Museum Research Articles

Kozma Soldatenkov (1818-1901) and his collection in the context of the artistic life of Moscow in the second half of the XIX century

The article examines the role of merchant, philanthropist, and collector Kozma Soldatenkov in the artistic landscape of Moscow during the 1850s-1890s. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of Soldatenkov on the formation of museum and exhibition programs in Moscow. By analyzing his art collection and his activities as a collector, we can gain a deeper understanding of his contribution to the cultural landscape of the city. This research is based on a systematic historical approach that allows us to contextualize Soldatenkov's work within the broader context of art collecting and cultural development. The purpose of the article is to determine the contribution that he made to the development of museum and exhibition practices in Moscow, at a time when there was an increased interest not only in domestic art collecting, but also in addressing theoretical and practical challenges of artistic production. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the absence of works in Russian historiography that summarize the achievements of second-half XIX century Moscow collectors in the field of culture, focusing on Soldatenkov's position as one of the first collectors in Moscow's cultural landscape. This research is relevant due to the growing interest in understanding various aspects of collecting history in the XIXth century. Familiarity with the sources allows us to conclude that the Soldatenkov collection had been well-known to the artistic community for a long time, and its owner was not absent from the main events of cultural life. He invested heavily in the creation of public museum spaces in Moscow, and his collection itself served as a reflection of his cultural and social standing. It was a clear indicator of his support for Russian artists and his desire to strengthen the artistic life in the city.

The Museum as a Laboratory: An Approach to the Experience of Public Museums in Chile

The present article analyzes the recent debates regarding the redefinition of the museum, exploring resonances in reflective practices and processes in public museums in Chile. While these have caused controversy and discord, they appear to converge in the need to rethink the relationship between museums and society, seeking to make them more inclusive, democratic and diverse. The present discussion is based on the preliminary results of “LAB_Museums: Contemporary Museums and Museologies”, an ongoing interdisciplinary research intervention model promoting processes of co-production of knowledge regarding museums and museography. This paper is the publication of the results of the project. To this end, a collaborative ecosystem of knowledge has been developed between the university, museums and public sector, based on the implementation of laboratories, initially, in five public museums of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile: the National Museum of Fine Arts, the National Historical Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Popular Art Museum and the National Center of Contemporary Art. The theoretical/methodological framework used was that of Institutional Analysis (IA), based on which interviews and discussion groups with museum professionals promote dialogues on the present reality and contemporary challenges of museums.

The ‘Assetization’ of Art on an Institutional Level—Fractional Ownership Implemented in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

This article explores the innovative collaboration between the Rubey platform and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp. Through the tokenization of the artwork Carnaval de Binche by James Ensor, this platform made it possible for interested investors to purchase blockchain-registered Art Security Tokens within this artwork and become co-owners of it—at least from an economic perspective. Although fractional ownership platforms for art have been established before, this is the first time an art investment opportunity like this has materialized itself in an explicit partnership with a museum. The tokenized artwork will be held on public display within the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, for a period of ten years—a significant departure from the usual practice of storing such pieces in a storage vault—before it will be sold again. This article contextualizes this practice within both the ‘assetization’ of art that has increased in recent decades and the financial challenges facing Belgian—more broadly speaking, European—public museums. Based on a limited number of interviews with the stakeholders and desk research, this article subsequently explores the more practical benefits and concerns of a collaboration like this and presents an analysis of this practice drawing upon publications within the field of economic sociology. Since we find ourselves only at the beginning of this partnership, some questions will be raised for further research.

Exploring the Usefulness of Pre-Visit Materials for Children with Autism at a Public Museum

Exploring the Usefulness of Pre-Visit Materials for Children with Autism at a Public Museum

Мемориализация Первой мировой войны: от коллекции к музею

During the First World War and just after it, the private military collections dedicated to the war have been appearing together with national museums in the participant countries. Some of these collections had a vast thematic and a broad variety of subjects, so they could be further reorganized into public museums, as the interest of the state institutions contributed to that. The process of their reorganization into the museum expositions is presented by some examples in Russia and in France. These examples are about the collectors who were not representing any military or state institution. So, the state interest to their activity means an exceptional value of their collections. The composition, particularities, history and value of these collections through the military historical museums as well as the significance of the museums for the remembrance of the First World War are analyzed.

“Now, What’s One Story I Wanted to Tell You?”: Oral History Exhibition Archives at the Chicago History Museum at the Turn of the 21st Century

Starting in the 1970s, American history museums have undergone a shift away from seeing themselves collections-focused historical societies acting as “temples to the past.” In the face of broader political challenges—civil rights, increasingly multicultural urban audiences, and the “culture wars” of the 1980s, public historians have sought to reclaim their institutions’ relevance by seeking to share their authority and mission with those “publics” they serve. While secondary literature on public history has generally agreed that museums pulled off this shift—and museums themselves have touted successful exhibits and outreach—this essay uses a specific case study to complicate the narrative. The Chicago History Museum, a metropolitan history museum founded in 1856 as the Chicago Historical Society, turned to oral history as both a collecting and a community engagement practice in the 1990s and early 2000s. At a moment of museological transition, the museum sought to match its city’s transition towards multiculturalism. This essay reads oral history archives created by the museum in a new light: within their material history as collections. I argue that the oral history archives of CHS’s exhibition projects are valuable sources not just of the urban history the museum intended to capture but also the institutional history of public museums themselves. This method suggests new paths forward for understanding public history strategies and community history.

지역문화공간의 관광경쟁력 지표개발에 관한 연구 : 공립박물관 및 미술관을 중심으로

지역문화공간의 관광경쟁력 지표개발에 관한 연구 : 공립박물관 및 미술관을 중심으로

Between Art Historical Representation and Didactic Functionality: The Cast Collection of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp

During the long nineteenth century, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp – just like many other art schools in this period – assembled a collection of some 500 plaster casts after ancient and modern sculptures, which played an essential role in the education of young art students. The creation of such collections went in parallel with the blossoming of cast museums all over Europe, as well as the emergence of a large-scale exchange network set up to facilitate the international dissemination of plaster casts. However, in contrast to cast museums, which brought together masterpieces of classical Western sculpture in order to contribute to the aesthetic edification of the public, the cast collections of art academies had a more pragmatic and didactic function. This article focuses on cast collections at art academies, and how the formation and functioning of such collections related to broader educational concepts and practices at these schools. Taking the collection of plaster casts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp as a case study, we will trace the various actors, methods and strategies employed to create the collection, uncover how the collection related to the artistic idea(l)s expressed in the educational programme of that institution, and discuss how and where it was located and displayed. Based on the rich archives of the academy, it examines a broad range of different sources, including purchase lists, inventories and correspondence concerning the formation of the collection, as well as floor plans, photographs and original drawings attesting to the location and use of the casts. It traces the provenance of the objects, analyzes the profiles of the individuals and institutions involved in creating the collection, and identifies to what extent and how creative repurposing played a role in the collection’s functioning. The article argues how cast collections formed by art academies – in addition to representing the art historical canon of a given place or period – are an important reflection of the didactic practices, aesthetic priorities and, above all, the creative encounters that distinguish these institutions from the purposes of the public (cast) museum.

Measuring museum sustainability within the framework of institutional theory: A dictionary‐based content analysis of French and British National Museums' annual reports

AbstractIn the context of increasing attention on museum sustainability, this research adopts a dictionary‐based, content‐analysis approach to measure the degree of sustainability disclosed in European museum annual reports and similar documents. The analysis is carried out through the lens of institutional theory, assuming that the presence of formal and informal regulations positively affects the level of sustainability in annual reporting practices. Furthermore, the paper discusses the level of sustainability disclosed by different types of museums and the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the extent of sustainability‐oriented reporting. The article compares top public museums in the UK and France, the European countries where accountability practices are most deeply rooted for legal and cultural reasons, and where the most visited museums in the world are located. The findings show that the type of museum and the country significantly affect the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) score, whereas mentioning COVID‐19 or the year of publication does not.

Single syntypes of Somatochlora exuberata Bartenev, 1910 (Odonata: Corduliidae), discovered in both the Milwaukee Public Museum and the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, U.S.A., with designation of the lectotype.

A male syntype of Somatochlora exuberata Bartenev, 1910, from Kavykuchi Gazimurskie village, Transbaikalia, Siberia, June 24 (in Julian Calendar, July 7 in Gregorian Calendar) 1909, was discovered in the Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin, U.S.A., as received in exchange from A.N. Bartenev by Richard Anthony Muttkowski. Another male syntype with the same data later was found in the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Michigan, U.S.A. The latter specimen is designated as the lectotype of S. exuberata. The description of Somatochlora vera Bartenev, 1914, a name currently considered a junior synonym of S. exuberata, is critically evaluated.

Przemyskie obrady VIII Zjazdu Związku Muzeów w Polsce, 18–19 września 1932

The 8th Convention of the Association of Museums in Poland on 18-19 September 1932 in Przemyśl On 18-19 September 1932 in Przemyśl, on the initiative of Kazimierz Osiński, head of the National Museum of the Przemyśl Region, the Association of Museums in Poland organized the 8th Convention of the Delegates of the Association of Museums in Poland. 40 participants from all over Poland took part in the convention: representatives of museums, conservators and ministry officials. During the meeting, current museological issues were discussed, e.g. problems and concepts of a regional museum (Rules and Regulations of the Regional Museum Section were adopted) and protection of sacred monuments. The major point on the agenda, however, was passing a bill of the law on protection of public museums and an executive directive to that law. Papers were delivered by delegates Józef Kupka, Jan Lauterbach, Rev. Stefan Momidłowski and Kazimierz Osiński. The Convention was complete with a concert of the orchestra of the Przemyśl Musical Society and a tour of the town’s museums and monuments (the National Museum of the Przemyśl Region, the Diocesan Museum and the Krasiczyn Castle). The event considerably enhanced the reputation of Przemyśl in the Polish museum world.

인증이 더 많은 관람객 확보에 기여하는가?

Museums play an important role in the development of cultural and artistic disciplines and contribute to the cultural enjoyment of the general public. As such, museum visitors are important for brand building and marketing, expanding cultural enjoyment, public contribution, and active communication. Korean museums have been focusing on improving the quality experience by holding interesting exhibitions and programs and acquiring new collections. To ensure the quality control and operational efficiency of museum exhibitions, Korea has legally required public museums to participate in evaluation and certification since 2017 and national museums since 2020. If museum accreditation is considered as a signal that a museum will provide a desirable experience, it might be able to secure visitors by responding to it. This raises the question of whether efforts to improve museum quality, as represented by accreditation, lead to increased museum attendance. To examine the impact of accreditation on the number of visitors to national and public museums, the study conducted a double difference analysis and a panel analysis between the years 2013-2021. The study found that the Difference in Difference analysis did not show a significant difference in the number of visitors to museums before and after accreditation, but the fixed effect analysis showed that the number of visitors to public museums increased significantly in the year of accreditation and then decreased significantly in the following year. The study result suggests that accreditation had a temporary signaling effect, but it did not fundamentally change attendance. There is a need for increased publicity about certification and measurement of the effectiveness of certification in attracting visitors, as well as increased incentives for museums to participate in certification.

The art of rivalry

Abstract In the years just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the American banker and philanthropist Jules S. Bache (1861–1944) built a collection of European paintings and decorative art which, in the 1930s, was located at a crossroads in collecting practices and museum growth in the United States. His offer of the collection as a gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, made in 1936 on condition that it be separately named and housed, was at first rejected. He next opened his home to the public as a museum, burnishing his holdings with frequent exhibitions and publicity. In 1943 the Second World War forced Bache’s museum to close but brought the collection on loan to the Met, which had put its own masterworks into protective storage. Acquisition of Bache’s collection was now ‘imperative’, and the parties agreed on terms. At his death he contributed fifty-eight paintings together with items of sculpture, Georgian silver, enamel work, porcelain, tapestry, and furniture. Their transfer to the Met illustrates the competitive forces – personal, financial, institutional and geopolitical – that brought private collections to public museums in the USA before and during the years of global war.

Celebrating culture in American dermatology part I: A special tribute to Dr E. A. (Billy) Hankins III, dermatologist with American Indian heritage as a minor part of his ethnic background

This contribution honors the life of Dr E. A. (Billy) Hankins III, a board-certified dermatologist and dermatopathologist with 40 years of practice experience, now retired, having American Indian heritage as a minor part of his ethnic background. Hankins spent many years as a physician volunteer for an indigent clinic serving the urban American Indian community of the city and county of Los Angeles, California (the American Indian Free Clinic). He is a Vietnam era war veteran as well as a master sculpture taxidermist and wildlife recreation artist. He has been active for many years with the Association of American Indian Physicians, of which he is a member. Hankins is the founder and curator of vertebrate zoology and chief preparator for the World Museum of Natural History, an international, nonprofit public museum of natural history located on the campus of La Sierra University in Riverside, California. Dr Hankins’ life story offers insight into American Indian culture as it relates to dermatology, and hopefully it will inspire more American Indian medical students to pursue a career in that specialty.

Representing China in the British Museum: Do Museums Perpetuate Historical Biases?

Museums have never been neutral. Public museums and exhibitions that originated in colonial times are accused of passing on biases that feature Euro-centric interpretations of history. This paper investigates the nature of bias and the history of museums and their biases, and then focuses on the representation of China in the British Museum as an elaborate case study. The paper argues that from the British Museums virtual collections and public resources, the descriptive text and collection highlights in the China galleries reflect implicit and biased historical perspectives of China in the UK, exhibiting a contrast between the British appreciation of exotic Chinese art and contempt towards Chinas social status arising from colonial trade. This paper provides a specific statement and analysis of western biases for colonial discussions and could contribute to decolonization actions taken in museums.

The art of (self)legitimization: how private museums help their founders claim legitimacy as elite actors

This article explores private art museums’ role for elite legitimization processes. Based on interviews with founders, directors, and curators of Germany-based private museums, I explore the discourses participants invoke to legitimize museum founders as actors in the artworld and as elites generally. I draw out a two-pronged legitimation strategy. First, respondents posit private museums’ increasingly important role for today’s art ecosystem, implying logics of discursive innovation and organizational flexibility vis-à-vis public museums. Second, interviewees construct intra-group status hierarchies via notions of the autonomous and ethical collector-founder versus other ostentatious private collectors and unethical wealth elites more widely. Together, these narratives effectively conflate seemingly opposite discourses of private entrepreneurialism and authenticity, allowing interviewees to signal legitimacy for founders over both public and other private actors. This elite legitimation work is performed by both founders and those institutionally connected to them, showing how legitimization can be a complex and institutionally mediated process.

New perspectives on Rubens’ landscapes: Separation and reunion of Het Steen and The rainbow landscape

The articles in this Oud Holland special issue ‘New perspectives on Rubens’ landscapes’ reassess Peter Paul Rubens’ late landscapes from a number of new perspectives. The occasion for this was the landmark exhibition Rubens: Reuniting the great landscapes held at the Wallace Collection, London from 3 June to 15 August 2021, preceded by a conference ‘Rubens’ great landscapes’ held at the Wallace Collection on 17-18 May 2021. The exhibition was in fact a reunion of A view of Het Steen in the early morning (c. 1636) from the National Gallery, London and The rainbow landscape (c. 1636) from the Wallace Collection – two great panoramic landscapes that were created as a pendant pair, but which had been separated for more than two hundred years. This introductory essay explores the journeys and changing ownership of the two paintings from after their separation in 1803 to the time of their reunion in 2021. It investigates the growing fame of the companion pieces in Britain in the nineteenth century, where the greatest proportion of Rubens’ landscapes were already to be found. It focuses on the decisive moment in the history of the two paintings: the auction of the collection of the third Earl of Orford in 1856, when the chance was lost to reunite the pair at the National Gallery, and the negative press that consequently ensued against the winning bid (4th Marquess of Hertford) and the outbid (the leading national collection of old masters) alike. The authors investigate the fate of Het Steen, from its acquisition by Lady Margaret Beaumont that effectively separated the pair, its role in Sir George Beaumont’s collection and its brief reunion with its companion piece at the British Institution of 1815. As part of the Beaumont Gift, it is one of the foremost paintings within the earliest collection of the National Gallery. The rainbow landscape, on the other hand, passed through a succession of private collections, where it became increasingly visible, engraved and discussed as one of Britain’s greatest masterpieces. The 1856 purchase was a possible turning point for Lord Hertford, the reclusive collector, who at this stage was considering what to do with his collection after his death. This essay charts the trajectory of Rubens’ two great landscapes from the ownership of dealers, to private collectors, exhibitions, and finally to public museums, with increased visibility at each stage of their journey. Originally painted by Rubens for his own collection, to be displayed either on the walls of his manorial castle, Het Steen, itself or his Antwerp home, they would have been seen by a range of visitors, including artists and collectors. Two centuries later, they were to be found on the walls of Coleorton Hall and Wolterton Hall, two grand country houses in England. During periods of leisure spent at the invitation of the owners of these homes, later artists were able to contemplate these works and the surrounding landscapes and draw inspiration from them, and formulate their own artistic responses, in much the same spirit of ‘otium’ as outlined by Corina Kleinert in her essay. In keeping with the themes of this special issue, their history in Britain encompasses both the ‘prosaic’, transactional account of how they were sold, and the ‘poetic’ account of how artists travelled some distance to see the works in situ, to copy and be inspired by them. The pattern therefore complements the earlier provenance of these works, as part of a story of a gradual transferral from the private to the public domain.

Copyright for Museum Collections

This article investigates whether museums are shifting from having users respect the copyright to their collections towards becoming intellectual property managers. Based on interviews and surveys, I answer additional research questions: What is the awareness of the importance of copyright to museum collections? Do museums create copyright management policies? What difficulties do they face when acquiring copyright to collections? I study this issue using the example of Polish public museums. The research shows that despite the importance of copyright, museums in Poland do not undertake any actions to manage this area. The difficulties in implementing strategic solutions include shortages in human resources (and the related lack of time and competence) and indecisive management.

Полевые отчеты как источники информации об археологических памятниках Республики Калмыкия, исследованных в 1929–1991 гг.

Introduction. A field report summarizing archaeological works — like findings proper — is a key source of information on conducted investigations. In the Soviet Union and present-day Russia, it has been common practice that findings be distributed among public museums or repositories affiliated to institutions in charge of those excavations, while field reports be obligatorily stored at scientific archives. Goals. The study attempts a comprehensive analysis of Kalmykia’s field reports (1929–1991) and shall thereto enumerate field reports and identify repositories they are stored at, assess their availability in scientific discourse and forecast further studies. Results. The work clarifies scientific archives of the Institute of History of Material Culture (RAS) and the Institute of Archaeology (RAS) contain a total of 76 such reports (1929–1991), while Kalmyk Scientific Center (RAS) houses 42 reports compiled in 1975–1991. The latter period witnessed deliveries of 59 reports to the Institute of Archaeology (RAS), i.e. KalmSC never received 17 reports at all. In terms of availability in scientific discourse, the field reports can be divided into two clusters: those of 1929–1976 were published almost completely, and those of 1977–1991 have been published in fragments only. However, a number of experts, such as P. Rykov, I. Sinitsyn, U. Erdniev, P. Koltsov, E. Shnaidshteyn, M. Ochir-Goryaeva, have published virtually all field survey-related documents of theirs from the period between 1929 and 1991. Conclusions. The conducted analysis shows that appropriate use of field reports for scholarly purposes requires that efforts aimed at investigating the latter be duly integrated: further research and publication endeavors can be planned only after one gathers complete data together. To facilitate this, it is urgent to gain copies of reports missing at KalmSC, and this shall be possible only after all the reports be made completely available. This shall prevent cases characterized by that — when it comes to compile a selection within one cultural-chronological group or some category of grave goods — individual parts of material simply make a ‘white spot’ resulting from unavailability of particular reports.

The Dialectical Relationship Between Knowledge Proliferation and Knowledge Utilization in Modern Public Museums

The Dialectical Relationship Between Knowledge Proliferation and Knowledge Utilization in Modern Public Museums