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This research examines the ways in which museums have utilised their Facebook platforms to communicate about climate and environmental-related challenges. The aim is to offer a snapshot of the phenomenon of museums as contributors to communicating climate-related topics and climate change education.

A content analysis of a purposeful sample of 10 museums’ Facebook postings was conducted. The study examines the themes and topics concerning climate issues that museums have posted and communicated about, the nature of the communication and an examination of responses from the audience.

This research reveals that not all museums in the study sample have communicated the different research-informed causes or contributors to climate challenges confronting societies today. There is also very little evidence of dialogic engagement with audience and the public-at-large. Most communication is still one-way focussing on the relaying of information.

This research highlights the roles of cultural heritage institutions such as museums in communicating climate change-related topics and the need to move towards a more dialogic mode of engagement with their audience. Museums have a role in serving as a trusted and inspirational space for public debates and community empowerment for dealing with climate challenges.

China has been going through a “museum boom” paralleling the domestic tourism boom since 2000; such growth changed the cultural landscape; museums became a vital characteristic of some Chinese cities for both residents and tourists. Encouraged by this growth, the more ambitious “All-for-one Museum (全域博物馆)” was proposed. The physical boundary between museums and living spaces is infinite ambiguity, challenging the idea of museums as “heterotopias.” This study aims to explore the musealization of urban spaces in the context of anthropology and museology, scrutinizing the cultural-political intentions and meanings of these developments, and seeks to ignite further investigation into the reconstruction of historical imaginaries for tourists and urban populations across related disciplines.

This paper examines two cases in Chinese metropolises, Beijing and Shanghai, to illustrate this development of musealization, that is, how the cities actively leverage museological values and methods to connect with their past. In the Beijing case, the authors explore how the local government is leading the effort to musealize the city; in the Shanghai case, they will see how tourists, especially dweller-tourists, navigate through a curated past story in the city and connect their own experience, memory and identity with the place.

The all-for-one museum creates a museal layer projected onto the bigger urban space, even though the authenticity of the “past” is challenged by the modernization development of the city. The authors also find out that for some tourists (especially dweller-tourists), an existential sense of authenticity plays a more significant role as they not only seek to sightsee the past of the city but also to take part in its creation.

This paper discusses two kinds of musealization in cosmopolitan cities of Beijing and Shanghai: top-down and bottom-up. It approaches questions about the musealization of urban spaces from the perspectives of anthropology and museology, and discusses musealization in the specific historical context of China’s modernization process.

Relatively few studies have examined the perspectives of informal learning facilitators who play key roles in cultivating an equitable learning environment for nondominant youth and families in making and tinkering spaces. This study aims to foreground the perspectives of facilitators and highlight the complexities and tensions that influence their equity work.

Interviews were conducted with facilitators of making and tinkering spaces across three informal learning organizations: a museum, a public library system and a network of community technology centers. This study then used a framework that examined equity along dimensions of access to what, for whom, based on whose values and toward what ends to analyze both the explicit and implicit conceptions of equity that surfaced in these interviews.

Across organizations, this study identified similarities and differences in facilitators’ conceptualizations of equity that were influenced by their different contexts and had implications for practice at each organization. Highlighting the complexity of enacting equity in practice, this study found moments when dimensions of equity came together in resonant ways, while other moments showed how dimensions can be in tension with each other.

The complexity that facilitators must navigate to enact equity in their practice emphasizes the need for professional development and support for facilitators to deepen their conceptions and practices around equity beyond access – not just skill building in making and tinkering.

This study recognizes the important role that facilitators play in enabling equity-oriented participation in making and tinkering spaces and contributes the “on the ground” perspectives of facilitators to highlight the complexity and tensions of enacting equity in practice.

The authors conducted a study at a history museum with the objective of examining changes in the knowledge of students aged 12 to 14 concerning the use of primary sources.

Students utilized self-led guides while exploring two museum spaces presenting different historical events. These guides encouraged students to scrutinize the exhibits, become acquainted with the methods employed in their research, and develop an awareness of the information derived from them. Students' responses to pre- and postquestionnaires were compared and analyzed using mixed methods.

The results revealed that students became familiar with various types of primary sources, recognized that only specific sources endure through time and gained an understanding of the research methods employed to study them. Additionally, most students comprehended that the same sources could lead to diverse historical accounts and the potential reasons for such variations.

Recommendations for practice are discussed.

This study contributed to the limited knowledge regarding learning during a single, self-led tour in a history museum. The findings illuminate the potential for learning and advancing historical thinking concepts even within such museum-visit contexts.

This article examines curatorial practices, both traditional and digital, in the Guizhou Provincial Museum’s ethnic exhibition to assess their effectiveness in representing ethnic minority cultures, fostering learning and inspiring curiosity about ethnic textiles and costumes and associated cultures. It also explores audience expectations concerning digital technology use in future exhibitions.

A mixed-methods approach was employed, where visitor data were collected through questionnaires, together with interviews with expert, museum professionals and ethnic minority textile practitioners. Their expertise proved instrumental in shaping the design of the study and enhancing the overall visitor experience, and thus fostering a deeper appreciation and understanding of ethnic minority cultures.

Visitors were generally satisfied with the exhibition, valuing their educational experience on ethnic textiles and cultures. There is a notable demand for more immersive digital technologies in museum exhibitions. The study underscores the importance of participatory design with stakeholders, especially ethnic minority groups, for genuine and compelling cultural representation.

This study delves into the potentials of digital technologies in the curation of ethnic minority textiles, particularly for enhancing education and cultural communication. Ethnic textiles and costumes provide rich sensory experience, and they carry deep cultural significance, especially during festive occasions. Our findings bridge this gap; they offer insights for museums aiming to deepen the visitor experiences and understanding of ethnic cultures through the use of digital technologies.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the implicit and explicit attitudes of Generation Z (Gen Z) individuals toward the experience of visiting and getting to know traditional or virtual museums.

Two studies were conducted. The first study assesses the implicit attitudes of Gen Z individuals through Implicit Association Tests (IAT) toward the experience of visiting traditional versus virtual museums. Considering the results of the study one, the second study proposes and validates a conceptual model through PLS-SEM approach about the explicit attitudes of this generation toward virtual museums.

In the first study, it was found that virtual museums are more successful at engaging and immersing participants than traditional museums for Gen Z. The second study emphasized the significance of meeting Gen Z expectations and ensuring effortless access to information in virtual experiences as this can lead to increased satisfaction and inspiration among this generation.

The originality of this study lies in its focus on Gen Z's attitudes toward virtual museums and the use of both implicit and explicit attitude measures to gain a comprehensive understanding of these attitudes. An interesting aspect emerges from the implicit attitudes displayed by Gen Z, indicating their preference for virtual museums as more captivating compared to traditional ones.

Due to the impact of the pandemic that enforced mass closures and lock downs, galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM] institutions around the world were required to re-think how they interacted with the public. As a result of the measures that enforced isolation, distancing, and increased hygiene requirements, the usefulness of virtual technologies as a storytelling medium has come into sharper focus. This chapter will explore the emergence of augmented reality as a viable post-COVID-19 solution to meaningful digital narrative creation and user interaction in the museum environment. This chapter will concentrate on the development of a project between the University of South Australia [UniSA] and the South Australian Museum [SAM] to explore how it might be possible to create sustainable immersive stories within this environment.