Visual Arts

This volume explores the process of transformation that is affecting art museums and their role in the modern world. It considers art museums from the perspectives of their social disposition, pedagogical practices, and the education they offer.

An interdisciplinary volume of essays identifying the impact of technology on the age-old cultural practice of collecting as well as the opportunities and pitfalls of collecting in the digital era.

The definitive reference text on curation both inside and outside the museum A Companion to Curation is the first collection of its kind, assembling the knowledge and experience of prominent curators, artists, art historians, scholars, and theorists in one comprehensive volume.

Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is truly groundbreaking! The first national museum whose mission is to illuminate for all people, the rich, diverse, complicated, and important experiences and contributions of African Americans in America is opening. Includes behind-the-scenes photos of literally "how to build a museum" that holds everything from an entire segregated railroad car to a tiny West African amulet worn to ward off slave traders.

Drawing on years of experience, Maria Piacente details the exhibition process in a straightforward way that can be easily adapted by institutions of any size. She and her contributing authors explore the exhibition development process in greater detail, providing the technical and practical methodologies museum professionals need today.

This practical and inspirational resource offers a wide range of information about museum-based art therapy and wellness programming in various museums.

Purposeful Museum Programming Using Visitor Response Pedagogies offers museums of all sizes and genres practical, accessible, and inclusive programming ideas. Museums need to embrace a new model of educational programming, prioritizing and nurturing visitors' personal responses to pieces while developing important skills in the process.

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.

The Art of Access: A Practical Guide for Museum Accessibility is a one-stop guide to the incremental ways your museum can build a comprehensive approach to accessibility that can be easily integrated into the fabric of your museum.

Creating Great Visitor Experiences: A Guide for Museum Professionals will help museums define their service, hire and train a dynamic frontline team, and spread a culture of service throughout their institution.

Featuring two original poems, ten essays authored by senior scholars in the field of Indigenous art, nearly two hundred works of art, and twenty-four archival photographs from the IAIA's nearly sixty-year history, Making History offers an opportunity to engage the contemporary Native Arts movement.

Bennetta Jules-Rosette and J.R. Osborn explore the reframing of African art through case studies of museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Africa. The authors take a three-pronged approach. The authors also propose how to reinterpret the art inside and outside the museum and show ways of remixing the results. Drawing on extensive conversations with curators, collectors, and artists.

A strikingly original exploration of the profound impact of World War II on how we understand the art that survived it.

This book argues that acknowledgment of painful pasts at the geographic and ideological center of American national identity is crucial for addressing inequities in the present. The study analyzes four major museums on the National Mall that are dedicated to traumatic histories: the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the new National Museum of African American History and Culture. Paying close attention to museum narratives and visual displays, Gruenewald explains how even some of the most harrowing and disturbing aspects of America's history have been and are still framed to support core American ideologies.

The untold story of Hitler's war on "degenerate" artists and the mentally ill that served as a model for the "Final Solution." The Gallery of Miracles and Madness is a spellbinding, emotionally resonant tale of this complex and troubling history that uncovers Hitler's wars on modern art and the mentally ill and how they paved the way for the Holocaust. Charlie English tells an eerie story of genius, madness, and dehumanization that offers readers a fresh perspective on the brutal ideology of the Nazi regime.