Learning at the Museum Frontiers: Identity, Race and Power - Hardcover

Golding, Viv

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754646912 ISBN 13: 9780754646914

Publisher: Routledge, 2009

Synopsis

In Learning at the Museum Frontiers, Viv Golding argues that the museum has the potential to function as a frontier - a zone where learning is created, new identities are forged and new connections made between disparate groups and their own histories. She draws on a range of theoretical perspectives including Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, Foucauldian discourse on space and power, and postcolonial and Black feminist theory, as well as her own professional experience in museum education over a ten-year period, applying these ideas to a wide range of museum contexts. The book offers an important theoretical and empirical contribution to the debate on the value of museums and what they can contribute to society. The author reveals the radical potential for museums to tackle injustice and social exclusion, challenge racism, enhance knowledge and promote truth.

About this title

About the Author:

Viv Golding is Lecturer in Communication and Education in the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. Before entering academia on a full-time basis, she worked for ten years developing educational opportunities at the Horniman Museum in London and a further 12 years developing Arts Education Programmes in London.

Review:

'Viv Golding's Learning at the Museum Frontiers is a challenging feminist and post-modernist manifesto for tackling questions of race, difference and power in museums. It manages to be thoughtful and feisty, wide-ranging and positioned, clear and passionate. Containing a wealth of examples, it offers numerous ideas for making museums into spaces for new and even radical learning experiences.' Sharon Macdonald, University of Manchester, UK 'Dr. Golding adds significantly to critiques of traditional museum practice by providing rich descriptions of newer program and exhibition methods at selected museums that address racism and other social inequities. Employing a feminist-hermeneutic framework, she illustrates how museums can become "respectful dialogic spaces" addressing issues of power and control to support democracy.' George E. Hein, Lesley University, USA 'This new work by Viv Golding repositions in critical fashion the spatial politics of race, knowledge and truth in the museum andprovides readers with an important advance in the creation of acritical museum pedagogy. This is an outstanding work, which combines theory with practice in an engaging and readable fashion and I highly recommend it to the field of education.' Peter McLaren, University of California, Los Angeles, USA 'Viv Golding, a leading museum educator, draws on a wide range of material for her analysis - from critical studies of 'race' and gender, to post-colonial discourse, and Black feminist theory. In keeping with the recent work of social geographers, 'Learning at the Museum Frontiers' examines concepts of space, place and knowledge in its discussion of access, learning and power. The resulting text combines recent theoretical critiques and understandings with best practice implementation in the realm of museum and gallery work to produce a pedagogy of museum education.' Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World: A Review Journal 'Golding draws on two decades of experience in arts education in London, focusing particularly on her work addressing the legacies of racism at the Horniman Museum, to explore strategies to reshape institutional practices as well as programs for visitors. She argues that the museum can challenge negative stereotypes and social prejudices and help visitors to construct new attitudes and empowered self-identities. The author's everyday encounters with the successes and limitations of various approaches reveal her great depth of practical knowledge, and her incorporation of Black feminist hermeneutics and postmodern cultural theory illustrate wide ranging contextual research... The tone of the book is lively and Golding is not afraid to foreground her own perspective and personal judgments. Despite the terrible histories of racial injustice and global inequality which have shaped the case studies she presents, she seems optimistic that museums can contribute to social justice. As such, her approach is very much in keeping with the recent emphasis in museum work on social inclusion and civic engagement.' Museum & Society

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0754646912
• ISBN 13: 9780754646914
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 246