Permanent Collection Research Articles

Sufficiency-related Strategies and Activities of Small Finnish Clothing Companies

AbstractThe current textile industry is characterised by unsustainable business models. There is a need to transform the industry towards sufficiency – that is a textile industry where consumption is decreased to a level that is adequate and within planetary boundaries. Through a literature review and interviews with small Finnish textile companies, our research synthesizes previous research and provides new information about business practices that companies can employ to advance sufficiency as part of their everyday business. We found that companies have various activities that can enable, promote or inspire decreased consumption and sufficiency. Activities relate to six categories: (1) valuing quality over quantity, (2) enabling multiple product lives, (3) provision of support services, (4) encouraging and enabling doing-it-yourself, (5) ethics-motivated communication and interaction and (6) embracing locality. The activities connected to each strategy are manifold and context specific including, for example, permanent collections, not having discounts, repair service, quality and curated second-hand products and interaction with users during the use phase. It is important to note, however, that the studied sufficiency strategies come with rebound risks and companies should identify the best activities that fit their context and measure their impact. Changing the paradigm from fast fashion to sufficiency will not be an easy task and will require efforts from consumer citizens, decision makers and companies alike.

Misères et splendeurs d’un mendicant dans 'Le Seigneur vous le rendra' de Mahi Binebine

Mahi Binebine is a Moroccan novelist with more than twelve novels to his credit. He is also a great painter whose paintings can be found in the most famous collections, notably in the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. For him, painting and writing evolve together and deal with the same issues. In his novel, The Lord Will Pay You Back, Binebine takes up the theme of the suffocation of the individual who tries to resist the alienating forces that crush him (misery, predation). We propose to read this story as a picaresque tale with symbolic significance: the protagonist, forced to beg from birth, bears the brunt of his own mother’s monstrosity and dislike, worthy of the worst of the fairy tales. Driven by poverty, the mother takes possession of her child’s body and sculpts a deformed being that will be exhibited in the main square of Marrakech to earn a living. If the monstrous is here inseparable from the tale, it also inscribes the hero in a process of transformation made possible by intellectual (literature) and sentimental (love) learning. Thus the protagonist goes from being a simple fairground beast who flaunts his disproportionate physique for a few coins to becoming a storyteller, a fabulator, a creator of worlds. In the meantime, the tale gives way to the novel and the child, now an adult, regains a certain bodily normality, which is not a guarantee of happiness. If the marvellous is not completely evacuated, if the narrator claims a part of fantasy in his story, the novel is there to remind us that a literary work is also a reflection on the human condition of those left behind and on the alienation of the individual who must redouble his ingenuity to assert himself as a singular and independent being.

Mildred Codding (1902–1991): Neurosurgery Medical Illustrator at Harvard Medical School, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, and Boston's Children Hospital

This historical account reviews the life and times of Mildred Codding (1902-1991) in neurosurgery and medical illustration. The writing of this project was sparked by the discovery of original scientific and bibliographical information about Codding, testimony on personal relationships, and viewpoints after comprehensive compilation of information. Mildred Codding learned the carbon dust technique from Max Brödel at the Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) (Baltimore, Maryland USA), and worked at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, now Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston, Massachusetts, USA). Codding was Dr. Cushing's medical illustrator, colleague, and friend. She provided photographs, diagrams, and sketches for the majority of Cushing's collection of intracranial tumors from 1929 to 1932. A 1991 interview of Codding was hosted by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital for the permanent collection of the Archives of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and provides additional photographs and insignia, drawings with pen and ink method, multi-stepped layering, and illustration implements. Importantly, the Brigham Surgical Alumni insignia showing a surgeon's hand with scalpel was modeled after Codding's left hand. Outside of the operating room, Codding's interests included Pediatrics, Zoology and Genetics, atlantes of surgical operations, teatime, and paint with watercolor, particularly seascapes, lighthouses and dunes. This article provides glimpses into the personality and marked influence of Mildred Codding on neurosurgery and medical education and adds to the growing literature on her person.

Salvaging Art Collections in the Face of Natural Disasters: Challenges and Outcomes

ABSTRACT A case study describes the impact on a collection of the extreme floods in eastern Australia in February 2022, and the salvaging of the Lismore Regional Art Gallery art collection. Despite predetermined protocols and preparedness efforts, the gallery suffered unprecedented flooding, requiring coordinated solutions to support emergency recovery. The project included relocating and stabilising around 1400 artworks, divided between the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. Coordinated collaboration with stakeholders was needed to determine which artworks were salvageable; initial assessments indicated 60%. However, after further assessment this was reduced to 40% of all artworks able to be returned to a condition suitable for storage and display. The paper focuses on the assessment criteria used to prioritise artworks for salvage and conservation: insurance value, condition post-flooding, the views of living artists on display of treated works, and sentimental and community importance. It also outlines the conservation processes for flood-damaged paintings on canvas, works on paper, and photographgraphs, highlighting challenges and outcomes.

Reframing Fashion in the Exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse

The exhibition Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse (2022) reexamined the British fashion designer’s oeuvre by contextualizing select Alexander McQueen designs within art history. Juxtaposing permanent collection works that spanned media, eras, and cultures with McQueen’s fashions, curators explored the cyclical nature of inspiration against the backdrop of appropriation in art history. As evidenced in his powerful collections, McQueen’s artistic process ranged from thoughtful research and examination to Eurocentric revisions that were both critical of and at times complicit in the legacies of colonialism. This analysis of McQueen’s artistic intent and process initially sought to uncover new frameworks for understanding the designer; however, the thematic conversations between encyclopedic objects also yielded new and unexpected insights for the museum’s non-dress and textile art collections. Investigating McQueen’s fashion collections through a broader art-historical lens enabled significant and mutually beneficial dialogues between both dress and non-dress art historians.

Pursuing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Collection Development

The Textile Museum of Canada (the Textile Museum) is pursuing institutional change with a goal to meaningfully address and redress absences in its permanent collection of over 15,000 textiles. To support this goal, the Textile Museum developed a Collection Development Plan guided by emerging best practices supporting Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in museums, research into the institution’s historical and existing collecting practices and policies, and focus group sessions and interviews with members of multiple communities. These actions led to a series of recommendations for the Textile Museum to implement. Being represented within the Textile Museum’s collection matters to people, and our findings encourage the institution to value intangible heritage (not only material objects), and to care for collections in ways that enliven them through connections with people in storage, exhibition, and digital spaces. This case study presents the origins, process, and outcomes of this ongoing work to institutionalize new practices and imperatives holistically across departments.

Attribution Issues of the Showpiece of the State Museum of the East. On the Example of the "Head with a three-legged toad"

The object of this research is the activity of the museum in the field of storage, study and attribution of monuments of material culture. The subject of the work is an showpiece of the permanent collection of the Art of China section of the State Museum of Oriental Art, designated as "A Head with a three-legged toad". The purpose of this article is to consider the problems of attribution of this museum object and propose ways to solve them for subsequent re-attribution based on new information obtained during the study. The author examines the connection of the "Head ..." with mass culture, analyzes the data of the State Museum of the East on the alleged real prototypes of sculpture, as well as the legitimacy of the assumptions put forward. Special attention is paid to the importance of the museum's constant study of primary sources – stored objects, updating information about them through new research and technologies. The work on the research was carried out within the framework of an interdisciplinary approach, using such methods as historical-typological, historical-genetic, comparative analysis, as well as the method of interpreting a work of art. In the course of the analysis, the author provides information on the basis of which the correctness of the statements in the official information channels of the State Museum of the East regarding the showpiece "Head with a three-legged toad" is questioned. The dating of the object to the Han period is questioned, since the life years of the personalities indicated as possible prototypes of the "Head..." – Hou-xian, Liu Har and Guo Xiang – belong to a later time. It is noted that the intended purpose of the "Head ..." – the replacement of the real one in the burial of a decapitated person – turns out to be a rather late practice and does not correlate with the dating of the creation of the showpiece. A hypothesis is put forward about the possible non-Chinese origin of the tradition of this type of images. The collected data can become the basis for the re-attribution of the showpiece, a more thorough study of it and filling in the "white spots" in its biography. The identification of a more accurate and definite dating and the region of origin of this museum object will positively affect the comprehensive knowledge about it, expand information about the funerary culture and mythological tradition of China.

Naples Yellow Revisited: Insights into Trades and Use in 17th-Century Sicily from the Macro X-ray Fluorescence Scanning of Matthias Stomer’s ‘The Mocking of Christ’

In a recent non-destructive analytical campaign at Museo Civico, Castello Ursino, in Catania, Italy, several paintings in the permanent collection were investigated by MA-XRF scanning, with a special focus on Matthias Stomer’s production. On one depiction of the Mocking of Christ (ca. 1640) donated to the municipality of Catania by G.B. Finocchiaro in 1826, the analysis documented the use of Naples yellow. Sb with Pb was detected in yellow areas of the Mocking of Christ, but not in his work Tobias healing his father. This finding possibly suggested an early use of lead antimonate yellow in South Italy, although it is generally accepted that this pigment was introduced in painting in the eighteenth century. Further details on his technique and later conservation treatments are provided, as well as literary comparisons with the artistic production during the same period, in Sicily and elsewhere. A systematic study of Stomer’s works, for example examining paintings produced while he was in Naples or Rome, might determine whether this material choice depended on local availability. Overall, it would shed light on his technique, as well as on the history of Naples yellow in southern Italy and beyond, before this pigment became so popular in the eighteenth century.

¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today: An interview with Tanya Melendez-Escalante and Melissa Marra-Alvarez

The Museum at FIT (MFIT) in New York City hosted the fashion exhibit ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today from 31 May to 5 November 2023. The exhibit included over sixty objects from the museum’s permanent collection representing designers from several Latin American countries and the diaspora including Brenda Equihua (United States), Bárbara Sánchez-Kane (Mexico) and Willy Chavarria (United States). An edited volume published by Bloomsbury complemented the show and expands on topics such as identity, popular culture, sustainability and gender. In this interview co-curators Tanya Melendez-Escalante and Melissa Marra-Alvarez share details of the exhibit planning process.

Incorporating art into a biology course: a student-curated art exhibition about COVID-19.

Incorporating art into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses can be an effective way to help students understand scientific concepts and think about those concepts more holistically. Additionally, art can be used to inform the public about scientific issues. To explore this topic more fully, we developed an assignment for an upper-level biology course in which students curated an art exhibition focused on the 2019 coronavirus disease, COVID-19. Working in pairs, students identified pieces of art in the College's permanent collection that they felt related to some aspect of the pandemic. Each pair wrote a short curator's statement and a more traditional academic essay. The works of art and the curator's statements were displayed on campus. Visitors to the exhibition were invited to complete a short survey about the exhibition and its relevance to COVID-19. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the students enjoyed and valued the assignment. Limited data from visitors to the exhibition show that they thought the art helped them think more deeply about the pandemic. Based on these results, we conclude that the development of art exhibitions in STEM courses can benefit the students and the public.

Sculpture-Adjacency: A Challenge Facing Sculpture Park Permanent Collections

The number and variety of sculpture parks has grown steadily since the 1960s, when the first entries into this unique typology were founded. As early entrants to the field, sculpture parks founded between 1960 and 1990 have developed ways to stay relevant and attract new audiences by leveraging the asset of their parkland and producing seasonal entertainments and special exhibitions. The enticing combination of these offerings can overshadow permanent collections, the primary reason for their existence. This article explores the challenge sculpture parks face in activating the important asset that is their permanent collection, a problem that has multiple causes. Sculpture parks are not able to rotate their collection, an established museological method for giving the collection new life. This inability produces a static sameness for visitors. The tours that are on offer tend to be in the traditional museum-as-expert mode instead of visitor-centric. Deepening this predicament is the reality that sculpture park curation and programming are sculpture-adjacent, a term I use to signify their vague relationship to the sculptures. Drawing on research from the field of visitor engagement and museum education, this article argues that sculpture parks should turn to visitor-centric programs as the principal method to bring permanent collections to life.

Produtividade do milho com base em uma abordagem de regressão distribucional

Abstract The objective of this work was to propose the use of traditional models based on distributional regression models to analyze maize productivity. The experiment was carried out in an alpha lattice design, with three replicates and 24 blocks. Data used refer to 102 maize plants from the permanent collection of the Centro de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico para a Agricultura of the Universidade Federal de Lavras. For the maize productivity evaluation, the following explanatory variables were used: weight of 100 seed, plant height, ear height, and days to maturation. The initial analyses involved the fitting of four distributions (gamma, generalized gamma, inverse Gaussian, and generalized inverse Gaussian) to the data, in which the gamma distribution showed the best fit based on the Akaike and Bayesian information criteria (AIC and BIC). Cob height has a considerable influence on the productivity variability because as cob height increases, the productivity variability decreases, whereas the covariates weight of 100 seed and days to maturity explain the increasing average of the productivity. The residual analysis shows that the model based on gamma distribution is suitable for explaining the data and providing useful insights for agricultural research and practice.

Museumskommunikation in Klarer Sprache – Theorie, Praxis und Perspektiven

The International Council of Museums redefined the term museum in August 2022. According to this, museums are at the service of the public and promote diversity and sustainability for, among other things, education, the enjoyment of art and the transmission of knowledge. The aim of this contribution is to use the multi-perspective approach of the Legal-Linguistic Comprehensibility Model to examine what applied linguistics can contribute to comprehensible communication in museums. The focus is on Clear language as a means for knowledge transfer. The theory and methodology of Clear Language is essentially based on text linguistics and pragmatics. The examples are taken from four explanatory films by the State Gallery Stuttgart, which guide a heterogeneous target audience through the permanent collection of the art museum.

History in Our Hands. Participatory Methodologies in Curatorial Work at the National History Museum of Chile

This article, which features a video and a fanzine, consists of an academic description of our participatory methodologies in curating exhibits from our permanent collection at the National History Museum of Chile. This reflection on methodology asks itself about the didactic role of the museums beyond the goal of representing the diversity and complexity of the members of the nation. What abilities and values can communities acquire from the act of curating an exhibition? What type of methodologies permit a horizontal exchange of effects and affects? What are the reaches and limits of these creative activities? Online version, including video. Keywords: museum studies, curatorial practice, participatory methods, Chile, cultural heritage

A catalogue of the nematode slide collection from the late W.L. Nicholas held at National Research Collections Australia, CSIRO.

A catalogue is presented of the nematode slide collection of W.L. Nicholas, which is deposited in the National Research Collections Australia at CSIRO. This is the most extensive slide collection of free-living marine and estuarine nematodes from Australia to date, and consists of 553 putative species, collected across a wide range of Australias eastern and northern regions over the course of nearly 40 years. The collection contains mostly marine and estuarine free-living nematodes collected on coarse substrate in littoral habitats. The most abundant genera were Desmodora, Theristus, and Onyx. Most taxa were found rarely, being recorded only once, and repeated sampling at several sandy beach sites revealed only a small proportion of the fauna on more than one occasion. A significant proportion of the taxa were also found to be widespread, occurring on more than one occasion at more than one location, with Theristus sp., Onyx sp., and Viscosia sp. occurring in the greatest number of localities. The catalogue adds an additional 90 species and 160 genera to the documented fauna of Australian free-living nematodes verifiable by specimens in permanent collections. It thus provides a better framework for studying nematode biodiversity and biogeography in the region.

The Influence of Cultural Congress on the Preferences of the Permanent Collection of the National Art Gallery of Malaysia

Since Malaysia's independence, the government convened the National Cultural Congress in 1971, which discussed building national identity in Malaysia through the culture of various races. The National Art Gallery, as an official institution with policy overtones, maintains a permanent collection of artworks for the nation, showcases the work of local and international artists, and encourages the development of art in the community. Therefore, this study uses a quantitative approach to secondary research, using the Cultural Congress as a dividing line, and to statistically classify works from each of the five years before and after by comparing changes in the nationality of the artists, the medium of the works, and the subject matter of the works to verify whether the emergence of the Cultural Congress had a significant impact on the National Art Gallery's collecting preferences. The results of this study show that the National Art Gallery's collection of works by national artists has also been on the rise since 1971, particularly in terms of the number of works by Malay artists and indigenous subjects. This research helps to examine the influence of the Cultural Congress from different perspectives and to understand the role of social factors on the views and approaches of artists. In addition, the collection of the art gallery will be collated and summarised to understand the preferences of the collection in each period and thus provide insight into the prevailing genres and approaches to art.

Blake and Exhibitions, 2022

Continuing effects of COVID-19 disruption included delayed and sometimes reduced displays to mark the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death (Fogg Art Museum; Simon Fraser University; University of Melbourne) and delayed rehangs of works kept in storage after exhibitions or during renovations. In February 2022 the Rosenbach celebrated the rehang of The Number of the Beast Is 666 after a period of rest since its loan to the Blake retrospective at Tate Britain in 2019–​20. In May Glasgow Museums reinstalled Eve Naming the Birds and Adam Naming the Beasts in the main corridor of Pollok House following storage to protect the works from environmental conditions. Displays featuring treasures from permanent collections included the incipit of Vala, or The Four Zoas at the British Library and Milton at the New York Public Library. Building the Bookman’s Paradise, an exhibition reconstructing plans and showcasing treasures at the Morgan Library, included two Job watercolors among early medieval and Renaissance illuminations and modern treasures.

CREATING VIRTUAL REALITY USING A SOCIAL VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT: PHYGITAL EXHIBITION AT THE MUSEUM PASSION IN SORDEVOLO

Abstract. The paper addresses the digital curation of immersive and virtual spaces for the cultural heritage sector. One of the research objectives is to define a methodological and operational workflow for developing a virtual environment designed using a social virtual environment. The use of social worlds in virtual reality (VR) is one of the possible entry points to the metaverse, understood as a way of experiencing digital reality. The possibility of creating a digital space that replicates real space offers not only the opportunity for people to gather in a virtual place but also allows designers to provide a parallel and augmented experience in terms of content.The case study aims to create the digital twin of the temporary Phygital Exhibition, which opened in July 2022 at the Sordevolo Passion Museum in the Church of Santa Marta. Unlike the permanent collection, which recounts the tradition of popular theatre in Sordevolo for the performance of the Passion of Christ, the Phygital Exhibition focuses on documenting the activity related to the design and construction of the scenography. In the virtual environment, the physical space is replicated with a low level of detail to emphasize the VR exhibition, composed of a series of panels with the possibility to interact with historical documentation, drawings, and pictures. The virtual space is also enriched by video and 3D models not available in real space, which documents the transformation of the scenography over the years.

Hemolysis and hypersensitive tests ease culture collection management of antagonistic bacteria

A biosafety assessment is a crucial first step in the management of microbial culture collection to screen and determine unexpected potential plant and human pathogenic bacteria. It is common to collect and store as many fresh culture collections from natural resources before being further evaluated for antagonist bacteria. As a result, a bulk of isolates must be preserved which required more effort and budget. Safety evaluations based on the hemolysis and hypersensitive reactions offer simple tests to ease culture collection management of antagonist bacteria. The study aimed to evaluate the safety of bacterial culture collection for their hemolysis and hypersensitive reactions. Ninety-five isolates of rhizosphere and endophytic bacterial isolates from the culture collections of the Department of Plant Protection-IPB University, Indonesian Industrial and Beverages Crops Research Institute, and Indonesian Spice and Medicinal Crops Research Institute, were evaluated their safety using the hemolysis and hypersensitive tests. The hemolysis test was conducted using blood agar media, from which isolates with a negative (?) reaction were then tested for the hypersensitivity reaction on tobacco leaves. Bacterial isolates passed from both hemolysis and hypersensitivity tests were then preserved by the lyophilization method for long-term storage of culture collection. Based on the hemolysis test, 68 out of 95 bacterial isolates (71.57%) were found to be positive (? or ?) reactions. The hypersensitive test showed that 22 of 27 negative hemolysis isolates did not trigger hypersensitivity reactions in tobacco leaves, therefore, they were preserved by lyophilization. The study indicated that a high number of bacterial isolates in the present collection, 68 positive hemolysis, and 5 hypersensitive, need to be re-evaluated due to their safety concerns. The present study highlights the importance of biosafety tests performed in an early stage before the to permanent collection of antagonist isolates.

Medieval stone carvings from the Castle of Borosjenő (Ineu, Arad County, Romania)

The castle of Borosjenő (Ineu, Romania), which is largely Renaissance in form, also displays important architectural phases from before and after this period. During the on-site art historical research of 2016 and 2019 it was an especially important task removing numerous Romanesque, pre-1200 carvings in secondary use as building material. The (majority of) carvings we have identified most likely originated in the monastery of Dénesmonostora (Dienesmonostora), which once stood near Borosjenõ. Probably by the end of the fourteenth century, when it had disappeared from the written sources, and certainly by the sixteenth century, the monastery had been abandoned, and its remains have since disappeared. Proof of the high artistic value of these carvings was the capital depicting a siren, removed during the reconstruction of the castle in the 1870s. The owner of the castle at that time donated it to the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, where today it is a part of the permanent collection. Some of the newly-founded capitals and other decorative architectural elements have very rare analogies in the Hungarian Romanesque architecture, but show artistic connections with the Alsace region (e.g. Sainte foy church in Sélestat). Several other medieval fragments can be dated to a period later than the twelfth century. The paper contains also a catalogue of about thirty-eight carved stone-fragments.