Mr Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, launched The Story of Irish Museums 1790-2000: Culture, Identity and Education at the Royal Irish Academy. This is the first book to give a long-term and comprehensive account of the stories, the histories and the evolution of Irish museums and galleries. The story begins in 1790, when the ‘cabinet of curiosities’ was an important asset in a gentleman’s home to the new millennium, when museums and galleries are at once physical and virtual spaces, this is a fascinating history of the human desire to collect, catalogue, conserve and create stories around our shared heritage.
The Story of Irish Museums, published by Cork University Press, is a wide-ranging history, incorporating the founding and the progression of the key institutions in Irish cultural history. It looks at the collectors and collections that form the basis of the national collections. Also addressed is the public role of the museum, the theoretical models upon which modern museums were established and the cross-cultural influences that allowed the museum cultures of Britain and America to find fertile ground in Ireland. Marie Bourke’s extensive research and clear passion for her subject have culminated in an erudite but accessible monograph on the history of the museum in Ireland within an international context, which also makes a strong case for the future viability of these cultural spaces in the age of global technology.
“A significant, thoroughly-researched and original approach to a subject which has not received the recognition it deserves. Both scholars within the field, and the general public, will enjoy and benefit from this history that has many lessons for today.” Dr Giles Waterfield - Independent curator and writer, Director of Royal Collection Studies and an Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
Marie Bourke is Keeper and Head of Education at the National Gallery of Ireland. The Story of Irish Museums 1790-2000: Culture, Identity and Education, Cork University Press, ISBN 978 185918 475 2, (hbk, 594 pp, 234 x 156mm, €49/£45).
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