Beyond Bricks and Mortar: reframing museum encounters

Abstract

Since the late 1970s museums have undergone a significant shift paradigm shift in relation to how they view their overall mission. This shift can be characterised as a turning away from traditional models in which individual curators (by way of scholarship and connoisseurship) dictate how museum audiences should apprehend and understand significant objects of art, science and history – towards a community-centred approach where curators work collaboratively with interested stakeholders to create a pluralist platform for social change. Robinson (2017) puts some of these ideas under the microscope as part of her recent review of the exhibition Encounters: Revealing Stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Objects from the British Museum.