Looking Reality in the Eye: Museums and Social Responsibility

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005

AM7

1-55238-143-9

Looking reality in the eye; museums and social responsibility.

Title main entry. Ed. by Robert R. Janes and Gerald T. Conaty.

Univ. of Calgary Press, [c]2005

196 p.

$29.95 (pa)

Inspired by a panel presentation on museums and social responsibility at the annual meeting of the Canadian Museum Association in 2003, Janes and Conaty (both: archaeology, U. of Calgary, and Glenbow Museum) have assembled essays that present nine case studies of museums that have been effective in embracing socially relevant missions. One essay addresses the history of mission-driven museums, while others consider a diverse array of museums in the US and Canada, from a museum that brings art to patients in a hospital ward, to one that is remedying its past practice of displaying the remains of indigenous people. Distributed by Michigan State U. Press.

**** Four stars at the beginning of an annotation indicate that a previous edition has been cited in Books for College Libraries, 3rd ed., in Guide to Reference Books, or in other standard references.