Museum scholar Yuha Jung releases new book “Transforming Museum Management: Evidence-Based Change through Open Systems Theory”

As modern culture relentlessly moves forward, traditional museums must adapt and expand their audiences or be left behind as a relic of a by-gone era. Breaking with old stale dogmas in favor of embracing more open and inclusive positions can be radically disruptive, but when managed successfully it can significantly increase the impact and longevity of museums. In that spirit, leading museum scholar, systems thinker, passionate educator, and author Yuha Jung, PhD recently announced the release of her new book “Transforming Museum Management: Evidence-Based Change through Open Systems Theory”, which aims to widely transform the culture and approach taken by museums. “Transforming Museum Management” is based on a unique longitudinal ethnographic study of a real-life mid-sized art museum. It chronicles this traditional museum’s struggles and successes in attempting to transform into a more inclusive and community-based institution.

“Museums must change to illuminate the histories, cultures, and social issues that matter to their local population,” said Jung. “I believe open systems theory and the Buddhist concept of mutual causality can be valuable tools in this type of important struggle.” The idea of mutual causality, which is at the heart of open systems theory and Buddhism, stresses dynamic interdependence or dependent co-arising among different parts of the museum as well as with its external environment. The interdependent nature of organizations emphasized in these concepts explains the following: transformational changes happen when internal actors listen to diverse external voices and make changes both mentally and structurally through a democratic and inclusive process. This book is intended as a resource for practitioners and researchers as well as advanced students of museum studies, cultural management, arts administration, nonprofit management, and organizational studies.

Some areas explored by “Transforming Museum Management” include looking at a museum’s internal management structure and culture, mental models of museum workers (i.e., ingrained ways of thinking and doing things), and the processes of creating programs and exhibitions. The book provides both theoretical and practical foundations toward radical, transformational changes in museum management, with an extra effort made for museums to be accessible and to provide benefits to diverse stakeholders. The end results can be vibrant new museum culture and structure that are more relevant, diverse, and inclusive.

For more information visit https://yuhajung.com. The book is scheduled to be released on July 26, 2021, and can be pre-ordered from Amazon or Routledge.

About Yuha Jung

Yuha Jung is an associate professor and the director of graduate studies of Arts Administration at the University of Kentucky. She is a devoted educator and researcher who is passionate about studying museums and social and cultural justice issues around the arts and cultural organizations and teaching students about them. Yuha primarily teaches financial management for arts organizations both on undergraduate and graduate levels. For UK’s PhD program, she teaches a course on organization theories as well as guide students through their dissertation processes. She is also an associate editor for the journal, Museum Management and Curatorship, and a board member of the Association of Arts Administration Educators.

Yuha is originally from South Korea where she got a BFA in painting from Yeungnam University. She also has an MA in Museum Studies from Syracuse University, an MPA from the University of Georgia, and a PhD in Art Education from the Pennsylvania State University with an emphasis on museum education and management.