Challenge and Transformation: Museums in Cape Town and Sydney

Katherine Goodnow   -   ISBN: 92-3-202816-6  UNESCO, London, 2006

Challenge and Transformation: Museums in Cape Town and Sydney looks at how change takes place in museums. The book is built around a series of case studies outlining the way museums have come to terms with issues of diversity and change within ethnographic museums, historic sites and art galleries.

The case studies by Katherine Goodnow are complemented by an introduction by Jack Lohman, Director of the Museum of London, and an epilogue by the current CEO at Iziko Museums, Cape Town, Jatti Bredekamp.

It includes also a preface by Dr. Colin Jones, Archbishop Desmond Tutus Special Envoy who writes:

The first in the series Museums and Diversity is ... critical beyond the import it holds for the museum community. It is a vital contribution to the wider discourse so sadly lacking in the complex and fragmented world of our day, searching as we are for new words and meaning and for creative dialogue in our yet-to-be global community.

Challenge and Transformation: Museums in Cape Town and Sydney is the first book in a series titled Museums and Diversity which is devoted to issues of diversity and intercultural dialogue. In the Foreword to Challenge and Transformation, the Director General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, explains the import of the series as UNESCO sees it:

UNESCO considers that the series, by presenting scholarly and innovative approaches towards delicate and often neglected topics, will be a stimulus for constructive intercultural dialogue both within museums and amongst museums. In addition, we hope that the series will encourage countries sharing a common history to reinterpret their past links through joint efforts of mutual enrichment- in order to achieve a clearer presentation and more accurate interpretation of their collections.

The series is a co-publication between UNESCO, The University of Bergen, IZIKO Museums of South Africa, Bergen National Academy of the Arts and The Museum of London.

Katherine Goodnow is Professor at rhe Department of Information Scienes and Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway.

Jack Lohman is Director of the Museum of London, Professor at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts, and was previously CEO of IZIKO Museums of Cape Town.

Henry C (Jatti) Bredekamp is CEO of IZIKO Museums of Cape Town. He was the former Director of the Institute for Historical Research at the University of Weatern Cape.