Museum period rooms for the twenty-first century
Salvaging Ambition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5905625 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julius Bryant (Victoria and Albert Museum, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 73-84 |
| Publication date | 2009-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Museum Management and Curatorship (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0964-7775 • E-ISSN: 1872-9185 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09647770902731866 |
| OpenAlex | W1992415219 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 6 |
In the late twentieth century, many museums dismantled and disposed of their period rooms. Current trends, however, reveal a revival, driven by the popularity of historic interiors with the public, by the desire of museums to attract new audiences and by their need to address questions of local, social and national identity. Recent initiatives are proving controversial. This article surveys recent developments and provides a rationale for evaluating the role and merits of surviving period rooms. Further, it points to the scholarly potential of period rooms today when presented and interpreted, not as decorative arts displays or as local history narratives (or as confusing combinations of both approaches), but through the broader cross-disciplinary context of material culture studies. It calls for greater awareness of the underlying social values that each period room promotes
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Discipline · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Popularity · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Historical Art and Culture Studies · History · Law · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Photography and Visual Culture
| Citations per year | 0.29 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2025 (14) |
| Highly cited | No |