Museums: History, Design, Culture

Catalog description

This seminar-style course investigates museums as preeminent cultural institutions of the 21st century. It is developed in weekly modules through substantive readings and case studies that range across architectural and programmatic typologies, sites and contexts, functional requirements, and theories and practices of display. The geographic reach of the course is international. Selected readings focus on the institutional development of museums, the roles that museums play in the construction of individual and communal identities, and the contributions that museums make particularly to urban cultural economies. Readings also address current research concerning the development of new museum publics through the application of cutting-edge digital technologies and web-based applications.