Book Review: Museum Revolutions

Simon J. Knell, Suzanne MacLeod, and Sheila Watson, eds. Museum Revolutions: How Museums Change and are Changed. London and New York:
Routledge, 2007.

What is change? Is change evolution, progress, digression or mutation? Most would agree that change is all of these things, and more. One thing remains constant, however; change is inevitable. In the field of museum studies, and especially museum history, change occurs from the tiniest, intangible thought process to the magnanimous scale of an event such as the re-opening of a multi-million dollar renovation of a museum.

Museum Revolutions: How Museums Change and are Changed attempts to account for the breadth of change in museums by offering essays that expound upon the many varieties and the complex nature of change. Yet, most importantly, the editors of Museum Revolutions Simon Knell, Suzanne MacLeod and Sheila Watson argue the elemental message that “museums are constantly in flux” and that this dynamism is a sign of health .1

Categorized as a museum studies reference title, Museum Revolutions is a product of a conference held in honor of the University of Leicester’s Museum Studies Department’s fortieth anniversary in 2006 from which select papers were developed. The twenty-eight essays included in Museum Revolutions are written by an impressive international body of contributors. Some of the chapters focus on innovations inside museums; others discuss how museums affect their communities, and how museums, in turn, are perpetually colored by that change. The editors explain that the volume is an ideal text for museum studies courses and the targeted audience is museum studies students. They also state that the book is relevant to researchers and museum professionals who are interested in the history of museums and the field of museum studies.

Museum Revolutions also clearly contributes to the literature in museum ethics, as the essays are rich in ethical topics such as the politics of representation, ecomuseums, repatriation, social responsibility, indigenous peoples and new museum models, treatment of human remains, and learning and difference. In fact, one might pose the question that as museums change in the twenty-first century will they become more responsive to human needs, and more socially responsible?

In the introductory chapter of the text, editors Knell, MacLeod and Watson inform the reader of the principles and connections they draw from the essays. Currently museums ask questions such as “how?” and “for whom?” but this volume asks “whose truth” the museum is representing and with what cultural sensitivity it is approaching that representation. The goal of asking these questions is to challenge the conventional notions of change in museums, so that substantial revision can occur. The editors of Museum Revolutions want readers not only to see museums as complex and dynamic instead of static cultural institutions but also to expect and to lobby for change.

The chapters that follow are divided into three sections. The first section, “Shaping museums and manifestos,” consists of ten essays that deal with change as invention, as well as the formation of manifestos and their implementation. This section begins with Philippe Taquet’s essay on the subject of Georges Cuvier’s paradigmatic museum, the Cabinet d’anatomie comparée in Paris, its (re)creator, and how the formation of that standard set of museum practices shaped museums for years to come. Other topics addressed in this section include the impact of individual visions as manifestos, the advent of the colonial museum, the elitist history of museum architecture, and museums and revolution.

Concerning the last of these topics is Ali Mozaffari’s “Modernity and Identity: The National Museum of Iran” in which he describes how a revolution, in this case the Islamic Revolution of 1979, shapes not only political and social life but also the life of the museum, specifically the National Museum of Iran, formerly known as the Ancient Iran Museum. He concludes sadly that the Museum has been used as a political tool in both the pre and post revolutionary eras and “is still waiting for its public.”2

Robert Janes’s “Museums, Social Responsibility and the Future We Desire,” the last essay in this first section of the text, can be considered a postmodern manifesto, calling for re-evaluation and reinvention of the current heritage industry based on ethical principles. Janes argues against the current business-driven model of the heritage industry. He interweaves such contemporary concerns as North Americans’ obsession with SUVs, the monopoly of the English language resulting in the disappearance of many of the world’s languages, and the destruction of an alarming number of mammal species due to human activities. He also presents models of museums that are socially responsible such as the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ.

The second section of the volume, “Changing places, changing people,” revolves around the role of museums in shaping identity. Some of the central themes presented in the nine essays of this section are the renegotiation of history and the exploitive aspects of the heritage industry. The essays address how these issues effect cultural identity. Many of the authors support indigeneous claims to self-representation and cultural autonomy and write on new models of “museum” from which western-trained museum professionals and scholars can learn.

Evelyne Tegomoh’s “Cultural Entrepreneurs, Sacred Objects and the Living Museums of Africa” shows the inadequacy of western models to deal with the sacredness of objects as opposed to a range of other “museum” forms in Africa. Moira G. Simpson’s “Charting the Boundaries: Indigenous Models and Parallel Practices in the Development of the Post-museum” discusses ways in which indigenous communities throughout the world have established similar patterns of “using museums as sites of intercultural engagement and resistance.”

The third section of the text, “Articulating change: media, message, philosophy,” consists of nine essays, many of which address the ways in which museums can and should address change with their publics. Fiona Cameron’s “Moral Lessons and Reforming Agendas: History Museums, Science Museums, Contentious Topics and Contemporary Societies” demonstrates through her research in Australia that museum visitors do want frank debate and do not shy away from controversy yet also look to museum professionals as apolitical. Eileen Hooper-Greenhill, in “Education, Postmodernity and the Museum,” advocates museum learning that acknowledges the mistakes of the institution’s past, particularly the colonial past.

The central thesis of Museum Revolutions, change in museums, is deceptively simple. When working with the materials, however, the reader discovers a surprisingly complex and intellectually satisfying network of sub-themes and contexts.

It is interesting to note, nonetheless, that when compiling the essays for inclusion in the book, the editors did not direct the authors to write about change or revolution. Similarly, the subject of the University of Leicester conference was not change or revolution; change was, instead, “a uniting theme that emerged in the preparation of the book.” Because change was not the catalyst for the essays, there is a tendency for the book to seem slightly disjointed at times.

The essays in Museum Revolutions are nonetheless extremely valuable to readers interested in museum ethics as they thoughtfully engage many topical issues in this field. Together, they provide an idiosyncratic but insightful survey of what it means to work for the common good in museums today.

For students of museum history courses, the book is equally significant. According to the editors, the goal is “the revisualisation of the museum not as a static cultural monument, but as fluid and responsive, dynamic, shaping, political, particular and complex.” Most museum studies students are still taught an essentially Western linear model of the history of museums. This model begins with the cabinets of curiosity/ wunderkammern and continues with Paris’ national museum in the Louvre, moves on with Charles Wilson Peale’s museum, modeled after the Great Chain of Being, and rests currently with the great white cultural temples of our encyclopedic museums today. For me, Museum Revolutions accomplished its goal, as I can envision a more multi-dimensional museum history. And for this reason, above any other, I believe that Museum Revolutions is not only an ideal text for any museum history curriculum it is an important addition to any museum studies library.

Reviewed by Erin Peters, March 2, 2008.