Transformative Beauty: Art Museums in Industrial Britain (Book)
Title: Transformative Beauty: Art Museums in Industrial Britain
Author: Amy Woodson-Boulton
Abstract: Why did British industrial cities build art museums? By exploring the histories of the municipal art museums in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, Transformative Beauty examines the underlying logic of the Victorian art museum movement. These museums attempted to create a space free from the moral and physical ugliness of industrial capitalism. Deeply engaged with the social criticism of John Ruskin, reformers created a new, prominent urban institution, a domesticated public space that not only aimed to provide refuge from the corrosive effects of industrial society but also provided a remarkably unified secular alternative to traditional religion. Woodson-Boulton raises provocative questions about the meaning and use of art in relation to artistic practice, urban development, social justice, education, and class. In today's context of global austerity and shrinking government support of public cultural institutions, this book is a timely consideration of arts policy and purposes in modern society.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=20284
Primary URL Description: Book website at Stanford University Press.
Access Model: Available for purchase in cloth and electronic formats.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780804778046
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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