The inside story of Australia's most exciting museum. Hailed as the most important addition to the Australian cultural landscape since the opening of the Sydney Opera House, MONA has shaken up the art world by breathing life and delight back into the museum experience. Visitors are flocking to MONA, but what is it about MONA that makes it such a transformative experience? And how on earth did an amateur private collector manage to set up one of the world's great art destinations on the edge of a remote island city? This is the inside story of how MONA came to be. With a degree of access rarely granted to others, sociologist and design expert Adrian Franklin takes readers deep behind the scenes to reveal how MONA became what it is today: from its origins on the banks of the Derwent River, to the architectural and building process, to the branding and curation. Part modern art history, part biography of a place, The Making of MONA is for readers who are as fascinated by the MONA building and experience as they are by the collection and the man behind it all. This is an extraordinary tribute to an extraordinary place, one that will allow the MONA effect to resonate for years to come.

The Making of MONA

Arts & Photography

Franklin, Adrian

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Viking Australia

Retro may be cool, but why are we now in the middle of a love affair with objects and designs from the mid-twentieth century? What unique qualities do they share that make them so special now?
Using one of the most spectacular displays of retro objects ever assembled, and covering all the bases - furniture, fashion, ceramics, technology, metal, graphics, plastic and glass - twentieth-century expert Adrian Franklin provides the answers.
Spanning the period from the 1950s to the 1980s and beyond, and with international coverage, the book identifies the designers, manufacturers, brands, innovations, technologies and materials that transformed the world during the period of mid-century modern and still cast their magic spell. 
Authoritative, entertaining and beautiful, Retro is itself an object to be treasured.

Retro: A Guide to the Mid-20th Century Design Revival

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Antiques & Collectibles

Bloomsbury Academic

Anti-Museum (Museums in Focus)

Anti-Museum charts the development of the anti-museum as a concept and as it has been realised in practice. Drawing on a range of case studies, including the New Museum and PS1 in New York, Mona in Australia, Art42 in Paris and Donald Judd’s Marfa, the book assesses their potential to engage museum publics in new ways.\nAnti-museums seek to breathe relational and theatricalised vitality into the objects they exhibit, by connecting them to the contexts of their making, to their social life outside the museum, to visitors' lives via their transformative capacities for change, and by being a place of dialogue, exchange and transformation, rather than instruction. Documenting the ways in which they have been created by artists, collectors, and curators, the book also examines the extent to which anti-museums connect with other museums through the exchange of values and resources. Critically, it asks whether, after some 40 years of ‘new museology’, such institutions are still able to offer something fresh and valuable.\nAnti-Museum provides a sharp and incisive account of the anti-museum as it has been imagined, realised and experienced, and as it has relevance for understanding and working in the contemporary museum world. As such, the book will be of great interest to scholars and students engaged in the study of museums, cultural economy, inclusive urban regeneration, the democratisation of art and contemporary art. It should also appeal to museum professionals around the world.

Routledge

Anti-Museum charts the development of the anti-museum as a concept and as it has been realised in practice. Drawing on a range of case studies, including the New Museum and PS1 in New York, Mona in Australia, Art42 in Paris and Donald Judd's Marfa, the book assesses their potential to engage museum publics in new ways. Anti-museums seek to breathe relational and theatricalised vitality into the objects they exhibit, by connecting them to the contexts of their making, to their social life outside the museum, to visitors' lives via their transformative capacities for change, and by being a place of dialogue, exchange and transformation, rather than instruction. Documenting the ways in which they have been created by artists, collectors, and curators, the book also examines the extent to which anti-museums connect with other museums through the exchange of values and resources. Critically, it asks whether, after some 40 years of 'new museology', such institutions are still able to offer something fresh and valuable. Anti-Museum provides a sharp and incisive account of the anti-museum as it has been imagined, realised and experienced, and as it has relevance for understanding and working in the contemporary museum world. As such, the book will be of great interest to scholars and students engaged in the study of museums, cultural economy, inclusive urban regeneration, the democratisation of art and contemporary art. It should also appeal to museum professionals around the world.

Retro may be cool, but why are we now in the middle of a love affair with objects and designs from the mid-twentieth century? What unique qualities do they share that make them so special now? Using one of the most spectacular displays of retro objects ever assembled, and covering all the bases - furniture, fashion, ceramics, technology, metal, graphics, plastic and glass - twentieth-century expert Adrian Franklin provides the answers. Spanning the period from the 1950s to the 1980s and beyond, and with international coverage, the book identifies the designers, manufacturers, brands, innovations, technologies and materials that transformed the world and still cast their magic spell. Authoritative, entertaining and beautiful, Retro is itself an object to be treasured.

Retro: A guide to the mid-20th century design revival

NewSouth Publishing

A Collector’s Year is a lively account of a year in the life of a collector. Adrian Franklin, TV presenter and author, takes us on a month-by-month journey through the quirky and often kooky world of those enthusiasts who pursue with passion their next treasures to be displayed, admired and loved. From a souvenir shop in Hobart to a car-boot sale in rural England, Franklin explores the best hotspots for collecting, and provides useful insight into where to find collectables and how to sort the trash from the treasure.

A Collector's Year

University of New South Wales Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Franklin, Adrian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Franklin, Adrian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Franklin, Adrian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Making of MONA

Retro: A Guide to the Mid-20th Century Design Revival

Anti-Museum (Museums in Focus)

Anti-Museum (Museums in Focus)

Retro: A guide to the mid-20th century design revival

A Collector's Year