Centering the Museum

Elaine Heumann Gurian has worked in the museum field since 1968, first as a community activist, then a director of museum education, and subsequently a professional deputy director for institutions dedicated to social justice and during the process of transforming themselves to address and embrace formerly marginalized groups.

Foreward: Americo Castilla, President, Fundacion TyPA, Argentina; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Centering the Museum; Museum Basics: My Museum Definition and Principles; Part I: The Museum Visitor's Exhibition Quest: Personalization, Complexity, And Multiple Outcomes; 1. The Essential Museum: Decoupling the Content from the Object, 2006; 2. Introducing the Blue Ocean Museum: A Layered Installation of the Nearly Immediate Future, 2007; 3. The Importance Of "And": Using Complexity Theory to Counter Simple Exhibitions, 2017; Part II: Museum Administrative Practice Must Mirror Philosophy: Fairness and Justice Toward Staff; 4. Institutional Trauma: The Effect of Major Change on Staff, 1989, revised 2020; 5. Brave Directors: The Profile of the Exceptionally Just Director, 2006; 6. Boston Stories: Lessons from the Past Practice of the Boston Children's Museum, 2008; 7. Curator: From Soloist to Impresario: Reforming the Curators' Relationship to Information, 2009; 8. Wanting to be Third on Your Block: How the "Classic" Director Creates Change, 2009; 9. Intentional Civility: Reexamining our Assumptions of Staff, Visitors, Community and Content, 2012; Part III: Museums Have Agency: Useful Activism in Museums; 10. Babar: Controversy Surrounding Time and Context, 2010; 11. Museum as Soup Kitchen: Museums as Venues for SocialServi ce, 2009; 12. Maybe This Time: A Personal Journey Toward Racial Equity in Museums, 2016; 13. Modeling Decency, Sir!: Intentionally Welcoming Visitors of Political Opposition is a Vital Task of Inclusion, 2017; Part IV: Museums' Obligation to Provide Public Space: Placing Museums in a Broadened Civic Sphere; 14. One Meter Square: A Poetic Essay about the Importance of Humble Pieces of Civic Land, 2010; 15. Public Spaces for Strangers: How Museums' Physical Assets Should Contribute to Communal Peace, 2017; Part V: Museums are Part of Larger Systems: Dissolving Boundaries to provide Coordinated Society-wide Benefits; 16. Museum Opportunities Through Another's Eyes: Michael Hulme and Climate Change, 2011; 17. Expanding the Known: Museums Should Join in Education Devolution Reform, 2013; Part VI: Memoir Snippets: The Professional Uses of Personal Experience; 18. Thinking About My Museum Journey: Lessons learned and Lists of Fundamental Concern, 1999; 19. Activism from the Inside: A Family Teaches Political Awareness, 1985; 20. The Museum Family: An Award Speech About Invented Relatives, 2004; 21. How Mentoring Works, 1984; 22. The Role of Consultants, 2003; 23. What I Learned from Children, 1984; 24. Gay in Multiple Parts, 2000 revised 2020; 25. My Charge to the Next Generation: A List of Personal Advice, 2017; Conclusion: Centering, the Finale: A Reflection on the Covid Time, 2020