MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies / Course details

The course is designed to equip AGMS students with a range of critical, theoretical, methodological and professional knowledge and skills relating to the management and development of exhibitions and collections. It provides, also, a brief introduction to issues involved in ‘reading’ and understanding the social life of ‘things’ and the different meanings that are constructed by users of museum collections. It offers students an introduction to exhibition planning and development. In particular, it focuses on strategies and current/good practices of documentation, collection management and conservation; and overviews of exhibition briefs, media and audiences.

Seminars and workshops on the above themes run by staff and visiting museum professionals will be followed by a relevant group project student activity every week. The group project will draw on scenario-based practical collection management activities. The outputs of these activities will form sections of a group project portfolio.

• To provide students with theoretical and practical knowledge and skills in key areas of museum operation, namely collection management, documentation and conservation.
• To introduce students to contemporary theoretical and practical approaches to collection development, and engagement.

Each week will include: 

1hr lecture and 2hr seminar/group work related to the weekly theme (e.g. writing a collecting and disposal policy, documenting a collection etc). The outputs of these activities will form sections of a group project portfolio. There will also be directed reading, visits to local museums and galleries and pre-set tasks to develop students' assessed work from week to week. Students will benefit from input from guest museum professionals. Indicative reading is provided through the handbook with links to further resources which will also be provided via Blackboard.

• Describe and analyse the relationship between theory and practice in collection management and exhibition development.
• Show systematic and critical understanding and knowledge of museum practice and theory, in both historical and contemporary contexts. 
• Demonstrate direct experience of practices, procedures and policies in collections management, and apply a critical awareness of current issues in the field. 
• Examine and define key issues in relation to documentation, conservation, collection management, exhibition planning and text writing in museum environments.
• Demonstrate ability in articulating the relevance of objects and collections for museums and audiences
• Analyse the role of audiences in collection documentation and exhibition development
• Position the role of objects and collections in the overall museum strategy and operation.
• Identify ethical issues relevant to conservation and documentation of collections.

• Understand the links between theory and contemporary practice in key areas of the museum operation
• Draw on relevant current and best practice and theoretical discussions to inform the management of collections and development of exhibitions.
• Design, research and present a piece of empirical research on the management and development of collections. 
• Conduct independent, critical fieldwork in museums. 
• Respond effectively to a collection management project brief.

• Use a collections management software.
• Contribute to the care, use and understanding of museum artefacts and collections. 
• Design a collection development brief.
• Identify, describe and document artefacts and collections. 
• Achieve an advanced and critically informed level of group work. 

• Plan and deliver presentations, chair discussions, provide feedback. 
• Develop and demonstrate team work, time management and communication skills.
• Retrieve, select and critically evaluate information from a variety of sources. 
• Orchestrate group work and work constructively within a team. 
• Display creative solutions and decision-making skills in complex and unpredictable situations.
• Critically evaluate personal performance through monitoring and analytical reflection.
• Demonstrate independent learning ability suitable for continuing study and professional development. 

Alberti, S.J.M.M. (2012) ‘Preparing and conserving’, in Dudley, S.H. Museum Objects. Experiencing the Properties of Things, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 90-94

Altshuler, B. (ed). 2005. Collecting the new: museums and contemporary art. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.  

Bann, S., (2003) 'The Return to Curiosity: Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Museum Display' in McClellan, A. (ed) Art and Its Publics. London: Blackwell.

Baudrillard, J. 1994. ‘The System of Collecting’ in Elsner, J and Cardinal, R (eds) The Cultures of Collecting London: Reaktion Books pp. 7-24

Belk, R.W. 1995. Collecting in a Consumer Society. London and New York: Routledge

Bouquet, M. (2001) 'The Art of Exhibition Making as a Problem of Translation' in Bouquet, M. (ed.) Academic Anthropology and the Museum, New York: Berghahn, pp. 177 – 197

Dadson, E. 2012. Emergency Planning and Response for Libraries, Archives and Museums. Facet Publishing, London.  

Elsner, J and Cardinal, R. 1994. The Cultures of Collecting London: Reaktion Books

Ferguson, Bruce W. (1995) ‘Exhibition Rhetorics: Material Speech and Utter Sense’ in R. Greenberg, B.W. Ferguson and S. Nairne (eds.) Thinking about exhibitions, London: Routledge, pp. 175-190

Greenblatt, S. (1991) 'Resonance and Wonder’, in Ivan Karp and Stephen D Lavine (eds),  
Exhibiting Cultures, The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC and London, pp. 42 – 56

Harrison, M. And McKenna G. (2008) Documentation. A practical guide, Cambridge: Collections Trust

Hillhouse, S. 2009. Collections Management: a practical guide. Collections Trust

Knell, Simon J. (ed.) 2004. Museums and the future of collecting. 2nd edn. Aldershot: Ashgate. [especially introduction]

Lang, R. & Woollard, V. (eds) (2006) The Responsive Museum, Ashgate Press

Pearce, S.M. 2002. The Collector's Voice: Critical Readings in the Practice of Collecting, Ashgate, London

Pearce, S.M. 1995. On Collecting: An introduction into Collecting in the European Tradition, Routledge, London and New York

Ravelli, L. J. (2006) Museum Texts. Communication Frameworks. London: Routledge.

Sandell, R. (2006). Museums And The Combating Of Prejudice, London: Routledge.