Cities, Museums and Soft Power

Gail Dexter Lord is co-founder and co-president of Lord Cultural Resources. With Barry Lord, she is co-editor of The Manual of Museum Planning (1991, 1999, 2012), and co-author of The Manual of Museum Management (1997 and 2009) and Artists, Patrons and the Public: Why Culture Changes (2010). She is co-author with Kate Markert of The Manual of Strategic Planning for Museums (2007). Gail has led cultural and tourism plans for cities as well as planning, management and exhibition assignments for museums, galleries and cities throughout Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, continental Europe, North America and Asia. In 2014, Gail was appointed Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the minister of culture of France. Ngaire Blankenburg is a principal consultant at Lord Cultural Resources. She has been a youth worker, jazz poet, cartoonist, documentary maker and television producer. She directed the award-winning documentary Morris Fynn Goes Native (SABC), was co-director of Nkosi’s Mission (SABC/BBC) and is co-founder of the Museum of AIDS in Africa. She has advised museum and cultural clients in Washington, DC; Patna, India; Dhahran, Dubai; Beijing, China; and Sydney. Ngaire grew up in Winnipeg, Harare, and Christchurch, and has lived and worked in Johannesburg, Toronto, Paris and Barcelona.

1. Introduction: Why Cities, Museums and Soft Power
Gail Dexter Lord & Ngaire Blankenberg

2. The Economics of Museums and Cities
Javier Jimenez

3. Museums in Public Diplomacy
Federica Olivares

4. London’s Knowledge Quarter: The Soft Power of Museums in the Knowledge Economy and Urban Development
Baillie Card

5. Museums in the Age of Brazilian Soft Power
Gege Leme Joseph

6. Museums as Signifiers in the Gulf
Hayfa Matar

7. When Soft Powers Collide
Ngaire Blakenberg

8. Unearthing the Genius Loci of Museums in the Indian Subcontinent
Batul Raaj Mehta

9. Cultural Nomads: Creative People on the Road
Robert Punkenhofer

10. Cranking Up the Soft Power Engine of Chinese Museums
An Laishun, PH.D

11. A Tale of Two Civil and Human Rights Cities
Gail Dexter Lord and Joy Bailey Bryant

12. Cairo and Its Museums: From Multiculturalism to Leadership in Sustainable Development
Mohamed Gamal Rashed

13. Global and Local: Fairs and Biennials, Temporary Urbanism and Pop-Up Museums
Lourdes Fernandez with translation by Marina Ramirez

14. The Museum Building Boom
Guido Guerzoni

15. Thirty-two Ways for Museums to Activate Their Soft Power
Ngaire Blakenberg and Gail Dexter Lord