ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the question of what happens when museums of cultural heritage are no longer defined solely by their collections and cultural environments? What strategies do they use to claim a place for themselves in the world of heritage? This chapter takes its point of departure in a cultural analysis of four museum gift shops and gift offerings. It asks, “How are new and developing ways of curating gift shops re-fashioning museum audiences?” In doing this, the chapter discusses how museums are consciously striving to position themselves in the competitive market of Hip Heritage by engaging in a phenomenon we call commercial curating. By the concept of commercial curating, we mean the selection, exhibiting, and crafting of stories about objects and collections in ways that resemble traditional curatorial work. The chapter illuminates the manner in which museum galleries and gift shops work together to attract visitors to museums, while items in the galleries enrich products for sale in the gift shop with extra cultural and economic value.
