On the subject of translations in museums--this may or may not be
as related as you like. I have heard many interesting discussions
on the use of multi-language labels in museums and
exhibitions--mostly discussing where one draws
the line in developing multi-language exhibition labels and
texts. For example, does the museum that
has a large Hispanic population nearby place Spanish labels in the
museum, or not? I recently cuarted an exhibition on the Chinese
community in a specific region of California. At the request of
the local Chinese community there, we included Chinese texts in
the gallery. This was the first time the museum used
multi-language texts. The issues it raised focused mostly
on questions like--why only Chinese, why not Spanish as well?, and
so forth.
You may be able to find some information for a thesis proposal on
this subject, rather than on the translation of museum
publications alone.
John Handley
San Francisco