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The Books Museums Are Reading (full list)

 

Inside Museum Book Clubs

"Easy Participation + Content Rich Guides
= MFAH Book Club"

"Reading Between the Lions:
A Museum Book Club Success"

 

Museum Book Clubs Near You

With Downloadable Discussion Guides

Museum of Fine Art Houston (Houston, TX)
Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
Des Moines Art Center (Des Moines, IA) 

Midwest

Akron Art Museum (Akron, OH)
Cleveland Museum of Art Library (Cleveland, OH)
The Columbus Museum (Columbus, OH)
Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati, OH)
Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, OH)
Saint Louis Art Museum (Saint Louis, MO)
Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI)
Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha, NE)
Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Minneapolis, MN) 
Sheldon Museum of Art (Lincoln, NE) 
Grand Rapids Art Museum (Grand Rapids, MI) 

Northeast

The Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, MD) *
Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, DE)
Worcester Art Museum Library (Worcester, MA) *
Attleboro Art Museum (Attleboro, MA)
Montclair Art Museum (Montclair, NJ)
Brooklyn Museum of Art (Brooklyn, NY)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Library (Richmond)
Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA)
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute (Utica, NY) 

West

Santa Monica Museum of Art (Santa Monica, CA)
Las Cruces Museum of Art (Las Cruces, NM)
Carnegie Art Museum (Oxnard, CA)
Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA) 

South

The Blanton Museum of Art (Austin, TX)
Amon Carter Museum (Fort Worth, TX)
Columbia Museum of Art (Columbia, SC)
Ackland Art Museum (Chapel Hill, NC)
Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, AL) 

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    Welcome to the Museum Book Club

    Great books on art drive us to see the artworks they're about.
    And great artworks drive us to read books about them.

    This is the Museum Book Club. The following titles from Hol and from other publishers, offer a range of stimulating conversations about art. And here, you'll find free, downloadable and online discussion guides for each.

    • Read the books and use the guides on your own
    • Put together a club with your friends
    • Work in a museum and start a club for your community

    Be sure to sign up for our mailing list to hear when new guides are added. And if you're an art educator or librarian, we'll pay you to create a guide of your own and share it here!

    Book Club SelectionsFormats
    Print E-book

    A Painter's Life: a novel,
    K. B. Dixon

    The life of a fictional artist, told in biographical scraps, journal entries, and review excerpts that altogether add up to something real.
    Guide by Hol Art Books
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y Y

    Visual Shock,
    Michael Kammen

    A comprehensive narrative history and analysis of American art controversies over the past two centuries.
    Guide by Rebecca Feind, San Jose State University
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y Y

    Master of Shadows,
    Mark Lamster

    The story of Rubens not only as a painter, but as a secret diplomat and political player.
    Guide courtesy of The Mint Museum
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y Y

    Waking Raphael,
    Leslie Forbes

    A fictional mystery thriller set in Urbino, Italy, and centered around a Raphael painting
    Guide courtesy of The Mint Museum
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y Y

    The Monuments Men,
    Robert Edsel

    The story of a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, and art historians, who risked their lives to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture during WWII.
    Guide courtesy of The Mint Museum
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y Y

    Antoine’s Alphabet,
    Jed Perl

    A unique, personal and wide-ranging look at a now often overlooked artist.
    Guide courtesy of The Mint Museum
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y Y

    Seven Days in the Art World,
    Sarah Thornton

    Based on interviews and anecdotes, a frank look at seven different aspects of the contemporary art world—from art schools and studios to auctions and art fairs
    Guide courtesy of The Mint Museum
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y Y

    Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling,
    Ross King

    The four extraordinary years Michelangelo spent laboring over the vast ceiling of the Sistine Chapel while the power politics and personal rivalries that abounded in Rome swirled around him.
    Guide courtesy of The Mint Museum
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y Y

    Keeping the World Away,
    Margaret Forster

    An expertly researched account of Gwen John’s early artist career precedes the fictional provenance of one of her most famous paintings—biographical facts and novel storytelling combine.
    Guide by Morgan Spatny, Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y Y

    Object of Beauty,
    Steve Martin

    With real artists, art world events and art locations at the core of this entertaining novel, readers will be inspired to explore real art subjects further.
    Guide by Hol Art Books
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y Y

    Robert Ryman: Used Paint,
    Suzanne P. Hudson

    A slightly advanced read, but recommended to any level book club seeking meaning in what may at first appear to be rather meaningless art.
    Guide by Hol Art Books
    Download PDF | Online Guide

    		 Y N

     

    Don't see the book you want?
    Check out the list of museums with downloadable guides, or
    we'll pay you to create your own and share it here!