University museum

Historically, the focus of university museums and galleries included curatorial research into, as well as the display of, commemorative, ceremonial, decorative and didactic collections.Hamilton, J. (1995). [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09647779509515429?journalCode=rmmc20#.VjWTqFLhGHs The role of the university curator in the 1990s]. Museum Management and Curatorship, 14(1), 73-79. For academics, these collections served as a valuable research resource. For students, museums performed both a leisure and learning function, developing their visual literacy, critical thinking, and creative skills. Aside from campus, museums served their perspective city and town's communities, spreading museological literacy among the different target audiences.Sandell, R., & Nightingale, E. (2012). [https://books.google.com/books?id=XfmneyJB1VwC&dq=university+museums&pg=PA40 Museums, equality, and social justice.] Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

With decades, the role of the university museums changed as they started to become more open and receptive to the cultural needs of the public.Guthe, A. K. (1966). [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2151-6952.1966.tb01612.x/abstract The Role of a University Museum]. Curator: The Museum Journal, 9: 103–105. Public educational outreach is considered now by many university museums as an integral part of their mission, some even adopt a market approach.Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2001). [https://books.google.com/books?id=iZUSWweGtC0C&q=university+museums Managing university museums.] Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Changes and decentralization of the institutional values coinciding with budgeting shortfalls in some cases "gave rise to tensions and a lack of cohesive identity among a demoralized staff".Tirrell, P. B. (2000). Dealing with change: university museums of natural history in the United States. Museum International, 52(3), 15-20. Many campus museums "have critical needs for facilities, staff, and support".Tirrell, P. B. (2000). A synopsis and perspective of concerns and challenges for the international community of university museums. Curator: The Museum Journal, 43(2), 157-180. In the 21st century, despite the challenges brought by transition,Wallace, S. A. (2003). [http://network.icom.museum/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/publications/11_ICOM-UMAC.pdf#page=28 Challenges for university museums: museums, collections and their communities.] Les partenariats actifs des musées universitaires, 28. the university museums not only continue to play important role in object-based learningChatterjee, H. J. (2011). [http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/2010/chatterjee-179/PDF/chatterjee.pdf Object-based learning in higher education: The pedagogical power of museums.] International Committee for University Museums and Collections (UMAC) Proceedings, 3. (tradition that reaches beyond the record of the founding of the University of Bologna[http://webpages.fc.ul.pt/~mclourenco/chapters/MCL2005_Appendix8.pdf Historical synopsis of university collections and museums, with reference to precursors and significant events]) but also perform important civic and cultural functions for the larger society.Arnold-Forster, K. (2006). [http://www.cimu.unam.mx/pdf/papers/Kate%20Arnold-Forster.pdf Museums for the Future: Recognising new relevance for University Museums.]

File:Benton Museum of Art tour group.jpg at Pomona College in Claremont, California]]

Organizationally, university museums are represented by a variety of historical, traditional and novel entities, such as anatomical theaters and archeology museums, natural science and art museums, history museums, planetariums, arboretums and aquariums, archives and house-museums, science and arts centers, ecomuseums, hospital museums, and contemporary art galleries, as well as discipline-specific collections hosted by academic departments and institutes; some special collections are hosted by the university libraries.[http://publicus.culture.hu-berlin.de/collections/ UMAC Worldwide Database of University Museums & Collections] In general, university museums and collections are classified based on disciplinary criteria or the nature of the artifacts.Lourenço, M. C. (2005). Between two worlds: The distinct nature and contemporary significance of university museums and collections in Europe (Doctoral dissertation). In Europe the number of the university museums and collections is estimated as 12,914.[http://webpages.fc.ul.pt/~mclourenco/chapters/MCL2005_Appendix1.pdf Number of university museums and collections in Europe]

The first university museums can be traced to the medieval universities and their teaching collections to support medical education — the physic, or botanical, garden (hortus medicus) and the anatomical theatre (theatrum anatomicum). The first hortus medicus was established in Italy in either Padua or Pisa in the 1540s and the first theatrum anatomicum in Padua in 1594 for the purpose of educating both the apothecaries and doctors.Olmi, G. (2001). Science-Honour-Metaphor: Italian cabinets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In: O. Impey & A. MacGregor (eds.), The origins of museums: the cabinet of curiosities in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, second edition, pp. 1-17. House of Stratus, London. In the beginning of the 17th century, anatomical theaters were established at the universities of Bologna, Ferrara, Leiden and Montpellier. There are records that document the use of Pisa's hortus medicus opened in the 1590s as a teaching museum.Alexander, E.P., 1979. Museums in motion. American Association for State and Local History, Nashville. Soon, the teaching museum model was adopted by painters, sculptors, and architects. The cabinets of physics and chemistry followed the suit. At the University of Oxford, the picture gallery of Christ Church College was founded in 1546. In 1671, the University of Basel granted public access to the Basilius Amerbach's cabinet, which was donated by the city of Basel.

• University Museums and Collections (UMAC) — an international association of university museums and collections.[http://publicus.culture.hu-berlin.de/umac/represented University Museums and Collections (UMAC)]

• UNIMUSEUM - International University Museums Association

• UNIVERSEUM - European Academic Heritage Network

• Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG) - United States based organization. [http://aamg-us.org Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG)]

• List of university museums in the United States

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• Danilov, V. J. (1996). University and college museums, galleries, and related facilities: A descriptive directory. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.
• Marta C. Lourenço. [http://webpages.fc.ul.pt/~mclourenco/ Between two worlds: The distinct nature and contemporary significance of university museums and collections in Europe.] PhD dissertation, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, October, 2005.

• [http://publicus.culture.hu-berlin.de/collections/ UMAC Worldwide Database of University Museums & Collections]
• [http://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/university-art-museums-slideshow The Best University Art Museums in America], Architectural Digest, August 31, 2015

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Category:Types of museums

Museum