Educational Objectives
The course aims to give students an understanding of the core principles of Museology exposing them to an historical and critical overview on the evolution of museums and their associated functions. The use of to the point examples will give students the basics necessary to grasp the whole picture of the technical and management practices that guarantee museums' attainment of purposes and correct functioning. Special attention is dedicated to those issues pertaining to safeguard, valorization, communication, museum didactics and use of IT technologies.

Program
The course includes an institutional introduction to museum history, starting with the first and best-known forms of collecting up to the birth of public museums, touching upon some Italian and international examples from the Eighteenth century to the present day.
The presentation and subsequent discussions regarding the functions of contemporary museums are based on the definition supplied by the Code of Professional Ethics of ICOM (2004) and the Italian Cultural Assets and Landscape Act (2004).
A range of issues pertaining to present day museums will be discussed taking into account the criteria of museum standards certification: museum design, organization, management, communication, educational services and the use of innovative techniques for the fruition of cultural assets. Field experts will contribute to classes with lectures on specific topics. Further to these activities, the course is integrated by study visits to some museums and a seminar on communication and museum didactics.

Learning Outcomes
Students have to gain competence with regards to the core principles of Museology, integrating their knowledge of the historical and theoretical framework of museum and museum functions evolution, with knowledge of the technical and management functions that guarantee museums correct functioning and attainment t of purposes. The examples presented and discussed during the course will allow students to gain competence regarding: safeguard and valorization, management and communication of tangible and intangible goods, museum didactics and the use of IT.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Additional Teaching Activities
Study visits to Italian museums and collections.
Lectures on specific topics by field experts.

Teaching

Lectures in italian language

Lectures on specific topics by field experts

Course books

Texts

M.C. Mazzi, In viaggio con le muse. Spazi e modelli del museo, Edifir, Firenze, 2005;
L. Cataldo, M. Paraventi, Il Museo oggi. Linee guida per una museologia contemporanea, Milano, Hoepli, 2007 .
inoltre, un testo a scelta tra i seguenti:
M. Dalai Emiliani, Per una critica della museografia del Novecento in Italia. Il "saper mostrare" di Carlo Scarpa, Venezia, Marsilio, 2008;
M.C. Mazzi, Musei anni '50: spazio, forma, funzione, Firenze, Edifir, 2009;
L. Basso Peressut, Il museo moderno. Architettura e museografia da Auguste Perret a Louis I. Kahn, Milano, Lybra Immagine, 2005, pp. 91-193;
C. Prete, Aperto al pubblico. Comunicazione e servizi educativi nei musei, Firenze, Edifir, 2005;

K. Schubert, Museo. Storia di un'idea. Dalla Rivoluzione francese a oggi, Il Saggiatore-Biblioteca, Lavis (TN) 2010;

G. Reina, a cura di, Gli ecomusei. Una risorsa per il futuro, a cura di, Marsilio, Venezia 2014.

A PowerPoint presentation integrating the indicated texts will be supplied at the end of the course.  

Assessment

Oral exam.
Candidates must demonstrate a broad knowledge of the most important Italian and international museums, from the first forms of collections and collecting up to the present day.
Taking into account the museum standards certification criteria, they will also have to discuss, using an appropriate and specific language, present day museum issues pertaining to: safeguard, organization, management, communication, educational services as well as innovative techniques used to valorize artistic and cultural heritage.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Lectures in italian language

Course books

Texts
G. Corsane, Heritage, Museums and Galleries: An Introductory Reader, Abington, Routledge, 2005, part one.
Two texts chosen from the following :
- B. Lord, M. Piacente, Manual of Museum Exhibition, Rowman &Littlefield , New York, 2002.
- L. Paul, G. Pauln , The first modern museums of art: the Birth of an Istitution in 18th-and early-19th-Century Europe, Los Angeles, Getty Museum,2012
- P. Aronsson, G. Elgenius, National Museums and National- building in Europe 1750-2010: Mobilization and Legitimacy, Continuity and change, Routledge, Oxon- New York, 2015.

A PowerPoint presentation integrating the indicated texts will be supplied at the end of the course.

Assessment

Oral exam.
Candidates must demonstrate a broad knowledge of the most important Italian and international museums, from the first forms of collections and collecting up to the present day.
Taking into account the museum standards certification criteria, they will also have to discuss, using an appropriate and specific language, present day museum issues pertaining to: safeguard, organization, management, communication, educational services as well as innovative techniques used to valorize artistic and cultural heritage.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Lectures in italian language