Zahava D. Doering Zahava D. Doering, a University of Chicago trained sociologist, has had many years experience in social science research and studies in museums and educational institutions. In 1987, she was the founding director of the Institutional Studies Office (ISO), now part of the Office of Policy and Analysis at the Smithsonian Institution (SI). Doering’s museum activities include serving as Editor of Curator: The Museum Journal, past co-chair of AAM’s Committee on Audience Research and Evaluation (CARE), active participation in the Visitor Studies Association (VSA) and pro bono Research and Evaluation consultant to the Council of American Jewish Museums (CAJM) and its member museums.
“Iron Chink” proclaims the raised words on a cast-iron sign, once mounted on a fish-processing machine. In the early 1900s in Seattle the machine had been invented to replace Chinese laborers, who presumably were constructed of weaker mettle.
Now, of course, its casual slur inspires some shock. It is a companion piece to another object, a cap-gun toy from the 1880s, when the “Chinese Question” (as objections to Chinese immigration was called) turned violent: pull the trigger, and a suited gentleman kicks a braided Chinese man in the rear, setting off the miniature explosion. More…
From Carol Vogel in The New York Times Arts Special Section: Museums…
Some 150 yoga fanatics, mats in hand, gathered in the second-floor atrium of the Museum of Modern Art one recent Saturday morning. They were there to “Put the oM in MoMA,” as the invitation read.
Assembled in a circle, the group practiced poses while on the walls surrounding them flowed giant images of budding tulips, slithering worms and a pig in a verdant meadow biting into a juicy apple, all part of the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist’s monumental video installation “Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters).” The free 75-minute class was such a success that there is talk of holding another in the museum’s sculpture garden.
“In these difficult times we want to hit as many buttons as we can,” said Glenn D. Lowry, director of the museum. “We’re doing everything possible to connect with people.” More…
The Federal Government says it will overhaul the processes for the repatriation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remains and cultural material from international institutions to make them more inclusive of Indigenous aspirations. Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin announced on Friday that the Government would establish a new International Repatriation Advisory Committee to steer the review.
Ms Macklin said she would call for expressions of interest and the committee would be appointed in September.
“The committee will advise the Government on a range of issues, including reviewing current international repatriation policy and finding a more effective way to deliver on international repatriation,” she said.
The development came at the International Conference on the Inclusive Museum held at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane on Friday, just before a panel of Indigenous people from the Torres Strait, the Kimberley, Groote Eylandt and South Australia shared some of their experiences of repatriation.
Ulrichs is an authoritative knowledgebase of information about more than 300,000 serials of all types from around the world—academic and scholarly journals, peer-reviewed titles, online publications, newspapers and other resources. Bibliographic records provide details such as ISSN and title, publisher, online availability, language, subject area, abstracting & indexing coverage, searchable tables of contents, and full-text reviews.
Plans revealed for the redesign of the ‘faceless’ Science Museum on London’s Exhibition Road are to recreate the space as a ‘Museum of the Future’, aiming for completion by 2015. As part of a wider regeneration of the Exhibition Road revitalisation as the ‘cultural heartland of London’, the Science Museum will undertake a redevelopment designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects which incorporates a new facade, new galleries, lifts and SkySpace - a cavernous rooftop space and ‘destination cafe’ dedicated to cosmology. More….
Following on the success of MoMA’s 2007 India Now exhibition, The New India presents sixteen contemporary Indian feature and short-length films, including eight New York theatrical premieres. The selection captures the astonishing range of fiction and documentary styles and genres in Indian cinema today. Among the celebrated actors and directors who will present their films are Naseeruddin Shah, Nandita Das, Abhay Deol, and the Academy Award–winning documentarian Megan Mylan. The New India opens with the New York premiere of Megan Doneman’s Yes Madam, Sir, a riveting portrait, narrated by Helen Mirren, of one of India’s most inspiring and controversial public figures, Kiran Bedi. Both Doneman and Bedi will introduce the opening-night screening. More…
Nguyen Van Huyenthusiastically took part in field trips of the Vietnam Institute of Ethnology to remote and mountainous areas bordering China and Laos in the 1960’s, surveying then little known ethnic minority groups. As early as 1980s, while working toward the completion of a Ph.D. in Ethnology (1988, Hanoi University), Nguyen pioneered a new direction in ethnological research, i.e. sociological approach. Leading colleagues to conduct the first sociological surveys of ethnic groups across the country, Nguyen directed his interests to contemporary issues of socio-economic development of ethnic minorities and ethnic relations. These years of grounded experience with, solid scholarly insights of and deep concerns for the minorities formed a core of Nguyen’s advocacy for local voices through his new adventure as the founding director of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (1995-2006). More…
Henry (Jatti) Bredekamp, Iziko Museums of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa www.Museum-Conference.com
Professor Henry (Jatti) Bredekamp is the CEO of Iziko Museums of Cape Town since November 2002; and since October 2006 President of the South African National Committee of ICOM (International Council of Museums). His origins are firmly rooted in the Overberg of the Western Cape. Born at the Genadendal Mission Station by the end of the Second World War, he began his career as a farm school teacher near Leeu Gamka in the Great Karoo. He later joined the University of the Western Cape, which he had served for twenty-seven years. He holds Master degrees in History, obtained as a Fulbright scholar from the Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA, and the UWC in South Africa. More…
Paper abstract: Museum discourse is not inclusive in that it neglects or negates the affective potential of museums. Affect is precognitive sensation, it is unexpected, and leaves a more lasting impression than re-cognition. The museum’s role in the shaping of histories, and its origins in class and gender exploitation are important areas of discourse, however, the focus on these issues also limits discourse. Ideologically driven critique seems unable to explain the experiential affect of exhibits of art and material culture. Arguably, an alternative museum with a contradictory set of meanings has always existed alongside the rational museum of critical discourse. Some critics do acknowledge that their disciplines seem unable to grapple with this ‘alternative museum’, however, there is not a critical vocabulary of affect with which to give it appropriate expression. Gilles Deleuze’s philosophical ideas give relevance to affect, and are useful in shaping or ‘shocking’ a way toward a more inclusive critical discourse, which might lead toward more inclusive museum practices.
If you have read this paper and would like to make comments please add a review.
“For years, with school budgets declining in so many American cities, museums have provided a parallel universe for learning. Now, with the Obama administration poised to support arts education with increased financing, museums nationwide are eager to align themselves with those efforts” - Dorothy Spears
To read more of this article on The New York Times website please click here.
“The Neues Museum briefly reopened here last weekend (was reborn, seems more like it), and local newspapers reported that more than 35,000 Berliners, many of them waiting hours in the cold in lines stretching nearly half a mile, filed into the still empty building over three days to see it” - Michael Kimmelman
The Neues Museum in Berlin
To read more of this article on the New York Times website please click here.
You will first need to submit a presentation proposal for the conference as either an attending or virtual participant. If accepted you will be able to submit your full paper for refereeing and possible publication in the Journal.
Brisbane, Australia, 8-11 July 2009
UQ CENTRE CONVENTION CENTRE
The University of Queensland
Brisbane Qld 4072
Australia
Phone: +61(07) 3346 9654
Fax: +61(07) 3346 9656
http://www.uq.edu.au/
The most recent issue, Volume 2, Number 3, of The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum includes:
