Introduction

At no other point in their modern history have museums undergone such radical reshaping as in recent years. Challenges to create inclusive and accessible spaces open to appropriation and responsive to contemporary agendas have resulted in new architectural and spatial forms for museums. One result of this large-scale and varied remaking of museum space is that the space of the museum is increasingly recognized as an environment created through a complex of practices and systems of knowledge. Museum professionals are beginning to recognize the constitutive character and transformative possibilities of museum space as well as the ability of museum users and museum professionals to reshape museum spaces through practices of appropriation. Museum space is now recognized as a space with a history of its own, a space active in the making of meaning and, most importantly, a space open to change.