Whither the Art Museum?

The seminar will address institutional change in art museums.听 Beginning with a few (debatable and somewhat American centered) assertions regarding current trends in museum program and practice offered by the seminar moderator, participants will then discuss the need for, limits of and possibilities afforded by institutional change in art museums, looking at the leadership and governance structures necessary to realize such change.听 The models for discussion will be mostly Anglo-American although we will attempt to address museums overseen by national cultural ministries as well.听 Those participating in the seminar with work together to draft a set of goals for art museums in the mid-21st century, 听goals developed by and then distributed to those present.

Bibliography

Institutional Change

Michael Conforti, 鈥淢useums Past and Museums Present: 听Some Thoughts on Institutional Survival鈥 (Plenary Address, the Association of Art Historians, London, April, 1995, Museums Management and Curatorship, vol. 14, no. 4, 听pp. 339-355, 1995

Stephen Weil, 鈥淥n a New Foundation鈥, The Cabinet of Curiosities, Washington and London, 1995, pp 81-123.

John Kotter, 鈥淟eading Change: 听Why Transformation Efforts Fail鈥, Reinventing the Museum: The Evolving Conversation on the Paradigm Shift,听(2nd edition, Altamira Press, 2012), pp 521 鈥 531

Institutional Leadership

Sherene Suchy, 鈥淓motional Intelligence, Passion and Museum Leadership鈥, in Gail Anderson, ed. (Ibid) 听pp. 451-467.

Judith H. Dobrzynski, 鈥淗ip vs. Stately: The Tao of Two Museums鈥 (interview with Thomas Krens and Philippe de Montebello), New York Times,听February 20, 2000.

Rachel Donadio, 鈥淪haking Up Italy鈥檚 Most Popular Museum鈥, 听New York Times, August 17, 20016.

Calvin Tompkins, 鈥淭he Modern Man鈥 (Nicholas Serota)鈥, The New Yorker, July 2, 2012,

Robert Hewison and Nicholas Penny, 鈥淒o Museum Directors need Curatorial Experience鈥, 听Apollo,听May 2017.

 

Additional Readings: 听Institutional Leadership

Edward Alexander, 鈥淗enry Cole and the South Kensington (now Victoria and Albert) Museum鈥, 听Museum Masters, 听Nashville, 1983, pp. 143-170.

Edward Alexander, 听鈥淲ilhelm Bode and Berlin鈥檚 Museum Island鈥, (Ibid.), pp. 207-233.

Sybil Gordon Kantor, Alfred H. Barr Jr. and the Intellectual Origins of the Museum of Modern Art, (Cambridge and London, 2002), pp. xviii-17.

Michael Conforti is Director Emeritus of the Clark Art Institute, a museum and research center in Williamstown, Massachusetts, which he led from 1994-2015.听 A former president of the Association of Art Museum Directors (2008-10), he holds a Ph.D. from Harvard and subsequently served as a curator of sculpture and decorative arts and chief curator in San Francisco and Minneapolis respectively.听 He currently addresses these subjects along with issues of museum history and practice teaching in the graduate program in art history at Williams College.听 A Fellow, Resident and former trustee of the American Academy in Rome, CIHA (Comit茅 international d鈥檋istoire de l鈥檃rt) and ICOM-US, he currently serves on a number of museum and artist foundation boards in the United States and Canada and is member of the International Advisory Council for the Hermitage and the Zentral Kustodie of the University of G枚ttingen.

This event has passed.

25 May 2017

91制片厂, Somerset House, Strand, London

Citations