Spectacle and Display

This collection reflects on the ways in which historically and trans-culturally collections have been curated and displayed. Contributors address the arrangement of public and private collections, the creation of visual spectacle, thematics in collecting, institutional histories, and questions of national heritage and identity. Narratives of display in major museums such as the National Gallery in London are considered alongside spectacular international events such as the Festival of India, Manchester Art Treasures, the Japan World Exposition of 1970, or the public presentations of a Byzantine miniature. Contributors consider the politics of spectacle and questions of audience. The collection includes an authoritative reflection on museum studies today, and artists's pages by Neil Cummings and Marisya Lewandowska.

The book was first published as a Special Issue of Art History, 30:4, September 2007.
Introduction: Spectacle and Display: Setting the Terms, by Deborah Cherry and Fintan Cullen, 475-480. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ahis.2007.30.issue-4/issuetoc

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