TY - JOUR
T1 - State Authority and the Public Sphere
T2 - Ideas on the Changing Role of the Museum as a Canadian Social Institution
AU - Ashley, Susan
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - Museums are important public sites for the authentication and presentation ofheritage in Western cultures. The authority of museums is derived from theirlong history as repositories of material culture and as agents of identityformation, nationalism, and most recently, social inclusion. But in a countrysuch as Canada where global economics and popular culture combine withan unprecedented influx of immigrants, how society imagines itself and howthe nation articulates its community and its heritage is changing radically.Issues of power, meaning, authenticity and citizenship have threatened themuseum’s representational authority. How are Canadian museums respondingto these changes, and is their authority now up for debate? Or is the need toassert authority a problem in itself and can museums evolve a new type ofdiscourse about heritage? This paper investigates museum authority inherentin its simultaneous roles as voice of the state and as a public space for opinionand meaning making. It focuses attention on Canadian museums andgovernment policies that have influenced their authority, in particular, theoreticalimplications of the current drive for ‘social cohesion’. An exhibit on theUnderground Railroad and African-Canadian history at the Royal OntarioMuseum in Toronto is examined to consider how museums as instruments ofthe state can be re-tuned as sites of public identity discourse and socialinclusion.
AB - Museums are important public sites for the authentication and presentation ofheritage in Western cultures. The authority of museums is derived from theirlong history as repositories of material culture and as agents of identityformation, nationalism, and most recently, social inclusion. But in a countrysuch as Canada where global economics and popular culture combine withan unprecedented influx of immigrants, how society imagines itself and howthe nation articulates its community and its heritage is changing radically.Issues of power, meaning, authenticity and citizenship have threatened themuseum’s representational authority. How are Canadian museums respondingto these changes, and is their authority now up for debate? Or is the need toassert authority a problem in itself and can museums evolve a new type ofdiscourse about heritage? This paper investigates museum authority inherentin its simultaneous roles as voice of the state and as a public space for opinionand meaning making. It focuses attention on Canadian museums andgovernment policies that have influenced their authority, in particular, theoreticalimplications of the current drive for ‘social cohesion’. An exhibit on theUnderground Railroad and African-Canadian history at the Royal OntarioMuseum in Toronto is examined to consider how museums as instruments ofthe state can be re-tuned as sites of public identity discourse and socialinclusion.
UR - https://www108.lamp.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/mas/article/view/61
M3 - Article
SN - 1479-8360
VL - 3
SP - 5
EP - 17
JO - Museum and Society
JF - Museum and Society
IS - 1
ER -