Bernhard Graf (museologist)

Bernhard Graf (* 1953 in Munich ) is a German museologist and until 2019 was director of the Institute for Museum Research at the National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage .

education

Bernhard Graf studied educational science , psychology , philosophy and media research in Freiburg and Heidelberg, where he received his doctorate in 1978 with his work on the use and design of two-dimensional media as a basis for stimulating, intensifying and controlling learning processes in elementary education .

activity

At the Institute for Museum Research he worked on research topics in the fields of historical museology , reception research / audience research , knowledge communication / media research , museum management . His research related in particular to research museums and science centers , to exhibition projects for historical and archaeological museums.

In addition to the management of the Institute for Museum Research, which he held until 2019, he continues to teach as an honorary professor for culture and knowledge communication at the Free University of Berlin at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies . As a university lecturer, Bernhard Graf supervised numerous master’s theses, master’s theses and doctorates and published the best of them as an institute publication in the series of the Institute for Museum Research.

Bernhard Graf developed two certificate programs on the topic of museum management for the further education center of the Free University of Berlin, which he supervised and further developed thematically. It concerns the advanced training program with certificate for employees, curators / custodians and managers of museums, as well as for academic volunteers.

Bernhard Graf was the editor of three series of publications by the Institute for Museum Research and has published numerous monographs and articles on audience research and reception research and on the evaluation of museum exhibitions and programs.

Bernhard Graf was chairman of the regional association of museums in Berlin and is a member of scientific advisory boards and boards of trustees of various educational and research institutions, especially research museums and regional museums . From November 2000 to December 2009 he was a member of the Senate Evaluation Committee of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community. In this role, he headed the external evaluations of a total of 10 Leibniz institutes, including seven research museums. From 2010 to 2018 he was elected to the Senate of the Leibniz Association . Bernhard Graf accompanied the conception phase and the development of the FUTURIUM and is chairman of the program council of this institution, which opened in Berlin in 2019.

In the years 2009 to 2011 he was the chairman of the Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMBF each thematically newly appointed) Program Advisory Council for the exhibition series "Discoveries" / "Discoveries" at the annual Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau / on the island of Mainau. In this function, he curated group exhibitions on the main topics of science communication, which were specified by the BMBF for the themed years (water, energy and research for health). He has been retired since 2019, but continues to work at Freie Universität Berlin and on committees for various research institutions.

Projects

• TOPOI (The Formation and Transformation of Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilizations), member of research group IV - This sub-group of Area E has designed the balance sheet exhibition of all research results of the cluster, which under the title "Beyond the Horizon" 2012 in the Pergamon Museum of the State Museums was shown in Berlin.
• Visitor monitoring project KULMON . Comparative cultural visitor research and culture monitoring project for museums. Opera houses and theaters in Berlin 2007–2012

Leibniz Association

• Evaluation of the research museums of the Leibniz Association as a member of the Senate Evaluation Committee
• Joint Science Conference (GWK)
• Expert opinion on the research terms and the research shares of the research museums in Germany

Publications

• Subject-oriented learning and use of media in kindergarten . Lang, Frankfurt a. a. 1979 (= dissertation)

Institute for Museum Research, Berlin Writings on Museum Research

• Vol. 30: with Volker Rodekamp (Ed.): Museums between quality and relevance. Memorandum on the location of the museums. Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-940939-22-7 .
• Vol. 22: with Hanno Möbius: On the history of museums in the 19th century (1789–1918). 2006, ISBN 978-3-931768-928 .
• Vol. 19: with Astrid B. Müller (Ed.): Perspectives. To change the perception of objects in museums. Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14489-8 .
• Vol. 4: Bernhard Graf and Heiner Treinen, visitors to the Technical Museum. On visitor behavior in the Deutsches Museum Munich. Berlin 1983. ISBN 3-7861-1378-5

As editor of supervised dissertations / MA:

• Eva M. Reussner: The opening of museums to their public. Success factors of effective audience research. Dissertations. FU Berlin 2009,
• Vol. 24: Katharina von Chlebowski: Industry culture of the art museums in Germany. On the importance of industry culture in the process of change in the organizational and management system of museums. Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-940939-03-6 .
• Vol. 23: Heike Riebe: Benchmarking in the museum. A management tool for quality assurance. Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-931768-98-0 .
• Vol. 18: Susan Kamel: Ways to convey religion in Berlin museums, Black Kaaba meets White Cube. Opladen 2004, ISBN 3-8100-4178-5 .

Materials from the Institute for Museum Research Annual publication, most recently:

• Issue 71: Overall statistical survey of the museums of the Federal Republic of Germany for 2016 including an English Summary, Berlin 2017 (104 pages). ISSN  0931-7961 issue 71

Communications and reports from the Institute for Museum Research.

• No. 53: Beatrice Miersch: The Menzel brand. Interdisciplinarity as the key to a public exhibition in the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin, Berlin 2015 (144 pages), ISSN  1436-4166
• No. 52: Johanna Kovar-Eder and Norbert Niedernostheide (eds.): Germany's natural history collections - preservation of diversity as a task for society as a whole Joint conference of DNFS (German scientific research collections) and DMB (German Museum Association), Berlin, February 15, 2013, ( 74 p.) ISSN 1436-4166 * No. 30: with Astrid B. Müller (Ed.): Exhibiting art and cultures of the world. Conference proceedings. Berlin 2005, ISSN  1436-4166 .

All publications are available online

Web links

• Literature by and about Bernhard Graf in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website project Topoi