Redistributing Knowledge and Practice in the Art Museum

Abstract

Looking back to the rise of institutional critique in the 1980s and New Institutionalism in the 1990s, the Foucauldian project to critically analyze the structural organization of power and knowledge in institutions seems historic when one considers the current relation between the art museum and the academy. Today, the ability to move across these two institutions—and particularly the art school and the art museum—has never been so open and fluid, nor the practices at one level so close, at least in the United Kingdom. For the development of formal research practices in the art museums now effectively parallels those of the university: initiating and leading research projects funded by the public and private sectors, running doctoral programs, supporting fellowships, developing research centers, hosting seminars, and organizing conferences for specialist audiences.