clear that action does not always require new technology or machinery. Museums need to change, are changing, and will change further in the future. This book is a helpful and thoughtful road map for speeding such transformation." -Elaine Heumann Gurian, international museum consultant and author of Civilizing the Museum "This book is an extraordinary resource. Nina has assembled the collective wisdom of the field, and has given it her own brilliant spin. She shows us all how to walk the talk. Her book will make you want to go right out and start experimenting with participatory projects." -Kathleen McLean, participatory museum designer and author of Planning for People in Museum Exhibitions "I predict that in the future this book will be a classic work of museology." --Elizabeth Merritt, founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums

Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge

Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge
Author: Eileen Hooper Greenhill
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 243
Release: 1992-01-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134912692

Museums have been active in shaping knowledge over the last six hundred years. Yet what is their function within today's society? At the present time, when funding is becoming increasingly scarce, difficult questions are being asked about the justification of museums. Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge presents a critical survey of major changes in current assumptions about the nature of museums. Through the examination of case studies, Eilean Hooper-Greenhill reveals a variety of different roles for museums in the production and shaping of knowledge. Today, museums are once again organising their spaces and collections to present themselves as environments for experimental and self-directed learning.

Culture Strike

Culture Strike
Author: Laura Raicovich
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2021-12-14
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1839760524

A leading activist museum director explains why museums are at the center of a political storm In an age of protest, cultural institutions have come under fire. Protestors have mobilized against sources of museum funding, as happened at the Metropolitan Museum, and against board appointments, forcing tear gas manufacturer Warren Kanders to resign at the Whitney. That is to say nothing of demonstrations against exhibitions and artworks. Protests have roiled institutions across the world, from the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim to the Akron Art Museum. A popular expectation has grown that galleries and museums should work for social change. As Director of the Queens Museum, Laura Raicovich helped turn that New York muni- cipal institution into a public commons for art and activism, organizing high-powered exhibitions that doubled as political protests. Then in January 2018, she resigned, after a dispute with the Queens Museum board and city officials. This public controversy followed the museum’s responses to Donald Trump’s election, including her objections to the Israeli government using the museum for an event featuring Vice President Mike Pence. In this lucid and accessible book, Raicovich examines some of the key museum flashpoints and provides historical context for the current controversies. She shows how art museums arose as colonial institutions bearing an ideology of neutrality that masks their role in upholding conservative, capitalist values. And she suggests ways museums can be reinvented to serve better, public ends.

Is Your Museum Grant Ready?

Is Your Museum Grant Ready?
Author: Sarah S. Brophy
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2005
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780759106512

Is your institution grant-ready? This is a crucial question that almost every small museum or historic organization will find itself asking when considering grant funding, as it seeks to expand or improve programs, broaden its reach, or just simply maintain its existing level of performance. This succinct volume provides an accessible, step-by-step guide to assessing an organization's readiness for the grant application process, and includes seven real-life examples of institutions that have successfully achieved grant-readiness. Chapters will help assess readiness, and provide explanations and checklists to address the important components of this daunting process. Appendices contain proposal writing tips and a list of the author's favorite most-used resources. This innovative volume will be invaluable to museums, cultural institutions and students studying history or non profit work.

Museums 101

Museums 101
Author: Mark Walhimer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2015-05-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1442230193

Looking for an A-Z, one-stop, comprehensive book on museums? Wish you were able to have one of the world’s leading museum consultants spend a couple of days with you, talking you through how to start a museum, how museums work, how to set up an exhibit, and more? If so, Museums 101 is the answer to your wishes. In one short volume, Mark Walhimer covers: • Essential Background, such as what is a museum, a quick history of museums, and 10 steps to starting a museum • Operational Basics, such as branding, marketing, strategic planning, governance, accessibility, and day-to-day operations • What goes on behind the scenes in a museum, ranging from finances to fundraising to art handling, exhibit management, and research • The Visitor Experience, planning a museum, designing exhibits for visitors, programming, and exhibit evaluation. Features that even the most experienced museum professionals will find useful include a community outreach checklist, a fundraising checklist, a questionnaire for people considering starting a new museum, and an exhaustive, well-organized list of online resources for museum operations. The book’s contents were overseen by a six-member international advisory board. Valuable appendixes you’ll use every day include a museum toolbox full of useful forms, checklists, and worksheets, and a glossary of essential museum-related terms. In addition to the printed book, Museums 101 also features a companion website exclusively for readers of the book. The website— museums101.com—features: • links to essential online resources in the museum world, • downloadable sample documents, • a glossary, • a bibliography of sources for further reading, and • photographs of more than 75 museums of all types. Museums 101 Advisory Board • Jim DeMersman, Executive Director, Museum on Main, Pleasanton, California, United States of America • David L. Godfrey, C.P.A., Allison & Godfrey, Certified Public Accountants, Norwalk, Connecticut, United States of America • Van A. Romans, President, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Fort Worth, Texas, and Board of Trustees, American Alliance of Museums, United States of America • Sergey Solovyev, Ph.D., Department of Greek & Roman Antiquities, The State Hermitage Museum, Russia • Alison Spence, Exhibitions and Loans Registrar, National Museum of Australia, Canberra ACT, Australia • Audrey Vermette, Director of Programs and Public Affairs, Canadian Museums Association, Ontario, Canada