Battle for the Museum

Cultural Institutions in Crisis

By: Rachel Spence

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Hardcover | 6 September 2024

At a Glance

Hardcover
288 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.6 x 13.8 x 2.8

Hardcover

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Culture and power have been bedfellows since ancient times. But now, more than ever, exhibits and the organisations responsible for them have become part of our troubled politics. Protests force out problematic patrons and curators, and pressure museums to abandon fossil fuel sponsorship. Campaigners demand equality and diversity, and condemn exploitation of artists and staff alike. Those confronting racism and imperial legacies call for restitution of cultural objects.

Arts journalist Rachel Spence has watched these institutions become a flashpoint for today's social divisions. She interviews those on the frontlines, from artists and activists to directors and donors, revealing stories of elitism, inequality and injustice. Business and finance launder their reputations through art fair and museum patronage, while governments bolster their authority by weaponising or attacking the arts and ordinary museumgoers mobilise to demand better. How did we get here, and what lies ahead for these institutions?

From China and Russia to Helsinki and New York, from the British Museum and the Louvre to the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi, Battle for the Museum uncovers a dark nexus of capital, culture and power and a radical shift in attitudes, driven by resistance movements fighting fiercely for exhibition spaces that serve today's public.

Industry Reviews

'This is a brave book, fluently written, at times almost in a torrent... . It will make compelling reading for anyone interested in contemporary art and where it's heading. I've rarely read a book where the thinking is so transparent.'

-- Literary Review

'Uncovers the unsettling truth behind art-washing and misdeeds.'

-- Geographical Magazine

'Searing and unflinching, this is a brutally and brilliantly honest analysis, revealing a topsy-turvy world of hypocrisy and ideals, complacency and protest, cruelty and beauty. Museums--and your place in them--will never look the same to you again.'

-- Chip Colwell, former curator and author of Stuff: Humanity's Epic Journey from Naked Ape to Nonstop Shopper

'A thought-provoking book, raising many questions about museums and their institutional values, art and its representation.'

-- Sarah Schulman, activist, historian and author of The Gentrification of the Mind

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