Programme

Course title: The Museum in the contemporary debate: traditions and contradictions.

Never as intensely as today, and at every latitude in the world, has the museum institution been at the center of a debate that constantly challenges its traditional status as a place for the preservation, study, and protection of collections. This course aims to provide a broad overview of the museum and museology (definition, status, structure, services, professions, spaces) and to analyze some themes dear to Critical Museology, such as decolonization, relocation, the development of museums of memory and human rights, the relationship with the social and economic sciences, etc. The second part of the course will take place in the form of seminars conducted in museums by students based on individual research. Several field trips to Roman museums are planned.

Core Documentation

To pass the exam, students must demonstrate that they have thoroughly studied:

a) at least one of the following texts:
A Companion to Museum Studies, edited by S. Macdonald, Malden, Mass., Blackwell, 2006
L. Cataldo, M. Paraventi, Il Museo oggi, Modelli museologici e museografici nell'era della digital transformation (The Museum Today: Museum and Museographic Models in the Age of Digital Transformation), Milan, Hoepli, 2023


b) at least one of the following texts:
The Curation and Care of Museum Collection, edited by B.A. Campbell, Ch. Baars, London; New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019
The contemporary Museum: shaping Museums for the Global Now, edited by S. J. Knell, London, New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019
M.T. Fiorio, Il museo nella storia. Dallo “studiolo” alla raccolta pubblica, Milan, Mondadori, 2011
Musei italiani del dopoguerra (1945-1977). Ricognizioni storiche e prospettive future, edited by Valter Curzi, Milan, Skira, 2022.
F. Haskell, The Ephemeral Museum: Old Master Painting and the Rise of the Art Exhibition, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2000 (Italian translation: La nascita delle mostre. I dipinti degli antichi maestri e l’origine delle esposizioni d’arte, Milan-Geneva, Skira, 2008
S. Costa, D. Poulot, M. Volait (edited by), The period rooms: historical installations between art, collecting, and museology, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2016
M. Ferretti and A. Buzzoni, Museums, in Understanding Italy. Historical and Artistic Heritage, TCI, Milan 1979, pp. 112-131.
S. Verde, Fine Arts and Savages, the Discovery of the Other, Art History and the Invention of Cultural Heritage, Venice, Marsilio, 2019
P.C. Marani, R. Pavoni, Museums, Transformations of an Institution from the Modern Age to the Contemporary, Venice, Marsilio, 2006
D. Jallà, The Contemporary Museum, new updated edition, Turin Utet 2004
A. Mottola Molfino, The Book of Museums, Turin, Allemandi, 1998
R. Fontanarossa, Collectors and Museums. A Cultural History, Turin, Einaudi, 2022

c) the dossier of articles that will be made available during the course and published on the teacher's notice board;

d) students must also have visited and analyzed the spaces and services of the following Roman museums:
- Capitoline Museums
- Vatican Museums
- National Gallery of Ancient Art in Palazzo Barberini
- National Gallery of Ancient Art in Palazzo Corsini
- Spada Gallery
- National Museum of Palazzo Venezia
- Museum of Rome
- Napoleonic Museum
- Mario Praz Museum
- Centrale Montemartini Museum
- National Roman Museum
- Museum of Civilization
- National Gallery of Modern Art
- MAXXI
- MACRO
- Palazzo Merulana

Attendance

Lectures, student-led seminars, museum visits

Type of evaluation

The exam is conducted orally with an interview between student and lecturer relating to the various topics covered in the course and the bibliography indicated, the critical texts indicated for the exam, and in the analysis of the museums commented on during the lectures and external visits. Non-attending students must demonstrate that they have critically read the texts indicated in the syllabus and have made the visits to the museums listed. The grading scale is 30/30. The following constitute elements of evaluation: 1) the depth and breadth of the knowledge acquired; 2) the property of language and mastery of the vocabulary of the field; 3) the ability to critically connect themes and problems addressed.