Curating, museums and galleries: Books and dissertations

 

E-books

Relevant e-books about museums and galleries have been assembled by the SIA librarians in these collections:

• architecture of museums and galleries
• art fairs and biennials
• art museums
• collections management
• curating
• the digital museum
• ethics for museums (see also restitution and postcolonial perspectives, below)
• introductory and general studies
• geographical studies: Africa     Americas     Asia and the Pacific     Europe
• marketing and education for museums
• management of museums and galleries
• museums and national and cultural identity
• restitution and postcolonial perspectives (see also ethics, above)

 

See also these collections from various museums:

• Ben Uri Gallery & Museum exhibition catalogues
• Cooper Hewitt: catalogues and other books, and exhibition brochures
• Getty Publications includes many relating to the J. Paul Getty Museum
• Metropolitan Museum of Art publications
• MoMA exhibition catalogues
• Museo del Barrio exhibition catalogues and brochures
• National Gallery historic catalogues
• Solomon R. Guggenheim publications
• Whitney Biennial: all catalogues up to 1995 online, with artist lists for more recent editions

 

Most other e-books will be found with Summon.

However please also see the e-book guide for:

• more info about the e-book collections available in Summon
• links to other e-book collections which need to be searched separately from Summon

 

Books

The key section of the book collection is on the library's ground floor:

• MUSE museums, galleries and curating

This section has a number of subsections, but there is much overlap between these. Many books range across topics within the larger field of museum, gallery and curating studies. However the subsections will often be good starting points for browsing. They are:

• MUSE.AAA general surveys and histories of museums
• MUSE.ARC architecture of museums and galleries. See MUSE.IND for architecture of individual museums and galleries
• MUSE.ART artists’ creative responses to museums
• MUSE.COL collections. Collecting policies and practices, museum objects, and particular types of artefact considered as museum objects.
• MUSE.CP curating practicalities. Including exhibition design and management
• MUSE.CUR curating theory and history
• MUSE.DIG museums' use of digital technologies
• MUSE.ECO economics and finance of museums and galleries
• MUSE.ETH ethical, social and political issues in museums and galleries. Includes postcolonial perspectives. See also AB.ETH for general art world ethics, including restitution and cultural property as applied to museums.  See AB.WW2 for World War II and the Nazi regime as they relate to museums.
• MUSE.FUT future of museums. Manifestoes and opinions.
• MUSE.HIS history. Not comprehensive histories (see MUSE.AAA), but histories limited to a time period, country or area, type of museum or gallery, or theme.
• MUSE.IND histories and studies of individual museums.
• MUSE.LAW law for museums and galleries.  See AB.LAW for art law in general.
• MUSE.MAN management of museums and galleries.
• MUSE.MAR marketing, education and visitor engagement
• MUSE.NAT nationalism. Museums and the nation state
• MUSE.PRI private museums
• MUSE.SUS sustainability; environmental issues facing museums and galleries
• MUSE.ZZZ pamphlets and booklets

 

Other relevant sections include:

• AB.CON - conservation and care of artworks
• COL catalogues of permanent collections of Tate, Wallace and MoMA.  Most catalogues of collections are kept with the books on the relevant type of art. For example, a catalogue of a collection of Dutch paintings will be in the Netherlands fine art section, FIA6.NET.
• FIA1.BIE biennials, triennials and documenta

 

Finding exhibition catalogues

Catalogues of loan exhibitions are not in the COL section but always classified by type of art, or artist. So the catalogue of an exhibition about pop art will be with the other books about pop art at FIA2.20C.POP. 

 

Dissertations

Please see the following guides:

• looking at SIA dissertations
• dissertations and theses from other colleges and universities