The Making of Mona

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.

Adrian Franklin trained as an anthropologist in the UK, and has held professorial positions at the University of Bristol, UK and the University of Oslo (Norway).  He was the 2009 Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Auckland . He is currently Professor of Sociology at the University of Tasmania. He has worked extensively in TV and radio, most recently as co-host and 20th century expert for ABC TV's Collectors and as a regular contributor to the ABC Radio National show By Design. He is the author of Retro: The Twentieth Century Design Revival.