Museums and Written Communication: Tradition and Innovation

This volume brings together 30 museum experts (26 in English and 4 in French) to lift the lid on museum print and texts. Contributions were originally presented at the UNESCO World Book Capital of 2012, a timely and far-sighted conference held in Armenia.

If text is essential to communication, how can museums be sure that what they offer will engage, interpret or even transform the visitor, the tourist or the scholar? This book offers a wealth of answers to this question and related concerns.


Nick Winterbotham has led eight museum and education services in the UK since the 1980s and at the time of the conference was the Chairman of the Group for Education in Museums. His doctorate explored the relationship between Museums and Schools.

Ani Avagyan has initiated and implemented different projects for the International Council of Museums Armenia and the Association of Museum Workers and Friends since 2007. As Head of Education at the National Gallery of Armenia since 2008, she is currently developing her professional knowledge, experience and international networks in museum learning.

Nicole Gesché-Koning is the French language editor of four of these papers. She has worked in museum education for forty years. She was chair of the ICOM–CECA Committee for Museum Interpretation and edited the journal of the ICOM Education committee for twenty years. Fluent in five languages she has published many articles in the field of museum education and lately in heritage interpretation and conservation.

"All in all, the workshop-style suggestions and the theoretical models presented in this volume have practical implications for museum professionals and policy makers in re-designing their text-based communication strategies to embrace multi-vocality and shared responsibility, ongoing transition and multimodality. My understanding is that text will remain strong on the forefront of audience engagement but its use for the appropriation and interpretation of heritage will take new shapes. These will come as a response to the demands of the post-modern visitor, the changes digital technologies bring and the realities of the museum’s role as an agent of social change. The chapters are quite diverse but the thread that unites them is the message about written communication itself: the museum is a polyphonic and ever-changing piece of text (c.f. Ravelli, 2006). No matter how fragmented this message may appear, it is indeed difficult to do justice to the multitude of aspects that the volume explores as a resource of great interest to museum professionals and researchers alike."

- Zoi Tsiviltidou, Museum and Society 17(1), 2019

Levon Abrahamian

Michel Allard

Ajend Ayu Arainikasih

Helene Barucq

Lana Bede

Mette Boritz

Abdolrahim Cavahi

Colette Dufresne-Tasse

Jenni Fuchs

Smadar Gafni

Nicole Geshe-Koning

Hana Gottesdiener

William Grassie

Catherine Guillou

Michael Gydendal

Alison Heath

Gina Koutsika

Teodorus Meereboer

Lilit Minasyan

Hamlet Petrosyan

Hripsime Pikichian

John Reeve

Peter Samis

Mila Skaric

Albert Stepanyan

Christina Topfer

Emeline Trion

Arja Van Veldhuizen

Jean-Christophe Vilatte

Melissa Viswani

Li Wang

Nick Winterbotham

Eunmi Yi

Anne Putri Yusiani

Buy This Book

ISBN: 1-5275-0755-6

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-0755-5

Release Date: 30th May 2018

Pages: 274

Price: £61.99

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