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Dr Amy Jane Barnes

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Professional biography

Amy is an academic, curator and researcher with wide-reaching interests from art and graphic design, to museums, their collections and the stories they tell.

She has an academic background in art history, museum and heritage studies, with a particular interest in how propaganda art and design from Twentieth Century China and most recently, Chinese Diaspora communities, are collected, interpreted and displayed in British museums.

Amy has worked in museums as a curator and researcher, and has taught art history and museum and heritage studies at Loughborough University, the University of Warwick, the University of Leicester and De Montfort University. She has also worked as a heritage consultant, producing interpretation plans and undertaking audience development research for HLF-funded projects across the UK. Between 2010 and 2012, she was part of the exhibition development team for 'Suits and Saris', at New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester, which was part of the East Midland's 'Dress the World' strand of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. 

In 2015, she undertook a cataloguing project of post-1949 Chinese posters in the British Library's collection, funded by the British Inter-University China Centre (BICC). This project has enhanced the visibility of the collection and has made the posters more accessible to a wider audience of researchers.  Since November 2019, Amy has been employed as a Staff Tutor in Art History at the Open University. 

Amy is the author of a monograph, Museum Representations of Maoist China (Ashgate/Routledge, 2014) and several edited volumes; the most recent of which is A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage (Routledge, 2018). She has been a reviewer for Museum and Society, Nordisk Museologi, Routledge and Channel View Publications. 

Research interests

History of museums and collections
Interpretation and representation in museums 

Twentieth century Chinese art and visual culture
Propaganda art and design
Revolutionary ('Red') heritage in China

Visual and material culture of Chinese diasporic communities
 

Publications

Chinese Propaganda Posters at the British Library (2020-06-05)
Barnes, Amy Jane
Visual Resources, 36(2) (pp. 124-147)


Colonial histories, museum collections, FabLabs and community engagement: flows of practices, cultures and people – a roundtable (2020)
Barnes, Amy Jane; Charnley, Kim; Dohmen, Renate and Lotz, Nicole
Open Arts Journal, 9, Article 7 (pp. 91-118)


大英图书馆收藏的中国革命年画研究 [‘Research on Chinese Revolutionary New Year Paintings Collected by the British Library’] (2018)
Barnes, Amy Jane
年画研究2018 [‘Nianhua Journal 2018’] (pp. 27-29)


Japanese Saris: Dress, Globalisation and Multiple Migrants (2015-11)
Barnes, Amy Jane and Kraamer, Malika
Textile History, 46(2) (pp. 169-188)


Forum: Museums and Mental Health. Introduction (2014-01-01)
Barnes, Amy Jane
Museum Worlds: Advances in Research, 2(1) (pp. 133-135)


A Trojan Horse? An icon of the anti-establishment at the Victoria & Albert Museum (2012-07)
Barnes, Amy Jane
Museum and Society, 10(2) (pp. 69-80)


China in Britain: The representation of twentieth century Chinese art and culture in contemporary British museums (2003)
Barnes, Amy Jane
Museological Review(9) (pp. 1-15)


Museum Representations of Maoist China: From Cultural Revolution to Commie Kitsch (2014)
Barnes, Amy Jane
ISBN : 815399316 | Publisher : Routledge


A Collector's Vision: Ceramics for the Qianlong Emperor (2002)
Pierson, Stacey and Barnes, Amy Jane
ISBN : 9780728603417 | Publisher : Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art | Published : London


Revolutionary Heroes in Chinese Propaganda Posters (2024)
Barnes, A. J.
In: Allison, S. T.; Beggan, J. K. and Goethals, G. R. eds. Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies (pp. 1-7)
ISBN : 978-3-031-17125-3 | Publisher : Springer | Published : Cham


Introduction (2018-10-18)
Watson, Sheila; Barnes, Amy Jane and Bunning, Katy
In: Watson, Sheila; Barnes, Amy Jane and Bunning, Katy eds. A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. Leicester Readers in Museum Studies (pp. 1-5)
ISBN : 9781138950924 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon


Introduction to Part I (2018-10-18)
Barnes, Amy Jane
In: Watson, Sheila; Barnes, Amy Jane and Bunning, Katy eds. A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. Leicester Readers in Museum Studies (pp. 9-13)
ISBN : 9781138950924 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon


Representing the China Dream: A case study in revolutionary cultural heritage (2018-10-02)
Barnes, Amy Jane
In: Watson, Sheila; Barnes, Amy Jane and Bunning, Katy eds. A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. Leicester Readers in Museum Studies (pp. 797-813)
ISBN : 9781138950931 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon


Un-placed heritage: Making identity through fashion (2018-10)
Kraamer, Malika and Barnes, Amy Jane
In: Watson, Sheila; Barnes, Amy Jane and Bunning, Katy eds. A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage. Leicester Readers in Museum Studies (pp. 598-618)
ISBN : 9781138950931 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon


Introduction to Part III (2017-12-18)
Barnes, Amy Jane
In: Dudley, Sandra; Barnes, Amy Jane; Binnie, Jennifer; Petrov, Julia and Walklate, Jennifer eds. The Thing about Museums Objects and Experience, Representation and Contestation (pp. 217-218)
ISBN : 9780815346760 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon


Displaying Ghost Signs Online (2016)
Hyde, Colin and Barnes, Amy Jane
In: Schutt, Stefan; Roberts, Sam and White, Leanne eds. Advertising and Public Memory: Social, Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Ghost Signs. Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies
ISBN : 9781315677750 | Publisher : Routledge


Introduction to Part III (2012)
Barnes, Amy Jane
In: Dudley, Sandra; Barnes, Amy Jane; Binnie, Jennifer; Petrov, Julia and Walklate, Jennifer eds. Narrating objects, collecting stories: essays in honour of Professor Susan M. Pearce (pp. 121-124)
ISBN : 9780415692717 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London and New York


Afterword: a conversation with Sue Pearce (2011)
Barnes, Amy Jane and Walklate, Jennifer
In: Dudley, Sandra; Barnes, Amy Jane; Binnie, Jennifer; Petrov, Julia and Walklate, Jennifer eds. The Thing About Museums: Objects and Experience, Representation and Contestation
ISBN : 9780203803523 | Publisher : Routledge


Displaying the Communist Other: Perspectives on the Exhibition and Interpretation of Communist Visual Culture (2011)
Barnes, Amy Jane
In: Dudley, Sandra; Barnes, Amy Jane; Binnie, Jennifer; Petrov, Julia and Walklate, Jennifer eds. The Thing about Museums: Objects and Experience, Representation and Contestation
ISBN : 9780203803523 | Publisher : Routledge


Exhibiting China in London (2011)
Barnes, Amy Jane
In: Knell, Simon J.; Aronsson, Peter; Amunsden, Arne Bugge; Barnes, Amy Jane; Burch, Stuart; Carter, Jennifer; Gosselin, Viviane; Hughes, Sarah A. and Kirwan, Alan eds. National Museums: New Studies from Around the World (pp. 386-399)
Publisher : Routledge


A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage (2018)
Barnes, Amy Jane
Watson, Sheila; Barnes, Amy Jane and Bunning, Katy eds.
Leicester Readers in Museum Studies
ISBN : 9781138950931 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon


Narrating Objects, Collecting Stories (2012-05-24)
Barnes, Amy Jane
Dudley, Sandra H.; Barnes, Amy Jane; Binnie, Jennifer; Petrov, Julia and Walklate, Jennifer eds.
ISBN : 9780415692717 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon


The Thing about Museums: Objects and Experience, Representation and Contestation (2011)
Barnes, Amy Jane
Dudley, Sandra; Barnes, Amy Jane; Binnie, Jennifer; Petrov, Julia and Walklate, Jennifer eds.
ISBN : 9780415679046 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon


National Museums: New Studies from Around the World (2011)
Barnes, Amy Jane
Knell, Simon J.; Aronsson, Peter; Amundsen, Peter Bugge; Barnes, Amy Jane; Burch, Stuart; Carter, Jennifer; Gosselin, Viviane and Hughes, Sarah A. eds.
ISBN : 9780415547734 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon


Qingbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan Dynasties (2002)
Barnes, Amy Jane
Scott, Rosemary; Barnes, Amy Jane; Nikles, Estelle; Teo, Catherine and Pierson, Stacey eds.
ISBN : 072860339X | Publisher : Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art | Published : London


'Do the Chinese always smile?' Exhibiting the Cultural Revolution in Britain (2020-03-04)
Barnes, Amy Jane
Contemporary China Centre, University of Westminster


‘Knock Down the Gang of Four!’: caricatures in the British Library’s collection of post-1949 Chinese posters (2019-03-20)
Barnes, Amy Jane
University of Sheffield; Birkbeck University


Producing a pop-up exhibition: Part 1 – establishing themes and designing the panels (2019-02-04)
Barnes, Amy Jane
EAMENA


Producing a Pop-Up Exhibition: Part 2 – selecting images and writing accessible text (2019-02-04)
Barnes, Amy Jane
EAMENA


The Cultural Protection Fund Pop-up Exhibition – the Excitement of Beginning the Task (2016)
Neogi, Sayantani; Nikolaus, Julia and Barnes, Amy Jane
EAMENA


What makes a good museum? The Art Fund knows (2014-07-11)
Barnes, Amy Jane
The Conversation


Museological Review, 13 (2008)
Barnes, Amy Jane; Chrusciel, Anna; Houlberg Rung, Mette; Lee, Jeong-eun; Lleras, Christina; Ottevanger, Jeremy and Woodham, Anna
School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, Leicester.