John Reeve
Consultant ● Lecturer ● Writer
Museums ● Religions ● Asia
ABOUT
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International museum consultant, mentor and trainer, author and lecturer
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Research on Asian cultures, religion in museums and current museum learning and interpretation practice
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Visiting Lecturer in museum and gallery education, UCL Institute of Education, London
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Former Visiting Professor, Colgate University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, New York, Florida State University
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Currently chair of RCHG the Religion Collections and Heritage group. {LINK}
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Formerly lecturer and visiting fellow in museum studies at the UCL Institute of Education London, and now visiting lecturer there and also for other universities and museums. He co-created the MA, Museums and Galleries in Education, with the Victoria and Albert Museum and Institute of Education, 1993
BACKGROUND
He was Head of Education at the British Museum for over 20 years until 2003 and part of the team that created the Great Court project including the Clore Education Centre and the Reading Room library and information centre. He transformed the Education Department from a small collections-based team to a diverse team of audience and curriculum and collections specialists, with the ability to manage and deliver programmes across audiences, collections and formats including posts for archaeology, science, early years, Asia, Arab World, ethnography, digital learning, disability and special education. He helped develop pioneering digital projects with partners such as Nippon East and Channel 4.
He led the expansion of the learning provision of the BM in several other areas: with Chinese Turkish and South Asian communities; as well as existing daily adult programmes also adult courses jointly with Birkbeck and SOAS among others; schools provision expanded greatly. He was involved in the planning and programming for many exhibitions and galleries and wrote two guidebooks and several other publications especially on Japanese culture. He received a Japan Festival Medal for his work with artists, schools and teachers, and for the accompanying BMP publication, Living Arts of Japan.
Member of the Dearing Review of the national curriculum- see chapter ‘Making the History Curriculum’ in ' Making Histories in Museums' (ed. Kavanagh)1999
He has been chair of the Group for Education in Museums and editor of the Journal of Education in Museums, developing new training and publications, and a higher national and international profile.
Museum and heritage consultant and trainer in Egypt, Kuwait and Qatar [on the MIA] Brazil, Peru and Ecuador, and across Asia [India China Japan Korea Taiwan Thailand]
Senior consultant, The Xia Jing Shan Arts and Culture Foundation, Taipei.
Trustee for 9 years and latterly the deputy chair of Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole’s Gothic castle in Twickenham
Teaching for UCL IOE, Westminster University, Christies Education, Reinwardt Academy Amsterdam, and Goldsmiths has focussed on interpretation especially of Asian and Islamic art; gallery and exhibition development; museum and heritage policy; audience development, access and inclusion; diversity; museum text; museum programmes; and museum development, architecture and policy in Asia and the Middle East. He has also taught on Asian and Islamic art for the BM since leaving the Museum.
External examiner for Leicester University museum studies, Westminster and Oxford Brookes universities.
Visiting Professor, Colgate University in London, Florida State University in London and Florida, 2001-4
Guest scholar at J Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, Spring 1992
Annual Marcella Brenner lecture for the American Museum Education Roundtable, Washington DC 1992
Visiting Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, New York State, 1987
PUBLICATIONS
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Co-edited New Museum Practice in Asia with Caroline Lang, Lund Humphries 2018
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Writing on religions in museums most recently ‘Islam, Islamic art, the Islamic world – and museums’ in ed. Knell, ‘The Contemporary Museum- shaping museums for the global now’, Routledge 2018; and also in ‘Museums, Equality and Social Justice’ eds. Sandell and Nightingale, Routledge 2012, and ‘Religion in Museums’ eds. Buggeln, Paine and Plate ,Bloomsbury 2017.
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With Vicky Woollard wrote ‘Engaging audiences: Learning, Education and public programmes in museums and galleries,’ chapter 26 in (ed) McCarthy, C, International Handbook of Museum Studies Volume 4: Museum Practice: Critical debates in the museum sector. Blackwell- Wiley 2014
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‘The Lives of the Mughal Emperors’ accompanied another exhibition at the British Library in 2012.
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Edited the catalogue for ‘Sacred’, a major exhibition at the British Library in 2007, on Judaism, Islam and Christianity. It was the first to approach the interaction of the Abrahamic faiths thematically over two millennia through such a range of collections of books, manuscripts and objects. A finalist for the 2007 AXA Art Catalogue Award, it was on the New York Times reading list spring 2008.
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With Caroline Lang and Vicky Woollard edited and contributed to The Responsive Museum: Working with Audiences in the Twenty-First Century. Routledge 2007
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Other publications include: ‘Behind the Scenes at the British Museum’ (2001 with Andrew Burnett),’Japanese Art in Detail’ (2005) reissued as ‘Japanese Art Close Up’ (2014), ‘Floating World’ (2006); two best-selling BM guidebooks : The British Museum Visitor Guide 2003, (21 reprints); Visitor Guide to World Religions. 2006. (2nd edition 2007)
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Contributor to: 'Education, Culture and the State' (ed Stephens); 'Teaching Art and Design' (ed Prentice)
ARTICLES INCLUDE
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The Museum as Change maker in Marg, vol 72 issue 3, March 2021
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Worlds beyond and The new practice of the Asian museum in Museum Review vol. 2, Shanghai Museum 2020
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Learning to look: Buddhist art and Xia Jing Shan in Xia Jing Shan, first Buddhist art maestro across centuries, XJS Foundation, Taipei/ SOAS, 2019
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'From museum as text to museum as experience’ Paper to ICOM CECA conference Armenia 2012, published in ‘Museums and Written Communication: Tradition and Innovation’ eds. Ani Avagyan & Nick Winterbotham, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2018
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The ‘Sacred’ exhibition, in ‘Material Religion’ summer 2008
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(2004)‘Audience advocacy in galleries and exhibitions’ Papers at Colloquium, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October 2003, published in. Marie Bourke, (ed), Dublin: National Museum of Ireland
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Museums, ICT and Education in 'Global Digital Museum for Museum Education on the Internet' (eds) Sugita, Hong, Fujii, Reeve and Gay, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka 2002.
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The United Kingdom in 'Museums and Adults Learning. Perspectives for Europe' (ed) Chadwick and Stannett (NIACE, Leicester, 2000).
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L'education continue: un objectif pour 1'avenir des musees in 'Le regard instruit. Action educative et action culturelle dans les musees' (Louvre, Paris, 1999/2000).
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‘Keeping up: The contemporary, the historical and the diverse in British Museum collecting, display and programming’ in engage 31. London: engage
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Presenting Asia in Europe: Working with partners and audiences at The British Museum, in 'Oriente' (Fundacao Oriente, Lisbon).
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The Museum Audience in the 21st century in 'New Visions for Museums of the 21st Century' (ed) Huang, National Museum of History, Taiwan, 1998.
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Museums and Schools in 'The National Report on Museum Education' ('A Common Wealth). Papers from Colloquia, V&A, 1997.
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The Grand Tour essay in Grove Dictionary of Art, 1996. 2008)