The responsive museum

How should museums and galleries understand their role in learning, and how does that role connect with the people who visit them? This edited collection examines the ideas, policies and everyday practices behind museum education, tracing the tangled links between institutions and their audiences and the disputes that have grown out of them. Contributors who work as museum educators and directors bring firsthand experience to the discussion, drawing on recent research and on examples of good practice.

The chapters cover a broad range of concerns. They consider audience development and wider public access, with attention to particular groups, minority communities and disabled visitors, as well as to personal growth and different ways of learning. Public accountability and funding are also addressed, along with the evaluation methods used to measure a museum's impact on audiences and to identify what those audiences need. The book further looks at how architects, designers and artists shape what visitors experience.

The final section turns to the practical side of running a museum, including management, staffing, and the training and skills that will be needed in future. The book is written for students, museum staff (especially those in education and interpretation), senior managers and policy-makers, and it is intended to inform future strategy and practice.