Introduction

In the summer of 2013 I had the pleasure of visiting the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri, which had just reopened after a lengthy renovation. As I wandered the exhibit rooms, crisscrossing the cavernous entry hall that echoed with visitor chatter and glowed with natural light, I was struck by the museum’s own efforts at work creating space, moderating changes in spaces, and conveying the perception of space around objects. It was not the manipulation of space for display purposes that I found fascinating. Rather I was struck by the museum’s attempts to highlight the space that existed inherently in the objects displayed. In the same way that historians contextualize documents, images, objects, and music in order to reveal their relevance, museum curators seek to engage with visitors in a variety of ways in order to place objects in their contemporary environment, while highlighting the links between a collection of items and maintaining the boundaries of the museum’s own curatorial space. ¹