Browsing by Subject "Museums"
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Item A museum of architectural history(1966) Bauman, W. PaulItem A tale of two museums : cultural museums in Austin, Texas(2013-05) Johnson, Brittany Yvonne; Coleman, Renita; Cash, WandaCultural museums in the United States have a long history of promoting and celebrating the history, traditions and culture of various ethnic and racial groups, typically excluded from the fine arts. Demographic changes in the United States have made the need for cultural museums even greater as they not only serve as a repository for information but also as a place for education and personal growth. Museum attendance and membership is, however, on a steady decline. This drop in community participation is in part due to institutions losing touch or failing to develop a relationship with a growing minority-majority population while continuing to serve a demographic that no longer constitutes a large percentage of the population. Despite major changes in the country’s make up, two such museums, Mexic-Arte Museum and the George Washington Carver Museum in Austin have managed to continuously promote the art, histories, traditions and personal stories of the minority groups that they represent.Item Adapting museums to a postmodern environment(Texas Tech University, 1996-05) Gammage-Tucker, Margaret E.Museums are facing an era of greater competition for resources and. it has been contended, many are fighting for institutional survival. This dissertation examines the proposition that the postmodern museum is a less stable institution and analyzes the use of strategies to address a more contentious community environment and perceived organizational instability. The study begins with an exploration of public involvement in the development of the American museum and then presents documentation on the changes in support that have altered the nonprofit environment in which contemporary museums exist. The research thesis contends that the impact of this changing environment on museums can be ascertained through examination of financial status, professionalization standards, and audience characteristics. The research subsequently asserts that specific strategies have been implemented as survival mechanisms to address increasing organizational instability resulting from the challenges facing the postmodern museum. The analysis concludes with an assessment of the amount and type of change in the use of management strategies in response to perceptions of organizational instability. A random sample of museums nationwide was undertaken. Analysis of the data from more than 600 institutions indicates that museums overall are addressing issues of competition by employing new and/or different management strategies, but many do not view themselves in a struggle for survival. Rather the strategies are being employed to improve organizational stability through increased community financial and audience involvement. The data illustrates dramatic differences in perceptions and use of strategies based on size of institutional budget, number of professional staff, and annual attendance.Item Analysis of the Egyptian material in the collections of the Museum of Texas Tech University(Texas Tech University, 1998-12) Brooks, Eric DouglasMuseums vary greatly in purpose, scope, size, complexity, subject matter, and methodology. However, all museums have one thing in common, i.e., collections (Ambrose and Paine, 1993). All museums fundamentally are alike in that they use objects for various purposes, including exhibition and research. As museums are defined by their collections, they have a responsibility to care for and preserve them. This responsibility includes proper storage, handling, exhibition, and conservation. As part of this care, museums also have a responsibility to collect and preserve information about their objects (Stone, 1984). The informational component of any object for which museums are responsible may be divided into two parts. The first part is documentation or data relating to the function, origin, composition, or cultural identification of the object. This sort of material may be derived from research or it may be collected directly from the source of the object when it is obtained. The other part of object information is collections management information or facts relating to the current condition, past and present care, and conservation of an artifact. This sort of data usually results from good record keeping and careful monitoring of collections (Schmiegel, 1995).Item Archaeological field research center and museum(1962-05) Hefley, Frank H.Item Between the muses and the mausoleum: museums, modernism, and modernity(2006) Schwartz, John Pedro; Friedman, Alan WarrenItem Bridging theatre and visual art : the role of an applied theatre practitioner in a fine art museum(2011-05) Genshaft, Lindsay Michelle; Alrutz, Megan; Dawson, Kathryn; Garner, JenniferThis thesis document details the theoretical and practical implications of using theatrical techniques and drama-based instruction in the visual art museum setting. Presented are four diverse museum theatre programs created and implemented at The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin. These programs support the argument that drama-based instruction and theatrical techniques can help deepen and/or complicate the notion of visitor engagement in a visual art museum. The theoretical underpinnings of museum theatre are investigated by examining elements of applied theatre and museum learning and the progressive education theory which shapes their practice. The belief is put forth that creative participation in museum education is essential for personal and critical connection with visual art. Theatre is a dynamic and powerful tool to support this creative participation. Findings include recommendations for utilizing museum theatre programming implemented by an applied theatre practitioner as it promotes the use of critical thinking and problem-solving skills, engages the senses, and stimulates meaningful dialogue.Item Buddy Holly Museum, an adaptive re-use approach(Texas Tech University, 1997-12) Robertson, Stanley AndrewIn an ever-increasing need for the practice of adaptive re-use, there remains the growing problem of the contrasting ideas of re-use. The National Trust's Courthouse Conservation Handbook defines restoration as the "scholarly research" and act of the retaining the existing structure. It goes on to define rehabilitation as "little effect on the original fabric" and defines conservation as the "sensitive attempt to integrate...modern additions." The issue of adaptive re-use in architecture is changing much like the culture and history of the particular pieces of architecture that fall into that category. Although there are the evident contrasting ideas of how far one can add, alter, and enhance existing architecture to bring it back from dead space, there is a sense of understanding beginning to surface. Adaptive re-use is at odds with the traditional goals of preservationists. A prominent preservation expert Swanke Hayden Connell Architects' Theodore Prudon reasons that "traditional rules won't apply to recent buildings" and is ready to argue for some flexibility in some categories.Item The catalog’s one-many problem : reading the Walker Art Center’s online collection catalog(2013-08) Galletly, Barbara Catherine; Feinberg, Melanie, 1970-A museum catalog is a legible, interpretable information system that acts as a rhetorical exposition of the museum’s collection and work. The unity of a collection is of course distinct from that represented in a catalog, and still further from the reader’s experience of it. But the information that comprises such an assemblage of individual records or representations, consistent metadata, support the ability to “read” collections as finite, enclosed, or complete. Here I perform a close reading of the elements and relationships that underpin the Walker Art Center’s online Permanent Collection catalog, an emergent publication funded by The Getty Foundation’s Online Scholarly Catalog Initiative (OSCI). I incorporate multiple layers of interpretation into my reading of the structure and contents of the museum website, drawing on concepts developed in information science and textual studies by Bonnie Mak and Johanna Drucker. My performance of reading of the new catalog helps me begin to address how collectively, online representation in virtual frames, contextualization within a website, searching, and browsing support divergent interpretations of a collection catalogue as a text. I conclude that to engage a catalog at a scholarly level, and to interpret and synthesize meaning of the catalog as a text, the museum must situate its self-representation spatially and temporally.Item Children's and adults' conceptions of authentic objects and the role of authenticity in learning(2016-08) Miller, Brooke Jessica; Woolley, Jacqueline D.; Bigler, Rebecca; Echols, Catherine; Reeves, Lauretta; Owen, Pamela; Seales, ChadQuestions concerning the level of authenticity of an object are of primary importance in many fields. For historians, archeologists, and museum workers, such questions go hand in hand with the way objects are usually found: broken, discolored, and of unknown origin. Even so, psychological research on authenticity tends to ignore the idea that authenticity is not a ‘perfect’ feature within an object, instead presenting a false dichotomy between completely authentic and completely inauthentic objects. In a series of studies the following questions were addressed: (1) How do children compare and contrast objects with different kinds of authenticity, (2) What qualities must an object have in order for children and adults to consider it to be authentic, and (3) What role might authenticity play in learning as it relates to exposure to authentic versus inauthentic objects? These questions were addressed in three studies that make up this dissertation.Item Collection documentation: creating a relational database for the National Museum of Belize(Texas Tech University, 2001-05) Dawson, Emma Mae PamelaBelize is the only English speaking country in Central America. It is also the only nation in the region that does not have a national/central museum or a system of regional museums. However, since the 1950's serious measures have been set in place to reverse this situation. These include the creation of a Ministry of Culture as well as the Department of Archaeology (with a Museum unit), a National Arts Council and a National Archive. Today, as Belize enters the 21st Century, there is a renewed focus on the preservation of the country's cultural heritage and national identity. It is the hope of the Government and those in the Cultural Heritage field that the creation of a national museum or a system of small regional museums will act as an instrument that bridges the cultural gap between Belizeans of all ethnicities. The mission of the museum(s) will be the preservation and interpretation of the country's diverse cultural and natural heritage and the main divisions include Art, Ethnology, Natural History, History and Archaeology. In order to support the various programs of these departments, a few years ago an ambitious national collection retrieval program was initiated. The result of which can be seen in the recently completed Curatorial/Storage Building. However, while hundreds of objects were collected this figure represents only a fraction of what will be needed for the creation of a system of nationally connected museums. For instance, the Department of Archaeology estimates that it has excavated and collected over one million archaeological artifacts. In addition, the majority of Belizean artifacts are currently stored in intemational institutions due to our lack of a national museum and/or other research facilities. With figures like these there is an urgent need for the creation of a computerized database program that focuses on an effective way to manage and track the country's material heritage located both in Belize and abroad. With a relatively young museum movement, Belize finds itself fortunate in that it can create a system that will serve its needs. As such, museum administrators will not have to rely on an old outdated system, because they will be in a position to implement an electronic data management system created and designed to suit their unique needs.Item Collection management plan and artifact analysis of a central Texas German ranch, Hedwig's Hill (41MS3), Mason County(Texas Tech University, 1997-08) O'Brien, Karen LynnThe Hedwig's Hill Collection is a classic example of an uncared-for, under-researched collection within a museum setting. Generated in 1971, this collection sat unprocessed within various storage conditions and facilities of the Museum of Texas Tech University. In 1979, a portion of the Collection was removed for conservation purposes. However, no work was ever completed and boxes full of artifacts were misplaced for 18 years before being relocated. During this time, artifacts were broken or destroyed through abuse and lack of care. Because of the current state of the collection (disorganized, improperly housed), basic collections management and simple preventive conservation procedures provide the basis for reestablishing the integrity of this collection. Processing the Hedwig's Hill Collection and conducting research on the objects adds valuable information for the interpretation of the site and for historical data on the types of materials used during the time period (1855 to 1930). Although rare, in-depth reports on historical materials from similar houses (early western frontier settlements) have been conducted in San Antonio (Durrenberger, 1965) and Victoria County (Fox and Livingston, 1979), Texas and at a farm house in Arizona (Fontana and Greenleaf, 1962). The main goal of this study is to bring the Hedwig's Hill Collection under control. This goal is reached through implementing standard, managed care over the Collection and gaining an understanding of the extent of the Collection in terms of the kinds of materials, amounts of materials, and condition of materials. A second goal is to use the Collection to demonstrate the potential for research of a collection that had been uncared for previously.Item Crowdfunding the museum : fad or future(2015-05) Erb, Elise Kathryn; Mayer, Melinda M.; Bolin, Paul EIn recent years, fundraising professionals and scholars have studied the potential use of crowdfunding as part of a well-rounded fundraising plan (Bœuf, Darveau, & Legoux, 2014; Boyle, 2013; Bump, 2014; Spirer, 2014; Tugend, 2014). As more museums experiment with crowdfunding, little in-depth study into this form of fundraising has occurred. Because crowdfunding is a technology-based method of fundraising, it has the potential to engage donors all over the world in meaningful relationships with museums. This thesis attempts to answer the question of whether crowdfunding is a passing fad or part of the future for fundraising in museums. This illustrative case study (Yin, 2009) focused on the applications and implications of the use of crowdfunding in museums. Specifically, it examined the campaign run by the Harry Ransom Center (HRC) at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) in the summer of 2010 to raise $30,000 to conserve five costumes from the film Gone with the Wind. The dresses would be on display in the HRC’s 2014 exhibition The Making of Gone with the Wind. This research sought to determine the implications of crowdfunding for organizational culture, fundraising strategies, audience development, education, and uses of technology. This research used case study research methodology (Gerring, 2007; Lapan, Quartaroli & Riemer, 2007; Merriam, 2009; Thomas, 2011; Yin, 2009) to gather and analyze data including interviews with six staff members directly involved in the campaign, the campaign website, and written comments from donors, and quantitative reports relating to the HRC crowdfunding effort provided additional data sources. The ultimate goal in researching this topic was to contribute to an understanding of the role fundraising could play in reaching contemporary audiences and donors. From the data, nine themes emerged that reveal the study's key findings. Synthesis of the data also yielded recommendations for successful crowdfunding campaigns in museums.Item Dark tourism: understanding visitor motivation at sites of death and disaster(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Yuill, Stephanie MariePeople are fascinated with death and disaster. One simply has to watch traffic slow to a crawl when passing a car accident to understand this. However, this fascination goes beyond the side of a highway and enters the realm of tourism. Today, numerous sites of death and disaster attract millions of visitors from all around the world: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Anne Frank's House, Graceland, Oklahoma City, Gettysburg, Vimy Ridge, the Somme, Arlington National Cemetery. The list grows each year as exhibited by the recent creation of an apartheid museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. Due to the increasing popularity of this tourism product, a small number of academics have begun studying the phenomenon. Leading the field are Lennon and Foley who labeled it Dark Tourism, Seaton who coined the term Thanatourism, and Rojek who developed the concept of Black Spots. However, despite ongoing study, there has been a paucity in understanding what actually motivates individuals to sites of dark tourism. Yet understanding motivation is imperative, particularly given the subject and sensitivity of these sites. Some are slowly decaying, and visitors play a large role in their preservation. Subsequently, without proper management, visitor influxes can further deteriorate sites or induce friction with the locals. Knowledge then, also provides administrators the necessary tools to properly manage the varying stakeholders. Although many feel an interest in death and disaster simply stems from morbidity, the range of factors involved extend from an interest in history and heritage to education to remembrance. To begin this study, a list of possible motivations was compiled. Then, to get a better comprehension of these motivations, visitors to the Holocaust Museum Houston were surveyed as a case study. As a commodified, synthetic site of death and atrocity, the museum fits the definitions of a dark tourism site as established by lead academics. Therefore, by asking visitors to the museum what motivated them to the site, the results will hopefully give some acumen into the wants and needs of certain stakeholders. Finally, this research sought to discover if motivation at the museum could shed light on motivation to other sites of dark tourism.Item Data management in recent mammal collections(Texas Tech University, 2000-12) King, Raegan DeanneCurrent trends in museum practices show increasing awareness of the important role complete and accurate data play in collection management. Careful integration of computer technology into data management procedures can reduce the effort associated with multiple transcriptions of data, increase the accuracy and consistency of data, and result in a more useful electronic database. WildCat is a relational database management system developed in 1997 to facilitate data management in the Recent mammal collection of Texas Tech University. WildCat consists of four distinct parts, the third of which, WildCat III, is a data entry application for use in-house and in the field. WildCat III allows a new approach to data management by introducing computerized data entry into the first stages of data gathering rather than at the more traditional final stage. This thesis determines the effectiveness of WildCat III in the capture of field-generated data, provides information concerning the use of computers in field situations, and discusses the impact electronic data capture has on mammal collections management.Item Disorder : rethinking hoarding inside and outside the museum(2011-08) Chen, Hsiao-Jane Anna; Galloway, Patricia Kay; Doty, PhilipHoarding tends to appear in museum studies scholarship primarily as a foil for “proper” museological collecting. Yet hoarding has attracted a constellation of assumptions and meanings. In popular discourse, hoarding is often perceived as a behavior learned from a life of deprivation, while clinical discourse about hoarding seeks to determine how it should be classified in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. These multiple perspectives inform the ways in which hoarding, and by extension collecting and museum practices, can be defined and understood. This report, then, examines how the idea of the museum is incorporated, reworked, or even rejected in three case studies of hoarding: art-historical approaches to Andy Warhol’s hoarding habits; "Clean House," a television show that cleans and redecorates families’ cluttered homes; and "Hoarders," a television show that pairs hoarders with psychiatrists and professional organizers. In each case study, the discourse surrounding the hoarder attempts to bring hoarding in line with “acceptable” collecting practices. At the same time, this particular discourse competes with other messages about the cultural role of collecting, generating a dialogue with important implications for collecting institutions about acquisition and appraisal, curatorial and archival bias, and institutional identity.Item Exhibiting Mexicanidad : the National Museum of Anthropology and Mexico City in the Mexican imaginary(2011-08) Coupal, Melissa Biggs; Strong, Pauline Turner, 1953-; Ali, Kamran; Flores, Richard; Foley, Douglas; Seriff, SuzanneThis dissertation provides an ethnographic account of the ongoing and evolving relations between the construction of nation and cultural production at the Museo Nacional de Antropología (MNA, or the Museo) in Mexico City. The MNA plays a key role in the production, reproduction, and dissemination of representations of Mexico’s pre-colonial past and its existing indigenous populations as components of contemporary Mexican nationhood. Historically, the Mexican state has used anthropological knowledge to inform and implement policies enacted to cement the ties of an ethnically diverse population to the nation, define and preserve national patrimony, and promote heritage as an economic resource. The dissertation explores the MNA as an arena for the expression of the tensions generated by these sometimes disparate agendas. I argue that the MNA, rather than simply reproducing and maintaining official understandings of the relationships between citizens and nation, also provides a space for the negotiation and transformation of these relationships.Item Harmony in marriage: integrating sustainable solutions into historic house museums without interfering with the historic fabric(2014-05) Bolliger, Serena Gigliola; Moore, Steven A., 1945-; Holleran, MichaelHistoric buildings live a double life between climate-adapted largely-passive structures and draughty, poorly-maintained ones. Preservation professionals argue that preserving these structures is more resource effective than constructing new buildings, and that pre-electricity structures were built to take advantage of climate and geography, using passive technologies to perform efficiently. Modern technologies have also been adopted- electrical lights, air conditioning, fire alarms - as a natural progression of inhabitation. Yet in historic house museums, there is still the promise of historic representation, one unmarred by ‘inauthentic’ additions. If modern and past technological changes have been accepted and integrated, how is the historic house museum not a ‘living building culture’? And if house museums are indeed a living building culture, why not allow a more flexible representation of our historic properties if they are interpreted with integrity and honesty? The EPA estimates that buildings represent 65% of the U.S. electricity use, and predictions estimate 80% of the 2030 building stock exists today. If we truly plan to reduce our energy consumption, we must confront the reality that existing buildings are a significant contributor to our output. If, as curators, it is our hope for historic buildings to represent preservation, then we must admit that in preserving the past for the future, we must begin by preserving our future. This thesis analyses the opportunities and risks for historic house museums to respect their historic interpretation but adapt to changing conditions. Examples of energy efficiency strategies both historic and current, will be examined in historic structures, illustrating that caretakers of historic buildings are making value judgments about the future of their property, in terms of environmental, fiscal and historical sustainability. This thesis includes the analysis of a case study historic house museum in Austin, Texas, the French Legation Museum, which is used as a base model for estimating energy efficiency gains from the adoption of some low-energy technologies. Calculations based on this information indicate which integrations and additions could offer the greatest return on investment for this historic building to operate as or more efficiently than a modern code construction without visible or egregious alteration to the historic fabric.Item I give you my word : the ethics of oral history and digital video interpretation at Texas historic sites(2012-05) Cherian, Antony, 1974-; Roy, Loriene; Norkunas, Martha K.; Galloway, Patricia; Doty, Philip; Seriff, SuzanneThis dissertation examines the process of using oral history and digital video to revise interpretation and represent more inclusive histories at three rural Texas historic sites—-Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site, the Lyndon Baines Johnson State Park, and Varner-Hogg Plantation—-21st century sites that, to varying degrees, have persisted to interpret a Texas master narrative that is no longer socially tolerable in its silencing of marginalized Texas voices. In particular, the dissertation focuses on complicated and rarely discussed ethical issues that surfaced during my work from 2001 to 2006 shooting, editing, and situating interpretive documentary videos at the each of the three sites. Historic sites in Texas, like others across the United States and worldwide, have been receiving increasing pressure from scholars and community groups to represent women, racial minorities, and other marginalized groups more prominently in the narratives they interpret. Oral history and digital media have played key roles in this ongoing movement. Oral history has widely been touted as a tool to democratize history, and advocates of digital video interpretation cite its affordability, relative ease of use, and its ability to “say so much in so little time.” These factors are all the more compelling for local, regional, and state-wide historic sites that are chronically under-funded, under-staffed, and that must often interpret multiple, complicated narratives with very little time or space in which to present them. However, little has been done to explore the unique and complicated ethical issues that arise from using oral history and digital video at historic sites. This dissertation takes a case study approach and uses as its intellectual framework ideas of reflective practice, part of the contemporary discourse among public history practitioners. Each case study introduces the site through a critical analysis of the images and texts produced by the site; presents the central historical silence at each site; describes the solution that oral history and digital video interpretation was expected to provide; and then uses the project’s process-generated video footage and records to examine key situations that led me to raise ethical questions about the individual projects and the overall enterprise.Item Incorporation of barcode capabilities to existing museum databases(Texas Tech University, 2000-12) Fishman-Armstrong, Susan E.An effective data management program saves time, money, and effort by increasing the accuracy, speed, and usefulness of the database. A bar code system is part of an effective data management system. Bar code capabilities were added at the Archeology department at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum (P-PHM), in Canyon, Texas (a PC environment), and the Paleontology Division at the Museum of Texas Tech University (MoTTU), in Lubbock, Texas (a Macintosh environment). A bar code generation utility was installed in the current databases and then used to print specimen labels. Before labels are printed, however, the collection's data must be proofread for erroneous data. The project consists of five Phases: (1) Database Correlation, (2) Upgrading the Database Management System, (3) Installing the Bar Code Utility, (4) Designing Views and Reports, and (5) Printing. The lasting effects ofthe project are increased control of collection management operations, expanded research capabilities, updated labels on archival paper, standardized labels and data, and automated generation of information tags.