University Museum Research Articles

Curation of Digital Archaeological Data in Norway

Archaeological documentation from surveys and excavations in Norway are created by a limited number of actors. Excavations are mainly carried out by the five university museums. NIKU (Norwegian Institute for Cultural Research) is responsible for excavations of medieval cities and churches. Maritime museums excavate in lakes, rivers, and below past and present sea level. Archaeological surveys are mainly the responsibility of the counties. Riksantikvaren (Directorate of National Heritage) is responsible for the national Historic Environment Records (HER), Askeladden, which offers the possibility to upload or insert links to reports from archaeological investigations. Riksantikvaren also archives excavation documentation from churches and medieval cities. The Norwegian university museums have, since the 1990s, cooperated on digitising a national repository and making the collections available online. Presently there are also repositories at the maritime museums, Riksantikvaren and the counties. The infrastructure ADED (Archaeological Digital Excavation Documentation) is a repository for detailed excavation documentation, and the BItFROST infrastructure project contributes to better storage and availability of 3D data. Future development will be more complete national databases, and towards closer international cooperation, creating better integration and availability of several repositories.

General educational aspect of a mineralogical museum of the North-Eastern Federal university, Yakutsk

The paper refers to a museum of the Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU, Yakutsk) as a socio-cultural institution. The restoration, preservation and development of the NEFU mineralogical museum requires a conceptual rethinking of its role, expansion of its functional capabilities, awareness and reassessment of its social role for the university, city and region. From the viewpoint of the museum pedagogy, the museum forms not only an educational, but also an educational and cultural environment for the formation of a harmoniously developed personality. Keywords: museum, museum pedagogy, mineralogical collection, museology, value, Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University

(2853) Proposal to conserve Steinhauera C. Presl (fossil Spermatophyta) against Steinhauera Göpp. (fossil Monilophyta)

(2853) Proposal to conserve <i>Steinhauera</i> C. Presl (fossil <i>Spermatophyta</i>) against <i>Steinhauera</i> Göpp. (fossil <i>Monilophyta</i>)

Atmospheres of the Anthropocene. Sensing and rerouting dis/inheritances in a university museum with young people

ABSTRACT This paper follows young people’s shifting sense of inheritance in the context of the environmental and ontological crises of the epoch named the Anthropocene. It discusses a research project in which young people were invited to work critically and creatively with a British university museum to explore its storerooms and exhibits. The ethnographic and artistic engagements led to the curation of a ‘cabinet of curiosities’ within the museum itself. We use the concept of atmosphere to examine the ways in which space, time, and affect entangle with museological practices of curiosity, care, and curation to produce particular feelings and figurations of inheritance. We propose atmospheric attunement as a means of critically and care-fully examining and re-curating the inheritance of the Anthropocene, including the failures and absences due to colonial disinheritance.

Repatriation in university museum collections: Case studies from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology

AbstractUniversity-based anthropology museums are uniquely positioned to pursue nuanced decisions concerning the disposition of collections in their care, setting best practice for the field. The authors describe a three-staged approach to repatriations that they led during their concurrent service as head of cultural policy and repatriation (Jordan Jacobs) and director (Benjamin Porter) of the University of California, Berkeley’s Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology between 2015 and 2019. Examples involving human remains and cultural objects from Australia, Canada, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Saipan, Senegal, Vanuatu, Venezuela, and South Carolina in the United States demonstrate the benefits of transparency, open communication, and rigorous investigation of provenance and provenience, which may or may not lead to transfer based on the criteria and priorities of potential recipients. This article also provides a history of the Hearst Museum’s Cultural Policy and Repatriation division, which was disbanded in 2021.

Archaeological Heritage of the Mariinsk Forest-Steppe in Russian Museums

The article summarizes scattered data on the archaeological artifacts found in the forest-steppe of the Mariinsk area of Kuzbass and exhibited in various Russian museums. Kuzbass owes most of its archeological heritage to the Mariinsk forest-steppe. The present research made it possible to expand the source base for the corpus of archaeological sites in Kuzbass and introduce some new data about valuable artifacts from Kuzbass that are kept in museums all over Russia. The one and a half century of Mariinsk excavations can be divided into three periods. No items from the first period, i.e. the last quarter of XIX century, remained in Kuzbass museums. Artifacts from the second period are distributed between the Kuzbass State Museum of Local History, the Kemerovo State University Museum, and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Other archaeological collections from Mariinsk are to be found in the following museums: the State Historical Museum, the Hermitage, the museums of Archeology and Ethnography of Tomsk and Kemerovo State Universities, and the Museums of Local History of Kuzbass, Mariinsk, Leninsk-Kuznetskiy, and Tisul. The collections present a valuable source of new information about the history of Southern Siberia.

Morphometric study of vertebral artery groove in dry human cervical vertebra in Pakistani population

Introduction: Vertebral artery passes through vertebral artery groove present on the posterior arch of atlas; free movement of which is required during rotation of the neck. This artery can be compressed if the vertebral groove is converted into arcuate foramina due to the projection of bony ponticuli over the grove. This compression can cause vertebra-basilar insufficiency, headache, or neck-shoulder pain of unknown origin. Objective: This study aims to provide data regarding vertebral artery groove and its morphology to help surgeons and clinicians in the local Pakistani population as no data is available in this population. Materials and Methods: A total of sixty adult dry human atlas vertebrae were taken from the Anatomy museum of King Edward medical university. Quantitative and qualitative data were taken for analysis. Quantitative data include the distance of medial and lateral edges of vertebral artery groove from the midline of the posterior arch, the distance of the medial edge of foramen transversarium from the midline, the thickness of vertebral artery groove and its dimensions at medial and lateral entrance points. Qualitative data includes the type of bridging over the vertebral artery groove. Data were analyzed and the mean was taken.Results: Mean distance of the medial edge of vertebral artery groove from midline was found to be 13.32 ± 3.25 and 13.72 ± 2.82 mm on right and left sides respectively while the mean distance of the lateral edge of vertebral artery groove from midline was 22.31 ± 3.47 on the right side and 22.29 ± 2.98 on the left side. The mean of total thickness found was 3.84 ± 0.66 mm on right and 3.57 ± 1.14 mm on left. Morphology showed that 3.33% of the Pakistani population has complete arcuate foramina, 40% partial bridging, and 56.67% absent bridging. Conclusion: Findings of this study can be helpful for neurosurgeons during procedures requiring exposure of the posterior arch of the atlas so that damage to a vertebral artery can be prevented.

A Historical Collection of Termites in Ferrara: Recovery, Cataloguing and Geographical Analyses.

Simple SummaryTermites, an insect group relevant for recycling of organic matter, are also biodeteriogenic organisms that cause serious damages to wooden structures in anthropogenic environments. Professor Antonio Springhetti, a renowned Italian entomologist who studied termites in Italy from 1950 to around 1990, collected many specimens during his field campaigns, and his collection was enriched by termite samples from around the world donated by other entomologists. His precious collection, preserved at the University of Ferrara, represents not only a valuable scientific tool for studies on ecologically relevant insects that may seriously damage historical buildings and ancient libraries but also an important cultural asset.Termites are an insect group relevant for recycling of organic matter, but they are also biodeteriogenic and may cause serious damages to wooden structures (including historical buildings and ancient libraries) in anthropogenic environments. The collection of Italian and foreign termites gathered over the years by Antonio Springhetti, Professor of Zoology at the University of Ferrara (Ferrara, Italy) and internationally renowned entomologist, contains over 44,000 specimens, collected by Springhetti during his field campaigns or donated by other entomologists from all over the world. The collection is currently preserved at the Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology of the University of Ferrara. Unfortunately, all documents, publications and notes concerning the Springhetti Collection were lost; thus, in 2020, the collection was completely re-catalogued within the University Museum System and analyzed in detail. The collection contains specimens dating back to 1878 and represents not only a valuable scientific tool for studies on these ecologically relevant insects that may cause damages to historical buildings, ancient books and artworks but also an important cultural asset for the University Museum System.

The Collecting and Study of Pre-Modern East Asian Maps in Europe and the United States

After fifty years, we are revisiting R.A. Skelton’s 1966 study of the collecting of early maps in Europe and the United States for the celebration of the Nineteenth Nebenzahl lecture series at the Newberry Library, Chicago. In that study, Skelton discussed who collected maps, where some of those maps have been and where they are today, what it meant to assemble map collections, and how we understood and studied maps and mapping fifty years ago. Skelton, however, examined primarily the collecting of European and American mapping during the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. This study will address one neglected area of collecting and studying, that of the maps of East Asia, i.e. those of China, Korea and Japan in Europe and the United States exclusively, with the understanding that the majority of extant maps of East Asia are currently housed in respective national, provincial, municipal and university libraries and museums in East Asia. And only pre-modern East Asian maps, those produced in East Asia for an East Asian audience prior to 1900 are discussed, as that generally represents the historical moment when transitions from imperial and royal rule to modern nation-state governance occurred in East Asia.

Copying after masterworks of ancient art: The plaster cast collection of the Museum of the University of Wrocław and its ideological and academic context

Plaster cast collections of antique art, considered to be ideal form, constituted a significant part of public expositions in the European museums of the 19th c. The Museum of the University of Wroclaw was then holding one of the biggest such collections among university museums in Europe. This paper presents the collection of plaster cast copies of antique art objects held at the University of Wroclaw and contextualizes it within the tradition and purpose of academic art collections in Europe. To define the idea underpinning the creation and gradual expansion of Wroclaw-based collection, and to present it against its European background, the paper also refers to cast collections held at other academic institutions. Wroclaw-based collection is also contextualized within the philhellenic ideals setting the criteria for objects collected by the newly created museums and determining the ways in which these objects were exhibited.

A Dissenting Realism

A spirit of dissent animated the American Pre-Raphaelites, a movement comprising abolitionist artists and like-minded architects, critics, and scientists. In contrast to their more prominent colleagues, the artists now known as the Hudson River School, the American Pre-Raphaelites established themselves as eloquent critics of slavery and antebellum American society. The group united their political and aesthetic commitments by engaging selected pictorial strategies of the British Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and embracing a radical empiricism. In landscapes, nature studies, and still lifes of modest dimensions, the American Pre-Raphaelites refused compositional conventions that endorsed rank, class, power, and possession by elevating the humble while eschewing the monumental. Through an examination of Thomas Charles Farrer’s View of Northampton from the Dome of the Hospital (1865, Smith College Museum of Art), this article argues that the American Pre-Raphaelites advanced what they viewed as an ethical style of landscape painting—one that assertively announced their abolitionism.

Developing Experiential Exhibitions Based on Conservation Science Content of Bronze Mirror

In museums, exhibition content focuses mostly on cultural heritage’s historical values and functions, but doing so tends to limit visitors’ interest and immersion. To counter this limitation, the study developed an experiential media art exhibition fusing bronze mirrors’ traditional production technology and modern conservation science. First, for the exhibition system, scientific cultural heritage contents were projected on the three-dimensional (3D) printed bronze mirror through interactions between motion recognition digital information display (DID) and the projector. Then, a scenario of 17 missions in four stages (production process, corrosion mechanism, scientific analysis and diagnosis, and conservation treatment and restoration) was prepared according to the temporal spectrum. Additionally, various media art effects and interaction technologies were developed, so visitors could understand and become immersed in bronze mirrors’ scientific content. A user test was evaluated through the living lab, reflecting generally high levels of satisfaction (90.2 points). Qualitative evaluation was generally positive, with comments such as “easy to understand and useful as the esoteric science exhibition was combined with media art” (16.7%), “wonderful and interesting” (11.7%), and “firsthand experience was good” (9.2%). By combining an esoteric science exhibition centered on principles and theories with visual media art and by developing an immersive directing method to provide high-level exhibition technology, the exhibition induced visitors’ active participation. This exhibition’s content can become an important platform for expanding universal museum exhibitions on archaeology, history, and art into conservation science.

Reinterpreting museums’ intended experience during the COVID-19 pandemic: insights from Italian University Museums

ABSTRACT This paper explores whether and how University Museums reinterpreted their intended experience during the COVID-19 pandemic shock. To this end, theoretical insights from the service management literature are used. Adopting an interpretative approach, this paper relies on legislative documents and a survey of Italian University Museums during the COVID-19 lockdown. Results highlight how digital technologies enabled Italian University Museums to design service offerings and value co-creation practices. Particularly, digital technologies have led Italian University Museums, as experience-centric service organisations, to reinterpret their intended experience. This research sheds light on how museums can adapt their traditional interpretation of design areas by redefining content and the interaction with their visitors through digital technologies, ultimately building a virtual interpretation of their intended experience. This allows building a conceptual model that emphasises the differentiation between synchronous (online) and asynchronous (offline) value co-creation practices. Finally, this paper adds practical insights for managing museums’ co-creation practices virtually.

The Environment of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Conservation of artifacts is a major concern of museum cura tors. Light, humidity, and air pollution are responsible for the deterioration of many artifacts and materials. We present here an exploratory analysis of humidity and temperature data that were collected to document the en vironment of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, located in the Walker Art Building at Bowdoin College. As a result of this study, funds are being sought to install a climate control system.

Kyoritsu Women's University Museum

Kyoritsu Women's University Museum

It's our museum too: co-producing research in a university museum through a nursery residency programme

PurposeThe authors draw on Howard and Thomas-Hughes' (2020) framework for quality assessment of co-produced research, to interrogate our assumptions and processes and to reflect on our project. They consider if they achieved our planned outcomes around developing practice, enabling a range of voices and perspectives within their research, and enacting change within the university museum.Design/methodology/approachThe authors’ early years residency programme explores the potential of collaborations with community groups to transform knowledge and practice through action research. As museum educators, the authors find synergy between the participatory pedagogies underpinning their practice and the co-construction of knowledge within action research. Both are committed to enabling diverse interpretations within a collective and supportive framework. Within their project, practitioners from the museum and playgroup worked collaboratively to collect video footage, photos, children's artwork and reflective journals and memos.FindingsThe process of action, observation and reflection revealed much about the authors’ different perspectives and they found variations in both pedagogy and practice. Although the authors had a shared commitment to providing high quality, memorable, exciting opportunities for the children, the exploratory nature of the project meant that they did not agree what these experiences might look like in advance, and so they had different understandings of what they saw.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the authors’ methodological framework was designed to make their research collaborative, structural challenges and the contexts of the art museum and university reinforced long established hierarchies. While some felt supported by the research process and the prestige of working with a university museum to gain legitimacy for their practice, others were disempowered by these same structures. The authors consider their obligations as practitioner-researchers to become aware of the role they play in maintaining, as well as challenging, hierarchies and assumptions.Originality/valueYoung children in museums is a growing area of study and this practitioner-led action research project develop a new strand of enquiry within this field. Through this research the authors can collaborate with community partners to record, analyse and make visible the many different ways in which young children experience the museum. As research led institutions, university museums are ideally placed to develop research in partnership with local public bodies and community groups. However, future work in this area would benefit from a more explicit consideration of the constraints implicit within the institutions within which they all operate.

Re-imagining Museums in a Pandemic: New Governance For a Living, Open and Sustainable Museum

By means of a case study, this article presents the need to develop a contextual museology that allows models of museum management to be adapted in times of transition or crisis. It also defends the need to implement knowledge-management processes that advocate systematising and documenting the memory of museum entities, which can in turn serve as a foundation for planning museum practices amid crises. Despite the challenges caused by its involuntary closure, for Colombia’s Centro de Museos de la Universidad de Caldas (Museum Centre at the University of Caldas) the pandemic became the ideal setting to carry out, behind closed doors, an assessment of 25 years of continuous work. What should be done with a closed museum? The institutional response was to begin an internal evaluation process to re-imagine the museum in a future era of post-pandemic work. The Centro de Museos therefore developed a new museum plan, financed by a grant from the Colombian government's Ministry of Culture. Turning to online modes of working posed a challenge on the implementation of participatory methodologies that were used at different organisational levels, such as the creation of collaborative murals, interviews and online discussions. These exercises made it possible to integrate different perspectives and visions of the museum and to recover lost memories that contributed to a new conceptualisation of the university museum.

ARCHITECTURE OF CREATIVE BECOMINGS: SOU FUJIMOTO

The study investigates Sou Fujimoto's concept of in between, moving geometry of space, Gilles Deleuze's and Felix Guattari's ontology of becoming, Karen Barad's agential realism and Japanese philosophy of living. The starting premise is that is possible to read Japanese space-time concept of being (which is the ground of Fujimoto's architecture) by the language of Deleuze's, Guattari's and Barad's philosophy and vice versa. Hence, the study aims to prove that Fujimoto's architecture can be read as an example of Japanese New Wave that makes departure from Structuralist theoretical thought, that Fujimoto's architecture can be understand as a practice that is in the act of becoming-nature, that is, that Fujimoto's in-between are space-time concepts in a continuous process of becomings. This is about understanding of Fujimoto's architecture as material-discursive practice (or apparatus) of social production of a multitude of sense and meaning, new sensations and sense knowledge. The study identifies several key concepts of Structuralist theoretical thought and relates them to Fujimoto's thinking about architecture, through analysis of his five key examples ( Serpentine gallery pavilion , House NA , House N , Musashino Art University Museum & Library and L'arbre blanc ). Through this analysis study concludes that it is possible to read Fujimoto's concept of spaces-in between by language of Poststructuralist theoretical thought, that is, by ontology of becoming, and that it can be read as operative rather than representative concept, one that leads toward not only emancipation of architecture, but also toward emancipation of the subject, society and culture by architecture. Key words: Japanese New Wave, (Post-)Structuralism, becoming nature, Sou Fujimoto's spaces in

Specifics of University Museum Cooperation in Ukraine

The article discusses cooperation between university museums in Ukraine, with particular attention to the structure and operation of museum networks at different levels. At the institutional level, network ideology is manifested in the formation of museum complexes within universities. This type of close coordination makes it possible to directly influence the development strategy of universities, expands opportunities for creating innovative museum product, strengthens the position of museums within universities, and helps to draw the residents and guests of the city into the museum space. At the regional level, museum unions, based on the territorial or specialization principle, help to improve the professional skills of museum staff and protect their rights. They are also involved in the organization of community events (exhibitions, contests) and make museums more open and attractive to different categories of visitors. At present, we are witnessing the gradual development of museum associations in Ukraine, at the level of both individual universities (the museum complex of the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University) and cities or regions (Association of University Museum Workers of Kharkiv). At the same time, Ukraine still needs a country-wide association of university museums, which would help to legitimize and strengthen the university museum community and preserve and facilitate access to museum collections of institutions of higher education. It is also necessary to increase the representation of Ukrainian museums in international organizations, which would make it possible to formulate more clearly the mission of the university museum in modern society. The lack of a clear understanding of the mission of the university museum and the latter’s uncertain position (including legal) in the academic and museum community can lead to the loss of not only museum identity, but also museums themselves and their collections. In Ukraine, we can speak of the first steps towards such self-organization at the institutional and regional levels, as well as attempts to create a national center through formal (association) and informal (conferences) structures. However, so far these attempts have been sporadic.

The Case History of an Insect Infestation Revealed Using X-ray Computed Tomography and Implications for Museum Collections Management Decisions

The protection of cultural heritage and property is a significant and critical task that requires collaboration and expertise in a variety of disciplines. Of the many risk factors, insect infestation is one cause of deterioration and loss. At a large, state university, disparate departments, ranging from Facilities Management to the Entomology Department and Veterinary Medicine, assisted the university museum in identifying a drywood termite infestation, determining the extent of loss and developing a plan to prevent or mitigate future infestations. Our group was able to determine the extent and severity of a drywood termite infestation in the museum storage vault through visual inspection and X-ray computed tomography (CT). This paper describes the process and heuristics of identifying and estimating the amount of active/inactive termite infestations in the art frames as well as visualizing a 3-dimensional structure to learn the extent of infestation. This interdisciplinary collaboration and effectual use of tomography enabled our group to determine the condition of several art frames through non-invasive means and develop a plan of action to identify and prevent future insect incursions within the museum.