HAD-473 Curating Culture: A History of Museums Collecting, and Display

3 Credits

• HAD-473-01

This course will address the history and theory of museums, collecting, and exhibitions. In addition to a consideration of the development of the institution of the museum, the course will address the ways and "whys" societies have organized, structured, classified and displayed knowledge and material culture throughout time. The course will begin with a study of the Renaissance cabinet of curiosities and continue through the opening of the British Museum and the Louvre to the new museums of today. Subjects to be considered include the role of Enlightenment, nationalism, colonialism, anthropology, appropriation, and architecture in the collection and display of artifacts. These subjects, in turn, will raise questions about our notions of history, art, public institutions, as well as visual and material culture.