Public Humanities & More

Just a link here to a post I did for the Center for the Future of Museums blog, on the way that changes in education open possibilities for museums. Some good discussion there about the connections o museum education and other kinds of museum work.  

In which I come to the defense of Carlene Stephen’s blog post on collecting Stanley, and mostly disagree with Thomas Soderqvist on contemporary collecting – though agree with him that we need to theorize contemporary collecting better… Museums (at least American museums) commit to keeping things forever, so there’s always a risk to accessioning something into the collection. The decision to accept an artifact has a cost: acquisition costs, processing costs, and then significant storage costs, ad infinitum. The life-cycle…

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Some of my students recently made a field trip to a local museum. These are some questions I suggested they might want to ask the staff to understand their work and the way they work with each other and the public. Additions and suggestions welcome. Behind the scenes: How to ask questions of a museum Visiting Collections There’s always more to see than there’s time for. Ask to see the curator’s favorite. Or the most challenging to store. Or the…

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By popular demand: the quotes from my United States Naval Lyceum research that I’ve been tweeting the last week or two: Museum review, 1819: Scudders Museum, New York:  “the most revolting figures in wax…prodigies of absurdity and bad taste” 1835: Free access to an excellent library, and…to the collections of specimens of nature and art will…polish and adorn the mind.” 1855: the joy of working in a #museum comes from “the pleasure of observing the impressions which visitors severally receive.”…

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The folks @bldg92 – the Brooklyn Navy Yard visitor center and museum – have posted a blog version of my talk there. The scholarly version is almost done… coming to a journal someday…

With the ending of my two-year term as director of the Haffenreffer Museum and the start of my sabbatical, I’ve started a new blog. Older entries are imported from the Haffenreffer Museum director’s blog, and (way back) from my museumblog.blogger.com museum reviews blog. Welcome.

June 30 marks the final day of my two-year term as director of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. TIme for a sabbatical, and time for writing a book. I’ve posted two blog entries, to finish things off. One on the thrill of being director: what makes museum work so much fun? One on my thoughts, two years later, on Michael Kaiser’s 10 rules of the turnaround. And that is the end of this blog. I’ll turn it over to the…

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June 30 marks the final day of my two-year term as director of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. I’ve mixed feelings about giving it up. On the positive side: I’ve learned a lot. I think I’ve done some good work there. Most importantly, I think the museum has made a good case for its value to the university, which is what I set out to prove. On the other hand: running a museum is all-consuming, even if it’s only supposed…

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Our new brochure, part of our marketing the museum to the university. Thanks to Erin Wells Design for the design. (It’s a trifold brochure, a bit difficult to understand unfolded. Happy to send one to anyone who would like to see the actual thing.)