The Transformation of the Museum through the Lens of Critical Museology at the Turn of the Century

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33732/ASRI.6896

Keywords:

Museum studies, critical museology, museum transformation, twenty-first-century museum

Abstract

Far from the static image traditionally associated with museums, the institution has undergone profound transformations in recent decades. Within the framework of critical museology, this perception of change was articulated through a substantial body of literature that, particularly around the turn of the millennium, addressed various aspects of this transformation. This scholarship portrays a museum that rethinks, reinvents, and reconfigures itself, shaped by processes of change, crisis, and reformulation that point toward a model substantially different from that of the twentieth century. This text offers a reflection on the reconfiguration of the museum based on an analysis of museological studies produced approximately between 1990 and 2010, focusing on the Anglophone tradition, where a critical approach to the institution is widely developed. This perspective contributes to an understanding of the museum as a phenomenon closely linked to a specific historical and cultural context.

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Author Biography

Irene Pérez López, Investigadora independiente Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Irene Pérez López es una investigadora especializada en estudios de museos. Actualmente disfruta de una beca en Programas Públicos del Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía y trabaja como asistente de coordinación del Programa de Gestión Integral de Museos del Museo del Prado. Es doctora en Historia del Arte por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, con una tesis doctoral sobre el giro hacia el visitante, que realizó con un contrato FPU. En 2023-2024 fue beneficiaria de un contrato posdoctoral Margarita Salas. Con anterioridad cursó también el Grado en Historia del Arte y el Máster en Estudios Avanzados de Museos y Patrimonio Histórico-Artístico. Ha realizado estancias de investigación en la Nottingham Trent University, la University of Edinburgh, la Universidad de Zaragoza y la Universidad de Alcalá. Entre sus principales publicaciones destaca su contribución a la Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education y al volumen del Museo del Prado Coordinadas Culturales en la Museología del Presente, además de un artículo en la revista Museums & Social Issues.

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Published

2026-05-27

How to Cite

Pérez López, I. (2026). The Transformation of the Museum through the Lens of Critical Museology at the Turn of the Century. ASRI. Art and Society. Journal for Research in Arts and Digital Humanities, (30), e6896. https://doi.org/10.33732/ASRI.6896

Issue

No. 30 (2026): OpenASRI. Miscelaneous Journal

Section

Artículos

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