ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A book that takes so many years to write accumulates debts of gratitude that can never be adequately acknowledged. But let me start with my students. This book grew out of a course on museum history and theory I have been teaching for a long time. I would like to thank all those students who have helped me refine my thinking about art museums over the years. Of those students, one deserves special mention: Sally Anne Duncan, who wrote her doctoral thesis on Paul Sachs under my supervision. It is a cliché to say students give their teachers as much as they get, but in Sally's case it is true. As an academic, I have learned most of what I know about museums from being an informed visitor who on rare occasions was also granted access to storage facilities, print rooms, conservation labs, and curatorial offices that the general public rarely sees. I count many (past and present) museum professionals among my friends, and they have helped me better understand the culture of the institution in which they work. They may take issue with some of what I say in this book, but I hope not to offend any of them. Those I would like to thank by name are Malcolm Baker, Christa Clarke, Michael Conforti, Stephen Deuchar, Adrian Ellis, Peter Funnell, Ivan Gaskell, Sarah Kianovsky, Asja Mandic, Danielle Rice, Laura Roberts, and Giles Waterfield. I have benefited enormously from the generous encouragement and brilliant work of my colleagues, fellow conference-goers, and friends in academe, particularly Jeffrey Abt, Bruce Altshuler, Stephen Bann, Tony Bennett, Chloe Chard, Fintan Cullen, Carol Duncan, Anne Higonnet, Anne Nellis, Carole Paul, Dominique Poulot, Rosamond Purcell, Katie Scott, Harriet Senie, Daniel Sherman, Alan Wallach, Martha Ward, and Richard Wrigley. At Tufts, my colleagues in the art history department were always supportive, especially Eric Rosenberg, Madeline Caviness, and Daniel Abramson, with whom I taught a most stimulating seminar on museum architecture. I would also like to remember Father Harrie Vanderstappen, an early guide to the wonders of art. The constant support of my parents has been invaluable to me. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the important financial support I received at various stages of this project from the Faculty Research Awards Committee and Tisch Faculty Fellows program at Tufts University, and the fellowship program of the Clark Art Institute, where I spent a pleasant and productive term in the company of Michael Ann Holly and the other fellows. My sincere thanks also to Stephanie Fay and the staff at UC Press for their help in the editing and production of the book. Last, I would like to thank my family, Connie, Oliver, and Jamie, for their love, company, humor, and support. Perhaps I should thank them most of all for their patience, for during our travels over the past decade I came across scarcely any museums that I did not feel compelled to visit.