This book explores museum crises. Through an investigation into the experience of the Imperial War Museum during the Second World War era, 1933-1950, it considers how crises disrupt museums and the contrasting defensive and revolutionary strategies which museums must adopt when mitigating crises. It is situated in a small but emergent literature concerning museums and crisis. Existing works mainly comprise contemporary studies on difficult museum experiences, predominantly financial difficulty, wherein the term crisis has been applied to describe an institution’s general state of malaise. This book, by contrast, presents an innovative and groundbreaking historical case study on a single museum facing wholesale physical and ideological collapse, deploying original crisis concepts to analyse different critical situations and the pathology underlying them.

Celebrates the resilience of American cultural institutions in the face of national crises and challenges On an afternoon in January 1865, a roaring fire swept through the Smithsonian Institution. Dazed soldiers and worried citizens could only watch as the flames engulfed the museum’s castle. Rare objects and valuable paintings were destroyed. The flames at the Smithsonian were not the first—and certainly would not be the last— disaster to upend a museum in the United States. Beset by challenges ranging from pandemic and war to fire and economic uncertainty, museums have sought ways to emerge from crisis periods stronger than before, occasionally carving important new paths forward in the process. The Museum explores the concepts of “crisis” as it relates to museums, and how these historic institutions have dealt with challenges ranging from depression and war to pandemic and philosophical uncertainty. Fires, floods, and hurricanes have all upended museum plans and forced people to ask difficult questions about American cultural life. With chapters exploring World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic, the Great Depression, World War II, the 1970 Art Strike in New York City, and recent controversies in American museums, this book takes a new approach to understanding museum history. By diving deeper into the changes that emerged from these key challenges, Samuel J. Redman argues that cultural institutions can—and should— use their history to prepare for challenges and solidify their identity going forward. A captivating examination of crisis moments in US museum history from the early years of the twentieth century to the present day, The Museum offers inspiration in the resilience and longevity of America’s most prized cultural institutions.

Reinventing the Museum: Relevance, Inclusion, and Global Responsibilities is the third edition following the 2004 and 2012 versions of the Reinventing series. More than a decade since the prior volume was published, this edition features all new content written since 2017 relevant to this pivotal time for museums operating in a complex world. This anthology features leading thinkers from across the globe who expertly discuss the realities facing museums, the urgency to take action, and museums as essential contributors to a more equitable and socially responsible world. The introduction highlights the issues of our times, and frames the structure of the book and intentional order of the contents. A dramatically revised Reinventing the Museum Tool serves as a springboard for discussions within museum staff and trustees, among students and faculty, and with emerging to seasoned museum professionals. The curated approach of the book unfolds with a sequence of thinking that frames the subsequent sections and chapters. The range of topics in this volume cover global realities, shifts in institutional mindset, the urgency to achieve inclusion and equity in museums, and fresh perspectives of practical approaches to actualize the reinvented museum.

Drawing together nearly 40 years of experience, Museums without Borders presents the key works of one of the most respected practitioners and scholars in the field. Through these selected writings, Robert R. Janes demonstrates that museums have a broader role to play in society than is conventionally assumed. He approaches the fundamental questions of why museums exist and what they mean in terms of identity, community, and the future of civil life. This book consists of four Parts: Indigenous Peoples; Managing Change; Social Responsibility, and Activism and Ethics. The Parts are ordered chronologically and each begins with an introduction and an overview of the ensuing articles which situates the papers in their historical and cultural contexts. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines anthropology, ethnography, museum studies and management theory, Janes both questions and supports mainstream museum practice in a constructive and self-reflective manner, offering readers alternative viewpoints on important issues. Considering concepts not generally recognized in museum practice, such as the Roman leadership model of primus inter pares and the Buddhist concept of mindfulness, Janes argues that the global museum community must examine how they can meet the needs of the planet and its inhabitants. Museums without Borders charts the evolving role of the contemporary museum in the face of environmental, societal and ethical challenges, and explores issues that have, and will, continue to shape the museum sector for decades to come. This book demonstrates that it is both reasonable and essential to expand the purpose of museums at this point in history – not only because of their unique characteristics and value to society, but also because of Janes’ respect and admiration for their rich legacy. It is time that museums assist in the creation of a new, caring, and more conscious future for themselves and their communities. This can only be done through authentic engagement with contemporary issues and aspirations.

New Museum Theory and Practice is an original collection ofessays with a unique focus: the contested politics and ideologiesof museum exhibition. Contains 12 original essays that contribute to the field whilecreating a collective whole for course use. Discusses theory through vivid examples and historicaloverviews. Offers guidance on how to put theory into practice. Covers a range of museums around the world: from art tohistory, anthropology to music, as well as historic houses,cultural centres, virtual sites, and commercial displays that usethe conventions of the museum. Authors come from the UK, Canada, the US, and Australia, andfrom a variety of fields that inform cultural studies.

Case studies and analyses investigate how collaborative response to crisis can enhance social-ecological resilience and promote community reinvention. Crisis—whether natural disaster, technological failure, economic collapse, or shocking acts of violence—can offer opportunities for collaboration, consensus building, and transformative social change. Communities often experience a surge of collective energy and purpose in the aftermath of crisis. Rather than rely on government and private-sector efforts to deal with crises through prevention and mitigation, we can harness post-crisis forces for recovery and change through innovative collaborative planning. Drawing on recent work in the fields of planning and natural resource management, this book examines a range of efforts to enhance resilience through collaboration, describing communities that have survived and even thrived by building trust and interdependence. These collaborative efforts include environmental assessment methods in Cozumel, Mexico; the governance of a "climate protected community" in the Blackfoot Valley of Montana; fisheries management in Southeast Asia's Mekong region; and the restoration of natural fire regimes in U.S. forests. In addition to describing the many forms that collaboration can take—including consensus processes, learning networks, and truth and reconciliation commissions—the authors argue that collaborative resilience requires redefining the idea of resilience itself. A resilient system is not just discovered through good science; it emerges as a community debates and defines ecological and social features of the system and appropriate scales of activity. Poised between collaborative practice and resilience analysis, collaborative resilience is both a process and an outcome of collective engagement with social-ecological complexity.

Managing Change in Museums and Galleries is the first practical book to provide guidance on how to deal with organisational change in museums, galleries or heritage organisations. Written by two authors who have direct experience of leading change, running change programmes and advising on change in more than 250 museums and galleries, the book identifies the various problems, issues and challenges that any professional in a museum or heritage organisation is likely to encounter and provides advice on how to deal with them. The book’s six parts treat change holistically, and help the reader understand what change entails, prepare for it and lead it, ensure that everyone in the museum is involved, understand what can go wrong and evaluate and learn from it. Each chapter is devoted to a specific challenge that is often encountered during change and is extensively cross-referenced to other relevant chapters. Including a list of helpful resources and suggestions of useful publications for further reading, this book is a unique guide to change in museums. Managing Change in Museums and Galleries is an essential resource for all museum practitioners – whether they be the people in museums and galleries who are leading change, or those affected by change as a leader, a member of staff or a volunteer.

Cultural tourism has proved to be a significant source of economic development for cultural destinations, but it has also emerged as a sometimes potentially controversial and unsustainable phenomenon. The recent pandemic has also pointed out that we need different models of development of tourism, that include a more balanced approach to cultural components in cities and rural areas. Calls have been made on the need to design more sustainable models of tourism development for cultural destinations, conceiving tourism as a means to increasing the quality of life and generating economic opportunities in cities and regions by involving their communities and stakeholders. This book presents an in-depth analysis of the transition towards more sustainable models of cultural tourism development. Starting from the ongoing debate on cultural ecosystems, the book explores the potential key role of cultural and creative organizations as leaders of change. Including theoretical contributions, quantitative and qualitative analyses and international case studies, the book explores the role of cultural actors as leaders and their potential as drivers of culture-led innovation for tourism in cities and regions.

The book addresses an explicit demand expressed in a large number of C-Suite interviews: managing significant transformations in the private and public sector. The book describes what types of transformation have to be reflected, why transformations are crucial in our days, the triggers they have, and how they might be best managed from a theoretical and practical point of view – technically and with all people-connected soft facts. The book, which contains numerous use cases, is written by an international community of practitioners, experts, and academics from different geographies, countries, public and private organizations, industries, and cultures, which guarantees the comprehensiveness and richness of the developed insights and the value of the presented use cases.