Major Museums Research Articles

Actio de in rem verso

Abstract The provenance of many objects once part of the acclaimed Revd William MacGregor collection of Egyptian artefacts is unclear or unknown. Private collectors purchased pieces from the MacGregor collection when it was sold at auction in 1922, many of which eventually made their way into major museums around the world. Today, the provenance information attached to them can usually be traced back through the private owners only as far as MacGregor’s ownership and no further. Recent research has revealed more about MacGregor’s collecting habits, including the fact that Count Riamo d’Hulst was the supplier of MacGregor’s famous obsidian head. Based on a little-known court case in Egypt and previously unseen correspondence between MacGregor and the Swiss archaeologist Édouard Naville, this article sheds further light on the extent to which the count was MacGregor’s regular supplier. It will also demonstrate how this key buyer–seller relationship developed, and how it eventually deteriorated into enmity and legal wrangling.

Татарская вышивка: к историографии вопроса

The article is devoted to the historiography of the study of Tatar people’s embroidery. The paper addresses the main directions in which the research was carried out; the characteristics of academic and popular-science works are given. It was discovered that the first publications about Tatar embroidery date back to the late 19th century. The subject has been developed up to the present. The history of the emergence of different types of Tatar embroidery, as suggested by scholars, and the depth of research have been analyzed. The conducted study provided an opportunity to systematise the corpus of various sources. The specific feature of the first publications about Tatar embroidery is a particular interest exclusively in handicraft products, which represents the most striking examples of folk art of that time. Later, the focus of scientific interest shifted to the classic samples of Kazan-Tatar embroidery. Starting from the expeditionary trips of the 1970–1980’s of the ethnographers from the Language of Literature and History Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences Kazan Branch, as part of the scientific project “Historical and Ethnographic Atlas of the Tatar People,” materials were collected from major museums of the country, Tatar settlements in the Volga-Ural Region and from other regions of compact residence of an ethnic community. This research area has led to the problematisation of the issue of the diversity in areal technologies of Tatar embroidery. Authors addressed it when studying a certain type of embroidery and its origins, starting from the Middle Ages. Other researchers tried to identify sub-ethnic, sub-confessional features of Tatar embroidery, the influence of other peoples on its development. In the absence of a full-fledged study on Tatar embroidery, it is necessary to take into account the accumulated experience reflected in the publications of various authors – articles, sections of books, and albums.

WORLD HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM: KRZYSZTOFPOMIAN’S STORY OF THE WORLD OF PEOPLEAND OBJECTS (1)

In spring 2023, the Gdansk publishers: słowo/obraz terytoria released the first volume of Krzysztof Pomian’sstudy Muzeum. Historia światowa [World History of theMuseum]. It launches the Polish edition of the monumentalthree-volume work published by Éditions Gallimard in Pariswhich is the first study of the universal history of the museum.This is more than a book, it’s a monument! (Plus qu’un livre,un monument!) is what Fabien Simode wrote in the l’OEilmonthly (March 2021). At present rarely are such historicallybroad studies released, possibly because of authors’ fear ofbeing potentially accused of postmodernist meta-narrative.In this case, the work is a comprehensive synthesis in view ofthe entailed chronology, geography, and thematic range. Thediscussed volume Od skarbca do muzeum [From a TreasureChamber to the Museum] recently published for Polish readerstackles the process of European collectorship crystalizingand first museums being its consequence, mainly Italian andseveral northern ones, from the Capitoline Museum in Rome(1471) up to London’s British Museum (1753). Subsequentvolumes are already being prepared. Titled L’ancrage européen,1789–1850, the second one is dedicated to the historyof the museum consolidating into a permanent and significantelement of European culture, close to the institution weknow today: started by the revolutionary Louvre (1793), thishistory is created by the vast part of the major museums oftoday’s Western Europe. Finally, volume three A la conquêtedu monde, 1850–2020 is the most extensive of them all bothchronologically and territorially, as well as in view of the numberof museums and their activity discussed. Author’s considerationsencompass museums’ expansion to Eastern Europeincluding Russia, and then eventually to the rest of the world:Asia, Africa, both Americas, mainly the territories connectedwith the West through colonial bonds; the United States, beingthe area where today’s dominating world centres havebeen formed, is analysed separately. At that point the book’stitle: world history, gains its full relevance, and relates both tothe interwar period in the democratic and totalitarian world,WW II, and to the long contemporary era.

Ärimudelite analüüs Eesti muuseumite näitel

According to the author of this article, the developments of Estonian museums are most influenced by the country's cultural policy and funding model. As emphatically non-profit organizations, museums today are at the service of society and seek to create value in their own unique way through collecting, preserving, researching and presenting historical memory. This does not cause any problems as long as a museum functions as a memory institution, since the functions of a memory institution are largely supported by the state or municipality. In the case of a museum as an attraction, however, the bar of ambitions must be set higher and the availability of competitive relevant competences and resources must be ensured. Since the state or local government is the main financier of most of the major museums, the entire planning logic of museums mainly focuses on the funding conditions stated in the laws and regulations. However, this significantly inhibits the development of activities related to the raising of private revenue, as resources are directed towards the fulfilling of conditions set by the ‘state commission’. For most museums, the ambition to generate private revenue is quite low—their activities are constrained by limited resources and the real revenue potential is largely untapped. In order to compete as an attraction in the experience services market, museums must also invest in the development of an experiential visitor environment and additional services throughout the visitor's journey. New trends are no longer set in years, but in days. Expectations that are raised by the market demand must be responded to more quickly, for timeliness has become equivalent to relevance in creating expositions and developing the visitor environment. Both from the perspective of the visitor environment and taken as a whole, it is possible to detect trends that are influenced by the introduction of new technologies and intellectual property, as well as social media developments and lifestyle trends. Museums as visitor environments must adapt more and more to the expectations and needs of visitors in terms of their interests, lifestyle and everyday needs. To provide an experiential visitor experience, it is not enough to just organize an attractive exhibition, all stages of the visitor's journey must be thoroughly thought out and appropriately furnished. It is only by doing this that it is possible to operate sustainably in an ever-increasingly competitive situation. In summary, it has to be acknowledged that visitors' expectations of museums are becoming more and more demanding, and in order to remain competitive ever greater effort must be directed towards experience. Both as research and educational institutions and as tourist attractions, museums all over the world face challenges that require change. Whether and how these challenges are accepted and overcome depends on the maturity stage of the market in a particular country and the financing model of the museums. Museums operating with the support of the state can afford to have greater freedom in undertaking educational and research activities and can afford to forgo activities with commercial and entertainment content. Such museums can afford to develop visitor environments that directly and exclusively dovetail with the value space and operational objectives of the museum as a memory institution. If the revenue goals are set at a high level, in addition to research and educational activities, museums must also contribute to the development of an attractive visitor environment and additional services. Otherwise, they will not be competitive in the market in comparison with other attractions and other recreational services.

Mixed Cultural Visits or What COVID-19 Taught Us

When the majority of museums and other cultural institutions were shut down due to the pandemic, mixed museum visits became a hot issue. After the pandemic, mixed visits, in the opinion of many experts, would become the new norm for experiencing cultural content. Diverse types of mergers between online and onsite visits have already begun to be investigated by researchers, with the purpose of not only avoiding the spread of disease but also of enabling visits of people who were previously excluded, such as persons in remote geographic areas or people with mobility challenges. In fact, over the last three years, there have been rapid developments in mixed visits in cultural heritage sites. The current work takes into account a contextual model of museum learning to define potential use scenarios for visits from people of different cultural backgrounds and offers an evaluation of current practices. The new model that emerges, the contextual model of mixed visits, allows for the further study of the field, as it attempts to describe recent research efforts in four main contexts: mixed visits in the personal context, mixed visits in the socio-cultural context, mixed visits in the physical context, and temporality of mixed visits. Inductive analysis of a literature review allowed the extraction of relevant themes, examples from museums, as well as extraction of guidelines.

Museums’ Economic Performance and Directors’ Recruitment Process: An Assessment of the Recent Policy Reform of the Italian Museum Sector

We study the economic effects of a reform of the national museum sector, the so-called Franceschini Reform, implemented in 2015. The reform introduced a new organization of the national museum system. One of the most innovative instruments of the policy was the establishment of a different method - an international call for applications - in the selection of directors of major museums (museums of “national interest”). The article studies the effects of this new recruitment policy on museum economic performance, focusing on revenues. Using a difference-in-difference technique for the years 2014 to 2017, we show that the new recruitment policy improved the revenues of treated museums throughout Italy by a range between 17% and 26%. We also find that the characteristics of the directors (age, field of degree, and study abroad experience) play a role in explaining the increase in revenue of these Institutions. We thus find evidence of significant benefits of the policy. The new knowledge may be useful for improving museum and cultural sector management policies.

Systematic revision of the ‘diminutive’ Kentish Plover (Charadriidae: Charadrius) with the resurrection of Charadrius seebohmi based on phenotypic and genetic analyses

The Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus Linnaeus 1758 is a common shorebird in Eurasia and North Africa that breeds in a variety of habitats, exhibits different extents of migratory behaviour and is an emerging model species of breeding system evolution. Here we focus on the resident population found across the southern tip of India and Sri Lanka, and re‐evaluate its systematic status based on phenotypic and genetic distinctiveness from a sympatric migrant, Charadrius alexandrinus sensu stricto, and the recently elevated closely related Charadrius dealbatus in East Asia. We show that the Sri Lankan and South Indian (South Asian) population differs in body size, moulting pattern and plumage coloration from C. alexandrinus and C. dealbatus. Furthermore, based on two mitochondrial, two sex‐linked and 11 autosomal microsatellite markers from 378 individuals, we show that these three taxa have moderate genetic differentiation (Fst 0.078–0.096). The South Asian taxon is sister to the clade of C. alexandrinus sensu stricto and C. dealbatus with an estimated divergence time of 1.19 million years ago. We also examined ornithological records of major museum collections in Asia, Europe and North America for the south Asian taxon to evaluate its biogeographical and taxonomic status. Based on differences in genotype, phenotype, allochronic migratory pattern and breeding range, we resurrect the most suitable synonym, Charadrius alexandrinus seebohmi Hartert and Jackson, 1915, and elevate the nomen to the species level with the proposed English name ‘Hanuman Plover’.

La vie sans histoire de James Castle par Luc Vezin

Reviewed by: La vie sans histoire de James Castle par Luc Vezin William Cloonan Vezin, Luc. La vie sans histoire de James Castle. Arléa, 2022. ISBN 978-2-36308-311-1. Pp. 260. Toward the end of Vezin's novel, the author cites his subject's tombstone inscription, "C. James Castle, September 25, 1900–October 27, 1977," and then remarks: "Sa postérité s'ouvrit sur une double erreur" (203). The errors here are slight. The real name was James C. Castle and he was born in 1899, but these minor mistakes point to a larger misapprehension concerning Castle's life and achievements, and it is partially for this reason that the novel was written. James Castle was born deaf in a little town in Idaho. He could only make guttural noises and laugh, sounds that usually unsettled people in his vicinity. He was uncouth, often dirty and in adulthood a chain smoker. He drew on scraps of paper (empty cigarette packs, labels of various sorts) using soot he moistened with spit. His subjects were his home, his region, and occasionally himself. Yet through a series of unlikely circumstances, toward the end of his life Castle was recognized as an important American artist whose work was sought by major museums and collectors. Vezin describes him at one gallery opening, smiling like a child and pointing to his drawings. A life like this is ripe for legends and sentimentality, most of which Vezin debunks. Castle did not have a particularly unhappy childhood, although he was occasionally the butt of mockery by kids who made fun of the "Dummy." He was not sent home from a school for the deaf and dumb with a note saying he was uneducable. He had in fact his family's support if not always understanding, and it was a nephew who spearheaded the effort to get recognition for "Uncle Jim." The nephew's initially timid, but consistent attempts to attract attention to his uncle's work, slowly paid off. Castle began to appear in galleries, at times with success and at other moments to indifference, but his drawings and small mud sculptures began to catch on and even sell. Without realizing it, Castle became famous. Vezin deftly describes the comportment and motives of the artist's admirers and detractors, but he avoids, probably correctly, trying to enter into Castle's mind and imagine what the artist thought. James Castle was a phenomenon, an American original; Vezin respects his achievements, but allows the mystery of his creative process to remain just that, a mystery. This novel tells an amazing story without sensationalism or bathos. It is unfortunate, but probably due to financial exigency, that examples of his work could not be included in the text. Based on the untitled figure on the book's cover, Castle's creations would seem to fall into the category of art brut, best associated in France with Jean DuBuffet (1901–1985). Vezin is a professional art historian; he might have chosen to write a scholarly monograph, but by opting for fiction, he has retained the basic facts while deepening the perplexity surrounding the origins and impetus of James Castle's art. [End Page 252] William Cloonan Florida State University, emeritus Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French

Gods, Goddesses, and Mortals for the 21st Century: The Reinstallation of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Collection of Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art

Gods, Goddesses, and Mortals for the 21st Century: The Reinstallation of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Collection of Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art

A New Zeal for History:

Public history is still a relatively unknown term in New Zealand, an island nation in the southwest pacific with a population of around 4.6 million people. Until the late 1980s it was rare for professional historians to practise their profession outside the academy. Most of the few who did were public servants attached to institutions such as the Department of Internal Affairs or the major museums. Expanding work opportunities in the institutional, museum and historic heritage sectors have, however, fostered an increase in the number of freelance historians, some of whom are now participating in the identification, assessment, interpretation and management of New Zealand’s historic places.

The Long View: Leadership at a Critical Juncture for “African Art” in America

The Long View: Leadership at a Critical Juncture for “African Art” in America

In Search of a Lost Childhood

Abstract Sigalit Landau is an internationally recognised artist born in Jerusalem whose works have been exhibited in major museums worldwide. This article seeks to analyse the sculpture Father and Tufik (2014), in which the artist relates for the first time to the story of her father, a Holocaust survivor from Transnistria. Starting with the creative process that led to the sculpture and examining unpublished sketches, the study shows how the work involves a multigenerational tale and a desire for communication and transmission which is further developed in a series of large-sized sculptures. Furthermore, elements of play, which Ernst van Alphen identifies as a means used by younger generations of artists to confront Holocaust remembrance, can be found in this sculpture and in other key works including Barbed Hula (2000) and One Man's Floor Is Another Man's Feelings (2011) which can thus be interpreted in the context of the Shoah.

A Unique Iberian Majolica Fragment from the Marketplace of Győr (Hungary)

This paper explores the origin, chronology, and connections of a majolica vessel found during excavation in the marketplace of Győr. The piece is of exceptionally high quality and counts as exceptional in the archaeological record of Hungary. It is adorned with painted cobalt blue motifs and lustre decoration. Its analogies are known from major museums’ collections, including the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, and the Louvre. Based on these, its place and time of origin could be identified as the 15th-century Valencia in today’s Spain, more specifically, Manises (now a district of Valencia) and between the 1430s and 1450s (based on the detailed chronological framework established from excavation results in the area). According to written sources, ceramic vessels and architectural ceramics were produced in Manises, a workshop following Hispanic Moorish traditions, to be exported to distant lands and on the order by noble families and princely courts, thus influencing, for instance, the majolica production of Italy. Following the expansion of the Kingdom of Aragon during the reign of Alfonso V, the Manises ware also became important in the court in Naples. The diplomatic relations between the royal courts of Aragon and Hungary can be accounted for the appearance of such a vessel in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary

Applying Commemorative Museum Pedagogy to Public Music Studies

Applying Commemorative Museum Pedagogy to Public Music Studies

Cultural participation and taste cultivation in a transitional setting: museum education fever in contemporary China

ABSTRACT Despite an extensive body of literature that has examined the role of museums in cultural reproduction and public education, most of the current discussion is western-centred. Whilst explorations of museum education in developing countries often focus on the institution, the agency perspective regarding how different social groups negotiate access to museum resources is relatively understudied. Aiming to address these lacunae, this paper presents a qualitative case study of a major museum in Hangzhou, China, focusing on how people from distinct social groups, with different orientations to cultural consumption, developed multiple strategies for cultural participation in museums. Their practices arguably reinforced and justified a dispositioned judgment of taste and class identities that mirror the social transition of contemporary China. Conceptually addressing Bourdieu’s theories of ‘cultural capital’ and ‘taste’, this study explores the dialectics between culture and power and demonstrates the complexity of cultural reproduction in a state-funded museum.

FEATURES OF SPATIAL AND SYNTAX ANALYSIS OF MUSEUM AND CULTURAL COMPLEXES

The article is devoted to the study of spatial planning structures of museum and cultural complexes based on spatial and configurational analysis. The author proposes a re-search methodology based on the methods of spatial analysis and syntax. Features of the spatial analysis of interiors on the examples of museum and cultural complexes are considered. It was found that all of them at the present stage have a tendency to form or deepen the degree of integration: the enfilade, didactic model (British Museum) is supplemented by an integrated core, turning into a more democratic one; multiaxial, lattice models form such centers at the intersection of axes, centric models deepen the social aspects of the integrated core.
 The exposition of museums of history and nature is usually placed perimeterally and sequentially (in accordance with a certain historical period), has a linear configuration that does not provide for bridges of meetings, except for the entrance hall. Instead, the interior space of museums of modern art is mostly integral, democratic, integrated, provides one or more meeting places; exhibition rooms and the lobby are connected by a system of stairs and transitions, sometimes on different levels, forming a complete system of internal space.
 A spatial analysis of the configurations of Alvar Aalto's libraries showed that they, as a rule, contain a central integrated core, which turns them into public centers to this day. At the same time, it was determined that the majority of museums in Kyiv have a historical complex, didactic planning model that needs updating from the point of view of improving the experience of visitors and greater democratization of the movement.

‘NATIONAL COLLECTIONS OF CONTEMPORARY ART’ PROGRAMME. PART TWO: APPLICANTS/ COLLECTIONS AND RESULTS/EVALUATION

The ‘National Collections of Contemporary Art’ Programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage constitutes an interesting case of a systemic solution to the question of financing museum collections’ purchases. Its implementation demonstrated changeability of action (both from the point of view of the applicants, and Programme’s evaluators and organizer), while at the same time the genuine assumptions were maintained, namely the support provided to the major museums, most often newly established, whose statutory goal would be and is collecting contemporary art. Turning points in the Programme, as well as the observation of applicants’ strategies while the Programme functioned served as the basis for the Programme’s evaluation, and led to replacing it with the ‘National Collections of Contemporary Art’ Programme, these, however, demonstrated failures in consistency, in particular without pointing to the final systemic solution in this respect.

Museum Matters: Making and Unmaking Mexico's National Collections

Museum Matters: Making and Unmaking Mexico's National Collections

Turkey’s Participation in International Biennials in the 1950s

Biennials became important events for regeneration through culture and art in the post-WWII era, and as such they were supported through the cultural policies of nation-states. The Venice Biennale was first organized in 1895, and after 1950, other biennials took place in cities like Ljubljana, São Paulo, and Paris. Their number continued to increase over the years, as did the number of countries participating in them. In the atmosphere marked by the promotion of multiculturalism and world peace that followed the Second World War, Turkey was among the countries invited to take part in international biennials. However, because of economic and organizational challenges, it was only able to participate in such events from the 1950s onwards. In addition to Turkey's participation in international biennials as a country, individual artists who had left Turkey for various reasons took part in major exhibitions such as biennials and documenta during this period. This article focuses on Turkey's representation in the world art scene in the 1950s, when the country first began taking part in international biennials. It also questions why Turkey began participating in such events at that time and considers the impact they had on the Turkish art scene in the context of cultural policies of the Cold War. Drawing on new information and documents obtained from ASAC-Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo/Arquivo Histórico Wanda Svevo, Archives de la critique d'art, Rennes, Mednarodni Grafični Likovni Center (MGLC), and the Cincinnati Art Museum and Documenta Archiv, this study sheds light on Turkey's early participation in Ljubljana, International Biennial of Contemporary Color Lithography, Venice, São Paulo, and Paris Biennials as well as the inclusion of artists from Turkey in documenta, issues that have been little discussed in the literature on art history. By considering the imaginary boundaries that were drawn during the Cold War, Turkey's participation in international biennials in the 1950s, the global representation of Turkish artists at international exhibitions, and the incorporation of Turkish artists' works into the collections of major museums, it becomes clear that Turkey was an established part of the modern art movements of the period.

Objects and stories in cancer science.

How can developments in cancer science and treatment be shared with the wider public, especially with such a complex and delicate topic? The Cancer Revolution exhibition, which opened in the autumn of 2021 at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, and which has now moved to the Science Museum in London, is the first major museum exhibition in the UK to share cutting-edge cancer science with a wide-ranging audience that includes families, school children, and people with cancer. The result is a beautifully designed, object-rich exhibition that strikes a balance by putting people at the front and centre of the science.