New Museum Practice in Asia ― Public Purpose and Engagement

There is currently an explosion of museum and heritage activity across Asia, especially in China, where audience development and public education have been made a government priority area for museums. In some Asian countries such as Singapore and Korea public participation is already well established. As yet, this is little documented and reviewed for a wider audience in Asia and beyond. This practical handbook examines and critiques these developments and asks how best practice can match the specific needs of diverse Asian cultures and societies. Prioritizing, understanding and developing the relationship between museums and their users in cultural contexts that may, but often do not prioritize the public is a key challenge for Asian museum professionals at all levels, and for foreign partners of Asian museums also. Bringing together a range of regional examples of innovative practice and new initiatives, written by current practitioners, the book covers shared themes and challenges in museums, galleries, outreach/community projects and heritage sites across Asia.

Caroline Lang was Head of Communities and Audience Development at the V&A until 2011. She is currently based in Hong Kong and contributes to museum courses, professional training in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. Caroline is the author of Keep Smiling Through, an oral history of women in WW2 and co-edited The Responsive Museum (2006) with John Reeve and Vicky Woollard. John Reeve was formerly Head of Education at the British Museum working especially with its Asian collections. While there and subsequently he has worked for the British Council training museum professionals in Asia especially; and also until early 2016 as a lecturer in museum studies at UCL Institute of Education, training museum and heritage educators from all over the world and increasingly from Asia. He is published widely on aspects of museology as well as Asian art and culture.