Network Of Museums Research Articles

The Smithsonian Institution's “Greatest Treasures”: Valuing Museum Objects in the Specimen Exchange Industry

AbstractIn the nineteenth century, the exchange of anthropological specimens between museum curators and collectors was a widespread practice used to fill gaps in collections. Within the specimen exchange industry, one's ability to exchange required a steady supply of described or catalogued artifacts considered duplicates. Exchanging duplicates allowed anthropological specimens to move through institutional and personal scientific collections over time. Italian zoologist and anthropologist Enrico Giglioli relied on the practice of specimen exchange to build his personal collection of “stone age” tools from Indigenous peoples, sourced from a worldwide network of museums and collectors, including the Smithsonian Institution. As a master negotiator, Giglioli was remarkably successful in procuring valuable specimens from major museum collections. Analyses of the negotiation of exchanges by museum‐based anthropologists reveals the intersection of object value as produced by museums, agents' desire for rare and underrepresented objects, and professional standards of anthropological practice in the late nineteenth century. [exchange and value, duplicate, Smithsonian Institution, Enrico Giglioli]

The mixed effects of organization’s and manager’s social capital: Evidence from the case of museums

AbstractMuseums are organizations that need to maintain relationships with several stakeholders in order to achieve their economic and social objectives. In this context, the current paper explores the effect of an organization’s bonding social capital and a manager’s social capital on the organization’s ability to build external relationships, in other words, bridging social capital. Results from the study indicate that the structure of internal social capital (cohesion and diversity) and the manager’s role as a bridging tie facilitate relations with stakeholders and other museum networks. Moreover, collective social capital (bonding and bridging) has a direct impact on innovative proposals, on the museum’s image and on incomes, all of which entail key management implications.

Preservation of records documenting environmental pollution issues: Network of pollution museums

Preservation of records documenting environmental pollution issues: Network of pollution museums

Digital Pathways in Community Museums

In this article, we investigate the positive impact recent developments in digital technologies have on the relations between museums, their collections and the communities they serve. Our work indicates that sustainable benefit is produced with the use of existing digital literacies and infrastructures. We have analysed and evaluated the potential of emergent 3D and spherical technologies on the relationships between community and museum, participation in the formation of heritage, the ‘visit’ to the museum, and connection with remote audiences. The evaluation arises from our long term experience in working with community museums and through a series of workshops developed for the project entitled ‘Museums and Community: Concepts, experiences, and sustainability in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean’ (‐‐).Firstly, we contextualise the work presented by examining community museums, trends in emergent technologies and the advancements in digital heritage. Secondly, we analyse the methodologies used to design and execute the elements of the workshops, along with assess case studies to demonstrate distinctive experiences and outcomes particular to each workshop. We also describe how we constructed and implemented a novel design for a cost effective Virtual Museum Infrastructure (), which makes it simpler for communities to create a virtual museum and connect it with global museum networks. Our aim is to communicate our findings in relation to methodologies, workflows and technologies that will be of value in understanding how to overcome the challenges emergent technologies present but yet have the potential to strengthen both community and museum.

Supporting the conservation project for cultural properties damaged by the Kumamoto Earthquake: activities of Wide Area Museum Network

Supporting the conservation project for cultural properties damaged by the Kumamoto Earthquake: activities of Wide Area Museum Network

Treasure hunters in Romania at the end of nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth

Treasures hunters, antiques or ancient monuments, during the studied period are the subject of many files from the archives of the Ministry of Cults and Public Instruction, the prefect’s offices, city halls, The National Museum of Antiquities, etc. The analysis of the content of those documents has not been the subject of much research in Romanian historiography, an interpretive void which the present study seeks to fill. Firstly, I will analyse the types of discoveries invoked in the petitions addressed to the legally competent authorities to issue research authorisations, and secondly, I will analyse the discourse used in the discoverers’ applications including all the sensational elements that made a discovery spark the interest of the authorities. These initiatives underlie the development of the archaeological field in Romania, one of the author’s main research topic in the last years trying to decipher the conceptions, methods of archaeological research in Romania, and the development of the museum network, as well as the capitalisation of these discoveries.

Ethnographic and Artistic Museums of the Galician Gutsulshchyna in Ethno-Tourism Sphere: State and Prospects of the Development

The activity of ethnographic and artistic museums of the Galician Hutsulshchyna, their contribution to the development of the ethno-tourism sphere of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast are described in the article. The development of museologyin the Precarpathian region in the context of ethno-tourism activity is regulated by the regional comprehensive program “Culture of Ivano-Frankivsk region”. Priority directions in museum work are: preservation of historical monuments of the region; the latest information technologies introduction into the activity of museums; enlargement of the material, technical and restoration bases; promotion of the international cooperation of museums; realization of repair and restoration work; provision of scientific acquisition of museum funds; activization of publishing activity: albums, catalogs, booklets, guides, scientific collections; usage of new information technologies in accounting and cataloging.
 The Hutsul topicality is leading in the museology of the Precarpathian region. The network of museums on the territory of the Galician Hutsulshchyna is the most important for ethno-tourism in Ivano-Frankivsk region. In most cases, they are included in the tour operator's activity and constitute logical chains of tourist excursions and routes and are centers for providing services in the region. There are over thirty state and public museums that attract visitors in this region. Employees of these establishments carry out excursions providing ethnographic information about the region.
 The focus is on the characteristics of work of the most famous museums in the Galician Hutsulshchyna. Particularly noticeable is the activity of the National Museum of Folk Art of Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttia named after Yo. Kobrynsky in Kolomyia, which is the only Ukrainian institution of this type, listed in the Royal Encyclopedia of Great Britain as a museum of world masterpieces.
 The author states that the authentic color of life of local inhabitants is brightly represented in the museum institutions of this historical and ethnographic region. A number of museums of the Galician Hutsulshchyna provide high-quality cognitive tourism services, because they have preserved customs and traditions of crafts and handicrafts and everyday ritual activity.
 Keywords: museum, ethno-tourism, Galician Hutsulshchyna, exposition, exhibition

Graphical models for complex networks: an application to Italian museums

ABSTRACTThis paper applies probabilistic graphical models in a new framework to study association rules driven by consumer choices in a network of Italian museums. The network consists of the museums participating in the programme of Abbonamento Musei Torino Piemonte, which is a yearly subscription managed by Associazione Torino Città Capitale Europea. It is available to people living in the Piemonte region, Italy. Consumers are card-holders, who are allowed entry to all the museums in the network for one year. We employ graphical models to highlight associations between the museums driven by card-holder visiting behaviour. We use both simple undirected graphs and more complex directed graphs, and we do not make any hypothesis on the models but rather learn their structures directly from the data. We also use methodologies and tools for robust network identification and principal component analysis to complete the analysis of the phenomenon.

Damage on the herbarium collection of the Kumamoto Prefecture Museum Network Center caused by the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes

Damage on the herbarium collection of the Kumamoto Prefecture Museum Network Center caused by the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes

Living Heritage: Digital Ecomuseums in the Terre di Siena

The Digital Ecomuseums in the Terre di Siena is a project conceived and carried out by Fondazione Musei Senesi, the museum network of the Siena regional territory. The project was elaborated as an ecomuseum and reflects upon the distinctive qualities of local landscapes, which are understood as a living environment wherein the involvement of local communities is essential to establish a system of cultural empowerment compatible with conservational requirements. A number of mobile applications and web platforms relayed information about the different areas of the Siena province. These tools feature georeferenced maps locating all the tangible and intangible forms of heritage on the territory. The project should lead to the activation of an inclusive and sustainable tourism offer, based on a participatory promotion of destinations generally overlooked by traditional tourist itineraries, highlighting the potential of ethnographic sources and encouraging a better knowledge of Siena's cultural landscape in terms of spatial, economic, emotional and social balance.

HISTORY OF THE ROMANIAN ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEOGRAPHY (PERMANENT EXHIBITION OF THE TRANSYLVANIAN MUSEUM OF ETHNOGRAPHY IN 1955)

The authors present the less known activity held at the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography from 1937 to 1957 towards: Research and Conservation of the Folk Cultural Heritage; Development of a network of ethnographic museums; Establishment of circles of ethnographic researches; Capitalisation through exhibitions and publications. For the research and preservation of the folk cultural heritage there were organised research and acquisition campaigns and there were made questionnaires for finding the buildings for the National park which unfortunately could not be completed because of the war, and after the war because of the political changes. The preservation and capitalisation of the folk heritage could be done successfully only by institutions and qualified individuals, so that the Museum intervened with the bodies of central and local authorities for the establishment of some museums or ethnographic sections in Iasi, Cernauti, Timisoara and Craiova and by ensuring qualified staff trained within the Department and Seminar of ethnography and folklore. An intense activity was made during 1939-1946 towards organizing Circles of ethnographic researches in the main cultural centres of the country, so that their union to re-establish the Romanian Ethnographic Society. The opening of the permanent exhibition in the building of Bărnuţiu Garden represented a very important moment for the Romanian museography by the implications it has had on the followings: the exhibition furniture, the theme and the exposure system, which represented a model for efforts of some institutions to present the collections of objects which they held between 1937-1940. The authors present then some aspects of Museum work during the refuge in Sibiu (1940-1945) and the difficulties for restoration of the building in the Park in order to organize the Exhibition following the model of the one in 1937. The change of political regime in 1947 coincided with the forced retirement of Professor R. Vuia. There are presented the attempts to continue in 1948-1950 the projects started after returning from refugee interrupted by the change of the director (May 1950) and of the staff (1951). In November 1951, by the Decision of the Committee for Higher Education, the Museum was passed to the Committee for Cultural Settlements, receiving the name "Historical-Ethnographic Museum of Cluj Region". In 1951, the Museum staff have drawn up a Directory for the organization of the new museum exhibition, which the authors, taking into account the fact that this is the only document on how a permanent exhibition theme is made, publishes in its entirety. The theme was sent to the Committee for Cultural Settlements that rejected and outlined the directions the exhibition named "The issue of living and evolution of the society beginning with human formation until nowadays " to be made. The intense discussions regarding the exhibition theme were held in 1953, after which it was established the thematic plan of the exhibition, which was opened on 24th of May 1955, for which it was made an illustrated guide that was to be printed in 1957.

Development of Regional Studies and Collecting in Kazakhstan (in the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century)

Background/Objectives: The objective of this paper is to supplement or substantiate the role of scientific societies of Kazakhstan and Russia in the development of regional studies and collecting in northern and eastern Kazakhstan. Method/ Statistical Analysis: The study of this problem was performed using mainly the general scientific methods: analysis and synthesis, historical method, logical method; among special and historical methods we should mention those historicalcomparative and historical- systematic. These methods provided the possibility to analyze the set of historical materials, statistical data, archival and literary sources, containing diverse factual material which enabled to adequately present the issue under study. Findings: The paper presents the information about local centers of museum and regional study work, the activities of which helped to form a network of historical and regional study museums in the region. Using archival sources, the authors show the history of formation and development of the activities of scientific societies. Special attention is given to the role of the Russian Geographical Society in the cultural and educational activities in the territory of Kazakhstan, representatives of which, both in the center and at the local level, paid great attention to the development of museums. Application/Improvements: The article helps to determine the role of scientific societies in the cultural and educational activities, the development of regional studies and collecting, the establishment and development of museums in Kazakhstan..

The Museum of Conflict

Conflictorium: The Museum of Conflict was established in Mirzapur, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in 2013, as a small community museum in the western part of India committed to its local context. The area has a history of ongoing communal tensions between the various communities that coexist within it, and the museum directly responds to the demands generated by this particularity. The exhibits at the museum consist of a collection of participative/immersive contexts that accumulate narratives of the experiences and memories of its visitors, thereby working through the trauma embedded in the everyday. By identifying as a museum, the space routes the validation that being part of a museum collection forges to acknowledge the legitimacy of the contemporary history of its community, thereby lending them a sense of belonging. This sensitivity to the audience that the museum addresses is particularly unique in India, where state-funded museums have historically had limited active engagement with their viewing publics. This article contextualizes the Conflictorium's presence as an alternative museum model in the country's social and political context as well as the existing network of public, private, and community museums.

Topography and Frontier: Gibellina's City of Art

Topography and Frontier: Gibellina's City of Art

Museum perceptions and productions: American migrations of a Maori hei-tiki

Museum objects have biographies shaped by their material, geographical and cultural origins, their initial intended purpose, and the ways in which they are valued and interpreted by curators and public audiences. Often one object becomes highly symbolic of a particular group even as its presentation over time reflects changing perceptions of the culture as well as the individual object. A Maori hei-tiki - a small but distinctive greenstone pendant - collected by Charles Wilkes on his United States Exploring Expedition in 1840 provides insight into changing museum practices, museum networks of exchange, the impact of professionalizing expertise in ethnology and anthropology since the late nineteenth century, shifting public interests and expectations, and, indeed, the unanticipated ways in which museum objects find their way into exhibition, in this case at the Smithsonian Institution. The material resilience and embedded historicity of the hei-tiki remain as a counterbalance to its versatility as an object useful in multiple stories over nearly two centuries.

Анализ региональных процессов в Российской Федерации (на примере вос-становления культуры чеченского народа). В.А. Асталов и И.С. Хамурзаев «Музейная сеть Чеченской Республики в конце ХХ – начале ХХI века» (Махачкала; Грозный, 2014. 196 с.)

Анализ региональных процессов в Российской Федерации (на примере вос-становления культуры чеченского народа). В.А. Асталов и И.С. Хамурзаев «Музейная сеть Чеченской Республики в конце ХХ – начале ХХI века» (Махачкала; Грозный, 2014. 196 с.)

Co-Authoring Relationships: Blackfoot Collections, UK Museums, and Collaborative Practice

Ceremonial leaders from the four Blackfoot Nations of Siksika, Piikani, Kainai, and the Blackfeet work together to pursue the shared goal of accessing museum collections for the collective good of their communities. They also favor an approach that draws on Blackfoot concepts of consensus to allow them to make meaningful relationships with museum workers. This article focuses on the Black-foot Collections in UK Museums Network, which has aimed to generate and exchange knowledge about little-studied Blackfoot cultural items in British collections. In order to undertake this work, the network established a way of working shaped by Blackfoot concepts of co-existence and practices of relationship-building as well as by current approaches in museum anthropology, which foreground dialogic models yet acknowledge their limitations. Through an ethnographic discussion of the network's reciprocal meetings, held between 2013 and 2015 in Blackfoot territory in Alberta, Canada, and Montana, USA, and in museums in southern England, I examine how Blackfoot practices of co-authoring relationships can shape new relations with museum staff who are critically evaluating the possibilities for collaboration.

The Development of Sport in Museums

Sport as a topic for museum collection, display, and interpretation has gradually developed over the last 100 years. However, until recently, there has been very little discussion or examination of the material culture of sport within the literature. Consequently, there is a misconception that sport in museums is relatively new, little is understood about the role and value of sporting heritage, and sporting collections are rarely used to inform historical study. In turn, the museum sector would benefit from more opportunities to work with sports historians whilst developing and delivering their sporting provision. Therefore, this paper examines the development of sport in museums, explores the current activity being developed in the field including the work of the Sport in Museums Network and the National Sporting Heritage Day, and offers practical information about how partnerships between academics and museum practitioners can be established to create a better understanding of the history and heritage of sport.

Museum networks and sustainable tourism management : the case study of marche region's museums (Italy)

Over the past twenty years, research on cultural tourism has sought to find a balance between tourism development and cultural heritage conservation. However scholars have not focused on the enhancement of local cultural heritage as an asset to raise awareness of new cultural destinations and to prevent overcrowding in just a few cultural cities. After a discussion of literature on heritage tourism management, this paper presents the results of a survey on museum networks in the Marche Region of Italy. Research suggests that museum networks have an important role in promoting local cultural heritage, but that they are not yet able to exploit economies of scale, to then ensure the museums’ survival and development as well as their contribution to sustainable tourism.

Museos, gestión y patrimonio cultural: El proyecto de la ciudad de Oporto

The city of Porto is one of the most visited places in Portugal due to already having important museums and a rich heritage. This article focuses specifically on the municipal museums through a study of its history and current management. It’s model of organization is very particular because it is characterized by its incorporation in block to the Portuguese Network of Museums (RPM), under the name Museu da Cidade do Porto. An initiative that has enabled the local administration plan a single strategy of dissemination with the aim of attracting a larger number of tourists and visitors, in addition to improving the quality of the services offered to the public and the conservation of the collections.