Interpreting Sports at Museums and Historic Sites

Sports are deeply embedded in American society, with a multibillion-dollar industry and a significant impact on culture and community. Museums and historic sites can play a vital role in interpreting sports history, providing a balanced view of humanity and advocating for inclusion for all athletes and sports figures. This comprehensive study offers analytical direction and practical application for interpreting sports history, with essays on innovative exhibition and programming, case studies of successful and unsuccessful attempts at attracting the public, and opportunities for including sports in exhibition planning and programmatic development.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 276 pages
Publication date: 28 March 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Sports have a deep and enduring connection with American society, spanning from the earliest forms of native games to the extreme competitions of today. They have left an indelible mark on the fabric of American culture, and today, sports are a multibillion-dollar industry. Social media provides a never-ending outlet for community interaction surrounding sporting events and discussions, making sports an opportunity for self-exploration through the lens of competition, social structures, and community building. Interpreting Sports at Museums and Historic Sites encourages museums, historical sites, and cultural institutions to consider the history of sport as integral to American culture and society. Sports provide a vehicle to understanding the growth and development of America from colonization to globalization, and a call to bring a balanced view of humanity to the sports commemoration conversation. Museums can and should be places of advocacy and inclusion for all athletes and sports figures, young and old, amateur and professional, past and present. Practitioners are encouraged to consider museums as safe spaces to approach empathetic, complex, enthralling conversations that allow for both celebratory and challenging topics. This comprehensive study provides analytical direction and practical application for interpreting sports history at a variety of sites, guiding sports and non-sports museum professionals alike. Thirty-two national and international authors take an honest look at the ways sports impact culture and culture impacts sports, uncovering the particularities of navigating the intersection of sports and culture.

Weight: 530g
Dimension: 253 x 178 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538103173