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Art General

Hall of Mirrors

Museums and the Canadian Public

by (author) Robyn Gillam

Publisher
Banff Centre Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2001
Category
General, Museum Studies, Canadian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780920159859
    Publish Date
    Oct 2001
    List Price
    $24.95

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Description

Hall of Mirrors is an examination of Canadian museums and their relationship with the public which they attempt to represent. This book examines a number of questions, issues, and controversies surrounding some of Canada's major institutions. Whose interests do museums reflect and whose do they distort? Do museums provide a "social good" that should be publicly supported or should they be forced to survive in the free market? Hall of Mirrors assesses the identity crisis that faces Canadian museums in an analysis that has implications for all public cultural institutions.

About the author

Robyn Gillam lives in Toronto where she has worked as a writer for ten years. She also teaches at York University and has worked at the Royal Ontario Museum. Gillam was born in Australia and graduated from the University of Melbourne with combined honours in ancient history and Indian studies. She also studied Egyptology at University College London and has a doctorate in Near Eastern studies from the University of Toronto. Gillam has written extensively about intersections of art, literature and politics, and was a member of the editorial collective of Border/lines: Canada's Magazine of Cultural Studies, as well a contributing editor to Paragraph: The Ficiton Magazine.

Robyn Gillam's profile page

Editorial Reviews

"Hall of Mirrors questions whether museums have the financial or cultural muscle to survive the growing pressures of the 21st century."
-Carlene Rummery, Prairie Books NOW