This course will examine the history of museums in Europe and America, focusing on historical traditions and current expectations affecting institutional operations today. Historical tradition and current practice as it relates to museum governance and administration, architecture and installation, acquisitions and collections, cultural property issues as well as the many roles of exhibitions in museum programming will be addressed along with museums' social responsibility as scholarly and public institutions in an increasingly market-driven, non-profit environment. Evaluation will be based on oral presentations as well as two term papers.
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