1 In recent years the study of material culture has become a major academic preoccupation. This conference will review the field of material culture interpretation and the study of material culture in general, and relate this to the fact that museum collections represent the stored material culture of the past, while museum exhibitions are the principal medium through which it is publicly presented.

2 A range of critical issues will be addressed by material culture scholars representing the main museum artifact disciplines — archaeology, social history, applied art, and ethnography. Major themes to be addressed:

1. Interpretative theories of material culture
2. History of material culture in museums
3. Social history and artifact interpretation
4. Artifact field-work and research
5. Human identity, aesthetics, and objects
6. Public perception and museum artifacts
7. The unique contribution of the artifact to our understanding of past societies

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