080012 VO The Museum. An Institution with a Mission (2023S)

The lecture locates the more than 200-year history of the public museum since its genesis in the course of the Enlightenment. Instead of linear lines of development of what a public museum was, is, or should be in the future, the focus is on fault lines in museum conception, mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion inscribed in the institution, and possibilities for reshaping an old institution in a rapidly changing world. The question of mission and social relevance runs as a thread through the examination of international as well as local case studies from the Louvre to the Women's Museum Hittisau. In terms of content, the lecture strings together the topics of museum foundations (1), museum genres (2), museum definitions (3), museum images (4), museum users (5), and museum critique (6) in order to develop a profound understanding of the museum as an institution, both historically grounded and conceived in relation to the present.

The three-hour sessions combine a) a lecture with basic input including a discussion of the selected case studies, b) a practical examination of a museum artifact in small groups, and c) a discussion with a guest from the Austrian museum scene at Club M. Contrary to the classical conception of a lecture as a silent input event without compulsory attendance, students are invited to attend the program as fully as possible and to actively contribute to the group work (on site) and to the design of Club M by formulating questions to the guests (once in advance). In order to document the contributions of all participants (teacher, students, guests) in the discussion of the museum as an institution (including a collective gain in knowledge that can be hoped for), the events will be recorded and the videos made available in moodle.