Museum Economics and the Community

228 Pages·2002·10.433 MB·English

by  Susan Pearce

MUSEUM ECONOMICS AND THE COMMUNITY
New Research in Museum Studies: An International Series
Series Editor Dr Susan Pearce (Director, Department of Museum
Studies, University of Leicester)
Reviews Editor Dr Eilean Hooper-Greenhill
This important new series is designed to act as a forum for the
dissemination and discussion of new research currently being
undertaken in the field of museum studies. It covers the whole
museum field and, broadly, addresses the history and operation of
the museum as a cultural phenomenon. The papers are of
a high academic standard, but they are also intended to relate directly
to matters of immediate museum concern. The series fills a
major gap in the present scope of museum-based literature.
Members of the Editorial Advisory Board
Dr M. Ames, Museum of Mr Manyando Mukela, Moto Moto
Anthropology, University of British Museum, Zambia
Columbia
Ms Marie-Claude O'Neil, Division de
Ms M. Barretto, Fundacao Nacional 1'Action Culturelle, Ministere de la
Pro-Memoria - Coordenadoria de Culture et de la Communication, Paris
Acervos Museologicos, Rio de Janeiro
Professor Barrie Reynolds, Material
Dr V. Bedekar, Professor of Culture Unit, James Cook University,
Muscology, University of Baroda Townsville, Queensland
Mr M. Belcher, Berkshire College of Dr Shen Qing-Ling, Museum of
Art and Design Chinese Revolution, Beijing
Dr Flora Kaplan, Museum Studies Dr Zbynek Stransky, Department of
Program, New York University Muscology, Moravske Museum,
Brno, Czechoslovakia
Mr G Lewis, Department of Museum
Studies, University of Leicester Dr Lynne Teather, Museum Studies
Program, University of Toronto
Dr D. Lowenthal, University College,
London Mr S Tsuruta, Hosei University,
Tokyo
Dr Peter van Mensch, Reinwardt
Academic, Leiden
Members of the Editorial Committee
Dr Susan Pearce (Editor), Director, Dr Nick Merriman, Museum of
Department of Museum Studies, London
University of Leicester
Kevin Moore, Museum and Art Gallery,
Dr Eilean Hooper-Greenhill (Review St. Helens
Editor), Department of Museum
Dr Peter Vergo, Department of Art
Studies, University of Leicester
History and Theory, University of
Dr Ghislaine Lawrence, Wellcome Essex
Museum of History of Medicine,
Science Museum, London
NEW RESEARCH IN MUSEUM STUDIES
An International Series
2
Museum Economics
and the Community
Edited by Susan Pearce
THE ATHLONE PRESS
London & Atlantic Highlands, NJ
First published 1991 by The Athlone Press Ltd
1 Park Drive, London NW11 7SG and
171 First Avenue, Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716
© The Athlone Press 1991
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for
this title is available from
the British Library
ISBN 0 485 90002 5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Museum economics and the community/edited by Susan Pearce.
p. cm.-(New research in museum studies: an international
series: 2)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-485-90002-5
1. Museums I. Pearce, Susan M. II. Series: New research
in museum studies : v. 2.
AM5.M923 1992
069.1-dc20
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying or otherwise, without prior permission in
writing from the publisher.
Typeset by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
Printed in Great Britain by the University Press, Cambridge
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables vii
List of Plates vii
Editorial Introduction
Susan M. Pearce 1
Part One
1 Museums: an economic perspective
Peter Johnson and Barry Thomas 5
2 Performance indicators: promises and pitfalls
Peter M. Jackson 41
3 Sight, disability and the museum
Nich Pearson 65
4 Planning for visitors
Guy Wilson 89
5 Reflections on the social and economic impact
of the Fortress of Louisbourg
Patricia E. Kell 118
Part Two
6 'Like a game of dominoes': Augustus Pitt Rivers and
the typological museum idea
William Chapman 135
7 The Elepe's bead work: a question of legitimacy
Charles Hunt 177
vi Museum economics and the community
Part Three
Reviews edited by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill
The video Building New Audiences for Museums
Sunjay Jain 191
Children's Clothes, Clare Rose
Pam Inder 192
Picturing Power: Visual Depiction and Social Relations,
Gordon Fyfe and John Law (eds)
Susan Pearce 194
Taiwan: its natural history and its new natural
science museum
Francis Y.T. Chant 196
The crisis of representation in museums:
the exhibition 'The Spirit Sings'
Greg McManus 202
The GREM conference, Montreal, 1990
Judy Hanline 206
Call for papers for forthcoming volumes 209
Editorial policy 209
Notes on contributors 210
Index 214
List of Figures
Figure 1 Museum Demand 26
List of Tables
Table 1 UK Museums: Numbers and Visitors,
1985/6
Table 2 Visitor Trends in Museums, GB 9
Table 3 Sources of Income by Type of Museum 10
Table 4 Distribution of Different Categories of
Income across Museum Types 12
Table 5 Public Expenditure on Museums and
Galleries (1984/5 prices) 15
Table 6 Beamish Museum: some illustrative
estimates of capacity 20
Table 7 Estimates of Marginal Cost 24
Table 8 Geographical Distribution of Public
Sector Funding for Museums 34
List of Plates
Plate 1 Augustus Henry Pitt Rivers c 1880 136
Plate 2 The evolution of Pacific implements and
weapons 150
Plate 3 The ornamentation of New Ireland
paddles 151
Plate 4 Old weavers' houses, Bethnal Green,
London 154
Plate 5 Bethnal Green Museum, London 155
Plate 6 Upper Gallery, Pitt Rivers Museum,
Oxford c 1890 160
Plate 7 Interior of Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
c 1899 161
Plate 8 Interior of Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
c 1970 164
Plate 9 The Anthropological Rotunda proposed
for the new Pitt Rivers Museum 165
Plate 10 The National Museum of Natural
Sciences, Taiwan 197
Editorial Introduction
SUSAN M. PEARCE
In Part One of its second volume New Research in Museum Studies
turns to issues focusing on ways in which museums function as
economic and social institutions within their communities. This is a
very large and increasingly significant area, and the papers collected
here look at a broad range of topics, as both befits the subject and
follows the scope and style which New Research in Museum Studies
established in Volume 1, Objects of Knowledge.
An important area of debate surrounds the ways in which museum
operations should be managed and financed in a climate of scarce
resources in which difficult choices have to be made. This area is
explored by Peter Johnson and Barry Thomas, using as illustrative
material their research into the impact of the North of England Open
Air Museum at Beamish on the local economy. Close cousin to
economic considerations are those surrounding value for money and
quality of service. These involve an ability to measure the perform-
ance of museums, and bring us to the need for performance
indicators, the conceptual, measurement and behavioural problems
of which are discussed by Peter Jackson.
Economic considerations must try to match the needs and hopes of
the community the museum serves; otherwise we shall see museums
losing their hearts and souls in the struggle to become leaner and
fitter, in a kind of moral anorexia, and operating in increasing
detachment from the people around them. A particular theme is the
rights and needs of the visually impaired and disabled, whose right to
normality in the museum context is most eloquently expressed by
Nick Pearson, who draws on his personal experiences. The balance
between 'professional' needs and 'public' needs is further pursued by
Guy Wilson with particular reference to the Royal Armouries.
Patricia Kell draws a number of these issues together in her account
of the 'living history' project at the Fortress of Louisbourg, Cape
Breton Island, Canada.