What Are Museums For?

The days when museums were dusty, stuffy institutions displaying their wealth and wisdom to a reverential public are over. Museums today are a cultural battleground. Who should decide what is put on display and how it is presented? Who gets to set the narrative?

In this passionately argued book, Jon Sleigh maintains that museums must be for all people and inclusion must be at the heart of everything they do. But what does good inclusion look like in practice? Cleverly structured like a museum tour, Sleigh uses seven illustrative museum objects from seven very different museums to explore such wide-ranging issues as trust-building, representation, digital access, conflicting narratives, removal from display and restitution.

Contents:

1. Introduction: The Emotional Museum Encounter

2. The Classical Museum

3. The Museum in Service of Others

4. The Digital Museum

5. The Museum and Trust

6. The Queer Museum

7. The Changing Museum

8. The Future Museum?

Paperback / softback  166pp  h203mm  x  w127mm  10 Illustrations, black and white 

ISBN13: 9781529231397