Cultural Museum Research Articles

Slaves as Gifts to Accompany Letters: A Critical Study of the Bo’ Abdul Kadim

This study discusses the tradition of letters in the kingdom of Bima, especially concerning giving enslaved people as gifts to accompany letters. The data for this study were taken from the manuscript bundle of bo’ (official royal records) during the reign of Sultan Abdul Kadim Muhammad Shah (1751–1773). Now, the manuscript is part of the collection of the Samparaja Cultural Museum, Bima, West Nusa Tenggara and is coded C.011 Bo. Within the manuscript bundle, we found 117 (out of a total of 548) letters discussing slaves and slavery in the Bima kingdom. We first used philological research methods, then these texts were analysed with historical records to obtain a complete understanding of slaves and slavery in the 18th century AD societal traditions. The results showed that slaves giving as a gift accompanying the letter was a symbol of respect for the recipient of the letter, which was following the Malay correspondence tradition. For local rulers, slaves were the most valuable treasure. Slaves were also a determinant of social status among the nobility in the past. This practice applies not only in Bima but throughout the Malay land and even Southeast Asia.

Ontological analysis and disease statistics of wooden coffin paintings from the Qinghai Tibetan Medicine Culture Museum, China

The 35 wooden coffin paintings from the Tubo period of the Tang Dynasty, housed in the collection of Qinghai Tibetan Medicine Cultural Museum, are valuable materials for studying Tubo culture. Research has shown that the wood used for coffin paintings was cypress. The adhesives contain bovine collagen and chicken ovalbumin. The pigments used include carbon black, azurite, cinnabar, orpiment, minium, and lead white. This article provides a statistical analysis of the types and areas of diseases that appear in wooden coffin paintings. Through the application of descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient analysis, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis, it was determined that deterioration phenomena such as rotten, crack, pulverization, and discoloration disease were particularly pronounced in coffin paintings. Key variables influencing the disease of wooden coffin paintings include crystal salt, drop, and pulverization. The dataset was categorized into three distinct clusters, each exhibiting significant differences. This study offers valuable insights and foundational support for the future conservation and restoration of coffin paintings.

Ольга и Борис Морозовы через Монголию в Китай (из семейного архива)

The publication is dedicated to the archival collection of Olga Alexandrovna (nee Kolosova, 1877–1968, Los Angeles) and Boris Ivanovich / Ioanovich (1902–1960, Lakewood, USA), who from Russia came to Mongolia,then emigrated to China (Tianjin and Shanghai), where they published their literary (autobiographical novel "Fate", "Irreversible" and "Nora") and scientific and educational works. In recent years they lived in the USA. An excerpt from the book by B.I. Morozov is published. "Mongolia: from a traveler’s notebook" (Tianjin: Knowledge, 1935). The last unpublished works of O.A. are noted. Morozova: "Notes about Tubabao" and "Cultural forces of Russian emigration." Materials for publication were identified from the personal collection of O.A. Morozova (3 boxes and an album of photographs. Inventory compiled by A. Shmelev), stored in the Museum of Russian Culture (MRC) in San Francisco and the Russian collection of the University of Hawaii. Illustrations from the author's personal collection were used.

Design Method of Museum Cultural and Creative Products Based on Multi sensory Experience

To explore the design method of museum cultural and creative products based on multi sensory experience, improve product level and user experience, and provide new directions for the development of museum cultural and creative design. The method first introduces the cognitive principles and sensory expression methods of sensory experience, and then focuses on the study of three common multi sensory phenomena: multi sensory integration, synesthesia, and sensory compensation. It analyzes their application in the design of cultural and creative products, summarizes the transformation process of user generated multi sensory experience, and establishes a multi sensory experience cultural and creative product design process based on this. Conclusion: Product design with multi sensory experience can bring users a more comprehensive and profound experience, help promote the inheritance and development of museum culture, and improve the serious problem of homogenization in the cultural and creative industry.

The Influence of Graphic Design Elements in Museum Cultural and Creative Products on Consumer Satisfaction

The Influence of Graphic Design Elements in Museum Cultural and Creative Products on Consumer Satisfaction

Distributed Community. Participatory Actions and Organizational Culture of a Museum Institution

The article discusses the consequences of participatory actions in a museum exemplified by the Find Art exhibition presented at the Muzeum Sztuki Lodz in 2017. It focuses on the transformative impact of participatory projects on museum culture and organizational structure. Museums have shifted from collection-driven entities to audience-oriented institutions, blurring lines between entertainment, education, and cultural heritage. The author highlights the changing paradigm of museums from old to new museology, critiquing power structures within museums. Based on the analysis of the Find Art exhibition the author argues that participatory projects reconfigure a museum institution, creating a Protean community of multi-functional collaborations that challenge conventional museum roles. He suggests a post-critical approach, defining a “distributed museum,” where networks of dependencies redefine the museum’s role beyond traditional boundaries. The author acknowledges the diverse contributions within the distributed museum, encompassing both formal and informal entities and addresses potential implications of exploitation within this dynamic community.

Research on the Innovative Development Model of the Chinese Museum Cultural Creative Industry in the New Media Era

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to clarify the development status of museum cultural creative industry in the new media era, and make contributions to the development of museum cultural creative industry in the new media era. Use new media technology to enhance the innovation and development space of museum culture. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study uses the method of literature research and case study, combined with the Palace Museum, Suzhou Museum and other large museums for in-depth analysis. By combing national policies and industry norms, the development and sale of cultural and creative products, and the application of digital technology, the paper summarizes the problems in the development and sale of museum cultural and creative products. Findings – It is necessary to grasp the opportunities for the development of cultural and creative industries, innovate the development concept of museums, and implement industrial development policies. From the application of digital technology, market-oriented operation and other aspects to accelerate the pace of museum cultural and creative industry development. At the same time, establish brand awareness, multi-channel marketing, and promote the comprehensive development of museum cultural and creative industry. Research Implications – This study enriches the theoretical scope of new media development. In addition, through the analysis of the development status of the cultural and creative industry of museums, it more clearly indicates the practical difficulties faced by the development of the cultural and creative industry of museums, and points out the direction for the development of the cultural and creative industry of museums in the future.

Museum Governance: Lessons From the Past as a First Step Towards Innovation

Over the past thirty years, private sector governance has seen significant development in regulatory guidelines, best practices, and adaptation to emerging challenges. In contrast, the history of Canadian museum governance is relatively new. Not-for-profit Canadian museums began to establish governance frameworks only recently with influential publications like the UNESCO Recommendation on Museums and Collections (2015) and the SMQ Guide (2014), along with the implementation of Bill 114 in 2016. Bill 114 introduced constraints and responsibilities akin to those in the private sector, shifting governance from a more informal approach to a structured system. Notable examples of pre-Bill 114 governance include Rolland Arpin's initiatives at the Museum of Civilization and guidelines by the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization. This study aims to explore the lessons that museum governance can learn from private sector practices, comparing regulatory frameworks and drawing insights from corporate governance literature to enhance the sustainability and effectiveness of not-for-profit museums and heritage preservation efforts.

Byzantine wall paintings from San Marco d’Alunzio, Sicily: non-invasive diagnostics and microanalytical investigation of pigments and plasters

A diagnostic investigation was carried out on twelfth century Byzantine wall paintings preserved in the Museum of Byzantine and Norman Culture and Figurative Arts of San Marco d’Alunzio (Messina, Italy) on the occasion of recent restoration works. First, the wall paintings were analyzed using portable X-Ray Fluorescence (p-XRF) and Fiber Optics Reflectance Spectroscopy (FORS) to obtain a non-invasive preliminary identification of the original palette. Then, five fragments were sampled for a micro-stratigraphy study using Digital Optical Microscope (DOM), Polarizing Optical Microscope (POM), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) combined with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS) to characterize the mortars and the blue and black pigments non unequivocally identified through non-invasive techniques. The palette included mainly earthen pigments like red and yellow ochres, green earth, and more valuable lapis lazuli blue applied on a bone black layer; while the analysis of mortars found on the different apses showed the same manufacturing technique and constitutive materials: lime-based binder with the addition of quartz, and rare calcareous lithic fragments as aggregate. The obtained results shed light on the pictorial technique used for the wall paintings and allowed us to compare the Sicilian pictorial cycle with the coeval Byzantine wall paintings preserved in Sardinia and Southern Italy.

The Nazi’s Mummy: The Afterlife of a Woman from Taltal

In this article, I highlight the insights gained by tracing the biography of one single object in the museum collection: a mummified woman. Her trajectory is followed from her original resting place in present-day Taltal, Chile, to the University of Kiel in Germany, and finally to the National Museums of World Culture in Gothenburg, Sweden. The article discusses how the woman has been traded as a collectors’ item and research commodity, and how she has been exhibited at the museum. By mapping the afterlife of the mummified woman from Taltal, we can discuss effective methods for conducting provenance research at collection-based institutions. Additionally, we can examine the lingering remnants of controversial ideologies within these collections and how they are addressed today. Moreover, the article aims to underscore the challenging disparity between personal knowledge and documented knowledge within museums.

Catalogue of stuffed birds with atypical colouration and developmental anomalies deposited in the State Museum of Natural History NASU, Lviv, Ukraine

Birds with atypical colouration and developmental anomalies very rarely occur in the wild, and museum collections of such specimens have been formed over centuries. Today, their scientific importance is growing due to the emergence of new opportunities in genetic research, and distribution of information on the collections of this kind is a useful thing. The digitization of collections becomes especially important in times of war, because currently none of the museum collections in Ukraine have guarantees against possible losses. The collection of stuffed birds with atypical colouration and developmental anomalies, deposited in the State Museum of Natural History, NASU includes 157 specimens of 44 species. It was collected from 1850 to 1930. Later, only one stuffed bird was received in 2012. The collection was formed both as a result of the activities of museum staff (hunting, buying at markets) and the receipt of numerous gifts to the museum's founder, Volodymyr Didushytskyi. Among the species, the most numerous are the house sparrow Passer domesticus L., 1758 – 24 spec., the grey crow Corvus cornix L., 1758, the rook Corvus frugilegus L., 1758 and the village swallow Hirundo rustica L., 1758, presented by 11 spec. each, and the grey partridge Perdix perdix L., 1758 – 9 spec. Some 117 specimens were collected from the present territory of Ukraine, 28 spec. from the present territory of Poland, and the place of collection of the remaining 12 specimens is unknown. In Ukraine, most specimens were collected in Lvivska province (89); the rest – in Ternopilska province (15), Ivano-Frankivska province (12) and Volynska province (1). In Poland, 12 specimens were collected in the Podkarpackie voivodeship, 11 spec. in the Małopolskie voivodeship, 2 spec. in the Lubelskie voivodeship and 1 spec. in the Lódzkie voivodeship. Among all localities, the largest number of specimens was collected from Lviv City and its environs – 24, form the village of Peniaky, Zolochivskyi district, Lvivska province – 12, and from Kraków City and its environs – 11. At the end of 2023, the entire collection was digitized as a part of the project "Crisis Inventory and Leap to Digitalization of Museum Records" Tustan NGO, “Tustan” State Historical and Cultural Museum, NeMo: Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab and the NGO “Centre for Museum Development” with the financial support of the European Union. Each exhibit was photographed in six projections: front, left and right sides, back, bottom, and in the most favourable exhibition position. The catalogue was prepared within the framework of the project "Methodological principles of expert evaluation of the scientific potential of natural history collections" of the Department of Applied Museology of the State Museum of Natural History, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, state registration No.0122U001440.

The Church Museums’ Evolution of the Idea and Methods of Missionary Work in China: A Study of Tsinanfu Institute

The Church Museums’ Evolution of the Idea and Methods of Missionary Work in China: A Study of Tsinanfu Institute

AN INVESTIGATION OF TOURISTS SATISFACTION IN MAAYSIA CULTURAL MUSEUM: ENTRANCE SPACE EXPERIENCE

Malaysia is known with its rich and diverse cultural heritage. Therefore, a number of cultural museums which display Malaysia’s multifarious history, traditions, and art forms has established. However, there is a decreasing trend of visitor visiting the cultural museum in Malaysia. This trend is highly influenced by the tourists’ experience gained during their visit to the museum. This study aims to study the tourist satisfaction in the entrance space of Malaysia cultural museum. This study analyses the data gathered from 381 respondents through a questionnaire survey. The statement in the survey represents different elements which are education, escape, aesthetic, and entertainment. The findings show that the aesthetic element is the most appreciated element by the respondents during the visit while escape element is the least appreciated element. Most of the respondents are in the younger group age, which is an age group that appreciates aesthetics the most while almost a third of the respondents went to the museum due to work, hence make the element of escape the least appreciated. From history, museum institutions have been evolving throughout the time as it is only known as a place called “Cabinets of Curiosities” in 1500s. The existing museum can start integrating itself with other attractions or providing more activities for the visitor to turn it into a more interesting and fun place for the visitor.

In real life: Gaming community engagement in museums

AbstractThis article looks at the ways museums can collaborate with the gaming community to better preserve, curate, digitize, and understand video games. Museums have become increasingly drawn to the collection and study of video games. Ideally, the acquisition and preservation of video games would need to be overseen by museum professionals specializing in digital collections, however, the museum sector lacks such specialists and resourcing. Often curators and museum staff do not have the necessary cultural and technological skills to properly care for gaming material culture. To remedy this problem, this paper suggests a more collaborative approach whereby gaming communities could be included in the collection, preservation, and display of gaming history and culture in museums. Using examples from the United States and Australia, this article examines the many ways the gaming community can help museums understand, acquire, display, and preserve video games.

Innovation in Marketing Strategies for Museum Cultural and Creative Products Under New Consumer Demand

Innovation in Marketing Strategies for Museum Cultural and Creative Products Under New Consumer Demand

Engaging the present, embracing the past: Pop culture museums and cultural continuity in Fukushima

This article delves into the collaborative efforts that unfolded in the creation of the 2012 exhibition ‘TOKUSATSU: Special Effects Museum – Craftsmanship of Showa and Heisei Eras Seen through Miniatures’, which in turn paved the way for the establishment of institutional facilities for popular culture. Specifically, this article explores the collaborative dynamics of two recently established facilities: the Anime Tokusatsu Archive Center in Tokyo (2017) and the Sukagawa Tokusatsu Archive Center (2020) in Sukagawa, Fukushima. Sukagawa, Tsuburaya Eiji's hometown, has played a pivotal role in mobilising artists and communities to engage with these cultural spaces. Artist groups dedicated to tokusatsu and anime began to consider preservation and exhibition strategies to convey these art forms to other generations. This article analyses the building process, and the social cooperation in building these facilities, connecting them to broader popular culture movements in Japan.

A Study on the Application of Miao Culture in Regional Landscape Design

Pingbian Muyang River Park is located in the core area of Dishui Miao City, Pingbian Miao Autonomous County, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, with a construction area of about 93000 m2. By rational planning and layout of space, reorganizing the original site relationships, and using the “Miao Culture Active Museum” as the theme of park design, we aim to create a unique Miao culture space, allowing people to experience the charm of ethnic culture and the uniqueness of regional landscapes, as if wandering between Miao culture museums in the park. Utilize elements such as water bridge culture and Miao culture in the Pingbian area to create local characteristic landscapes, and summarize the methods of using Miao culture to create regional landscapes. Integrating theory with practice, designing a regional landscape space that embodies the cultural charm of the Miao ethnic group, integrating leisure sightseeing, tourism experience, and health and entertainment. After its completion, the park received widespread attention and recognition from all sectors of society. In 2018, it was successfully declared a national AAAA scenic spot and provided reference and inspiration for landscape design in Yunnan’s ethnic areas.

Copyright protection: a key element in realizing the development potential of digital cultural and creative products in museums

ABSTRACT Digital cultural and creative products, specifically Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), have emerged in recent years, attracting numerous museums to explore their potential and creating a unique cultural phenomenon. Though NFTs have sparked creativity in museums and advocated museum culture, their economic attributes have brought potential controversies and risks. This research analyzes the current status of NFTs in the digital cultural and creative field and regards copyright protection as a crucial sector that needs to be highlighted to unlock the development potential of Cultural and Creative NFTs. Leveraging the advantages of blockchain technology, we propose a solution called the Digital Cultural and Creative Alliance Chain, which establishes a copyright protection mechanism and implementation process, aiming to improve the copyright protection ecosystem in the cultural and creative field and facilitate the utilization of museum cultural resources.

Culture management in cultural and art institutions: A cultural analysis

Relevance. The object of this research is the managerial culture in the museums of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study considers a management culture in museums on a large scale, as museums of the Republic of Kazakhstan are a part of the world culture and their development occurs not in self-isolation from the world, but in this world, though in time of experiencing economic and political crises, and in time of a pandemic. Purpose. The paper examines the general history of museum development in Kazakhstan, management culture, and management itself. The management culture is shown from ethical and practical sides. The study demonstrates management as a new strategy of museum management in the modern world. The basic work of museums and their reaction to challenges of the modern world is also briefly shown, i.e., the new role of museums in the modern world is considered. Methodology. The desk research method was used: analysis of modern research of the last three years on the museums of the Republic of Kazakhstan, management culture and management in museums. Results/Conclusions. The article concludes that museums, despite their conservatism, can respond to the challenges of the time and adapt to the needs of society. Moreover, the culture of management in museums is changing in order to dictate to society what is relevant and interesting, rather than passively fulfilling its demands. The management culture dictates to museum workers new approaches to effective museum management, and the museum has become not only a centre of history and culture preservation but also an active centre of public education.

Lens to difficult history: Museums of Hansen’s disease in Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan

A recent revisit of the history of leprosy in East and Southeast Asia led to the establishment of museums of Hansen’s disease. Given that the history of leprosy has been a touchy subject due to its social stigma and complicated colonial past, these museums become spaces for the curious to comprehend memories of the forgotten past. In this article, we investigate contradictory purposes of reappraising the heritage value of the history of leprosy for present needs. Museum exhibitions in three colonial leprosaria in Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan are examined, specifically focusing on three areas of interpretation: the medical past in a post-colonial present, the difficult life of former patients, and the unsettled present. In contrast with the traditional museum as a place for the repository of glorious national identity, museums of Hansen’s disease offer diverse pathways to new museum culture created by activists, museum visitors, and officials.