Permanent Gallery Research Articles

Co-curating with trans people: the challenges of collaborating with heterogenous minoritised communities

ABSTRACT What are the challenges entangled with co-curatorial processes developed with highly heterogeneous, minoritised communities? Why do these exhibitions, even when co-created with community members, often emphasize community homogeneity over diversity? I address these questions by focusing on the Science Museum, London. I look back at a past project, What Makes Your Gender? (2014): a pivotal step in the Museum's treatment of gender diversity co-curated with trans young people and activists associated with Gendered Intelligence, a trans-led charity aiming to improve trans people's lives. Drawing on my exhibition analysis and ethnographic research of this co-creation project, I discuss why the heterogeneity and divisions within the curatorial team were overlooked in the co-curatorial process and final display. The discussion then shifts towards more recent debate surrounding the Museum's treatment of trans/gender people in the Who Am I? permanent gallery (2000 to present). The paper shows how inclusive curatorial projects attempting to validate minoritised communities, which are subject to discriminatory discourse in the media and wider public realm, can privilege homogenizing and easily 'consumable' representations of trans people at the expense of more accurate portrayals. It argues for greater attention to intersectionality and community diversity in curatorial projects co-created with heterogenous minoritised groups.

Embedding plurality: exploring participatory practice in the development of a new permanent gallery

Increasing numbers of museums and galleries worldwide have developed an array of working practices that might be termed 'participatory' or 'co-creative', which seek to involve visitors, non-visitors, community and interest groups with diverse forms of expertise and perspective in their activities. Frequently the central aim of such practices has been to strengthen relationships between a museum and its audiences through projects that are jointly conceived and developed with local communities. However, relatively little attention has been given to participatory practice within the work of larger institutions, particularly those with a national and international remit, reach and audience base, where participatory practices are adopted to enrich the development and content of new permanent displays (aimed at large and diverse audiences). Drawing on a single case study – the development of the permanent Information Age gallery at the Science Museum in London, which opened in 2014 – this paper aims to reflect upon the extent to which existing concepts, theories and approaches to participation and co-creation resonate with museum work of this kind. Unlike many participatory practices internationally, the range of projects and activities utilised in the development of Information Age were driven less by a desire to share authority and decision-making with communities outside the museum and more by a concern to foster involvement with diverse communities of interest in the making of a major gallery and to generate and embed plural perspectives on the objects and stories presented within it. This paper raises further questions around how participatory work is perceived, valued and shared across the sector.

Lingering Tropes and Noteworthy Narratives in Recent Archaeology Exhibitions

On the first Monday of every month, the American Journal of Archaeology publishes online a list of current and upcoming exhibitions related to topics within the scope of the journal (www.ajaonline.org/exhibits). Our original idea for the list was simple: to be aware of what's going on in recent exhibitions related to the subject areas of the AJA. It would provide information about exhibitions around the world, including their translated titles, dates, locations, curators, information about catalogues, and links to museum websites. We first published the list in December 2017. In September 2018, we started to include new museums and permanent gallery installations. The list has become more robust over time. The first installment included 46 exhibitions; as of December 2020, the list, current and archived, totals 875 exhibitions, reinstallations, and new museums. All are archived on AJA Online.

Curating the Christian Arts of Asia

Abstract This essay examines the transformation of the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) into a global art histories museum. An analysis of the new Christian Art Gallery and its objects that date from the eighth through the twentieth century illuminates the ways in which the ACM engages with global art histories in a permanent gallery and not only through special exhibitions. This essay begins with a history of the ACM and its transition from a museum for the “ancestral cultures of Singapore” to one with a new mission focusing on multicultural Singapore and its connections to the wider world. Hence, taking a thematic approach, the ACM's new galleries question how museums generally display objects along national lines or regional boundaries. This essay also brings attention to the multiple mediums and functions of Christian art from both the geographical locations that usually are associated with Asian art and also from cultures that are rarely taught or exhibited, such as Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. While showcasing the different moments that Christianity came to Asia, the museum also emphasizes the agencies of Asian artistic practitioners in those global encounters. Although appreciative of the ways in which the ACM's Christian Art Gallery reveal the various tensions within global art histories and break down hegemonic constructions of Christian art from Asia, this essay also offers a critique. Highlighting this unusual engagement with Christian art by an Asian art museum, the new gallery reveals that museums and exhibitions can add to the conversations on global art histories.

‘As dead as a dodo’: Extinction narratives and multispecies justice in the museum

This article unites recent writing in extinction studies with work in political ecology, justice theory and museum studies to explore qualitative, cultural approaches to extinction. I examine the role of storytelling and the power of narratives in addressing nonhuman extinction. Analysing the case study of a permanent gallery on extinction, evolution and biodiversity loss – the Survival Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland – I utilise a more-than-textual approach to narrative analysis. This paper explores the diverse ways in which the gallery relates stories of ‘natural’ extinction to the contemporary anthropogenic ‘Sixth Mass Extinction’. The Survival Gallery narrates a remarkably complex compilation of extinction stories, but the gallery’s narrative avoids areas of conflict or controversy, obscures justice concerns and ultimately presents a problematic depiction of a universalised humanity. Using this analysis of museum extinction storytelling, the paper contributes to emerging conceptualisations of multispecies justice frameworks. The article explores the possibilities and challenges of museum storytelling in grappling with complicated pasts and envisioning potential futures of survival, coexistence and flourishing. The paper concludes by considering how a multispecies justice approach to narrating extinction (and other entangled ecological-social phenomena) might flourish within and beyond museums.

To the New Leonardo Galleries

In 1953, the Museum was inaugurated with a major exhibition on “Science and Technology of Leonardo da Vinci,” which soon evolved into a permanent gallery. Guido Ucelli, the Museum founder, entitled the museum to Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452 - Amboise 1519), who is still today a global cultural icon, as well a symbol of curiosity and of interdisciplinary knowledge. His ability to observe nature and the work of others is a fundamental element of his relevance for modern times. His work, which ...

Engaging Audiences with Difficult Pasts: The Voices of ’68 Project at the Ulster Museum, Belfast

AbstractCan history museums influence the relationship between divided communities? This paper explores why an initially modest collaboration between the authors and the Ulster Museum on the non‐violent Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement of 1968/69, eventually had substantial impact beyond the museum’s walls. Having placed the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement within the context of both the international protests of 1968 and the specific environment of Northern Ireland, particularly the virtual civil war known as the Troubles, the paper turns to the role of museums in responding to the legacy of this past, and the evolving practice of the Ulster Museum, as background to the project. The latter began as a limited intervention within an existing display, based on oral histories and underpinned by the theory of ‘agonism’, proposing that divided communities must learn to live with difference. It eventually included exhibitions, workshops, school study days, curricular materials and online provision. It has directly influenced the Northern Ireland GCSE History Curriculum and been held up as an example of good practice within the province’s peace process. The paper discusses why the project succeeded – location within a national museum; credibility with protagonists, academics, communities and audiences; starting small; a willingness to take risks and share control; multiple perspectives; and an acceptance that not everyone will be satisfied. With a version of the Voices of 68 exhibition now installed in the Museum’s permanent gallery, the next challenges are longitudinal studies on its impact and assessing the approach’s relevance to other museums working in post‐conflict societies.

Descriptive anatomy of the largest known specimen of Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) including computed tomography and digital reconstruction of a three-dimensional skull.

Ichthyosaur fossils are abundant in Lower Jurassic sediments with nine genera found in the UK. In this paper, we describe the partial skeleton of a large ichthyosaur from the Lower Jurassic (lower Sinemurian) of Warwickshire, England, which was conserved and rearticulated to form the centrepiece of a new permanent gallery at the Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum in 2015. The unusual three-dimensional preservation of the specimen permitted computed tomography (CT) scanning of individual braincase elements as well as the entire reassembled skull. This represents one of the first times that medical imaging and three-dimensional reconstruction methods have been applied to a large skull of a marine reptile. Data from these scans provide new anatomical information, such as the presence of branching vascular canals within the premaxilla and dentary, and an undescribed dorsal (quadrate) wing of the pterygoid hidden within matrix. Scanning also revealed areas of the skull that had been modelled in wood, clay and other materials after the specimen’s initial discovery, highlighting the utility of applying advanced imaging techniques to historical specimens. Additionally, the CT data served as the basis for a new three-dimensional reconstruction of the skull, in which minor damage was repaired and the preserved bones digitally rearticulated. Thus, for the first time a digital reconstruction of the skull and mandible of a large marine reptile skull is available. Museum records show the specimen was originally identified as an example of Ichthyosaurus communis but we identify this specimen as Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis. The specimen features a skull nearly twice as long as any previously described specimen of P. prostaxalis, representing an individual with an estimated total body length between 3.2 and 4 m.

Designing Identity: The Power of Textiles in Late Antiquity ed. by Thelma K. Thomas

Reviewed by: Designing Identity: The Power of Textiles in Late Antiquity ed. by Thelma K. Thomas Mary Harlow Designing Identity: The Power of Textiles in Late Antiquity Thelma K. Thomas, Ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2016. ISBN: 978-0691169422 This exhibition catalog contains excellent colour illustrations, catalog information, and accompanying scholarly chapters. It will appeal to a wide audience of textile archaeologists, specialists in Late Antiquity, museum curators, collectors, and art historians as well as to those with a general interest in the past and in textile art. [End Page 287] The first section, "Textiles for Clothing and Furnishings: Putting Late Antique Roman Society on Display" is introduced by Thomas's chapter on "Material Meaning in Late Antiquity," which discusses how textiles, both within the household and on the body, help form the cultural identities of individuals and groups. Noting the role of curtains and soft furnishing in transforming the social spaces of the late antique house, Thomas provides commentary on the symbolism and implications of certain iconographic programs, such as the continued use of images of Penelope as a motif interweaving textile production and female virtue, and the pervasiveness and polyvalent use of Dionysus and Dionysian imagery. The article illustrates how textiles can be used to create a range of ambiences and to render a single space multi-functional, depending on the needs of the household. The multiplicity of meaning that can be ascribed to particular images is also part of Jennifer Ball's discussion of "Charms: Protective and Auspicious Motifs." Ball highlights the use of certain symbols, such as knots, the cross/ankh, and vegetal imagery, which act as charms to ward off evil and the attract prosperity—noting the prevalence of amuletic motifs on children's clothing, especially borders and cuffs where evil may enter the body. In "The Continuity of Late Antique Patterns," Evans focusses on the interplay between continuity, tradition and innovation as reflected in items from Egyptian burial context now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Intricately woven vines and vegetal motifs which make reference to prosperity and abundance; hunters or soldiers, and exotic animals illustrate the employment of Dionysiac imageries, motifs that, according to Evans, came to represent commonly held notions of "the good life," and lost their associations with paganism. As a case-study of the new cultural and religious dispensation introduced by Islamic aesthetics, Evans uses depiction of the eight-pointed star. The first section ends with a short chapter, again by Thomas, on "Making Textiles and Assessing their Value" which describes some of the techniques of textile production, from the cultivation of raw material through to the end product. This is an essential part of assessing the value and craftsmanship of textiles and of understanding the key role they played in the economic, cultural and visual world of Late Antiquity. The second section, "Late Antique Textiles in Modern Times: Collecting and Collections," considers the fate of some collections in US museums. Writing on curtain hangings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Kondoleon expands many of the points made by Thomas by stressing the need to view the architectural space of the late antique house as an expression of the owner's world and his place within it. She draws attention to the shared iconographic repertoire of workshops in different media (weavers, wall painters, and mosaicists), all effectively used to create the overall effect. Kondoleon argues that textile fragments, particularly those on which imaginary colonnades are woven, are part of the desire to create an illusion of space and lightness effected also through wall paintings. Weavers of textiles could create imagery which played with real and pictorial space, with images that were idealised or realistic. Textile designs could defined space but also blurred boundaries, it could serve as decoration yet also present highly symbolic imagery. In "Collecting and Exhibiting Late Antique Textiles at the Brooklyn Museum," Bleiberg offers a brief overview of the fortune of this collection. It seems [End Page 288] to have fared far better when under the care of ethnographer Stewart Culin in the 1920s than it has subsequently, despite the creation of a permanent gallery of Coptic Art in 1943. Culin had encouraged engagement with contemporary...

Curation as Public Scholarship

ABSTRACTMuseum archaeology offers opportunities to practice artifact storytelling, engaging visitors on the strength of objects that have been conserved and curated. Public appreciation of science and history is bolstered when museums exhibit objects of singular historic significance in a manner that allows visitors to build an experiential understanding of the objects’ provenance. Archaeologists and conservators began reassembling the 330-year-old French ship La Belle as a live-action exhibition on 25 October 2014 in the Bullock Texas State History Museum. The collaboration broke new ground by inviting visitors, in person and via streaming online video, to watch the experts rebuild the ship in full public view. Until, and after, the reconstructed ship hull was moved into its permanent first-floor gallery location on 21 May 2015, the exhibition brought archaeologists and international museum visitors into the same room to learn. The article interprets these events toward reimagining museum object curation as public scholarship.

Interpreting Native American History and Culture at Museums and Historic Sites

Preface Chapter 1 Knowing the History: A brief history of federal Indian policy Chapter 2 Getting Started Chapter 3 Consultation with Tribes and Advice from the Field, by Kelli Mosteller and R. Blake Norton Chapter 4 Building Partnerships and Authority Sharing Case Study: Native Voices: A permanent gallery at the Natural History Museum of Utah, by Becky Menlove Chapter 5 Taking Responsibility for Museum History and Legacy, and Promoting Change in Collections Management. Case Study: The Abbe Museum: Seeking A Collaborative Future through Decolonization, by Darren Ranco and Julia Clark Chapter 6 Establishing Tribal Partners in Education and Public Programs Case Study: Portland Art Museum: Object Stories: Connecting Collections with Communities, by Deana Dartt and Michael Murawski Chapter 7 Pulling it all Together- Native Advisory Councils and Governance Case Study: Collaborating with Cultures: The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, by James H. Nottage Chapter 8 Review and Final Thoughts Appendix One: Timeline of federal-Indian policy Appendix Two: Activity to Understand Stereotypes and Bias Index About the Author

Crafting Music through Technology and Design: A Conversation with Victor Gama

This Statement of Practice unfolds in three parts and reflects an ongoing conversation between curator Henrietta Lidchi at National Museums Scotland (NMS) and the Portuguese-Angolan musical instrument artist Victor Gama about the nature and form of Gama's work. The Statement explores the genesis of a commissioning project which was developed to coincide with the renovation of the gallery spaces at the National Museum of Scotland between 2006 and 2011, and in particular the gallery Performance and Lives. Gama was asked to create four playable musical instruments inspired by non-Western forms that could be accessed in the permanent gallery. Gama was commissioned in 2008 and worked in response to the wide-ranging archive of musical instruments and sound recordings created by ethnomusicologist Jean Jenkins. This Statement of Practice will first explore the history and motivations behind the commission. It will then describe the four objects/instruments that were the result of the project and their inspiration and form. Gama designed these instruments using digital technology combined with handmade components and natural materials. The Statement will finally feature a conversation between Henrietta Lidchi and Victor Gama; they worked closely on the genesis of this commissioning project and have worked together since. The interview was recorded in Amsterdam in April 2014 and addresses the use of digital technology in the fabrication and evolution of musical instruments, plus Gama's influences and his philosophies of instrument design.

The Underbelly of Canadian Multiculturalism: Holocaust Obfuscation and Envy in the Debate about the Canadian Museum for Human Rights

This essay contextualises the recent controversy about the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR), which opened in September 2014 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, by documenting the background shadowing the campaigns spearheaded by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress against CMHR advisory board plans to install a permanent gallery devoted to the Holocaust. Their history demonstrates how these ultranationalist lobbies have glorified the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, its militant wing (UPA), and the Waffen-SS Galizien while rationalising or occluding their roles in Second World War period massacres of Jewish and Polish civilians.

Civilising the Cape: Public Art Exhibitions and Cape Visual Culture, 1851–1910

Public art galleries in South Africa, in particular the South African National Gallery in Cape Town, owe their establishment to the energetic debates on the role of art and public art galleries that were prevalent in Europe during the 19th century. These debates focused on the ability of art to educate and civilise, and such ideas travelled along imperial networks to the Cape and Australia, where they were negotiated in local contexts. At the Cape, a series of public art exhibitions was initiated with the intent of establishing a permanent art collection and gallery, the ultimate aim being to provide a space in which to cultivate taste and civility in the general public. But the visual culture that emerged from these exhibitions was focused predominantly on local or British landscape and genre. Similarly, in the collection established for Cape Town's permanent gallery, later the national gallery, there was very little grand narrative art or art of the past characteristic of other national galleries. A culture of informality prevailed instead. It is argued that the commitment to nature painting in the Cape and elsewhere in South Africa stemmed from an indifference or antipathy to the metropolitan culture on which major international art galleries were based, compromising the professionalism and status of these local art institutions. A comparative analysis of some of the galleries of Australia, the Cape's colonial rival, reveals that they received far greater support and demonstrated far greater professionalism than their South African counterparts.

A case study in collaboration: displaying Greece and Rome at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK

With the decrease in funding for museums, increasingly scarce resources are, of necessity, concentrated on audience engagement. The responsibility for public exhibits is now shared between interpretation and display professionals, and curators and academics, but in practice the balance between scholarly content and accessibility can be precarious. This article considers the redisplay of the permanent gallery of ancient Greece and Rome at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, which was a project driven by curators, conservators and university academics working closely with technical and practical specialists. It records the processes and issues that are often encountered in the creation of a gallery but too rarely published, and argues for the complete integration of academic research as central to the creation of museum displays. The success of the Fitzwilliam display demonstrates that subject-specialists can produce exhibits that are at once academically rigorous and visitor-friendly.

Maximum Intervention: Renewal of a Maori Waka by George Nuku and National Museums Scotland

National Museums Scotland (NMS) has in its collections a Mäori war canoe (A.UC.767) or <em>Waka Taua </em>from New Zealand<em>.</em> The <em>Waka</em> had been held in the Museum stores for many years and due to its incompleteness and poor state of repair had not been on public display. It was proposed that the <em>Waka</em> be restored with the intention of it being a focal point of a new permanent gallery in the Royal Museum in Edinburgh dedicated to South Pacific cultures and communities. The gallery was being developed as one part of a £44 million redevelopment of Royal Museum building. Due to its poor condition assistance was sought to help in the restoration, reconstruction and visual interpretation of the <em>Waka</em>. NMS commissioned George Nuku, a Mäori carver, to remake missing parts. Nuku uses a variety of mediums to carve including Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA). This made a clear distinction between new and original material that could be easily read by the public and reflected Nuku’s conceptual vision of creating physical “ghosts” influenced by the original carvings. Due to the composite construction and condition of the canoe the project became more complex and involved. This paper describes how the renewal was done and relationships that developed between the artist, curator and conservator.

Deindustrialization as Public History: An Exhibition at the Manitoba Museum

The mass settlement and industrialization of southern Manitoba that began in the 1870s, and the reversal of much of this development in the twentieth century, is a major theme of the newest permanent gallery at the Manitoba Museum.1 This paper examines this history of industrial activity and deindustrialization and explores how these processes have been interpreted in the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery. Three distinct industries are considered: the Leary Brick Works in Roseisle, the Manitoba Glass Company of Beausejour, and Mary Maxim Limited, a mail-order woollens company that began in the village of Sifton.

Visual History Review: Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal Culture, Provincial Museum of Alberta. Principal curators Jack Brink and Susan Berry. Permanent Gallery. November 1997 to present

Visual History Review: Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal Culture, Provincial Museum of Alberta. Principal curators Jack Brink and Susan Berry. Permanent Gallery. November 1997 to present

A New Species of Philodendron (Araceae) from Central Brazil

Summary. A new species, Philodendron guaraense, is described from Central Brazil in the Federal District (Brasilia). Field observations of its ecology and reproductive biology are reported, together with some information on cultivation. The neotropical genus Philodendron Schott is the second largest in the Araceae, with over 500 species. Many species of Philodendron are widely used for ornamental purposes because of their exotic forms and beautiful foliage. However, numerous handsome species remain to be discovered in tropical America and one of these is the subject of this paper. Central Brazil has received little attention from aroid specialists and in view of this it is perhaps not so surprising that this new species was discovered in the Ecological Reserve of Guara, Federal District of Brazil (15049'08" - 15049'45"S, 47058'08''" - 47059'09"W), in one of the most densely populated areas of this region. The vegetation of the reserve consists mainly of permanent or seasonal marshes and gallery forests. Philodendron guaraense E. G. Gonf. sp. nov. P apparicioi G. M. Barroso affinis, sed ovarii loculis 7- 10 (non c. 13), petiolo 1 - 1.3 cm (non 2 cm) diametro, foliorum costulis posticis in sinu zona denudata 2 - 3cm (non 1 cm) longa instructis differt. Typus: Brazil, Distrito Federal, Reserva Ecol6gica do Guara, 27 Oct. 1994, Gonfalves 13 (holotypus UB; isotypi K, MO). Hemiepiphytic herb climbing to 2 - 6 m on host tree. Stem often pendent with erect tip; internodes greenish, 1.5 - 5 cm long, 4 - 5 cm diam.; intravaginal squamules not persistent, 1 - 2 mm long, 0.5 - 1 mm wide at base; adventitious roots abundant, chocolate brown, c. 5 mm diam. Prophyll deciduous, linear-lanceolate, 35 - 40 cm long, 5 - 5.5 cm wide at base, upper surface white, lower surface greenish. Petiole green, 55 - 65 cm long, 1 - 1.3 cm diam. in middle, flattened adaxially; sheath 5 - 6 cm long. Leaf blade triangular to ovate in outline, overall length 47 - 56 cm, overall width 23 - 28 cm, slightly coriaceous, upper surface glossy green, lower surface paler, margins yellow; anterior division 28 - 39 x 23 - 30 cm, apex cuspidate to acuminate, acumen 0.3 - 1 cm long, primary lateral veins 4 - 5 per side, arising at an angle of 60 - 700, interprimary veins conspicuous even in dried material; posterior divisions retrorse, 14- 15 x 11 - 15 cm, base sagittate to subcordatesagittate, primary acroscopic veins 2 - 3, primary basiscopic veins 2 - 3 and less

Transatlantic Slavery: Against Human Dignity

Between 1500 and 1870, millions of Africans were transported across the Atlantic by European traders to work as slaves in the Americas. They were shipped in conditions of great cruelty to lead lives of hard, unremitting labour, subject to degradation and violence. The products of their labour - primarily sugar, coffee and tobacco - were sent back to Europe and the profits derived from slavery helped fuel European economic development in the 18th and 19th centuries. The cost in lives and human suffering was enormous. First published to accompany a permanent gallery in the Merseyside Maritime Museum, this reissue of Transatlantic Slavery with new material documents this era through essays on women in slavery, the impact on West and Central Africa, and the African view of the slave trade. Richly illustrated, it reveals how the slave trade shaped the history of three continents - Africa, the Americas, and Europe - and how all of us continue to live with its consequences.