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Transformative Beauty: Art Museums in Industrial Britain

Online ISBN:
9780804780537
Print ISBN:
9780804778046
Publisher:
Stanford University Press
Book

Transformative Beauty: Art Museums in Industrial Britain

Amy Woodson-Boulton
Amy Woodson-Boulton
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Published:
21 March 2012
Online ISBN:
9780804780537
Print ISBN:
9780804778046
Publisher:
Stanford University Press

Abstract

Why did British industrial cities build art museums? By exploring the histories of the municipal art museums in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, this book 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. The author 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.

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