Permanent Collection Research Articles

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News

Dancing around the Subject: Memory Work of Museum Landscapes at the Welsh National Waterfront Museum

As the newest of the seven national museums in Wales, the National Waterfront Museum tells the story of Welsh industry and innovation. This article traces the construction and engagement of the museum’s fifteen galleries as performed landscapes in a detailed analysis of memory work. Focusing on the crafted discourse of the museum, visitor narratives as they experience the museum, and performances that regularly occupy the museum’s spaces presents a unique opportunity for landscape analysis within the context of the memory work of a museum. Swansea’s 2017 Dance Days, for example, focused around the theme of climate change and the vulnerability of the ocean while visitors were somewhat less engaged with environmental impacts as presented in the permanent collections. This article expands beyond a typical understanding of museum discourse to explore the incorporation of creative geographies of landscape, performance, and memory into more traditional museum and spatial narratives.

Visitors’ discursive responses to hegemonic and alternative museum narratives: a case study of Le Modèle Noir

ABSTRACT Recent reflection on the role of museums and galleries has focused on their socially situated nature; and that as a social construct, co-produced with its audiences, heritage is in part discursively constituted. This has included acknowledgement that the inherited discourse is hegemonic and exclusive of divergent narratives, leading to moves to create alternatives to contest it, which include temporary exhibitions. These provide a potentially democratic space for discursive incursions freed from the constraints of the permanent museum. But they are also spatially and temporally peripheral, occupying a discursive space outside the standard visit. This raises questions as to whether, once the exhibition is over, the alternative will be subsumed once more. This article explores this issue using a dataset of TripAdvisor reviews to analyse the discursive responses of visitors to temporary and permanent collections, using the Musée d’Orsay's 2019 exhibition Le Modèle Noir as a case study. Analysis shows that Le Modèle Noir reviews exhibit greater discursive fragmentation, reveal a relative lack of appeals to collective identity, and do not connect the exhibition with the permanent collection. Potential implications of this for initiatives that seek to counter the hegemonic narrative are discussed.

Cover Art Concept

Other| March 01 2021 Cover Art Concept Molly Crabapple Molly Crabapple MOLLY CRABAPPLE is an artist and author of Drawing Blood (2015) and Brothers of the Gun (with Marwan Hisham; 2018). She has published in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, the Paris Review, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and the New Yorker. Her art is in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. Contact: molly@mollycrabapple.com. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Middle East Women's Studies (2021) 17 (1): 129–130. https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-8790319 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter Email Permissions Search Site Citation Molly Crabapple; Cover Art Concept. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 1 March 2021; 17 (1): 129–130. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-8790319 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsJournal of Middle East Women's Studies Search Advanced Search In 2015 I had been hired by Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) to document their maternity clinic in the Domiz Refugee Camp in Iraqi Kurdistan. For a week I drew dozens of sketches—families about to take the dangerous journey to Europe, young mothers, a wedding-dress shop, a newborn baby joyously howling at the new world in which she found herself. The camp’s residents were Syrian Kurds, displaced by fundamentalist rebels, the regime, ISIS, poverty, or some combination of the four. Many were passing time until they could scrape together the money to pay a smuggler to take them to Germany. This issue’s cover art is a portrait, based on photos I shot at Domiz, of an Algerian doctor volunteering with MSF. An hour earlier she had helped deliver a baby, and she was taking a quick break from work.... Copyright © 2021 by the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies2021 You do not currently have access to this content.

Identification and Analysis of Problems in Selected European Historic Gardens during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The paper is based on a survey and investigates the functioning of historic gardens during the pandemic. The authors collected and analysed information on the impact of the pandemic on the behaviour of visitors, maintenance, and condition of cultural heritage assets, European historic gardens. Four aspects were considered particularly carefully: the situation of gardens during the COVID-19 pandemic, maintenance and care in gardens, virtual activity and communication, and financial consequences. The authors determined the conditions of the gardens and the problems they faced based on a survey completed by 23 managers of 31 historic gardens from June to August 2020 and then proposed a diagnosis. The paper presents the survey results. In general, visitor volumes tended to drop in 2020, which significantly affected gardens’ financial standing and contributed to workforce reductions. The garden condition and treatments were affected, as well. Reduced visitor volumes resulted in positive environmental changes. Among them were ecological succession, the stability of landscaped plants, increase in vegetation, improved biodiversity in the ground cover, and enhanced animal presence. Additional safety measures were implemented after the gardens were reopened to the public during the pandemic, mostly social distancing, and obligatory face masks. Less than half of the gardens had contingency plans, and 25% of the respondents were working to develop one. The analyses provided foundations to start working on a universal emergency strategy similar to procedures used for years for permanent collections at museums. Note that, being open public spaces and live museums, historic gardens were the first places reopened after the lockdown. Recommendations based on the study can contribute to the future safe functioning of historic gardens in other similar crises. The guidelines offer instructions, advice, and recommendations that form foundations of the development of a universal management model facilitating the preservation of historic gardens in good condition while exploiting their ecological potential.

‘Storage Exhibitions’ in Permanent Museum Collections

'Storage exhibitions' refer to staged storage areas displayed within a museum's permanent collection. What is the purpose of displaying these storage spaces within a museum's collection? I hypothesise that they are above all interpretive spaces intended to extend the dialogue between the museum and the public. A study of three cases (the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan and Kunsthalle Mannheim) reveals the different functions performed by these exhibitions. They can show how museums work to preserve the heritage of their communities or they can give view on the work carried out by the museum’s professionals itself. The study also illustrates how such exhibitions offer a lens through which to understand and explore a given institution’s exhibitions and collections. Ultimately, each case is led by a sense of critical reflexivity that extends the display of museum objects to the display of the work carried out in the museum itself, hence opening up the nature of the museum’s work to the general public.

The social credit system in China: a model of constitutionalism for the era of crises

This paper focuses on the probable transformative effects of the application of the Chinese Social Credit System and similar projects in the realm of public administration on constitutional rights and freedoms, balances in citizen-state relations, and the model of statehood. The starting point of the research is the assumption that the Social Credit System, despite its specifically national Chinese peculiarities, can be seen as a reflection of a broader tendency towards the use of reputational information, techniques of ranking (grading) and risk management in the process of exercising the state power. To test this hypothesis, the author analyzes the actual experience of the Social Credit System’s introduction in the People’s Republic of China, compares this project with e-government projects, and proposes the umbrella-term of “social-credit mechanisms” to describe procedures and means of social control, based on the permanent collection and analysis of reputation data relating to persons. It is argued in this paper that the introduction of social-credit mechanisms to the practice of public administration ultimately leads to the emergence of a gap between formally enshrined rights and the actual ability to exercise them, between the legal capacity of a person and the ability to realise this capacity in certain legal relations. Examining the prospects of introduction of reputation-based social-credit mechanisms to the public administration, the author notices the probability of discrimination against persons who took a false step. As is demonstrated in the paper, the use of reputation data and social ratings by state authorities may result in the gradual differentiation in quality and scope of public services depending on social ratings (grades) of their addressees. This state of affairs may signify the birth of a new caste society and the end of the principle of equality before the law. According to the conclusions made in the paper, projects akin the Chinese Social Credit System reflect the global tendency towards the formation of a new type of constitutionalism. In the framework of this new constitutionalism the main emphasis will be shifted from citizens’ democratic participation in the execution of state power and the citizenry’s political subjectivity to ensure public safety and social stability. The issue of social-credit mechanisms’ introduction to the process of public administration is de facto an issue between the values of freedom and the values of security — the issue of choosing between political subjectivity and guaranteed biological existence.

Recent and Radical: Excess, Absence, and Erasure in the Museum of Recent Art

Inaugurated in 2018, the Museum of Recent Art (MARe) in Bucharest has rapidly become one of the leading contemporary art institutions in Romania. Rivaling state-financed museums, MARe’s approach to exhibiting contemporaneity is dialectical, exchanging the conventional, chronologically determined museological method for anachronism. This approach provides a framework through which the perpetual theoretical correspondence between past, present, and future artistic practices is facilitated. Focusing on art that circumvented the official visual discourses of the communist regime and on art that emerged after the Romanian Revolution of 1989, MARe’s novel museological method has, however, been impaired by the museum’s failure to fully account for the country’s totalitarian history. The absence of context, an unethical silence that can be seen as a symptom of Romania’s unresolved tension towards its communist past, underpins both the conception of the museum’s building and that of its permanent collection. Impeding discussions of nationalization, coercive state mechanisms, and the imposition of Socialist Realism, MARe further limits the emergence of art historical narratives by reaffirming the traditional, hierarchical superiority attributed to fine art forms.

The Steward of Book History in the Digital Age: The Struggles and Rewards of Collecting e-Books for Special Collections Institutions

Collecting and preserving e-books in special collections institutions poses challenges and rewards for working professionals in the field. Although scholars of book history have spent the last decade or so including e-books in their historical overviews, reviewing e-books’ connections to their physical past and speculating on their impact on the future of books, their importance in the overall timeline of book evolution has not yet made an impact on collecting guidelines. Institutions do not seem overly eager to be the first to create a permanent collection of e-books—and there may be just cause for reluctance. Not only do e-book files come with the same long-term preservation problems as any born-digital materials, they also have added complications such as a lack of standardized file format, a lack of permanence in licensing agreements, and the constant threat of content changes, just to name a few. While this paper aims to persuade special collections libraries to begin collecting e-books, it also lays out the complications standing in the way of a successful e-book collection. It starts a conversation around possible solutions for long-term preservation and patron-use challenges for e-books in special collections.

An L-Shaped Method to Solve a Stochastic Blood Supply Chain Network Design Problem in a Natural Disaster

Level of blood and blood products in human body is very important. Therefor, managing supply of blood is critical issue in healthcare system specially when the system faced with high demand for the product. In natural disasters, demand for blood units increase sharply because of injuries. Hence, efficiency in blood supply chain management play a significant role in this situation in supplying blood for transfusion centers, it is vital to supply in right time to prevent from casualties. Present paper proposes an optimization model for designing blood supply chain network in case of an earthquake disaster. The proposed two-stage stochastic model is Programmed based on scenarios for earthquake in a populated mega-city. The designed network has three layers; first layer is donation areas, the second layer consists distribution centers and facilities and the last layer is transfusion centers. In proposed two-stage stochastic optimization model, decisions of locating permanent collection facilities and amount of each blood type pre-inventory are made in first stage and operation decisions that have dependent on possible scenarios are made in second stage. The model also considers the possibility of blood transfusion between different blood types and its convertibility to blood derivatives regarding medical requirements. In order to solve the proposed two-stage stochastic model, L-shaped algorithm, an efficient algorithm to solve scenario based stochastic models, has been used. In addition, application of the model and the algorithm tests with real data of likely earthquake in Tehran mega city (Densest city of Iran).

Collecting fragility and time: A dialogue of decay and female spirituality

This is not a collection was the provocative title of an exhibition (2019) with religious objects in the repurposed Park Abbey in Leuven, Belgium. We were intrigued by a collection of relic holders with aged textile inside them. The gentle care for these fragile objects and their delicate and breakable holders are like metaphors for their changing meaning and interiorized expression. We noticed a similar relationship between vulnerability and careful preservation during the exhibition (2018) It almost seemed a Lily : featuring a unique dialogue between seven recently restored sixteenth century 'Enclosed Gardens' with work of contemporary artist Berlinde De Bruyckere (°1964). Both her work and the original Enclosed Gardens are based on concepts of fragility, texture, the body, and decay. Figure 1 Expo It almost seemed a lily in Museum Hof van Busleyden, Mechelen, Belgium (2018-2019). The Enclosed Gardens are part of the permanent collection of the museum. During the temporary exposition work of Berlinde De Bruyckere dialogues with the centuries-old retables 1 . @ Museum Hof van Busleyden Mechelen (long-term borrower) and Foundation De beata vita OLV-Waver (owner).

Documentation and analysis of some Picasso’s paintings by using hyperspectral imaging technique to support their conservation and stylistic matters

Imaging Spectroscopic techniques, also known as hyperspectral imaging, have been utilized in museums and conservation laboratories for documentation purposes and in support of restoration treatments on different types of artworks and archaeological objects. For more than a decade, several studies and research projects have been devoted to customize imaging spectroscopic instrumentation and methodologies to the specific needs of art conservation and applications in the museum context. Other issues arise such as the need to develop new image processing software, including the mosaicking of image-cubes, new pigment identification and mapping methods, visualization, and archiving of the results. The present communication reports the data obtained on two canvas paintings made by Picasso in 1917, presently in the permanent collection of the Museu Picasso in Barcelona. The hyperspectral data have been used to document his artistic technique and to define the chemical composition of the palette. In addition, these data supported the surface observations of the morphology and crack patterns of the paint layers in order to get a better understanding of the damage found. This study was carried out in the framework of an inter-institutional research project aimed to gain an insight into the failure mechanisms of modern and contemporary paintings.

“FÊ-LO NO IMPULSO DE UM NOBRE CRIME, SENÃO DE SENTIMENTO DA HONRA ULTRAJADA”: a violência contra a mulher nos autos crimes de ferimentos leves da comarca de Bragança-PA (1910-1920)

A Comarca de Bragança-PA, instituída no ano de 1839, configura-se uma das mais antigas e dinâmicas do atual Estado do Pará. Ao longo de seus, aproximadamente, 180 anos de funcionamento, esta acumulou em seu Acervo Permanente ou Arquivo Histórico um vasto quantitativo documental, que configura-se instrumento imprescindível, para a compreensão da história do judiciário paraense, de seus servidores, magistrados e jurisdicionados em diferentes contextos históricos. Dentre estes registros estão os Autos Crimes de Ferimentos Leves datados da segunda década do século XX. O presente trabalho, voltando-se para estes processos criminais, que de acordo com a estrutura organizacional vigente, eram de competência do Tribunal Correcional, objetiva analisar os mecanimos, a partir dos quais, se produz ao longo do trâmite processual, uma “verdade” final, acerca do fato que originou a denúncia. Com esse intuito recorre-se as narrativas atribuídas aos diversos sujeitos que emergem nos Autos, tanto aqueles incubidos de movimentar as engrenagens disciplinadoras da justiça pública (juízes, delegados, escrivães, oficiais, dentre outros), quanto aqueles que recorreram a instituição, como estratégia para a resolução de suas demandas, ou diante dela foram compulsoriamente levados para prestar esclarecimentos. Compreende-se que o processo de construção desta “verdade” que será ser levada em conta no ato de elaboração da sentença, legitima discursos que, por sua vez, apresentam vestígios de práticas, valores e estruturas que caracterizavam a sociedade bragantina neste contexto. Demonstrando-se, deste modo, o quanto o poder judiciário, enquanto instituição normativa dinâmica, está intimamente imbricado a vida em sociedade.

Unsettling national narratives and multiplying voices: the art museum as renewed space for social advocacy and decolonization – a Canadian case study

ABSTRACT Through their collection and exhibition practices, art museums around the world are active agents in the processes of national memory-making that silence and racialize certain individual and group identities As museums reopen in the wake of Covid19 closures and amid the global protests for social justice and racial equality, there is renewed urgency for institutions to do more than stage dominant narratives of nationhood, identity, and citizenship under the guise of detached commemorative hosts. Using visual art from the National Gallery of Canada’s permanent collection as a case study, this article applies an analytic framework to situate and explore dominant and conflicting constructions of national identity, communicated in a national museum. In doing so, it suggests that national narrative frameworks have much to offer critical approaches in the art museum that support renewed calls from scholars and activists, to upend hierarchies, multiply voices, and become bold new spaces for social advocacy and decolonization.

Contributors

Contributors

Some Preliminary Responses to “Beyond Single Stories”

Some Preliminary Responses to “Beyond Single Stories”

Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa edited by Kathleen Bickford Berzock

Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa edited by Kathleen Bickford Berzock

Education Collections: Case Study in Their Use to Replace Permanent Collection Objects

The use of an education collection in nontraditional museum settings is presented as a case study based on work at the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) between 2004 and 2020. MNA sought to resolve the use of permanent collections in nontraditional museums settings, specifically as decoration in an historic homestead complex and display in an assisted living facility, through the use, instead, of education objects. Historically, there was no distinction between education and permanent collections at MNA, but with the founding of an Education Division in 1975, a separate education collection began to grow. Recognizing the need to manage these assets, MNA staff developed a system to document and track these holdings and worked to sync policy with process. MNA updated its Collections Management Policy section on its education collection with a major shift in responsibility for documenting these holdings from the Education Department to the Collections Department. With a documented procedure and formal policy, MNA is set to complete the final project in 2020. MNA’s experience illustrates that an education collection can be used for more than hands-on experience. When used as decorative or display pieces, an education collection can serve to enrich our lives.

The Biota of the Florentine Tondo

This paper describes and identifies the biological elements depicted in Virgin with Child, Young St. John the Baptist and an Angel by Piero di Cosimo (1462-1522) from the permanent collection of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, which include a bird, an insect, a mushroom and 10 vegetables, seven of which in flowering. Starting with an analysis of the probable symbolic roles of each biological element based on individual natural and biological properties then proceeding to interpret the presence of each vis-à-vis its relation to the others, this article shows the undeniable convergence of each object’s meaning: birth, death and regeneration (or reproduction) likened to the birth, death and resurrection of Christ.

The Display Makes a Difference: A Mobile Eye Tracking Study on the Perception of Art Before and After a Museum's Rearrangement.

There is increasing awareness that the perception of art is affected by the way it is presented. In 2018, the Austrian Gallery Belvedere redisplayed its permanent collection. Our multidisciplinary team seized this opportunity to investigate the viewing behavior of specific artworks both before and after the museum’s rearrangement. In contrast to previous mobile eye tracking (MET) studies in museums, this study benefits from the comparison of two realistic display conditions (without any research interference), an unconstrained study design (working with regular museum visitors), and a large data sample (comprising 259 participants). We employed a mixed-method approach that combined mobile eye tracking, subjective mapping (a drawing task in conjunction with an open interview), and a questionnaire in order to relate gaze patterns to processes of meaning-making. Our results show that the new display made a difference in that it 1) generally increased the viewing times of the artworks; 2) clearly extended the reading times of labels; and 3) deepened visitors’ engagement with the artworks in their exhibition reflections. In contrast, interest in specific artworks and art form preferences proved to be robust and independent of presentation modes.