Cultural Resource Management: Museums, Heritage and Galleries Business & European Studies Program 2016/2017 Year - Barcelona

Historic heritage sites, museums, and art galleries are the 'cultural assets' of modern communities, considered crucial for their identity, prosperity, and well-being. They have experienced a global boom over the last 25 years, with new museums from Picasso to sneakers, and places claiming to be part of our 'cultural heritage' ranging from cathedrals to coal mines. In this course you will investigate the museum and heritage phenomenon, using the wide variety in which the city of Barcelona has invested since opting for a strong 'cultural policy' in the 1990s.

Museums have always been among our foremost places to consider the material culture made by our past and present societies. They are necessary firstly to guarantee its future by means of collecting and conservation procedures and secondly to make them accessible through exhibitions provided with techniques of interpretation. Objects very rarely 'speak for themselves' as works of art are supposed to do. They need to be put in a physical and conceptual framework which renders them intelligible and makes visible the variety of meanings which any object brings with it. The changes in these intellectual and practical processes continue to direct the development of museums and historic sites.

The management of cultural heritage will be considered with the history, politics, and ethics of exhibitions and the social and cultural influences which decide what is collected or conserved from our material culture and whose stories are told. Students will develop techniques of critical analysis of exhibitions and historic sites, looking at outstanding examples in Europe and North America, and gain practical experience in planning an interpretative exhibition by developing and presenting their own original idea. On-site classes and guest presenters will allow firsthand contact with people responsible for their management and development.

The course will provide opportunities for research which will be carried out both as a class through field visits and structured activities as well as individually in student assignments.