Not satisfied with the assertion that museums have taken great strides in becoming representative, relevant and open in their preoccupations, A Museum in Public contends that the supposedly public nature of their institutional role continues to be a rhetorical one. This book critically examines museums as institutions of the public sphere, questioning what assumptions are made about the publicness of their operations. Using as a case study the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Canada's largest museum, the book interrogates the public nature and political dynamics of the ROM as it completed a multi-million dollar architectural project and adopted a new vision of the museum.

Susan L.T. Ashley is Senior Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries Management and AHRC Leadership Fellow in (Multi)Cultural Heritage at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. She is a cultural studies scholar interested in what, how, and why heritage knowledge is created, shaped, communicated, and consumed in the public sphere. Dr Ashley has published widely, including Diverse Spaces: Identity, Heritage and Community in Canadian Public Culture (2013). She has 20 years of experience with culture and heritage sites across Canada.

Part 1 SETTING THE CONTEXT; 1. Boundary Zone; 2. Publicness, Public Institutions and the Public Interest; 3. Renaissance and the ROM In Public; Part 2 THE ROM IN PUBLIC; 4. Structuring; 5. Positioning; 6. Exhibitioning; 7. Interacting; Part 3 REVISIONING; 8. Revisioning Publicness at the ROM; References