Monthly Archive for February, 2011

Inclusive Museum Journal: Recently Published

Published on February 28, 2011 in Journal. 0 Comments

museum_frontThe most recent issue of The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum includes:


Ten years on – remembering the tragic destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan (Afghanistan)

Published on February 28, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From UNESCO Media Services…

UNESCO will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the tragic destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan with a forum on the event and a two-day experts’ meeting which will examine ways to preserve and present to the public the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley.
Ahead of the 10th anniversary, the Director-General, who will open the commemoration at UNESCO Headquarters urged the international community to protect the heritage of humanity from damage or destruction; turmoil, political appropriation and theft:
“Ten years ago UNESCO and the international community watched helplessly the destruction of the remarkable Buddha statues of Bamiyan. The two monumental statues had stood for one and a half millennia as proud testimonies to the greatness of our shared humanity. They were destroyed in the context of the conflict devastating Afghanistan and to undermine the power of culture as a cohesive force for the Afghan people. More…

Restoration work begins at Egyptian Museum

Published on February 23, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Simon Stephens at the Museums Journal…

Work has started on the restoration of objects damaged by looters at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, according to Zahi Hawass, the Egyptian minister of antiquities.

Hawass, writing on his website on 8 February, said that up to 25 of the 70 objects broken at the museum are now being restored. Among the objects damaged when looters entered the museum on 28 January was a small statue of Akhenaten, which was the first object to be cleaned and restored.

Hawass has also continued to reassure people that reports of large-scale looting and damage to cultural sites and museums in Egypt are untrue.

“I would once again like to say that the rumours claiming that the tombs of Maya, Nefer and the Two Brothers in Saqqara were recently damaged are not true,” Hawas wrote on his blog. “The Imhotep Museum and the storage magazines of Saqqara are also safe.”

Meanwhile, international effort has focused on messages of support for those working on the ground to protect Egypt’s cultural heritage. Museums and collectors have also been urged not to buy Egyptian material with unclear provenance. More…

Building Museums, and a Fresh Arab Identity

Published on February 22, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Nicolai Ouroussoff at The New York Times…

It is an audacious experiment: two small, oil-rich countries in the Middle East are using architecture and art to reshape their national identities virtually overnight, and in the process to redeem the tarnished image of Arabs abroad while showing the way toward a modern society within the boundaries of Islam.

Here, on a barren island on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, workers have dug the foundations for three colossal museums: an $800 million Frank Gehry-designed branch of the Guggenheim 12 times the size of its New York flagship; a half-billion-dollar outpost of the Louvre by Jean Nouvel; and a showcase for national history by Foster & Partners, the design for which was unveiled on Thursday. And plans are moving ahead for yet another museum, about maritime history, to be designed by Tadao Ando.

Nearly 200 miles across the Persian Gulf, Doha, the capital of Qatar, has been mapping out its own extravagant cultural vision. A Museum of Islamic Art, a bone-white I. M. Pei-designed temple, opened in 2008 and dazzled the international museum establishment. In December the government will open a museum of modern Arab art with a collection that spans the mid-19th-century to the present. Construction has just begun on a museum of Qatari history, also by Mr. Nouvel, and the design for a museum of Orientalist art by the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron is to be made public next year. More…

Inclusive Museum Journal, Volume 3, Number 3 now available

Published on February 11, 2011 in Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

museum_frontThe third issue of Volume 3 of The International Journal of the Inclusive Museumhas now been published.

Volume 3, Number 3 includes:

Continue reading ‘Inclusive Museum Journal, Volume 3, Number 3 now available’

The MFA’s New Art of the Americas Wing

Published on February 2, 2011 in News. 0 Comments

From Ada Louise Huxtable in The Wall Street Journal:

It’s all about the art. It’s not about the architecture. End of review—except for some persistent questions about museum design. Already judged a smashing success since its opening in late November, the $504 million, 121,307-square-foot Art of the Americas Wing at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, designed by the London firm of Foster + Partners, does exactly what it was meant to do: This discreet addition at the east end of Guy Lowell’s original 1909 Beaux Arts building houses a radical reorganization of the museum’s American holdings, defined in the broadest possible terms.

Fifty three new galleries bring together the arts of North, Central and South America, spanning centuries and cultures. This vast expansion of the conventional definition of American art includes pre-Columbian artifacts, the museum’s unparalleled American collection from the prerevolutionary period and the years of the Early Republic, examples of Latin American art and Native North American work from ancient to modern times, and contemporary American art through the mid-1970s. Embedded in these exhibition areas are newly refurbished period rooms. And while it is a questionable stretch to enforce a geographic and aesthetic logic on arts with totally different cultural roots and influences, the case has been well made in a handsome accompanying book, “A New World Imagined: Art of the Americas.” Weaknesses revealed by the reorganization are acknowledged up front, with the promise of future acquisitions.

The new wing also adds a 12,184-square-foot, 63-foot-high glass-enclosed court that serves as a link between Lowell’s classical building and the new four-story addition—a central pavilion flanked by two wings faced in the granite of the 1909 construction. The court provides a restaurant and space for social functions. The organization of the collection is chronological, from the most ancient cultures at the bottom to contemporary art at the top.

For more…

ICOM urges to protect Egypt’s cultural heritage

Published on February 1, 2011 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

News from ICOM…

ICOM expresses its deepest concern for Egypt’s great historical treasures, currently under threat from looting in the wake of recent events that have swept the nation. ICOM urges and encourages local authorities and civil society to pursue their efforts in protecting and safeguarding the invaluable cultural heritage of this country.

It is essential to protect the exceptionally rich collections of the Egyptian museums so that they may continue to enrich the collective memory of mankind. The international museum community is fully aware of the significant efforts already made by the country’s heritage authorities to preserve these collections, and ICOM wishes to encourage those authorities to take further precautions to protect the country’s overall heritage, and in particular that of museums. More…