Engaging Curators project and the Museum Ethnographers Group

Man's jacket made of sponges in 'Curious Case' exhibition, pre-1857, Pescadore Island China Seas, Great North Museum Hancock

The Museum Ethnographers Group is a SSN, or subject specialist network, relating mainly to anthropology collections in museums. One of the ongoing projects of the group has been the 'Engaging Curators: the ethics and practice of working with and responding to communities'. The first workshop took place at the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, London and the second is taking place at the Great North Museum Hancock today, June 20.

The workshop will work through how museums can proactively and productively work with communities, balance public participation, and build community relationships. The point of an SSN is to bring together people with similar interests and specialist skills to help solve issues and also move forward in practice. The aim for the current project will be to draft a framework of skills and resources for how these goals can be moved forward. Today will bring together curators, researchers, and public programming specialists from major museums such as the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, National Museum of Ethnology Leiden, the Horniman Museum, and many other institutions to think through issues of key importance for the future of anthropology collections and museums. 

Matthew Darbyshire 'Oak Effect' with TWAM anthropology collections

This weekend I had to chance to stop by an exhibition in the Bloomberg SPACE that I have been trying to get to for ages. The exhibition is presented by British contemporary artist Matthew Darbyshire, but includes social history and anthropology collections from the Tyne and Wear Archive and Museum service. Months ago I helped gather the anthropology collections to accommodate the artist’s main criteria – that he had similar ethnographic objects made of wood with examples from all the continents.

Unfortunately, that is a rather tight criterion for our limited anthropology collections, but that didn’t mean the exhibition demand didn’t take up a good part of my time for quite a while. I had blogged previously about the need for correct loan valuations of these important objects (here). Part of the loan requirements demanded the individual objects being loaned had the appropriate contextual labels so that even though they were being shown out of their ethnographic context, the audience looking at the exhibition could still understand something deeper than an artistic interpretation of the objects.

 

Baule carving of a queen, Fred Uhlman collection...In a shower!

I expected to show up and see the familiar faces of our objects interpreted in an artistic context ‘exploring a contemporary world of collisions between objects, ephemera, styles and epochs’. I found the faux EU standard housing interior I expected with the objects unsettlingly dispersed throughout the exhibition, but with the added surprise of two ladies dressed up in vinyl wood patterned suits doing performance art in the room.

I think they were mock acting out daily activities you would do at home just in extreme slow motion. I really wasn’t sure though. I think the value that performance art adds to installations such as the Darbyshire installation is interesting, but in all honesty I really didn’t get it. It was really funny though. There was a kid at the show who I believe agreed with me and went out of his way to follow the wood girls around and try to interact with them. It definitely made the room feel a lot more comfortable.

Kid trying to get wood girls' attention

The show ends at the Bloomberg SPACE on June 29, but will be coming up to The Shipley Gallery after that.

Wood girls taking a break

CAG on museums: Putting up the 'Material Connections' display

Iberian female votive figure 5th century BC

The ‘Material Connections: Spanish and Portuguese decorative arts’ is officially up and running. Having such a short lead-in time, it has been an enormous task to get everything ready and up to standard. Some of the biggest hurdles for curatorial work I think happen to be whether or not the aspects of the exhibition which you need to outsource (printing, conservation, design, etc.) can be done with the same expediency that you have to get your exhibition out in. This is when I learned that doing as much as I could possibly do on my own like photography, interpretation, install, mount making, and (some of) the design would make the process move much faster than usual.

 

19th century pistol holders to go over the pommel of a horse

Making plastizote cut outs for the pistol holders

Packing objects for transport

Although it has been a whirlwind of a job, curating, researching, and installing an exhibition is one of the most fulfilling things about curatorial work. There are a lot of other aspects of the curator position that aren’t really my favourite things, but you’re always reminded that you do those slightly trivial  tasks so that when you get to do the exhibition work it gives you so much satisfaction.

Facón knife Spain 1869

Gaucho in the Argentinian Republic with facón in belt 1868,
Library of Congress Courret Hermanos Fotografos, Lima Peru

Attempted 'professional' lead image with photoshop,
6th century BC Iberian belt clasp

Plastic covered wire holders for suspended belt clasp 

Cutting out plastizote for bronze mounts

Bronzes mounted and labelled

18th century Portuguese Appliqué pinned on
fabric covered plastizote block 

Pinning 17th century Portuguese silk panel to textile mount with student

Arranging textiles once installed in the case

Title interpretation panel

Installing leatherwork and bronzes

Install completed with interpretation

CAG on museums: Mounting textiles and conservation issues

It's always been my dream to display and research textiles, so getting to learn about them and the techniques for displaying them for the Vamos Festival exhibition has been an amazing opportunity. The exhibition will be about decorative arts, and includes textile fragments from the 16th-19th century.

17th century textile fragment, Portugal

I have been working with conservation on this project because of the age and fragility of these objects, and I can honestly say I have learned more about weaving patterns, silks, leathers, and embroidery than I've ever known. There is so much specialist knowledge that one has to have to deal with the conservation and mounting of textiles that I had not accounted for previously. Because the majority of the textiles in the collection are fragments, quite small, and very delicate, many of them can only be shown lying flat.

17th century Portuguese embroidered silk

Luckily, because these textiles are going in a glass display case this will still show some of their more intricate features. Mounting the largest Portuguese textile required finding a specifically well-padded, fabric covered mount that could accommodate the light silk and embroidery found on the textile fragment. The back of the fragment shown above actually grips quite easily to the mount found with very little pinning involved. Now that a mount and the technique has been solidified, the other environmental factors such as lighting, humidity, and temperature need to be taken into account.

Back of the 17th century Portuguese textile

I learned some interesting things about silks and assessing their damage in order to choose between appropriate textiles to mount. Because of the use of synthetic dyes, a certain pattern of early damage appears as geometric slit damage, as can be seen on the textile below. This is also the result of stress and pulling to certain fibers on the textile during its use.

18th century silk altar panel

Close-up of the geometric damage

Overall, although the preparation for this exhibition has been a lot of work requiring a lot of on-the-job training on how to handle textiles, their degradation, and how best to preserve them, I feel really satisfied at having the chance to demonstrate these textiles and showcase them for the Vamos Festival. As decorative arts these objects are very stunning, and from the more practical point of view, most of these textiles belonging to an art museum are very unlikely to be displayed any time soon. There's an intrinsic value in displaying these arts for the next month so that they can be enjoyed. Working on this exhibition has demanded a steep learning curve, but I've definitely really enjoyed the research. 

CAG on museums: Social media and museum engagement

I honestly hadn’t realized there was so much chatter over the issue of blogging and its relevance in the academic world. Being fairly new to blogging about my job and a few other interests related to anthropology, I had assumed that the power of using a blog as social media was simply to keep writing in general and if that media inspires ideas or input for bigger projects then it has been successful if not entertaining to reflect on retrospectively.

In the past week I’ve read quite a few critiques and defenses of the academic blog (not exactly what this blog is by the way). The idea of a very ‘serious’ blog doesn’t seem to really capture the point of one in the first place, and as the debates have continued about whether blogging has a place in academic publishing it seems that most people have missed the point.

Perhaps since I work in a museum, it seems more likely that because I interact with the public I should be able to explain what I do, research, and am interested in for a general audience. Writing online definitely has nothing to do with speaking to an academic audience, other than that perhaps a blogger might have some communication skills in my opinion which aren’t emphasized enough in academia. How many academics really step out of their academic jargon comfort zone and just interact with colleagues and the general public through normal communication? Academia tends not to change as quickly as online formats of communication, but nonetheless, opportunities to communicate should be taken on.

It seems more now than ever, at least in the museum academic sector, that the idea of being social media savvy and capable is very important. I’ve heard countless talks about how museums engage with the public through social media, and there are workshops (today!) to discuss these issues in depth (June 7 Newcastle University ICCHS workshop). It is no doubt an important skill to be able to remove oneself from academic writing and write for a wider audience, but because of the fleeting nature of social media itself, to expect that any post, tweet, blog, or update on social media will stand as a legacy of a researcher is to misunderstand the main purpose of social media as a tool for networking, promotion, and at times self-motivation.

CAG on museums: Creating a decorative arts exhibition on Spain and Portugal

 

When the opportunity to create an exhibition arises you don’t say no. That’s why when I was asked to help organize a display on behalf of Newcastle University to promote their collaboration with the Vamos Festival (http://www.vamosfestival.com) I jumped at the opportunity. The Vamos Festival is on for a month in Newcastle and celebrates Spanish and Portuguese cultures. The festival promises to be very arts, music, and performance based –  the backbone of any really great festival! But putting together an exhibition from the museum’s collection to represent these cultures hasn’t been especially easy since I don’t actually have much background knowledge about Spain or Portugal – unless we’re talking about food.

Spanish facon with steel blade, 1896

Detail of walrus ivory handle and inlay

The museum also doesn’t have anything that particularly corresponds to the contemporary music and vibrancy the festival will present, but does have what many museums have, lots of historic objects. In an attempt not to be too boring with this display as it’s quite small and I want to draw an audience in, I have decided to pull together an exhibition that spans Portuguese and Spanish cultures from the 5th century B.C. to the 19^th century and focuses on beautiful and skillful artistry. This will allow viewers a glimpse of the long history of Spanish and Portuguese creativity seen in decorative arts throughout the centuries.

Textile fragment, heraldry from Spain circa 1545 or later

The title of the exhibition will be ‘Material Connections: Spanish and Portuguese decorative arts’, and will include textiles, ancient religious bronze offerings, and various elaborately decorated accessories of daily life. By focusing on the decoration and artistry in Spanish and Portuguese daily and religious life, this exhibition will bring the depth of the collection into focus and connect with the more academic contributions of Newcastle University and their collaboration with the Vamos Festival. Now… to get writing all about decorative arts and get everything else done by the 14^th of June.