Ph.D. Candidate LauraLee Brott’s course AH 430 History of the Museum: From “Prehistory” to Covid-19 will be taught in-person, MTWR, 11:00am–1:00pm, June 13th–July 17th. There will be occasional field trips to museums/collections around the UW–Madison campus. Satisfies L&S credit and humanities breadth. Enroll here. Description: In her “The Museum as a Way of Seeing, art historian Svetlana Aplers mused that perhaps we could consider caves, or Egyptian tombs as early museums — they are indeed, in her terms, a “separate space for images. For classicists, a second-century description of the wondrous objects on display at the Temple of Hera at Olympia by Greek traveler, Pausanias, provides an ancient context for the curation of objects – perhaps the Temple could be considered an early museum. This course seeks to historicize the concept of “the museum proper, as separate spaces for “attentive viewing (again to borrow Alper’s terminology). This class is simultaneously driven by an armature of questions for our contemporary minds: what is the role of the art museum in the 21st century? What are the challenges and critiques that 21st century art museums face? How has Covid-19 impacted concepts of display, viewership, reception, and ownership?