Institute of Museum Ethics

"The Silent Message of the Museum"

The M.A. Program in Museum Professions and Institute of Museum Ethics at Seton Hall University are pleased to announce a lecture by conceptual artist Fred Wilson on Wednesday, February 3 at 7 pm in Jubilee Hall Auditorium. Wilson’s talk, titled “The Silent Message of the Museum,” is free and open to the public.

IME Special Guest Lecture from the Getty Museum of Art

Ethics Courses in the MA Program in Museum Professions

Cultural Property, Heritage and Museum Ethics

Guest Lecture, Director and Chief Curator, Department of Antiquities, Getty Museum of Art

On November 11, 2009, Karol Wright and Claire Lyons from the Department of Antiquities, Getty Museum of Art, presented a guest lecture in Alex Bauer's course Cultural Property, Heritage and Museum Ethics. The lecture was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Click Here to View a Video of the Lecture

Learn More about the Museum Professions Program at Seton Hall

Q & A on Museum Ethics

A recent New York Times article noted the very large donations ($10 million!) expected of donors to Manhattan’s large museums. Museums need the money, but: how should museums strike a balance between their need for board members with different skills (fundraising, professional services, publicity, mission-related), and broadly represent the community, when the expectations of donations are so high? How can museums create a Board of Directors with members that can help achieve success on many levels, not just financial? Is it ethical to stack a Board with members that will raise the most money or plan the best parties?

2008 Defining Museum Ethics Conference

The IME's 2008 inaugural conference, Defining Museum Ethics, brought together museum theorists, museum professionals, and ethicists to discuss what we mean by the terms transparency, accountability, and social responsibility.

Keynote Speaker: Richard Sandell, Director and Head of the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester.

2008 Defining Museum Ethics Conference Recap

Click here to view the videos from our Defining Museum Ethics Conferece

Latest News

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Museum Ethics ListServ

The IME listserv is a forum for discussion on ethics across the spectrum of museum areas, from registration to exhibitions, education to conservation.

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Bibliography

This developing project will be expanded as new texts are reviewed.

Click Here to View Bibliography

Partners' Corner

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.

Seton Hall University, located in South Orange, NJ, is home to the Institute of Museum Ethics.

Link to the MA program in Museum Professions

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The IME's inaugural conference, Defining Museum Ethics, brought together museum theorists, museum professionals, and ethicists to discuss what we mean by the terms transparency, accountability, and social responsibility.

New Directions in Museum Ethics: An International Conference of Graduate Student Research Information

Read a review of the 2009 Conference from Art Comments

Resources & Publications

Conference Review: Responsibility for Accessibility: 2010 International Pacific Rim Conference on Disabilities

A conference and lecture review on the Responsibility for Accessibility. Reid discusses the responsibility of museums to their visitors and how museum professionals respond to this challenge.

Book Review: Art/Museums: International Relations Where We Least Expect It

Submitted by Danie on Tue, 05/04/2010 - 2:43pm.

A book review of Art/Museums: International Relations Where We Least Expect It by Christine Sylvester. The book engages many well-known complex current events within the art world which Sylvester interprets with fresh insight.

Exhibition Review: Connecting Communities, the Arab American National Museum

Submitted by Danie on Tue, 05/04/2010 - 2:11pm.

A review of Connecting Communities from the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, MI. Connecting Communities, explores issues of immigration, specifically in Dearborn, Detroit and Hamtramck, three neighboring communities in southeastern Michigan. Local college students collected oral histories from nine local immigrants from the Arab World, Eastern Europe, Latin America and South Asia who settled in the Detroit area.