ABSTRACT

Museum Gallery Interpretation and Material Culture publishes the proceedings of the first annual Sackler Centre for Arts Education conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. The conference launched the annual series by addressing the question of how gallery interpretation design and management can help museum visitors learn about art and material culture. The book features a range of papers by leading academics, museum learning professionals, graduate researchers and curators from Europe, the USA and Canada.

The papers present diverse new research and practice in the field, and open up debate about the role, design and process of exhibition interpretation in museums, art galleries and historic sites. The authors represent both academics and practitioners, and are affiliated with high quality institutions of broad geographical scope. The result is a strong, consistent representation of current thinking across the theory, methodology and practice of interpretation design for learning in museums.

chapter 1|10 pages

Introduction

part I|39 pages

Situating Interpretation in the Museum Context

chapter 2|13 pages

“The Museum as a Social Instrument”

A Democratic Conception of Museum Education

chapter 3|9 pages

Invoking the Muse

The Purposes and Processes of Communicative Action in Museums

chapter 4|15 pages

Interpretation and the Art Museum

Between the Familiar and the Unfamiliar

part II|43 pages

The Role of Interpretation in Art Galleries

chapter 6|13 pages

Art for Whose Sake?

chapter 7|14 pages

The Seeing Eye

The Seeing “I”

part III|12 pages

Language and Museum Interpretation

part IV|44 pages

Interpretation, Personal Experience and Memory

chapter 9|14 pages

“I loved it dearly”

Recalling Personal Memories of Dress in the Museum

chapter 10|13 pages

Welcome to My World

Personal Narrative and Historic House Interpretation

chapter 11|15 pages

Narrative Museum, Museum of Voices

Displaying Rural Culture in the Museo della Mezzadria Senese, Italy

part V|26 pages

Evidence-Based Practice

chapter 13|12 pages

The Other Side of the Coin

Audience Consultation and the Interpretation of Numismatic Collections

part VI|41 pages

Interpretive Strategies for Specific Audiences

chapter 14|12 pages

Designing Effective Interpretation for Contemporary Family Visitors to Art Museums and Galleries

A Reflection of Associated Problems and Issues

chapter 16|14 pages

Empower the Audience!

How Art Museums Can Become Enriching Creative Spaces for a Wider Audience through Deliberate and Strategic Use of Experience and Learning Theories

part VII|30 pages

Process and People

chapter 17|13 pages

“Reading the Walls”

A Study of Curatorial Expectation and Visitor Perception

chapter 18|15 pages

“Education is a department isn't it?”

Perceptions of Education, Learning and Interpretation in Exhibition Development