Cultural property and its stewardship have long been concerns of museums, archaeologists, art historians, and nations, but recently the legal and political consequences of collecting antiquities have also attracted broad media attention. This has been the result, in part, of several high-profile trials, as well as demands by various governments for the return of antiquities to their countries of origin. These circumstances call out for public discussion that moves beyond the rather clear-cut moral response to looting, to consider the implications of buying, selling, and exhibiting antiquities. To whom should they belong? What constitutes legal ownership of antiquities? What laws govern their importation into the United States, for instance? What circumstances, if any, demand the return of those antiquities to their countries of origin? Is there a consensus among archaeologists and museum directors about these issues? These and other pertinent issues are addressed in the essays and responses collected in this volume. Delivered at a 2007 symposium by eminent museum directors and curators, legal scholars, archaeologists, and historians and practitioners of art and architecture, these papers comprise a rich and nuanced reference work.

Arts organizations once sought patrons primarily from among the wealthy and well educated, but for many decades now they have revised their goals as they seek to broaden their audiences. Today, museums, orchestras, dance companies, theaters, and community cultural centers try to involve a variety of people in the arts. They strive to attract a more racially and ethnically diverse group of people, those from a broader range of economic backgrounds, new immigrants, families, and youth.The chapters in this book draw on interviews with leaders, staff, volunteers, and audience members from eighty-five nonprofit cultural organizations to explore how they are trying to increase participation and the extent to which they have been successful. The insiders' accounts point to the opportunities and challenges involved in such efforts, from the reinvention of programs and creation of new activities, to the addition of new departments and staff dynamics, to partnerships with new groups. The authors differentiate between "relational" and "transactional" practices, the former term describing efforts to build connections with local communities and the latter describing efforts to create new consumer markets for cultural products. In both cases, arts leaders report that, although positive results are difficult to measure conclusively, long-term efforts bring better outcomes than short-term activities.The organizations discussed include large, medium, and small nonprofits located in urban, suburban, and rural areasùfrom large institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the San Francisco Symphony to many cultural organizations that are smaller, but often known nationally for their innovative work, such as AS220, The Loft Literary Center, Armory Center for the Arts, Appalshop, and the Western Folklife Center.

Dans un contexte de globalisation impliquant un rétrécissement de l’espace et un aplanissement des cultures, comment la muséologie peut-elle repenser ses rapports, en particulier avec le monde professionnel ? La muséologie doit-elle être considérée comme une discipline autonome, une science appliquée ou un champ professionnel ? Quels sont les formes émergentes de médiation des savoirs et le devenir des fonctions d’éducation et de diffusion propres aux musées ? Ces questions sont abordées selon différentes approches. Les auteurs font le point sur la question de la muséologie comme discipline scientifique et tentent d’en déterminer les formes. Puis, ils s’intéressent aux missions et aux orientations de la recherche dans le champ de la muséologie, de l’éducation muséale et des médiations culturelles. Ils présentent enfin des projets de partenariat et des modes de collaboration entre acteurs sociaux, chercheurs et professionnels dans les musées.

L’évaluation muséale célèbre en 2011 le centième anniversaire de la publication du premier article sur le sujet par Benjamin-Ives Gilman.Le présent livre s’adresse autant aux professeurs et étudiants en muséologie, en patrimoine et culture ainsi qu’en tourisme culturel, qu’aux professionnels et aux gestionnaires de musées et des autres secteurs connexes (tourisme et culture, loisirs culturels, patrimoine, etc.) intéressés par les retombées de l’évaluation.Ce guide méthodologique présente les principaux processus auxquels ont recours les évaluateurs en contexte muséal. Les cas présentés ont été sélectionnés en fonction de leur exemplarité et de leur représentativité: tous les types d’études peuvent être réutilisés ou adaptés pour des études similaires. Peu importe l’institution culturelle, l’objet d’étude ou le genre d’évaluation (formative, préalable ou sommative), des outils sont suggérés pour la mener à bien: devis d’évaluation, questionnaires fermés, schémas d’entrevues ouvertes, grilles d’observation, journal de bord, etc. Tirés de la pratique professionnelle de Lucie Daignault, ils témoignent de 23 ans d’expérience professionnelle continue en évaluation muséale au Musée de la civilisation.Fruit d’une précieuse collaboration, le premier texte a été rédigé par le professeur Bernard Schiele. Il y souligne que l’évaluation est vue comme le garant de l’accessibilité pour tous au musée car elle est la condition du maintien du dialogue entre la production culturelle du Musée et ses publics.

Renowned as one of the most significant museums built by private collectors, the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, seeks to engage viewers in an acutely aesthetic, rather than pedagogical, experience of works of art. The Menil’s emphasis on being moved by art, rather than being taught art history, comes from its founders’ conviction that art offers a way to reintegrate the sacred and the secular worlds. Inspired by the French Catholic revivalism of the interwar years that recast Catholic tradition as the avant-garde, Dominique and John de Menil shared with other Catholic intellectuals a desire to reorder a world in crisis by imbuing modern cultural forms with religious faith, binding the sacred with the modern. Sacred Modern explores how the Menil Collection gives expression to the religious and political convictions of its founders and how “the Menil way” is being both perpetuated and contested as the Museum makes the transition from operating under the personal direction of Dominique de Menil to the stewardship of career professionals. Taking an ethnographic approach, Pamela G. Smart analyzes the character of the Menil aesthetic, the processes by which it is produced, and the sensibilities that it is meant to generate in those who engage with the collection. She also offers insight into the extraordinary impact Dominique and John de Menil had on the emergence of Houston as a major cultural center.

13 essays from leading experts, discusses international trade in cultural goods and services, discusses integration of arts and cultural policy on urban revitalization, civic engagement and historic preservation