2016-2017
Museums and Material Culture
Category: Art
Code: IS 122
Level: 4
Credits: 15
Teaching Pattern
Week 1
2 x 2hrs
1 x 8hrs
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Seminar
1 x 2hrs
1 x 2hrs
2 x 2hrs
Field trip
1 x 8hrs
1 x 8hrs
Film
1 x 2hrs


*you will be expected to do approximately 112 hours of independent study over the 4 weeks.
*additional field trip fee of £85.00
Outline
UK museums are experiencing significant change. Historically evolving from private collections of
curios and antiquities, the great Victorian museums zealously promoted popular education through
their collections and free public exhibitions. Museums’ recent confident, public-funded era of
expansion is being replaced by a new reality of cutbacks and self-examination. How should
museums adapt to reduced circumstances? This module will appeal if you are interested in
discovering how museums function and uniquely communicate. Visits include the iconic and
monumental British Museum and ‘behind the scenes’ opportunities to view museum collections not
normally on public display.
Week 1: Introduction to the history of collecting and of museums
In these sessions we examine how collecting started, how museums evolved; and the various types
of museum and their design, function and governance. We visit Brighton’s outstanding museum and
art gallery to investigate the varied, global nature of this institution’s collections and to assess the
effectiveness of the public displays.
Session 1: ‘Why collect things’?
i) The power of the object. We discuss the key question, why do collectors collect? We assess
examples of material culture: archaeology, anthropology, ‘folk life’, social history, fine and
decorative arts. We debate the vital concept of the object as illustrator, metaphor, message
and powerful source of understanding the natural world and humankind. We also discuss the
important but difficult-to-define question of the ‘emotional dimension’ of objects. Students are
encouraged to handle object specimens made available for discussion.
ii) Collectors & collections. We examine the concepts of connoisseurship, antiquities, plant,
animal and geological specimens and ‘cabinets of curiosities’. We consider the work of
eminent collectors, John Tradescant (1570-1638), plant collector; Elias Ashmole (1617-1692),
antiquary; Gideon Mantell, (1792-1852), geologist and ‘fossil hunter’; Augustus Henry Pitt
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SUMMER Session 2
Rivers, (1827-1900), pioneering archaeologist; and Edward Booth, (1840-1890), Victorian
collector of bird specimens. We examine a key advance in modern museum practice, the
development of classification systems.
Session 2: Museums and their governance
i) What are ‘museums’? We discuss the international definition of a museum and consider other
interpretations. We examine different types of museum and the history of museums. We
discuss museum case studies including the Ashmolean Museum, the oldest public museum in
the UK; the Pitt Rivers Museum, which retains its Victorian displays; the British Museum, a
museum of the world, for the world, the largest and most comprehensive museum in the UK;
the National Gallery with an unrivalled collection of paintings of the European School; the
Natural History Museum, with its important environmental role; and the Victoria & Albert
Museum, described as ‘the world's greatest museum of art and design’. We also consider
local museums, especially Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and its exceptional collections.
We critically discuss the design of museum buildings. Finally, we assess the alternative aims
of ‘open air museums.’
ii) Museum constitutions and funding. We consider the mechanisms for funding independent
museums, university museums, national museums and local authority museums. We consider
the powers and responsibilities of directors and boards of trustees.
iii) Museum government and standards. We examine the UK government’s museum policy and
the important role of the professional institution, the Museums Association (MA).
Field trip: We visit Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, a leading local authority museum to assess
critically the galleries, especially the innovative ‘world art’ and ‘performance’ galleries.
Week 2: Museum leadership, management and curatorship; collecting policies and audiences
In these sessions we discuss complex questions such as how best to promote the public image of
museums. We assess changing roles of directors and curators. We also examine current issues of
sustainability; social inclusion; visitor expectations; and what museums should really be collecting and
communicating. We discuss the Director of the British Museum’s justification of the potential of
cultural diplomacy- addressing global tensions through the medium of a multicultural museum
collection. We journey to London to visit the British Museum itself, founded 1753, an encyclopaedic
museum taking a world stance. For comparison, we visit the modern, more specialised Museum of
London, founded 1976, to study its unique, deliberately educational philosophy.
Session 1: Making museums work
i) Museum management and staffing: We critically assess the role of museum directors:
‘manager’, ‘academic’, or ‘fundraiser’? We similarly assess the role of museum curators:
‘collector’ or ‘facilitator’; ‘specialist’ or ‘populariser’?
ii) From ivory tower to community resource? We debate current issues including: should
museums seek to educate or to entertain? How can museums widen audiences and promote
greater social inclusivity? How should museum collections be more fully exploited? Are all
museums fully aware of today’s great ethical issues, for example, cultural restitution and
standards of care of human remains? Are museums sufficiently proactive in these areas?
Film: ‘Night at the Museum 2’ 2009 (director S. Levy: screenplay R.B. Garant and T. Lennon.) The
light-hearted plot also poses serious questions regarding the role of museums and their proper
management.
Field trip: We visit the British Museum to study key exhibits of world culture, including the Acropolis
Marbles (‘Elgin Marbles’) and the Rosetta Stone. In contrast, we visit the modern Museum of London
which communicates ‘the story of London’, emphasising the social historical dimensions of the city
and its people through the ages.
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SUMMER Session 2
Week 3: Museum display and exhibition planning, content and design
In these sessions we explore the successful creation of effective museum displays and exhibitions.
Case studies of significant and even controversial museum projects are illustrated and discussed.
Field trip: We visit two exceptional, contrasting, trustee-governed museums in Sussex: i.) Cuckfield
Museum, a small, local museum, managed and staffed entirely by volunteers and ii.) the Weald and
Downland Open Air Museum, near Chichester. This museum has gained an international reputation,
restoring, preserving, and exhibiting medieval and later ‘rescued’ buildings. We view the public
exhibits and we are given special access to the reserve collections, housed within the architecturally
famous ‘Gridshell’ store. We also observe the Museum’s proactive rural crafts and skills projects.
Session 1 Designing, displaying and exhibiting
i) To stimulate learning and discussion, students present objects that they have specially acquired as
potential ‘museum exhibits’ and justify their collecting and display rationales.
ii) We critically compare and discuss the effectiveness of the displays at the museums visited during
the module: the British Museum, the Museum of London, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and at the
Weald and Downland Open Air Museum.
Session 2 Challenge, controversy and irreverence
Citing examples drawn from recent museum case studies, we critically assess examples of
challenging, radical, influential exhibitions, including the politically sensitive ‘slavery’ exhibitions at
Liverpool Museums and at the Museum of London in Docklands. We assess similarly the ‘Holocaust’
exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum and the ‘Cold War’ exhibition at the Royal Air Force
Museum, Cosford. Finally, we contrast museums’ attitudes to the display of art objects by comparing
traditional presentations with the deliberately irreverent displays of the controversial artworks of the
mysterious cult figure of ‘Banksy’ at Bristol Art Gallery.
Week 4: Museum standards: collections management; rescuing, preserving, storing the past
In these sessions we concentrate on examining the practical standards and skills of documenting
museum objects and storing collections safely and accessibly. We assess the findings of recent
reports which challenge traditional collecting practices and advocate a wider social role for museums.
We also debate the future of museums in the digital era. Additionally, students will deliver their
individual presentations.
Session 1: Collection standards and care
Informed by the visit to the Weald and Downland Museum, we critically discuss the current issues of
effective management and storage of museums’ extensive collections and the creative design of
museum buildings fit for the purpose. We compare the ‘Gridshell’ with the Museum of London’s
considerably larger and more complex ‘London Archaeological Archive’ project, ‘the largest
archaeological archive in the world.’ Referring to key documents published by museum governing
bodies, we examine and discuss the rigorous professional standards that officially accredited
museums are expected to achieve.
Session 2: Collections for the future
We assess critically the findings of the influential museum report, Collections for the Future published
by the Museums Association 2005 which radically questioned many of the traditional assumptions
regarding ‘collecting and keeping’. The report crucially found that ‘Too many museum collections are
underused- not displayed, published, used for research or even understood by the institutions that
care for them.’ (Jane Glaister, former President of the Museums Association)
Session 3: The future of museums
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SUMMER Session 2
We reconsider and critically re-evaluate our experience of museums visited on the module. We
debate the future of museums, informed by our direct experience; by considering the museum
potential of modern advances in digital technology and mobile apps; and by the findings of a recent
Museums Association report, Museums Change Lives (2013), advocating that museums should
support positive social change and promote individual and family wellbeing.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students will be able to:

Discuss the definition of the term ‘museum’

Appraise the unique potential of museum objects to communicate messages and meaning

Argue the case for museums’ important educational role in culture and society

Demonstrate their understanding of relevant issues and approaches by means of written work,
class presentation, contributions to discussion and debate, and by direct observation of
museum collections and displays
Contacts
Colin Manton
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SUMMER Session 2
[email protected]
Phone :
Indicative Reading List
Core Reading
Books
Fleming, D; Paine, C; Rhodes, J G (eds.) 1993 Social History in Museums: a handbook for professionals
London. Stationery Office (essential)
Moore, K 2000 Museums and Popular Culture London Leicester University Press (recommended for
student purchase)
MacGregor, A 2007 Curiosity and Enlightenment: collectors and collections from the 16th century to the
19th century New Haven & London. Yale University Press (essential)
Hooper-Greenhill, E 2000 Museums and the Interpretation of Visual Culture London. Routledge (essential)
Ambrose, T and Paine, C 2006 Museum Basics London. Routledge (recommended for student purchase)
Lang, C, Reeve, J and Woollard, V (eds.) 2006 The Responsive Museum: working with audiences in the
21st century Aldershot. Ashgate (essential)
MacGregor, N. 2010 A History of the World in 100 Objects London. Allen Lane (recommended for student
purchase)
Periodicals
Journal of the Museums Association, Museums Journal 1980-2014 (recommended)
Websites
Museums Association Website http://www.museumsassociation.org/home (recommended)
Museums Association 2015 Code of Ethics for Museums: ethical principles for all who work for or govern
museums in the UK (essential) http://www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=1151400
Museums Association 2005 Collections for the Future: Report of a Museums Association Enquiry, chaired
by Jane Glaister (essential) http://www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=11121
Museums Association 2013 Museums Change Lives (essential)
http://www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=1001738
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SUMMER Session 2
Key texts: week 1
Ambrose, T and Paine, C 2006 Museum Basics London. Routledge (essential)
MacGregor, A 2007 Curiosity and Enlightenment: collectors and collections from the 16th century to the
19th century New Haven & London. Yale University Press (essential)
MacGregor, N. 2010 A History of the World in 100 Objects London. Allen Lane (essential)
Pearce, Susan M. 1990 Objects of Knowledge (recommended)
Museums Association 2015 Code of Ethics for Museums: ethical principles for all who work for or govern
museums in the UK (essential) http://www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=1151400
Key texts: week 2
Lord, Barry, Lord, Gail Dexter 1997 The manual of museum management (recommended)
Thompson, John M.A. 1992 Manual of curatorship: a guide to museum practice (recommended)
St Clair, William 1998 Lord Elgin and the marbles (essential)
Fleming, David, Paine, Crispin, Rhodes, John G 1993 Social history in museums: a handbook for
professionals (essential)
Moore, Kevin 2000 Museums and popular culture (essential)
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean 2000 Museums and the interpretation of visual culture (essential)
Wilson, David M. 2001 The collections of the British Museum (recommended)
Liddiard, Mark 2004 Museum & Society vol. 2 no. 1 March 2004 ‘Changing Histories: museums, sexuality
and the future of the past’ (electronic resource- essential)
St. Clair, William 1998 Lord Elgin and the marbles (essential)
Merryman, John Henry 2009 Imperialism, art and restitution (recommended)
Sheppard, Francis 1991 The treasury of London’s past: an historical account of the Museum of London and
its predecessors, the Guildhall Museum and the London Museum (recommended)
Key texts: week 3
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean 20000 Museums and the interpretation of visual culture (essential)
Berger, John 2008 Ways of seeing (recommended)
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean 1994 Museums and their visitors (recommended)
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SUMMER Session 2
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean 1999 The educational role of the museum (recommended)
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean 1997 Cultural diversity: developing museum audiences in Britain (recommended)
Lang, Caroline, Reeve, John, Woollard, Vicky 2006 The responsive museum: working with audiences in the
twenty-first century (essential)
Smith, Laurajane 2011 Representing enslavement and abolition in museums: ambiguous engagements
(electronic resource- recommended)
Imperial War Museum 2000 The Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum (recommended)
Museums Association 2010 Should museums change their approach to restitution?
http://www.museumsassociation.org/news/13072010-davies-speaks-to-restitution-conference
(recommended)
Museums Association Human remains in Museums http://www.museumsassociation.org/publications/8125
(recommended)
Key texts: week 4
Fahy, Anne 1994 Collections management
Parry, Ross 2010 Museums in a digital age
Museums Association 2005 Collections for the Future: Report of a Museums Association Enquiry, chaired
by Jane Glaister http://www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=11121
Museums Association 2013 Museums Change Lives
http://www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=1001738
University Library
The Library,
University of Sussex,
Brighton
BN1 9QL
Phone: 01273 678163
[email protected]
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SUMMER Session 2