Museums and Societal Collapse explores the implications of societal collapse from a multidisciplinary perspective and considers the potential museums have to contribute to the reimagining and transitioning of a new society with the threat of collapse. Arguing that societal collapse is underway, but that total collapse is not inevitable, Janes maintains that museums are well-positioned to mitigate and adapt to the disruptions of societal collapse. As institutions of the commons, belonging to and affecting the public at large, he contends that museums are both responsible and capable of contributing to the durability and well-being of individuals, families, and communities, and enhancing societal resilience in the face of critical issues confronting our species. Within the pages of this groundbreaking book, Janes demonstrates how museums and their staff, as key civic resources with ethical responsibilities, can examine the meaning and value of their work, how that work is organized and managed, and to what end. This is a call to action, demonstrating how museums can move the conversation about collapse into society at large. Museums and Societal Collapse will be essential reading for museum professionals working in museums and galleries, as well as for cultural and civil society organizations around the world. It will also be an essential reading for academics and students of Museum and Heritage Studies, Gallery Studies, Heritage Management, and Arts Management.

Museums and Societal Collapse explores the implications of societal collapse from a multidisciplinary perspective and considers the potential museums have to contribute to the reimagining and transitioning of a new society in the face of collapse. Arguing that societal collapse is well underway, but that total collapse is not inevitable, Janes maintains that museums are well-positioned to mitigate and adapt to the disruptions of societal collapse. As institutions of the commons, belonging to and affecting the public at large, he contends that museums are both responsible and capable of contributing to the durability and well-being of individuals, families, and communities, and enhancing societal resilience in the face of critical issues confronting our species. Within the pages of this groundbreaking book, Janes demonstrates how museums and their staff, as key civic resources with ethical responsibilities, can examine the meaning and value of their work, how that work is organised and managed, and to what end. This is a call to action, demonstrating how museums can move the conversation about collapse and extinction forward and into society at large. Museums and Societal Collapse will be of great interest to academics and students of Museum and Heritage Studies, Gallery Studies, Heritage Management and Arts Management. It will also be of essential reading for museum professionals working in museums, galleries and cultural organisations around the world. He lives in Canmore, Alberta, Canada.

Reinventing the Museum: Relevance, Inclusion, and Global Responsibilities is the third edition following the 2004 and 2012 versions of the Reinventing series. More than a decade since the prior volume was published, this edition features all new content written since 2017 relevant to this pivotal time for museums operating in a complex world. This anthology features leading thinkers from across the globe who expertly discuss the realities facing museums, the urgency to take action, and museums as essential contributors to a more equitable and socially responsible world. The introduction highlights the issues of our times, and frames the structure of the book and intentional order of the contents. A dramatically revised Reinventing the Museum Tool serves as a springboard for discussions within museum staff and trustees, among students and faculty, and with emerging to seasoned museum professionals. The curated approach of the book unfolds with a sequence of thinking that frames the subsequent sections and chapters. The range of topics in this volume cover global realities, shifts in institutional mindset, the urgency to achieve inclusion and equity in museums, and fresh perspectives of practical approaches to actualize the reinvented museum.

Museums and the Climate Crisis shows how museums can respond to the interrelated global climate, biodiversity and pollution crises. They have a unique role because they take a long-term perspective, and their scholarship and independence mean that they remain trusted by the public. Providing insights and international case studies from a range of museum and gallery professionals, academics and consultants, this book explores how museums can use this unique perspective to engage the public as active citizens, and how they are exemplars of good practice in areas such as emissions reduction and encouraging biodiversity. It shows how museums can combat climate exhaustion by drawing on understandings about positive motivation, and how to develop exhibitions, events and activities that motivate visitors to take action. Taking a broad approach beyond purely climate issues, the contributions touch on the use of renewables, environmental controls and standards, travel (including virtual couriering), waste management (including recycling, plastic reduction and composting), reducing pollution and increasing biodiversity within museums. Museums and the Climate Crisis will be important reading to those studying in the fields of Museum Studies, Heritage Studies and Conservation. Taking a practical approach, it will also be beneficial to museum, gallery and heritage professionals who are grappling with the challenges of the climate crisis.

While new directors learn how to manage and lead museums as part of their professional training and career development, the skills and knowledge required to work with boards—which are instrumental to a museum director’s work—must somehow be acquired on the job as one’s career progresses. What Every Museum Director Should Know about Working with Boards is designed to empower new and aspiring museum directors by equipping them with the skills and knowledge to work with boards. What Every Museum Director Should Know about Working with Boards uses museum-based vignettes of all-too-true situations encountered by new museum directors to illustrate what museum directors need to understand about their work with museum boards, so that they have the skills and knowledge to identify, assess, and successfully navigate the common issues they will inevitably encounter as a director. Following the vignette, analysis of the situation and strategic guidance are offered. A new director’s understanding of how boards are structured and operate, how they will interact with the board, and what areas they will work on with the board are all critical to a new museum leader’s success. However, busy new directors often do not have time to access the many widely dispersed resources about working with boards or to ascertain what parts of board operations will most affect their daily work. Consequently, What Every Museum Director Should Know about Working with Boards outlines how boards are organized, discusses the common points of contact between the director and the museum’s board, and examines the kinds of challenges museum directors will likely encounter in working with their boards. Given the importance of museum boards to the success of museums and a director’s understanding of boards to their own career development, What Every Museum Director Should Know about Working with Boards is an essential resource for new and aspiring museum directors.

Museums and Social Change explores the ways museums can work in collaboration with marginalised groups to work for social change and, in so doing, rethink the museum. Drawing on the first-hand experiences of museum practitioners and their partners around the world, the volume demonstrates the impact of a shared commitment to collaborative, reflective practice. Including analytical discussion from practitioners in their collegial work with women, the homeless, survivors of institutionalised child abuse and people with disabilities, the book draws attention to the significant contributions of small, specialist museums in bringing about social change. It is here, the book argues, that the new museum emerges: when museum practitioners see themselves as partners, working with others to lead social change, this is where museums can play a distinct and important role. Emerging in response to ongoing calls for museums to be more inclusive and participate in meaningful engagement, Museums and Social Change will be essential reading for academics and students working in museum and gallery studies, librarianship, archives, heritage studies and arts management. It will also be of great interest to those working in history and cultural studies, as well as museum practitioners and social activists around the world.

Only a decade ago, the notion that museums, galleries and heritage organisations might engage in activist practice, with explicit intent to act upon inequalities, injustices and environmental crises, was met with scepticism and often derision. Seeking to purposefully bring about social change was viewed by many within and beyond the museum community as inappropriately political and antithetical to fundamental professional values. Today, although the idea remains controversial, the way we think about the roles and responsibilities of museums as knowledge based, social institutions is changing. Museum Activism examines the increasing significance of this activist trend in thinking and practice. At this crucial time in the evolution of museum thinking and practice, this ground-breaking volume brings together more than fifty contributors working across six continents to explore, analyse and critically reflect upon the museum’s relationship to activism. Including contributions from practitioners, artists, activists and researchers, this wide-ranging examination of new and divergent expressions of the inherent power of museums as forces for good, and as activists in civil society, aims to encourage further experimentation and enrich the debate in this nascent and uncertain field of museum practice. Museum Activism elucidates the largely untapped potential for museums as key intellectual and civic resources to address inequalities, injustice and environmental challenges. This makes the book essential reading for scholars and students of museum and heritage studies, gallery studies, arts and heritage management, and politics. It will be a source of inspiration to museum practitioners and museum leaders around the globe.

The last two decades have seen concerns for equality, diversity, social justice and human rights move from the margins of museum thinking and practice, to the core. The arguments – both moral and pragmatic – for engaging diverse audiences, creating the conditions for more equitable access to museum resources, and opening up opportunities for participation, now enjoy considerable consensus in many parts of the world. A growing number of institutions are concerned to construct new narratives that represent a plurality of lived experiences, histories and identities which aim to nurture support for more progressive, ethically-informed ways of seeing and to actively inform contemporary public debates on often contested rights-related issues. At the same time it would be misleading to suggest an even and uncontested transition from the museum as an organisation that has been widely understood to marginalise, exclude and oppress to one which is wholly inclusive. Moreover, there are signs that momentum towards making museums more inclusive and equitable is slowing down or, in some contexts, reversing. Museums, Equality and Social Justice aims to reflect on and, crucially, to inform debates in museum research, policy and practice at this critical time. It brings together new research from academics and practitioners and insights from artists, activists, and commentators to explore the ways in which museums, galleries and heritage organisations are engaging with the fast-changing equalities terrain and the shifting politics of identity at global, national and local levels and to investigate their potential to contribute to more equitable, fair and just societies.

Drawing together nearly 40 years of experience, Museums without Borders presents the key works of one of the most respected practitioners and scholars in the field. Through these selected writings, Robert R. Janes demonstrates that museums have a broader role to play in society than is conventionally assumed. He approaches the fundamental questions of why museums exist and what they mean in terms of identity, community, and the future of civil life. This book consists of four Parts: Indigenous Peoples; Managing Change; Social Responsibility, and Activism and Ethics. The Parts are ordered chronologically and each begins with an introduction and an overview of the ensuing articles which situates the papers in their historical and cultural contexts. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines anthropology, ethnography, museum studies and management theory, Janes both questions and supports mainstream museum practice in a constructive and self-reflective manner, offering readers alternative viewpoints on important issues. Considering concepts not generally recognized in museum practice, such as the Roman leadership model of primus inter pares and the Buddhist concept of mindfulness, Janes argues that the global museum community must examine how they can meet the needs of the planet and its inhabitants. Museums without Borders charts the evolving role of the contemporary museum in the face of environmental, societal and ethical challenges, and explores issues that have, and will, continue to shape the museum sector for decades to come. This book demonstrates that it is both reasonable and essential to expand the purpose of museums at this point in history – not only because of their unique characteristics and value to society, but also because of Janes’ respect and admiration for their rich legacy. It is time that museums assist in the creation of a new, caring, and more conscious future for themselves and their communities. This can only be done through authentic engagement with contemporary issues and aspirations.

Systems Thinking in Museums explores systems thinking and the practical implication of it using real-life museum examples to illuminate various entry points and stages of implementation and their challenges and opportunities. Its premise is that museums can be better off when they operate as open, dynamic, and learning systems as a whole as opposed to closed, stagnant, and status quo systems that are compartmentalized and hierarchical. This book also suggests ways to incorporate systems thinking based on reflective questions and steps with hopes to encourage museum professionals to employ systems thinking in their own museum. Few books explore theory in practice in meaningful and applicable ways; this book offers to unravel complex theories as applied in everyday practice through examples from national and international museums.