Exhibiting atomic culture: the view from Oak Ridge

In the aftermath of World War II, residents of “nuclear cities” like Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos, New Mexico, where America's atomic weapons were produced struggled to interpret the nation's atomic history as well as their own stories, for themselves, for tourists and for other visitors. Once literally hidden cities, they remain steeped in Cold War culture and ideology, yet they face uncertain futures as weapons production needs change, hazardous waste dangers become more apparent and homeland security is threatened. “Atomic museums” established at these and other sites have become focal points of such dilemmas. Their evolving interpretations of America's atomic heritage play a significant role in shaping public understanding of the Bomb.     

多办展览，让文物发挥更大作用——有感于南京博物院甲骨文展览

文物展览不仅可以进行历史知识的熏陶,可以进行爱国主义的教育、民族主义的教育,而且对现代化建设也很有意义。多办展览也体现了文物工作的“三贴近”。     

Communism and Museums in Bulgaria

Despite the growing interest in Eastern European countries since the fall of the communist regimes in the late 1980s, they still remain obscure to Western Europeans. Media information on Eastern Europe focuses mainly on politics or the attractions of holiday resorts and, consequently, the history and local customs of the countries, their cultural affairs and different cultural institutions are little known. This paper describes the way Bulgarian museums developed during the governance of the Bulgarian Communist Party (1946–1989). It is hoped that revealing information on their operations within a broad historical and social context will lead to a better understanding of the country’s cultural affairs at a time when Bulgaria has become the latest member of the European Union. The findings are a result of PhD research.     

Anthropology and the New Museology

Efforts are expanding to make museums responsive to broader audiences, and to incorporate a more multi-voiced approach to representation. Anthropologists and museum professionals point to initiatives in museums to broaden their research and outreach, but there is work still to be done. Whether we focus on theory or methodology, the new museology represents a particularly anthropological approach to museum work, emphasizing collaboration between museums and communities, and the recognition of the rights of peoples to be included in and consulted about the presentation and preservation of their heritage.     

Conflict and Complement: An Exploration of the Discourses Informing the Concept of the Socially Inclusive Museum in Contemporary Britain

This paper argues that there are a number of competing discourses informing debates about the idea of the ‘socially inclusive museum’ in Britain today. It identifies three major discourses present from the 19th century to the present day—the governmental, the representational, and the economic—and explores the relationships between them. It is proposed that recognition of the respective ideological and historical contexts of these different discourses will help us to understand some of the recent confusion and disagreement over the nature and merits of the ‘socially inclusive museum’. The article concludes by proposing some issues for future research.     

Hockney Country

This paper reviews David Hockney RA, A Bigger Picture, an exhibition held at the Royal Academy in London, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Museum Ludwig in Cologne in 2012–3, and the associated catalogue and DVD. Geographical and historical questions, of region and space, movement and dwelling, are evident in Hockney's work in a variety of genres, in portraiture and theatre design as well as more recent excursions into landscape. Particular attention is paid to Hockney's paintings of the Yorkshire Wolds.     

The role of the museum in interpretation: The problem of context

The key questions in interpreting objects in museums are: What are they doing there? and Where did they come from? National and local importance are not mutually exclusive: the critical difference is between intrinsic value, and value through context or association. Context is an integral part of interpretation. Experts can visualise an original location or environment; ordinary museum visitors need the context of people, or place, or familiar activities, to be able to relate to unfamiliar objects. Is seeing a good replica as good as seeing the original?     

区域形象设计的方法与实践——以冷水江市为例

本文在阐述区域形象设计的必要性与可行性的基础上,探讨了区域形象设计的理论基础和主要内容。并对冷水江市进行了实践研究。     

Mapping the past: Turkish Cypriot narratives of time and place in the Canbulat museum,northern Cyprus

The Canbulat museum is located within the Venetian Walls of the mediaeval city of Famagusta in northern Cyprus, and traditionally marks the spot where the Ottoman warrior Canbulat fell during the siege of Famagusta in 1571. The tomb of Canbulat, which is housed within the museum, has for centuries played an important part in the folk tradition of Turkish Cypriots. Its incorporation into a formal museum in 1968 marked a conscious reworking of the Canbulat legend into a narrative of the Turkish presence in Cyprus. This paper explores the relationship between history and memory which emerges from the shared space and diverging practices of shrine and museum and considers the alternative visions of past, present and future which it opens up.     

Displaying the future: techno‐nationalism and the rise of the consumer in Postwar Japan

This paper explains how, in the aftermath of World War II, a type of techno‐nationalism emerged that linked being Japanese to science and technology and the increased consumption of electrical appliances. By closely examining official exhibitions, we can see how the state and private sector strongly encouraged this techno‐scientific dreaming. Dazzling displays highlighted how the peaceful atom would help lead the nation to achieve high economic growth. At the same time, through the judicious purchase of labor saving appliances, consumers could reconcile the need to spend with the need to save.     

北魏河南石雕三尊像

本文集中北魏时代以河南北部为中心制作的石雕三尊像诸例,在指出其特色的同时试图作出编年,阐明造像具有的独特绘画性和地方色彩。并对其与龙门石窟,即所谓的“中央样式”的关系,以及与这一样式初期阶段河北造像的关系作以探讨。     

Exhibiting enterprise: how New Zealand museums generate revenue

Museums in New Zealand are not a homogeneous group in terms of their level of incomegenerating activity or the nature of those activities. The gap of knowledge consequent on this situation led to the National Services unit of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, commissioning primary research into the revenue‐generation activities of the sector. This paper presents the results of that research, specifically the data gathered through a questionnaire. The results provide a profile of respondents in relation to their operating contexts, the sources of financial and non‐financial support they received (from the local community, local authorities and central government), and the types of income‐generating activities they undertook. The results contribute to a better understanding of both how organisations within the sector generate income (from traditional sources and new, more innovative activities) and what factors influence their ability to do so.     

Sense and sensitivity: Appraising the Titanic

Abstract

The first substantial exhibition of material retrieved from the wreck of the Titanic was mounted by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, in October 1994. Extended for a second six‐month run the following April, this was to be the most popular exhibition the museum had ever staged, helping to attract some 720,000 people through the turnstiles during the year. It also generated an unprecedented level of media attention, particularly in the period leading up to the opening, placing a wide ranging (but ultimately soft) focus on the museum's motivation for proceeding into the deep waters of apparently delicate subject matter. Indeed, the controversy of the exhibition —a phenomenon partly created, developed and sustained by the media itself — not only formed a backdrop to the planning, design and installation of the show; to some extent the displays, their effects and their meanings became dependent on the context of argument and rhetoric in which they were generated. In the curators’ attempts to reconcile appropriately the often‐competing demands of the museum market of professional ethics, economics, and contemporary standards of taste and morality, it may be asked whether the National Maritime Museum was passenger or pilot in the stormy waters it encountered through this project. Moreover, what was the true nature and consequence of the unrest: a minor local difficulty or a museological issue of some significance? This article is an attempt, despite the probable partisanship of its author, to explore with some of the objectivity of hindsight these questions and the circumstances in which they arose. ¹     

“Empirical Anthropologists Advocating Cultural Adjustments”: The Anthropological Governance of Āpirana Ngata and the Native Affairs Department

In 1929, āpirana Ngata published an article titled “Anthropology and the government of native races in the Pacific”. This would appear to confirm the link between anthropology and the rule of indigenous populations in New Zealand and its Pacific empire, but the evidence presented in this article suggests a more complex situation. This paper examines the “empirical anthropology” of Ngata and Peter Buck and the ways in which their activities reshaped the policy and practice of the Department of Native Affairs between 1920 and 1935, particularly through the notion of cultural “adjustments” or “adaptation”. Archival research reveals that behind the activities of the Dominion Museum, the Polynesian Society and its Journal was a Māori-led body, the Board of Māori Ethnological Research, which redirected government collecting, research and publication from salvage to the maintenance and revival of Māori cultural heritage in the service of tribal social and economic development. Seen through the theoretical framework of assemblage theory, we can see how a malleable idea of culture was employed in social governance in quite different ways to the colonial governmentality at work in other settler colonies at this time. The paper argues that this form of “anthropological governance” effectively de-territorialized state institutions, thereby creating a distinctive space for the native exterior to the nation.     

Conversation with Ernestina Mamaní

This paper records a conversation that took place on Thursday 23rd November 2006 at the Museo del Hombre de Antofagasta de la Sierra (Museum of Man of Antofagasta de la Sierra), Catamarca, Argentina. The conversation involved different research groups co-investigating, each formed by a student of archaeology and a member of the personnel of the museum and/or other areas of the culture of the municipality of Antofagasta de la Sierra. Each presented the state of his/her enquiry into a particular object in the museum collection. The task was to tie stories to objects: stories by the elders of the town, the people who had discovered the item, the personnel of the museum and the texts written by archaeologists. This paper focuses on the conversation with Ernestina Mamaní, about a stone slab by Antofagasta elder, Don Anacleto Cháves, which she and Laura Roda had chosen to research.

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Résumé Cet article rapporte une conversation qui a eu lieu le jeudi 23 novembre 2006 au Museo del Hombre de Antofagasta de la Sierra (Musée de l'homme d'Antofagasta de la Sierra), Catamarca, Argentine. La conversation mettait en scène différents groupes de recherche travaillant conjointement, chacun constitué d’un étudiant en archéologie, d’un membre du personnel du musée et/ou d'autres secteurs du service de la Culture de la municipalité d'Antofagasta de la Sierra. Chacun a présenté l'état de ses recherches autour d’un objet particulier des collections de musée. Il s’agissait d’accoler des récits aux objets: histoires rapportées par les anciens du village, les personnes ayant découvert l'objet, le personnel du musée et les rapports écrits par les archéologues. Cet article relate particulièrement la conversation avec Ernestina Mamaní, au sujet d'une dalle de pierre faite par un ancien d'Antofagasta, Don Anacleto Cháves, qu’elle même et Laura Roda avaient choisie pour leur recherche.

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Resumen Esta ponencia registra una conversación que sucedió el jueves 23 de noviembre de 2006 en el Museo del Hombre de Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca, Argentina. La conversación involucraba diferentes grupos de co-investigación, integrado por una estudiante de arqueología y un miembro del personal del museo y/o otras areas de cultura de la municipalidad de Antofagasta de la Sierra. Cada una presentaba el estado de su indagación acerca de un objeto particular de la colección del museo. La consigna era anudar historias a cada objeto, historias ofrecidas por los ancianos del pueblo, los descubridores de la pieza, el personal del museo y los textos escritos por arqueólogos. Esta ponencia se focaliza en la conversación con Ernestina Mamaní, sobre una laja encontrada por un vecino de Antofagasta, Don Anacleto Cháves, que ella y Laura Roda habían elegido para investigar.

     

The Strategic Significance of Workforce Diversity in Museums

This paper considers increasing international interest, both academic and professional, in the implications and strategic significance of workforce diversity. Drawing on research that has been undertaken principally within the field of human resource management, as well as the experiences of museum sectors internationally, the paper explores the rationale behind, and potential efficacy of, recent initiatives to enhance cultural diversity within the UK museum sector through an approach characterised by the use of positive or affirmative action. It is argued that workforce diversity will become increasingly important to the sector as, in response to changing socio-political agendas, museums are required to assume new roles as agents of social inclusion. The paper concludes by broadening the concept of ?diversity management' (which has emerged from the field of human resource management) to take account of the museum's unique goals and functions and presents a conceptual framework within which the dynamic interrelationships between diversity within a museum's workforce, audiences and programmes can be considered.     

The muse with a wandering eye: the influence of public value on coproduction in museums

ABSTRACT

Across management, marketing, public administration and museology literature, coproduction has been presented as an innovative approach to service improvement. This case study of the Australian museum sector contributes to the instrumentalisation debate, by revealing the potential inhibitors to such improvements when coproduction distracts rather than enhances the work of cultural institutions. While public value requires the strategic cultural manager to negotiate between ‘upstream audiences’ (government and funding bodies) and ‘downstream audiences’ (users and the body politic), these two groups appear to exert different levels of influence. This research suggests that upstream audiences currently absorb the attention of museums. As a result, the manner in which museums coproduce, and the motivations for this work, appear to be geared towards advocating the public value of museums to government and funding bodies. This case study suggests that museums sacrifice the service innovations and exhibition enhancements offered by coproduction (intrinsic outcomes) to pursue government funding and support (instrumental outcomes).     

地方博物馆对公众免费开放及其发展浅析——以遵义市属博物馆的现状分析为例

遵义市共有14个公私博物馆,展出的内容涉及到遵义人民生活的方方面面。对宣传遵义和文物的搜集、保存、研究作出了较大贡献。但文物藏品不够丰富;私立博物馆外宣不够,参观人数较少。建议政府加大投资和对私立博物馆的扶持力度,使其在宣传遵义、弘扬文化方面起到更大作用。     

Measuring Learning Outcomes in Museums,Archives and Libraries: The Learning Impact Research Project (LIRP)

There has been legislation in place since the 1970s in Canada's largest province, Ontario, that encourages the identification of significant heritage buildings and is supposed to provide them with at least a degree of protection. Both heritage recognition and most other land use decisions, however, are exercised at the local government level. W'hile conservation of heritage structures has been successful in some places, an alarming number of significant historic buildings in the province continue to be lost. Relying on dozens of volunteers, this study examined thousands of buildings in over twenty Ontario communities and sought to establish how many heritage buildings had been demolished and to determine why these losses were occurring. It was discovered that in the municipalities surveyed over 400 historically recognised buildings had been lost in the last sixteen years. Recommendations for how to deal with this problem are included in the study.     

查果西沟摩崖造像2009年考古调查简报

2009年6月,陕西省考古研究院与西藏自治区文物保护研究所联合对西藏自治区昌都地区芒康县查果西沟摩崖造像进行了全面而详细的考古调查,现存的7尊造像可以分为三组:第一组包括大日如来与二菩萨、一供养人在内的4尊造像具有明显的吐蕃造像特征,时代为公元9世纪初期;第二组的1尊高浮雕造像与第三组的2尊线刻造像时代可能为公元12世纪甚至更晚,显示了查果西沟及周边地区佛教的发展及延续性。