Museum Exhibition Practice: Recent Developments in Europe, Canada, and Australia

Abstract

This chapter provides a comparative international survey of museum exhibition practice, which, despite the specifics of each locality, reveal common developments in the display of permanent galleries and temporary exhibitions. Linda Young's Introduction historicizes long‐term change in exhibition installations, noting the role of fashion, but also the impact of contemporary politics on inherently conservative institutions. Major shifts in museum exhibitions around 2000 reveal such changes in knowledge paradigms, sociopolitical movements, national identity and the tension with indigeneity. In her section, Young then traces the revision of permanent displays of Aboriginal culture and history in Australia's major museums. Next Anne Whitelaw discusses the transformation of Canadian art history, which has been “rewritten” through new permanent hangs in three art museums in Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto. In reviewing the three exhibitions she identifies the ways in which exhibitionary strategies separate or integrate indigenous art and in so doing reshape public and professional understanding of art in Canada. Lastly, Rosmarie Beier‐de Haan discusses transnationality and “difficult” heritage as addressed in new exhibition practice in German and European museums. Innovative exhibitions and museums do not deliver “definitive” interpretations of history; rather, she argues, they represent it as complex and multi‐perspectival.