Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums - Paperback

by Carol Duncan (Author)

Illustrated with over fifty photos, Civilizing Rituals merges contemporary debates with lively discussion and explores central issues involved in the making and displaying of art as industry and how it is presented to the community.

Carol Duncan looks at how nations, institutions and private individuals present art, and how art museums are shaped by cultural, social and political determinants.

Civilizing Rituals is ideal reading for students of art history and museum studies, and professionals in the field will also find much of interest here.

Back Jacket

In a groundbreaking study, Carol Duncan explores the function of art museums as ritual settings and as cultural artifacts that are much more than neutral shelters for art. She illuminates the ways in which museums in France, Britain and the U.S. engage their visitors in the performance of ritual scenarios and, through them, communicate and affirm ideas, values and social identities.

Author Biography

Carol Duncan teaches art history at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Her essays have been collected in The Aesthetics of Power (1993).