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Inside the Museum

Module description

This module is a conceptual introduction to the artistic, social, aesthetic, and political implications of the museum from roughly the 17^th century to the present. It will involve specific case studies, a field trip (or trips), and theoretical writings that will challenge you to think about the museum as not merely a repository and exhibition space for objects, but rather as a complex technology for ordering and classifying material objects to create forms of knowledge; for constructing narratives of material and cultural history, aesthetics, and civic ideals; and for providing us with experiments in seeing patterns of meaning emerge in physical and virtual spaces.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module will introduce you to the museum as a tool for organising, classifying, and exhibiting objects and art. Fundamentally, the intention is to demonstrate that the museum is not merely an inert space in which art is collected, stored, and exhibited, but is rather a complex form of shaping meaning through and about art and material culture. Particular attention will be paid to how the museum functions in the 21^st century, including the complex intersections between the politics of globalisation, the increasing attention paid to historical and contemporary art and other objects from around the world, and rapidly shifting collecting and exhibition strategies in response to these changes. Some of the key questions we will be asking about the museum in the 21^st century are the following: how deep is the museum’s self-awareness and criticism of its practices and possibilities? How has the museum handled the rise of contemporary and global art and culture in relationship to issues of globalisation? How does the museum organise and classify its collections? How do forms of exhibition and display frame objects? Why has there been a massive increase in biennale exhibitions around the world? How public and democratic are museums and biennales? What are the politics and ethics of repatriating cultural heritage?

Whenever possible, we will take advantage of important museums, exhibition spaces, art centres, and collections in Exeter and surrounding areas, as well as national/international collections where appropriate, in order to conduct visits and meet with directors, curators, restorers, and educators. This module also has the pragmatic goal of introducing you to one of the main career options that might be an option after graduating with a degree in Art History and Visual Culture.

You will be able to use the skills developed in this module to think about a broad range of jobs and further education possibilities related to the practices of the museum including: curating, heritage management, art conservation, exhibition design, gallerist, arts management, arts education, university teaching, public relations, fundraising, art publication, art criticism, museology, postgraduate work in art history and visual culture.Whenever possible, we will take advantage of important museums, exhibition spaces, art centres, and collections in Exeter and surrounding areas, as well as national/international collections when appropriate, in order to conduct visits and meet with directors, curators, restorers, and educators. This module also has the pragmatic goal of introducing you to one of the main career options that might be an option after graduating with a degree in Art History and Visual Culture.

You will be able to use the skills developed in this module to think about a broad range of jobs and further education possibilities related to the practices of the museum including: curating, heritage management, art conservation, exhibition design, gallerist, arts management, arts education, university teaching, public relations, fundraising, art publication, art criticism, museology, postgraduate work in art history and visual culture.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. critically evaluate the dominant concepts, methods and debates informing the study of the art museum historically and in its present manifestations
• 2. where appropriate visit an art museum and be able to understand how it contextualises works of art and produces narratives for them, and thus is a technology integral to the discipline of art history
• 3. apply a variety of methodologies and theoretical approaches to the interpretation of the art museum in a consistent and informed way
• 4. analyse an exhibition in terms of its mise-en-scene

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. research, present and evaluate relevant visual materials with increased independence
• 6. interrogate and evaluate texts, artworks, images and representations, performances and installations and relate them to issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. through writing and project assessments, demonstrate good research and bibliographic skills, an informed capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose
• 8. through research for projects and essays, demonstrate good proficiency in information retrieval and analysis
• 9. through project work, work collaboratively orally and/or in written form, and in teams towards the development, research, organisation, and expression of ideas under pressure of time

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Museums and modernity
• Citizens, culture, and the nation state
• The phenomenon of collecting
• Aesthetics and the sociology of taste
• Seeing and looking - external visit
• Ways of classifying and worldmaking
• Museum space and the architectonics of making sense
• The politics of exhibition, display, and possesion
• Art, anthropology, and (post) colonialism
• Curatorial practices
• Contemporary art: museums, biennale exhibitions, and globalisation

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Jean Baudrillard, ‘The System of Collecting’, in John Elsner and Roger Cardinal (eds) The Cultures of Collecting, 1994
• Pierre Bourdieu et al. The Love of Art: European Art Museums and their Public , 1990
• Brian Doherty, I nside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space , 1986
• Carol Duncan Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums, 1995
• Elena Filipovic, “The Global White Cube,” in Barbara Vanderlinden and Elena Filipovic (eds) The Manifesta Decade: Debates on Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Biennials in Post-Wall Europe , 2005
• Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine (eds) Exhibiting Cultures: the Poetics and Politics of Museum Display , 1991
• Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Culture, 1998
• Sharon Macdonald (ed.) A Companion to Museum Studies, 2011
• Andrew McClellan, Inventing the Louvre: Art, Politics, and the Origin of the Modern Museum in Eighteenth-Century Paris, 1999
• Kylie Message, New Museums and the Making of Culture, 2006
• Donald Preziosi and Claire Farago (eds.) Grasping the World: The Idea of the Museum, 2004

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11483

Key words search

Visual culture, media, art history, museum