University of Chicago Press: New Titles from 'American Alliance of Museums Press'

Crown Jewels

Randolph Delehanty — Wed, 15 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Since the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the national park movement has spread quickly and internationally. There are now over seven thousand national parks in 140 countries, and these numbers continue to grow. But national parks are facing new challenges in the modern age, such as rapid environmental change, the worldwide recession, and political pressures of varying degrees. In this richly illustrated and beautifully designed volume, Randolph Delehantypresents a diverse group of national parks from the United States, East Africa, Italy, Australia, Amazonia, and Tibet. Originally published to coincide with an exhibition at the Presidio of San Francisco, this book is organized into portraits of each park, complete with gorgeous images from internationally renowned photographers and incisive analyses by park experts from each region. Serving as both a testament to the beauty of the natural world and a timely call to action, Crown Jewels shows us that the world’s stunning national parks are an irreplaceable resource with an uncertain future—and all of us are key to securing that future.

Riches, Rivals and Radicals

Marjorie Schwarzer — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Highly illustrated, exhaustively researched, and eminently readable, this new edition of Riches, Rivals and Radicals describes the rise of the museum in the United States from the early twentieth century to the early twenty-first—a story that parallels the historic changes in American society. Through the decades, museums transformed themselves from cabinets of curiosity to centers of civic pride and prestige and emblems of our shared heritage, good and bad. With a rich cast of characters and admirable narrative sweep, Marjorie Schwarzer brings to life the deep impact that museum culture had on society at large and vice versa. Published in celebration of the American Alliance of Museums’ centennial and The Year of the Museum, Riches, Rivals and Radicals reveals the history of museums to be a gripping and remarkable facet of our American past. This new edition includes a new afterword by the author, and the main text has been updated and revised.

Exhibitions

Tom Klobe — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

“Good exhibition design promotes thought and feeling through the creation of an emotionally charged space—an environment that engulfs visitors, pulls them forward, and draws them into the story and its meaning,” writes Tom Klobe in Exhibitions. Here, Klobe gets at the heart of the power of exhibition design to grip visitors on both an intellectual and emotional level. Exhibitions lays out the basics for achieving such a result: the elements and principles of design, use of space, budgets and resources, lighting and wall labels, and much more. To illustrate the realization of theoretical and interpretive concepts, Klobe provides fifty in-depth, fully illustrated case studies from a variety of exhibits. Not only an easy-to-use textbook for students of all stages in museum training programs, Exhibitions prvoides an essential new resource for veteran museum curators and designers.

“Tom Klobe is an artist who creates works of stunning beauty, discerning perception, and deep relevance. His sharp eye for simplicity of design is coupled with a concern for communication with the audience. . . . His exhibit design work often shows us new ways to see and new ways to think.”—Van A. Romans, president, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History

From The Holy Land to Graceland

Gary Vikan — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

According to medievalist Gary Vikan, Graceland is much more than a wildly popular tourist destination associated with a famous entertainer, and Elvis Presley is much more than the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. In this fascinating new book, Vikan posits that Graceland, the second-most visited historic house in the United States, is a locus sanctus—a holy place—and Elvis is its resident saint. Thus the hordes of fans that crowd Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis are modern day pilgrims, connected in spirit and practice to their early Christian counterparts, sharing a fascination for icons and iconography, relics, souvenirs, votives, and even a belief in miracles. Vikan goes on to explore many other loci sancti around the world, including Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the Grassy Knoll in Dallas, and the Place de l’Alma in Paris. From the Holy Land to Gracelandexplores the role of our “martyred” secular saints today from John F. Kennedy to Michael Jackson.

Life in Museums

Greg Stevens; Wendy Luke — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

From the experienced leader or the midcareer professional hoping for a promotion to a recent grad applying for a first internship, A Life in Museums provides every museum professional, both experts and novices, with information for reaching their career goals. Providing sound advice, practical tips, and illuminating personal stories, the editors have ensured that the book spans an array of museum disciplines, making it an extraordinarily versatile guide to the profession. Topics include personal branding and resumes, management and leadership at all levels, professional writing and keeping career journals, and navigating within your institution and knowing when it’s time to move on. A Life in Museums has a place on the shelf of any museum professional and in the hand of any recent graduate.

Quality Instinct

Maxwell L. Anderson — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 06:00:00 GMT

How do we judge what is good in art? And more to the point, can we even judge art? These questions have long spawned heated conversations about objectivity, subjectivity, and qualitative judgment that span both the academic and art worlds. Acclaimed museum director Maxwell Anderson, newly named Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, enters the fray with The Quality Instinct. Part memoir, part primer on museum culture, The Quality Instinct brims with wit and humor, utilizing anecdotes and insights from the author’s thirty years in the highly competitive, often contentious art world. Anderson takes us on a grand tour of ancient and contemporary art, sharing five simple metrics of quality that help us to increase our visual literacy as we learn to see and, yes, even to judge art.