In the ten years since Carol Duncan's Civilising Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums (1995), public and scholarly interest in the way that art and the visual have been displayed and are
presented has increased enormously. This volume brings the discussions up to date. Leading international scholars and younger researchers address issues such as museum display, collecting, the
creation of visual spectacles, institutional histories, curatorial strategies, cultural exclusion and definitions of heritage. Exploring a variety of cultural contexts and historical periods,
this benchmark collection addresses specific displays and notable objects alongside the politics of spectacle and questions of audience.
