Includes bibliographical references (pages 343-347) and index.
Contents:
Britain and the Visual Arts -- Justifying the Museum -- Struggling for a Voice : the Learned Society and Artists' Society in the Provincial City -- Unpromising Soil : The Cities of the Industrial Revolution and the Earliest Civic Art Galleries -- The Universal Exhibition -- For Instructions and Recreation -- Art on Show -- 8. The Temporary Exhibition : Nest or Cuckoo? -- A New Style of Collecting -- Education in the Victorian Gallery -- Patrons, Donors, Councillors, Curators, Visitors -- Addressing the Past -- A New Order -- The Aftermath.
Summary:
"This innovative history of British art museums begins in the early 19th century. The National Gallery and the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in London may have been at the center of activity, but museums in cities such as Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Nottingham were immensely popular and attracted enthusiastic audiences. The People's Galleries traces the rise of art museums in Britain through World War I, focusing on the phenomenon of municipal galleries. This richly illustrated book argues that these regional museums represented a new type of institution: an art gallery for a working-class audience, appropriate for the rapidly expanding cities and shaped by liberal ideals. As their broad appeal weakened with the new century, they adapted and became more conventional. Using a wide range of sources, the book studies the patrons and the publics, the collecting policies, the temporary exhibitions, and the architecture of these institutions, as well as the complex range of reasons for their foundation"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.