Collecting is a key function of museums. Its apparent simplicity belies a complexity of questions and issues which make all collecting imprecise and unrepresentative. This book exposes the many meanings of collections, the different perspectives taken by different cultures, and the institutional response to the collecting problem. One major concern is omission, whether this be determined by politics, professional ethics, the law or social agenda. How did curators collect during the war in Croatia? What were the problems of trying to collect the 'old' South Africa when the new one was born? Can museums collect from groups which seem to 'deviate' from society's norms? How has the function of museums affected the practices of international trade? Can museums collect successfully if collecting agenda are being set externally? Museums and the Future of Collecting encourages museums to move away from the collecting of isolated tokens; to move beyond the collecting policy and to understand more clearly the intellectual function of what they do. Here examples are given from Australia, Sweden, Canada, Spain, Britain and Croatia which provide this intellectual understanding and many practical tools for evaluating a future collecting strategy.

About the Author
Simon J. Knell, University of Leicester, UK Simon Knell, Malcolm McLeod, Richard Dunn, Patricia Kell, Rebecca Duclos, Paul Martin, Gaynor Kavanagh, Zarka Vujic, Graham Dominy, Nicola Clayton, John Martin, Michael Taylor, Janet Owen, Linda Young, Anna Steen, Barbro Bursell, Maria Garcia, Carmen Chinea, Jose Farina, Jean-Marc Gagnon, Gerald Fitzgerald, Martin Wickham, Patricia Ainslie, James Fowler, Tomislav Sola.

Reviews
'...there is much that can be taken from this book and applied to the daily practice and philosophy of the whole range of museums...' Museum National '... the second edition of this book [...] is welcome and timely... this book should help bring collecting activity back up the museum agenda.' Museums Journal 'Museums and the Future of Collecting is produced in paperback at an affordable price; this should enable this volume of essays to feature on every curator's bookshelf, where it deserves to be.' Journal of the Society of Archivists



Book Information
ISBN 9780754630050
Author Simon J. Knell
Format Paperback
Page Count 276
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 385g