A new publication by EMF/EMYA

Revisiting Museums of Influence presents 50 portraits of a range of European museums that have made striking innovations in public quality over the past forty years. In so doing, the book demonstrates that excellence can be found in museums no matter their subject matter, scale, or source of funding.

Written by leading professionals in the field of museology, who have acted as judges for the European Museum of the Year Award, the portraits describe museums that had, or should have had, an influence on other museums around the world. The portraits aim to capture the moment when this potential was identified, and the introduction will locate the institutions in the wider history of museums in Europe over the period, as well as drawing out common themes of change and innovation that unite the portraits.

Providing many very diverse portraits, Revisiting Museums of Influence captures the immense capacity of the museum to respond to changing societal needs. As a result, the book will be essential reading for students of museology and museum professionals around the world in shaping the museums they wish to create. Scholars and students of art history, archaeology, ethnography, anthropology, cultural and visual studies, architecture, memory studies and history will also find much to interest them.

Availability: Copies of the book are available for purchase at Routledge. Routledge have a sale on which offers a 30% discount with the discount code RMI230 which will remain active until the end of the year (2021).

Review Copies: For journals wishing to review the book, please follow this link and see the EMYA Book Media Release. 

Museology Teaching: Lecturers who wish to use this book in their teaching, can request an inspection copy here.

Preview Version: A pdf preview of the book is available at this link.

Moderator

SHARON HEAL, UK (MEMBER OF EMF BOARD OF TRUSTEES)

Sharon is the director of the Museums Association, a campaigning membership body that promotes the value of museums to society.

She regularly comments on museums and cultural policy in the UK; speaks at conferences and events in the UK and internationally; and has published extensively. She lectures in the history of museums, museum ethics and museums and social impact and activism.

Sharon is the chair of the Museum of Homelessness and a trustee of the Thackray Museum of Medicine.

Speakers

MARK O’NEILL, FMA, PHD, UNITED KINGDOM (JUDGE OF EMYA JURY)

Independent Researcher & Consultant; Associate Professor, College of Arts, Glasgow University, Research Fellow, Museum Studies, Leichester University; Adviser, Event Communication, London.

Mark was Director of Policy & Research for Glasgow Life, the charity which delivers arts, museums, libraries and sports services for the City of Glasgow from 2009 – 2016. As head of Glasgow Museums from 1998 – 2009 he led the teams which established the St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, refurbished Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum and created the Riverside Museum (Emya 2012).

JETTE SANDAHL, DENMARK (CHAIR OF EMF BOARD OF TRUSTEES)

Jette Sandahl came to the museum sector after more than a decade of university study, teaching and research within the areas of psychology, psychoanalysis and history. She has been the founding director for two pioneering new museums, the Women’s Museum of Denmark and the Museum of World Cultures in Sweden. She has served as Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the National Museum of Denmark, and as Director Experience at National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Most recently, she was director of the Museum of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has been a board member of the Danish Museums Association and of the National Museums Council and active in a number of international contexts. She has been part of the formation of new paradigms for museums as platforms for empowerment, cultural participation and social justice, and writes and publishes within the broad museological field.

MARLEN MOULIOU, GREECE (CHAIR OF EMYA JURY)

Marlen Mouliou is Assistant Professor of Museology, Faculty of History and Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), member of a Cross-Faculty Committee for the Postgraduate Programme in Museum Studies (NKUA), supervisor of dozens of post-graduate students of Museology and 11 PhD research projects (3 of them awarded grants from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation). She is responsible for the Public Archaeology activities in relation to the NKUA’s excavation project in Marathon and represents NKUA in WP3 on Open Labs under CIVIS Academic Consortium. Marlen studied Archaeology and History of Art at NKUA and Museology (MA, PhD) at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester. Prior to her work at NKUA, with a 16 year-long career in state positions as archaeologist-museologist at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, she accomplished numerous museum-related projects.

Internationally, she is member of the panel of judges for the European Museum of the Year Award (2016 onwards). She has served as Vice-Chair of the European Academic Heritage Network (UNIVERSEUM) (2016-2020) and as ICOM-CAMOC’s Secretary and Chair (2010-2016). She is member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of several academic national and international journals. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the social value of museums and heritage, museum history, museum archaeology, city museums policies, museum professionalism and training, museum accreditation, archaeological ethnographies and local communities and others. In 2020, she developed the social initiative The Museum Inside Me. Together with Mark O’Neill and Jette Sandahl, she is co-editor of the book Revisiting Museums of Influence, published by Routledge, 2021.