Spring 2010

Course Title:            AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  MUSEUM  STUDIES

Instructor:                  Dr.Giovanni SCICHILONE

Address:                    Via Gran Bretagna, 20        00196  ROMA                   

Phones:                     06 807 49 36       (home, with answering machine; 9am/9pm)

                                    348-82 77 331     (mobile;  9am/9pm)

E-mail:                     giovanniscichilone@yahoo.it

            This  course  discusses museums well beyond their traditional function of collecting, preserving, interpreting and presenting  documents  produced  by  material cultures of our world.   Students will be guided in fact to see museums also as  “mass-media” , social “tracers” as well as “objects-subjects” for economical and political elaboration.  Special attention will be given to the experiences developed internationally throughout  the  20^th century, when  the  very  name and the concept of museum  have been thoroughly reconsidered.   The Instructor’s lifelong experiences as a museum-professional will offer frequently  a “behind-the-scene” approach to this world and to its problems

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

            Side by side with a brief introduction to the history of museums, the course mirrors the developments of specific fields like Museography and Museology as combined in Museum-Studies.  In a multidisciplinary perspective, students will consider museums as support of specific research, primary tools for mass-education, powerful social actors within their communities and, frequently, key-points along the trails of international tourism. From different viewpoints students will also consider the impact on the museums’ world of many conflicting needs, relevant not only to their mission but also to their operation and budgeting (see syllabus below for details on individual topics discussed).  For these reasons  the course could appeal to students interested in the Humanities, in the Social Sciences and in Economics as well.

            .Moreover, the necessary attention given to an adequate appreciation of Museum Architecture across time and space  (far beyond the functional task of providing collections with a proper “shelter”)  will help students to see museum-collections  into their full context, considering design, forms and  materials used in the process and developing personal views on the reciprocal impact of collections and museum-design.  Especially in this sense, the course tries to stimulate critical ability, visual sensitivity and an attitude to consider how different designs, forms and materials can contribute to the manyfold tasks that museums perform in our society and to their impact on the urban space and on ourselves. The interest shown, the world over, by individual communities for their local museums (or for the possibility of creating one) could offer to students of this course a chance of developing a personal view on such problems.

            In the process of debating museums, their collections, their history, their displays, their design and their interaction with their social context, students will be encouraged to develop their own  interpretations as well as to acquire the vocabularies used in the related fields.   Consequently they will enrich their own chances to contribute to the cultural and artictic life of their own communities.

METHODOLOGY:

            Every lesson will be richly illustrated by original slides from the instructor’s collection, reproducing documents on historical collections, buildings of contemporary museums in four Continents,  details of their displays,  as well as diagrams produced to visualize specific problems and/or data related with their management. The on site classes (please see syllabus below for details)  will be properly assisted with specific materials prepared by the Instructor.   Readings from modern sources on Museum Studies  (in English or in translation)  will be offered.in class or made available as abstracts for home-work.   In all cases, class-discussion and participation to class-work are to be considered crucial and are highly encouraged and valued by the instructor.  Moreover, since the variety of points and comparisons developed, both in class and in the on-site visits, can only in part find a substitute in the required  readings,  class attendance is strongly recommended.

            This  course  will  not  be  using  Blackboard.     Personal  appointments  can    be arranged at the students’ discretion.  For  email contacts, usually answered within 24 hrs, see address above.    For  urgent  matters  phone  calls  are  recommended  (see details above).

            The  midterm exam  will consist  of  a hand-written essay answering  two questions over four  or five;  such questions  -broad in scope and flexible in structure-  will  be  strictly  based  on class-work, on-site visits and the related reading material. The same format and methodology will be applied to the final exam.  Individual  cases  and  personal  problems can  be discussed with  the Instructor.    

            During the month of February, the students will choose,  under the Instructor’s guidance, the topic for an individual project in writing  -a brief essay or report based on a printed source or on the analysis of web-site(s)- related with one or more international museums or to relevant problems.  Ideally such essays (for the equivalent of 4 to 6 typed pages) should reflect a personal interest within the scope of the course.   These papers are to be given personally, in hard copy, to the instructor by March ??? at the very latest.   No email messages can be accepted for grading.

            In this context it’s worth to remind students that will be taken for granted their knowledge of our University’s policy on matters of academic integrity (on such matters please see  http//www.luc.academics/undergrade/catalog/standards.html).

SYLLABUS

            (References are made to:     Bettina  Messias  CARBONELL,  Museum Studies - An       anthology of contexts; Blackwell Publishing UK Ltd.. 2003 / paperback,   available at             our  Bookstore  and  in  our Library  and  to  Abstracts  prepared specifically  by  the   Instructor for this course and made available in our Library):

Lesson  1                   An introduction to the course. Museums today: ancestry and tentative definitions.  Collections and “museums” from the Renaissance to the end of the 18^th century

Lesson  2  on site      A visit to the museums of the Capitol Hill in Rome.   1471: a long story begins  http://en.museicapitolini.org

Lesson  3                   The  “modern  museum”  –  advent, functions, legacy

Lesson  4  on site      A visit to the Palazzo Altemps – archaeological  masterpieces  from:  the  collections  of  the  Museo  Nazionale  Romano. www.archeoroma.beniculturali.it/it/palazzo_massimo  How does a 20^th century museum mirror  the international  past  of  museums ?

Lessons 5  and  6    Museums as a  “language”:  tools,  aims  and  experiences  in  museum-communications.  Teaching  and  learning  through museum displays.  Visitors  as “meaning makers”.

Lesson  7                   Dreaming of a “valley of Eden”:  museums and Conservation. Scientific backgrounds, budgetary constraints and  political  contraddictions  in  the  life of contemporary museums.

Lesson  8  on site      A visit to the site & museum at  the new “Auditorium of Rome”.

                                    (Architect Renzo Piano, 2004).    />

                                    Archaeological sites, site-museums and the urban space

Lessons 9 and 10    Museums and Society: museums, communities and their “memories”.  History, history-making and the manyfold role of museums. Wars, atrocities and their echo in museums.   Local expectations, the “heritage industry” and the trails  of  “global tourism”        

Lesson 11  on site     A visit to the new National Museum for the Arts of the 21^st century (MAXXI) designed and built by the “star-architect” Ms .Zaha Hadid, scheduled to open in February 2010    (In case of delays : A visit to the Museum of the ARA PACIS, by the “star-architect” Richard Meier, 2006  ).  Museums & their architecture as “attractions”

Lesson  12                Museums today and in the near future: temple, ark, or stage?  The risks  of  a  “commodification of History”. The changing concept of  “authenticity” and our perception of restorations, presentations and interpretations in museums and beyond

GRADING:                      The final grade for this course will be calculated in accordance with the following percentages:

                                          Midterm................................................................30%

                                          “Home Project”.....................................................20%

                                          Active class participation..................................... 10%

                                          Final test...............................................................40%

                                                             The grading scale adopted will be:

                                          (A) 100-93           (A-) 92-90      (B+) 89-87     (B) 86-83

                                          (B-) 82-80            (C+) 79-77     (C) 76-73       (C-) 72-70

                                          (D+) 69-67           (D) 66-60       (F) below 60

DEADLINES  AND  IMPORTANT  DATES  for the semester:

                                                                  see above for details

                        Choice of topic for “home-projects”:         February / early March

                                         VALID FOR THE SPRING SEMESTER OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2009-2010