Featured Author: Robert R. Janes

Author Bio:

Robert R. Janes is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship, a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester (UK), an Adjunct Professor of Archaeology at the University of Calgary, Canada, and the former President and CEO of the Glenbow Museum (1989-2000) (www.glenbow.org). He is also the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley (www.biosphereinstitute.org) - an NGO committed to the ecological integrity of the mountain region where he lives.

Prior to his Glenbow appointment, Janes was the founding Director of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre (1976-1986) and the founding Executive Director of the Science Institute of the Northwest Territories (1986-1989), both in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories - one of Canada’s most remote regions. His museum books include Museums and the Paradox of Change (1995; 1997; 2013), Looking Reality in the Eye: Museums and Social Responsibility (with Gerald T. Conaty - 2005), Museum Management and Marketing (with Richard Sandell - 2007), and Museums in a Troubled World (2009). Janes has worked in and around museums for 37 years as a director, consultant, author, editor, archaeologist, board member, teacher and volunteer. He has devoted his career to championing museums as important social institutions - capable of making a difference in the lives of individuals and their communities.

Praise for Museums and the Paradox of Change:

“Janes’ richly textured, incisive and extraordinarily candid analysis of organizational change provides readers with a highly original, valuable and compelling suite of insights for contemporary museum thinking and practice”. – Richard Sandell, University of Leicester, UK.

“Janes’ book, in the third edition, offers incalculable fresh contributions to our understanding the constant, necessary dynamic tension between social and financial capital in society’s cultural spaces. He is a first ranked thinker, here drawing others of his ilk into a 21st Century dialog of change management. Every museum, library, archive, and theater leader and every consultant to these fields should have a dog-eared copy of this book.” – Mary Case, Museums Consultant, USA.

“A very inspiring work that details the organizational change of Glenbow Museum. Not only has it unveiled the social relationships between the different positions inside museum space, but also, through reflective and critical thinking, it has illuminated the value of the museum in contemporary world. By arguing the value and purpose of the museum, Robert Janes creatively harnesses the power of management to vitalize museums and civil society. This book is an honest voice and impassioned manifesto, which is indispensable for all the museums that are seeking to map their future.” – Hsu Huang, Editor-in-Chief, Museology Quarterly; Associate Curator, National Museum of Natural Science, Taiwan.

Further Reading and Viewing:

For more on Museums in a Troubled World see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSdvEtOxavs

For more on Museums and the Responsibility Gap see: http://vimeo.com/46392120

For Dr. Janes's lecture on The Mindful Museum see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkXcm2ImwqQ

For more information on the Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship, click here: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmmc20