Museum Studies Commons^™

The Statues Died, But Their Legacies Live: A Discourse Analysis Of The Debate Surrounding Museums And Confederate Monuments, Laila Maria Melhem

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In the United States, conversations about what should be done with Confederate monuments often invoke museums as a solution to dealing with them after their removal, whether that be through protest or planned action. Using discourse analysis, this study considered public and professional perceptions regarding the role of museums in the debate over Confederate monuments to highlight how the public contributes to the discourse surrounding this controversial topic. This thesis analyzed discourse from the American Alliance of Museums, the New York Times, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch that was published between May 2020 and May 2023 and revealed three dominant themes: …

They Tell Their Stories Still: The Use Of Storytelling And Narrative Exhibition Development To Communicate Native American Art, History, And Culture In Museums, Ian T. Cherry

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Museums and Indigenous communities have shared tensions resulting from the way Native Americans have been discussed and depicted by museums, institutions which in the past have displayed indigenous cultures and artifacts alongside extinct animals and outdated dioramas. Despite this, Indigenous cultures and museums share an emphasis on storytelling practices, both as a means of education as well as preservation. This study sought to examine the use of storytelling and narrative exhibition development in museum exhibitions focused on Native American art, history, and culture. Through the course of a qualitative comparative cross case study, three key themes were identified, being Indigenous-led …

The 2020 Awakening: A Study On Exhibiting Topics Of Race And Identity In Mid-Sized Art Museums, Samantha Becker

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

After the many racial injustices that occurred in 2020, cultural institutions have been motivated to educate the public on historical and contemporary topics of race and identity. This project sought to analyze exemplary cases of exhibition production with topics of race and identity in mid-sized art museums. The goal was to provide a set of recommendations for exhibiting these topics to bolster community trust. Two museums were studied–the Montclair Art Museum and Newark Museum of Art–which revealed that the exhibitions at both institutions were relevant to contemporary issues, engaging to their respective communities, and educational for a wide range of …

If These Walls Could Talk: Best Practices For Storytelling In Historic House Museums, Hannah M. Gaston

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Historic house museums are one of the most common types of museums in the United States. These museums vary from large institutions with budgets of several million dollars to entirely volunteer-run organizations, but all these museums tell stories about their former inhabitants, their buildings, and their objects. While some of these museums excel at storytelling through programming and interpretation, many historic house museums still struggle to discover and implement recognized best practices. With limited resources, decreased visitation, and questions of sustainability, historic house museums have to learn to tell relevant and compelling stories to stay viable. Literature from the field …

Ethics Or Law: Which Should Prevail In Conflicts Regarding The Restitution Of Nazi-Looted Art?, Anthony Caruso

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Museums and sovereign states often face a dilemma when confronted with a claim seeking restitution of Nazi-looted artwork. The assertion of legal technicalities may allow an institution to maintain possession of its artwork whereas ethics would dictate its return. This paper discusses three cases where legal technicalities take precedence over ethics. This conflict demonstrates the need to have such disputes addressed in a forum other than a court system.

Climate Control In The Face Of Climate Change: Reducing Carbon Footprints In Museums, Felicity Bennett

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

With mounting pressures to decrease carbon emission and the growing scarcity of funds, museums must look at their current practices. The standards for climate control in museums are based on challenges museums face in the early twentieth century and relied on limited information and technology. As museums begin to face new challenges due to climate change, the old standards must be reevaluated. Most museums rely on a Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system to maintain strict set-points, however, such systems are expensive and energy intensive. This limits their availability to small and historical museums that do not have the …

Contemporaneous Collecting: A New Trend In Field Collection, Meghan Brady

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The collection of contemporary materials has become more common in the museum field since the 1980s. Many institutions in the 21^st century acquire contemporary material culture of all kinds, including t-shirts, posters, computers, sports equipment, photographs and other ephemera. Much finds its way into collections through the traditional means of donation and purchase. Museum professionals also engage in fieldwork of sorts, attending events such as rallies, protests, marches, sporting events, the aftermath of natural disasters and other tragedies in order to gather materials onsite, essentially capturing history as it happens. In this paper, the former will be referred to …

Human Rights And Cultural Heritage: Protecting Museum Professionals During Armed Conflict, Jennifer Lee Reilly

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The purpose of this thesis is to address the issue of protecting museum professionals in areas of armed conflict. Recent conflicts have increased public awareness of cultural heritage sites in danger. Organizations such as UNESCO condemned the destruction of Palmyra and the desecration of the Mosul Museum. Despite the public outrage, there is little consideration given to professionals who work at these institutions and who care for the collections. Examining the historical accounts of museum professionals in conflict zones provides the context to the suggestions made in this text. Possible solutions and methods proposed throughout the text include the expansion …

Multi-Sensory Museum Experiences: Balancing Objects’ Preservation And Visitors’ Learning, Anna Baccaglini

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In the late twentieth century, museums moved from a near exclusive focus on researching, collecting and preserving objects to an increased interest in visitors’ experiences and learning. Consequently, today’s museums are re-focused on facilitating engaging connections between visitors and collections. Nonetheless, many current-day museum visitors are dissatisfied with their primarily visual experiences. In order to enhance visitors’ intellectual, emotional and physical connections with objects, this paper argues museums should introduce new ways of visitor interaction with objects through narrative and multi-sensory experiences. By combining discursive and immersive exhibition models, museums can create narratives that emotionally and intellectually involve visitors.

While …

Acknowledging The Colonial Past: Display Methods Of Ethnographic Objects, Sarah Kraft

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Today, the word ‘colonialism’ brings to mind a dark page in Western history. In the nineteenth century, it was justified as a civilizing mission of the West, aimed at bringing culture, religion, and prosperity to the ‘primitive’ people of non-Western countries.

Many Western colonizers took objects from colonized peoples, bringing them back, first as curiosities, then as objects of study and wonder to be displayed in ethnographic museums. Ethnographic museums today exist in a post-colonial world, where people recognize that taking these objects in many cases was wrong and, in some cases, criminal. This raises the question of whether museums …

Rescuing Records: Safeguarding Vital Museum Records, Brianna Losardo

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Every activity undertaken by museums relies in some way on records and information. As technology becomes more and more integrated into museum operations, these records are increasingly being created, used, and stored in electronic format. The rapid proliferation of electronic records has left many institutions unprepared to safeguard electronic records that are vital to their operations from disaster, both natural and man-made. In addition, a historical focus on collection records has siloed records management concerns into registration and collections management departments, an approach that no longer suffices in today’s museum. In this thesis, I argue that museums should empower staff …

Museum Approaches To Judaica: The Forgotten Spoils Of The Nazi Plunder Of Europe, Derek Butler

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Museum professionals are faced with many legal and ethical issues on a daily basis, many of which are rooted in the actions of people in the past. One of the largest issues discussed in our community over the last several decades stems from the mass looting of artwork across Europe by the Nazis during World War Two. While much attention has been given to the procedures and practices museums must go through in order to identify potential stolen works and return them to their rightful owners, Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were also ransacked by German soldiers and anything of …

Deaccessioning In Small Museums: A Historical View And Lessons From The Past, Kristin Lapos

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Deaccessioning is a frequent topic of conversation in even small and mid-sized museums in the twenty-first century. With collections costs soaring, budgets dwindling, and space ever more limited, museums must deaccession to survive and prosper. However, deaccessioning and disposal have become hugely controversial, both among museum professionals and with the general public in the past few decades. Scholars like Stephen Weil and Marie Malaro argue that deaccessioning and disposal were non-issues prior to the 1970s. Is this true? If so, how did museum professionals handle deaccessioning and disposal of objects from their collections before this time?

This thesis explores the …

Museums And Urban Revitalization: Regional Museums As Catalysts For Physical, Economic, And Social Regeneration Of Local Communities, Robin Foster Westervelt

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Current perspective in museum discourse tells us the traditional model of museum-as-steward is no longer enough, that in order to fully serve their communities and respond to contemporary societal issues, museums must engage in community- building and socially relevant endeavors. Why is the old model of museum-as-steward no longer enough? How can museums engage with their communities in socially relevant issues and partner with civic and other social organizations in order to address current social and economic needs? This thesis addresses these questions and provides insight as to how and why social relevance is critical to the sustainability of museums …

Jewish Museums - A Multi-Cultural Destination Sharing Jewish Art And Traditions With A Diverse Audience, Jennifer B. Markovitz

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

As American society becomes more diverse, issues of ethnic self· consciousness are increasingly prevalent. This can be witnessed by the national expansion and development of ethnic museums. At least twenty-five museums representing different ethnicities are located in New York City alone. These museums reach out to their own constituency as a celebration of heritage and culture. In an effort to educate others and foster a greater understanding and appreciation of their culture, they also reach out to a diverse multi-cultural audience. Following suit, Jewish museums attract a diverse audience representing a variety of religions and ethnicities. Jewish Museums - A …

The Play's The Thing: Combining Cognitive Reenactnment With Civic Engagement To Create Effective Living History Site Learning, Alex Harwell

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Living history is a very interesting yet volatile topic within the museum field. Since its conception, living history techniques have evolved to include the visitor in ways that ordinary museums have historically been unable to do. Second person interpretation is one such advancement and can be an exciting opportunity for the visitor to "step back in time" and experience life as it once was. However, as this study will demonstrate, it is extremely difficult and virtually impossible to replicate historic environments and conditions, thus leaving living history sites to focus more on the present day and its connections to the …

Pioneering Partnerships: The Role Of The Independent And Non-Traditional Collections Manager In The Museum World, Erin K. Schovel

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Museums are increasingly following for-profit business models. Downsizing, partnering and outsourcing are no longer exclusive business terms, but have been adopted into museum lingo. As museums large and small adapt to decreased funding, they look for ways to stretch their dollars further. Museums are finding value in outsourcing work to independent professionals who are knowledgeable in museum practices. The available literature on museum outsourcing focuses on guest curators. Little is written about other categories of non-affiliated museum professionals on which museums rely, such as fundraisers, public relations officers, and, especially, collections managers. I am particularly interested in non-affiliated museum workers …

No One Flunks Museum: An Overview Of Learning Theory And Its Implementation In Formal And Informal History Education, Nichole D. Smith

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The transition of museums from institutions for the knowledgeable to places for those seeking knowledge has brought about a need for those educating in museums to better understand the ways in which people learn. This paper introduces and explains theories, psychological and educational, that are applicable to learning such as Constructivism, Multiple Intelligences, and the Contextual Model of Learning. Observations of informal and formal history and social studies lessons or programs presented to students ages 3-16 provide the framework for understanding how well these theories of learning are being implemented in the museum. Comparison of history museum programs (informal education) …

Knowledge Management Systems In Museums: The Next Generation For Assimilating Museum Information Resources In An Electronic Environment, Diane Ignjatovic

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This thesis focuses on knowledge management practices, tools, and systems and how it can play a vital role for managing collections in museums. The purpose of knowledge management would be to control information across disparate collections and departments within museums. The process of gathering. collecting and storing various data will help institutions achieve cost-effective solutions for a successful information management system. Implementing the concept and applications of knowledge management would create a culture that would encourage knowledge sharing among curators, registrars, directors of development and exhibition designers, to name a few. Further, it would establish museum-wide shared resources that would …

John Cotton Dana, John Dewey, And The Creators Of The Newark Museum: A Collaborative Success In The Art Of Progressive, Visual Instruction, Michael J. Mulryan

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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