Reinventing the Museum: Relevance, Inclusion and Global Responsibilities is the third edition following the 2004 and 2012 versions of the Reinventing series. More than a decade since the prior volume, this edition features all new content written since 2015 germane to this pivotal time for museums and the world. The book illuminates the complex external realities and shifts impacting museums, to spur and initiate relevant transformation in order to help define museum’s most impactful role in the ecosystem of their diverse communities at the local, regional and global levels. The urgency for meaningful change is key for museums to emerge as central, more vital contributors in a world that requires new visionary leaders with strategies to make a difference.
The anthology features leading thinkers from across the globe each probing a thread or topic that creates a look into the origins, realities and pressures marking this pivotal time for museums. The introduction frames the book, highlights the issues of our times and the structure of the articles compiled and sequential flow of the contents. Setting the stage for the book is an update to the Reinventing the Museum Tool.
“When I started my career as an Indigenous curator the first book I read was the first edition of Reinventing the Museum. It was ahead of the curve when it came to discussions around decolonizing museums, their colonial baggage, and inclusion. I am so excited for this third edition as it’s even more timely and forward-looking.” Aaron Leggett, Senior Curator, Alaska History and Indigenous Cultures, Anchorage Museum, president, Native Village of Eklutna
The Resilience Playbook is 110 pages of strategies, guiding principles, and resources to be used by an institution in consultation with GA&A or the Resilience Team. Developed with Anne Ackerson and Dina Bailey, The Playbook is a forward-looking and a bold approach to help museum leaders rethink the role of their institution relative to a world of disruption and contemporary challenges in order to reimagine a meaningful, relevant, and financially viable path forward. The resilience strategies require rethinking institutional assumptions, and tackling embedded exclusionary and outmoded ideologies and practices in order to establish more flexible, inclusive, and responsive approaches that better align with external realities.
Unlike a book that is purchased separately, The Playbook is a critical component of the services offered by the Resilience Team. It is a digital workbook, a reference, and an ideology. Specifically, The Resilience Playbook encompasses 5 Resilience Goals and 20 Plays that offer empowering and practical approaches to help your organization increase and strengthen its commitment to equity and inclusion, community value, an impactful role, financial viability, and agile leadership. It’s a detailed tool for taking the steps to create a resilient organization and to inform and shape your Resilience Plan.
Mission Matters sheds a fresh light on how to envision relevant and impactful museums making direct links to external contemporary realities and the need for museums to better position themselves as leaders and change agents in the greater landscape and diversity of people of our times.
“This book is right on the money. The world is making ever-increasing demands of museums leading to all sorts of tensions and controversies. Strong missions are increasingly important in order to help museums cope with these pressures. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to all who are involved in museum management.
Gail Anderson is an expert in the field, and we are fortuante that she has produced a contemporary view of such inportance.” – David Fleming, Ph.D., Professor of Public History, Hope University, Liverpool, England and former Director, National Museum Liverpool
This second edition is an anthology of 44 seminal articles representing the changing perspectives about the role of museums in contemporary times. The book includes iconic pieces from the 20th century and 33 new articles presenting the latest thinking of the past decade since the first edition. This edition represents 75% new material.
“In this new edition of Reinventing the Museum Gail Anderson once again provides a comprehensive and thoughtful array of essays by leaders in the museum field and beyond. Issues that address the challenge of the 21st century museum are explored in many of these essays which will serve both students and practitioners. I welcome this new and valuable addition to the literature.” – Martha Morris, George Washington University
This first edition anthology brings together 35 seminal articles that reflect the unfolding thinking on what it means to be a museum in today’s world. The book highlights pivotal articles from the 20th century through to the present in the introductory section.
Contemporary perspectives on the role of the public, public service, stewardship, and leadership constitute the remaining sections. This reader is designed to provide trustees, museum professionals and students with access to some of the best thinking in the museum profession.
A well-crafted mission statement is one of the central management tools for museums navigating the present into the future. Twenty top museum professionals share their memorable experiences shaping their institution’s mission statement, and bring to life the principles and techniques for attaining a mission statement that inspires and energizes.
This book provides step-by-step guidance in writing or evaluating a museum mission statement and how to use it effectively. Generously supplemented with 79 mission statements from a wide variety of museums, the report is useful to any size or type museum.
Gail is a terrific partner because she brings a comprehensive understanding of museum structures, challenges, opportunities, needs, and constraints.
Yet GA&A still approaches each museum as a unique organization based in specific local communities and situations, with budgets, buildings, collections, and staff teams that are equally unique.