To what extent do art museums in Australia mirror global changes in the museum world at the beginning of the 21st century? What museum features are particular to Australia? What challenges do Australian museums face today? What is their relationship with history, identity, and politics? Why and how are they growing and expanding? These and many more topical issues relating to museums in Australia are discussed in this book.
Museum directors, curators, collectors and academics from around Australia talk about their institutions and shed light on the diverse and vibrant ecology of museums across this vast country, both historically and today. The book discusses the nature of contemporary museums of art, their common and specific features, their contexts, relations, challenges, and plans.
The book features a theoretical introduction to art museums in Australia, presentations of fifteen selected museums and a collection of twenty-four interviews.
The book Art Museums in Australia is less a story of a distant continent than a valuable piece of museological reportage about our contemporaneity. The shifts and changes presented using the examples of fifteen museums are relevant to all of us, regardless of place or the roots of our culture. They reflect the great changes which took place at the turn of the 20th century.
Professor Dorota Folga-Januszewska, President ICOM Poland (from the review)
These conversations offer a unique overview of the Australian art world.
Professor Jaynie Anderson, The University of Melbourne
Dr Katarzyna Jagodzińska is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of European Studies, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and Chief Specialist at the Research Institute of European Heritage, International Cultural Centre in Kraków. She is an expert in museum studies and cultural heritage. Her previous book Czas muzeów w Europie Środkowej. Muzea i centra sztuki współczesnej (19892014) [The Museum Age in Central Europe. Museums and Centres of Contemporary Art (19892014)] (Kraków, 2014) was the first study of this important phenomenon, and her second monograph is the result of a research project at the Australian Institute of Art History, University of Melbourne.