Fiona Candlin
Biographic Data
| ID | 1505524 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fiona Candlin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fiona |
| FAMILY NAME | Candlin |
| SIGNATURE | CANDLIN F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Birkbeck, University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6495-4618 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 41 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Unrealized Fears: Monitoring Museum Closure and Reopening in the United Kingdom During the Covid‐19 Pandemic
Fears of widespread permanent closures of museums expressed at the start of the COVID‐19 pandemic prompted our research to monitor closures and other museum behavior in 2021–2022. We wanted to understand how the UK sector changed in this period. Which museums closed, and what factors were at work in their closure? Did museums that closed have anything in common? Were there trends or patterns across the sector? To monitor as widely as possible we …
The UK museum boom: Continuity and change 1960–2019
During the late-twentieth century there was a significant increase in the number of museums in the UK. Apart from the polemic heritage debates of the 1980s and 1990s, the boom in museums was not much investigated. Our project “Mapping Museums” collected and analysed data on over 4000 UK museums that were open in the period from 1960 to 2019. Here we present our findings. We show that the number of museums increased from around 1000 to a highpoint…
A geography of UK museums
Museums are important centres of heritage, culture, education, and tourism. These diverse institutions operate in different ways, reaching different audiences and managing varied collections. Thanks to a novel database of unprecedented completeness produced by the Mapping Museums project, this study provides a quantitative geography of museums in the UK, showing how about half of the sector had not been surveyed before. The presence of museums is…
Understanding and managing patchy data in the UK museum sector
It is well accepted that the museum sector has a longstanding problem with data collection and management. This article begins by exploring problems with gaining access to data, poor archiving and coverage, and the absence of data. We then explain how the Mapping Museums research team set out to remedy the lack of longitudinal data on the UK museum sector in the period between 1960 and 2020. Initially we collated and supplemented existing informa…
What is a Museum? A new approach
The Mapping Museums research team recently compiled a dataset of UK museums. In doing so, we had to decide what counted as a museum. In this paper, we outline our initial approaches for establishing the criteria for selection: using definitions; key characteristics; and self-identification; and describe why they proved inadequate with respect to the heterogeneity of museum practice. We then explain how assemblage theory helped us conceptualise th…
The missing museums: Accreditation, surveys, and an alternative account of the UK museum sector
Surveys of the UK museum sector all have subtly different remits and so represent the sector in a variety of ways. Since the 1980s, surveys have almost invariably focused on accredited institutions, thereby omitting half of the museums in the UK. In this article we examine how data collection became tied to the accreditation scheme and its effects on how the museum sector is represented as a professionalised sphere. While is important to understa…
Rehabilitating unauthorised touchorwhy museum visitors touch the exhibits
In 2014 Senses and Society published a special issue on ‘Sensory Museology’. Registering the emergence of this new multi-disciplinary field, the editor usefully observed that ‘its most salient trend has been the rehabilitation of touch’. Arguably, however, touch has only been rehabilitated as an area of study insofar as it is authorised by the museum. Scholars have rarely considered the propensity of visitors to touch museum exhibits when they do…
Independent Museums, Heritage, and the Shape of Museum Studies
Reflecting on the British heritage debates of the 1980s and 1990s, Robert Lumley asserted that they continue to influence Anglo-American definitions and perceptions of that subject. This article suggests that they had a correlative impact upon the parameters of museum studies. The museums founded during the 1980s were mainly small scale enterprises and they were devoted to many different topics, but commentators almost exclusively focused on the …
The Object Reader
Nicolas Mirzoeff. Foreword Fiona Candlin and Raiford Guins. 'Introducing Objects' I. Object Marcel Mauss. 'Gifts and the Obligation to Return Gifts' Georg Lukacs. 'The Phenomenon of Reification', in History and Class Consciousness, Rodney Livingston Roland Barthes. 'Toys' Jean Baudrillard. 'Subjective Discourse or The Non-Functional System of Objects' D.W. Winnicott. 'Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena' Tim Ingold. 'On Weaving a bask…
Touch, and the Limits of the Rational MuseumorCan Matter Think
Like many other museums, the Enlightenment Gallery at the British Museum provides handling objects for visitors. As Enlightenment notions of science and rational thought have all been predicated upon a shift away from multisensory experience towards objective vision, the introduction of these tactile objects could be read as a premodern anachronism. In contrast, this paper uses a close analysis of the Hans Sloane's approach to collecting and John…
The Dubious Inheritance of Touch: Art History and Museum Access
Numerous museums and galleries now offer tactile opportunities as part of their access provision. This article asks why touch is deemed to be more accessible than vision as a way of learning about art and what repercussions that has for blind and visually impaired audiences. While touch has been discussed in many different contexts, touch also has a specifically art historical lineage where it is characterized in predominantly pejorative terms. T…
Don't Touch! Hands Off! Art, Blindness and the Conservation of Expertise
The embargo on touching in museums is increasingly being brought into question, not least by blind activists who are calling for greater access to collections. The provision of opportunities to touch could be read as a potential conflict between established optic knowledge and illicit haptic experience, between the conservation of objects and access to collections. Instead I suggest that touch is not necessarily other to the museum; rather, the s…
The Politics of Work Restoration and Imperialism at the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata
Touch, and the Limits of the Rational MuseumorCan Matter Think
Like many other museums, the Enlightenment Gallery at the British Museum provides handling objects for visitors. As Enlightenment notions of science and rational thought have all been predicated upon a shift away from multisensory experience towards objective vision, the introduction of these tactile objects could be read as a premodern anachronism. In contrast, this paper uses a close analysis of the Hans Sloane's approach to collecting and John…
Rehabilitating unauthorised touchorwhy museum visitors touch the exhibits
In 2014 Senses and Society published a special issue on ‘Sensory Museology’. Registering the emergence of this new multi-disciplinary field, the editor usefully observed that ‘its most salient trend has been the rehabilitation of touch’. Arguably, however, touch has only been rehabilitated as an area of study insofar as it is authorised by the museum. Scholars have rarely considered the propensity of visitors to touch museum exhibits when they do…
Don't Touch! Hands Off! Art, Blindness and the Conservation of Expertise
The embargo on touching in museums is increasingly being brought into question, not least by blind activists who are calling for greater access to collections. The provision of opportunities to touch could be read as a potential conflict between established optic knowledge and illicit haptic experience, between the conservation of objects and access to collections. Instead I suggest that touch is not necessarily other to the museum; rather, the s…
A geography of UK museums
Museums are important centres of heritage, culture, education, and tourism. These diverse institutions operate in different ways, reaching different audiences and managing varied collections. Thanks to a novel database of unprecedented completeness produced by the Mapping Museums project, this study provides a quantitative geography of museums in the UK, showing how about half of the sector had not been surveyed before. The presence of museums is…
The missing museums: Accreditation, surveys, and an alternative account of the UK museum sector
Surveys of the UK museum sector all have subtly different remits and so represent the sector in a variety of ways. Since the 1980s, surveys have almost invariably focused on accredited institutions, thereby omitting half of the museums in the UK. In this article we examine how data collection became tied to the accreditation scheme and its effects on how the museum sector is represented as a professionalised sphere. While is important to understa…
What is a Museum? A new approach
The Mapping Museums research team recently compiled a dataset of UK museums. In doing so, we had to decide what counted as a museum. In this paper, we outline our initial approaches for establishing the criteria for selection: using definitions; key characteristics; and self-identification; and describe why they proved inadequate with respect to the heterogeneity of museum practice. We then explain how assemblage theory helped us conceptualise th…
The UK museum boom: Continuity and change 1960–2019
During the late-twentieth century there was a significant increase in the number of museums in the UK. Apart from the polemic heritage debates of the 1980s and 1990s, the boom in museums was not much investigated. Our project “Mapping Museums” collected and analysed data on over 4000 UK museums that were open in the period from 1960 to 2019. Here we present our findings. We show that the number of museums increased from around 1000 to a highpoint…
Understanding and managing patchy data in the UK museum sector
It is well accepted that the museum sector has a longstanding problem with data collection and management. This article begins by exploring problems with gaining access to data, poor archiving and coverage, and the absence of data. We then explain how the Mapping Museums research team set out to remedy the lack of longitudinal data on the UK museum sector in the period between 1960 and 2020. Initially we collated and supplemented existing informa…
The Politics of Work Restoration and Imperialism at the Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata
Don't Touch! Hands Off! Art, Blindness and the Conservation of Expertise
The embargo on touching in museums is increasingly being brought into question, not least by blind activists who are calling for greater access to collections. The provision of opportunities to touch could be read as a potential conflict between established optic knowledge and illicit haptic experience, between the conservation of objects and access to collections. Instead I suggest that touch is not necessarily other to the museum; rather, the s…
The Dubious Inheritance of Touch: Art History and Museum Access
Numerous museums and galleries now offer tactile opportunities as part of their access provision. This article asks why touch is deemed to be more accessible than vision as a way of learning about art and what repercussions that has for blind and visually impaired audiences. While touch has been discussed in many different contexts, touch also has a specifically art historical lineage where it is characterized in predominantly pejorative terms. T…
Touch, and the Limits of the Rational MuseumorCan Matter Think
Like many other museums, the Enlightenment Gallery at the British Museum provides handling objects for visitors. As Enlightenment notions of science and rational thought have all been predicated upon a shift away from multisensory experience towards objective vision, the introduction of these tactile objects could be read as a premodern anachronism. In contrast, this paper uses a close analysis of the Hans Sloane's approach to collecting and John…
The Object Reader
Nicolas Mirzoeff. Foreword Fiona Candlin and Raiford Guins. 'Introducing Objects' I. Object Marcel Mauss. 'Gifts and the Obligation to Return Gifts' Georg Lukacs. 'The Phenomenon of Reification', in History and Class Consciousness, Rodney Livingston Roland Barthes. 'Toys' Jean Baudrillard. 'Subjective Discourse or The Non-Functional System of Objects' D.W. Winnicott. 'Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena' Tim Ingold. 'On Weaving a bask…
Independent Museums, Heritage, and the Shape of Museum Studies
Reflecting on the British heritage debates of the 1980s and 1990s, Robert Lumley asserted that they continue to influence Anglo-American definitions and perceptions of that subject. This article suggests that they had a correlative impact upon the parameters of museum studies. The museums founded during the 1980s were mainly small scale enterprises and they were devoted to many different topics, but commentators almost exclusively focused on the …
Rehabilitating unauthorised touchorwhy museum visitors touch the exhibits
In 2014 Senses and Society published a special issue on ‘Sensory Museology’. Registering the emergence of this new multi-disciplinary field, the editor usefully observed that ‘its most salient trend has been the rehabilitation of touch’. Arguably, however, touch has only been rehabilitated as an area of study insofar as it is authorised by the museum. Scholars have rarely considered the propensity of visitors to touch museum exhibits when they do…
The missing museums: Accreditation, surveys, and an alternative account of the UK museum sector
Surveys of the UK museum sector all have subtly different remits and so represent the sector in a variety of ways. Since the 1980s, surveys have almost invariably focused on accredited institutions, thereby omitting half of the museums in the UK. In this article we examine how data collection became tied to the accreditation scheme and its effects on how the museum sector is represented as a professionalised sphere. While is important to understa…
Understanding and managing patchy data in the UK museum sector
It is well accepted that the museum sector has a longstanding problem with data collection and management. This article begins by exploring problems with gaining access to data, poor archiving and coverage, and the absence of data. We then explain how the Mapping Museums research team set out to remedy the lack of longitudinal data on the UK museum sector in the period between 1960 and 2020. Initially we collated and supplemented existing informa…
What is a Museum? A new approach
The Mapping Museums research team recently compiled a dataset of UK museums. In doing so, we had to decide what counted as a museum. In this paper, we outline our initial approaches for establishing the criteria for selection: using definitions; key characteristics; and self-identification; and describe why they proved inadequate with respect to the heterogeneity of museum practice. We then explain how assemblage theory helped us conceptualise th…
A geography of UK museums
Museums are important centres of heritage, culture, education, and tourism. These diverse institutions operate in different ways, reaching different audiences and managing varied collections. Thanks to a novel database of unprecedented completeness produced by the Mapping Museums project, this study provides a quantitative geography of museums in the UK, showing how about half of the sector had not been surveyed before. The presence of museums is…
The UK museum boom: Continuity and change 1960–2019
During the late-twentieth century there was a significant increase in the number of museums in the UK. Apart from the polemic heritage debates of the 1980s and 1990s, the boom in museums was not much investigated. Our project “Mapping Museums” collected and analysed data on over 4000 UK museums that were open in the period from 1960 to 2019. Here we present our findings. We show that the number of museums increased from around 1000 to a highpoint…
Unrealized Fears: Monitoring Museum Closure and Reopening in the United Kingdom During the Covid‐19 Pandemic
Fears of widespread permanent closures of museums expressed at the start of the COVID‐19 pandemic prompted our research to monitor closures and other museum behavior in 2021–2022. We wanted to understand how the UK sector changed in this period. Which museums closed, and what factors were at work in their closure? Did museums that closed have anything in common? Were there trends or patterns across the sector? To monitor as widely as possible we …
Museums and Cultural Heritage (11 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Art (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Archaeology (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Museology (5 works) · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis (4 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works)