Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/13500775.2021.2016289
Cândida Pestana, Lama Alissa
Abstract One landmark of the Saudi cultural scene in the time of Covid-19 has been the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (also known as Ithra), a recently opened Saudi cultural institution that features museums, a library, a cinema, a theatre, a children’s museum and more. Ithra’s mission is ‘to make a tangible and positive impact on human development by inspiring a passion for knowledge, creativity and cross-cultural engagement for the future of the kingdom’. It is particularly unusual insofar as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has historically counted few museums and has an underdeveloped cultural ecosystem. The nation has been undergoing an intentional transformation with Vision 2030. The programme includes vast investment in the cultural and creative sector, advancement of the quality of life and the development of cultural and creative industries (CCI). This article aims to map and understand the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on Ithra’s institutional presence and programming. It argues that the challenges of the pandemic – which are expected to lead to the permanent closure of more than 15 per cent of the world’s museums – became an opportunity to expand Ithra’s efforts to widen its relationships with audiences, communities, creative professionals and institutional stakeholders. Saudi Arabia’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has placed it at the highest ranks on international indexes in 2021. This article will present three different initiatives that showcase the tactics of the institution during and post-lockdown, highlighting key achievements. When Ithra opened to the public in 2018, there was no pre-existing audience for cultural offerings. Ithra had to create and engage audiences, position itself as an active member of the different communities and raise awareness related to culture and creativity in the whole region. Its focus on outreach and its diverse offerings have been essential components of Ithra’s existence. In some cases, Ithra has found more success than its established international peers that exist in mature CCI ecosystems. During lockdown, instead of curtailing its offerings, Ithra increased them, greatly expanding by capitalising on its already robust digital and virtual platforms.
{"title":"Unity in a Time of Uncertainty: Ithra’s Approach During the Pandemic in Saudi Arabia","authors":"Cândida Pestana, Lama Alissa","doi":"10.1080/13500775.2021.2016289","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13500775.2021.2016289","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract One landmark of the Saudi cultural scene in the time of Covid-19 has been the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (also known as Ithra), a recently opened Saudi cultural institution that features museums, a library, a cinema, a theatre, a children’s museum and more. Ithra’s mission is ‘to make a tangible and positive impact on human development by inspiring a passion for knowledge, creativity and cross-cultural engagement for the future of the kingdom’. It is particularly unusual insofar as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has historically counted few museums and has an underdeveloped cultural ecosystem. The nation has been undergoing an intentional transformation with Vision 2030. The programme includes vast investment in the cultural and creative sector, advancement of the quality of life and the development of cultural and creative industries (CCI). This article aims to map and understand the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on Ithra’s institutional presence and programming. It argues that the challenges of the pandemic – which are expected to lead to the permanent closure of more than 15 per cent of the world’s museums – became an opportunity to expand Ithra’s efforts to widen its relationships with audiences, communities, creative professionals and institutional stakeholders. Saudi Arabia’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has placed it at the highest ranks on international indexes in 2021. This article will present three different initiatives that showcase the tactics of the institution during and post-lockdown, highlighting key achievements. When Ithra opened to the public in 2018, there was no pre-existing audience for cultural offerings. Ithra had to create and engage audiences, position itself as an active member of the different communities and raise awareness related to culture and creativity in the whole region. Its focus on outreach and its diverse offerings have been essential components of Ithra’s existence. In some cases, Ithra has found more success than its established international peers that exist in mature CCI ecosystems. During lockdown, instead of curtailing its offerings, Ithra increased them, greatly expanding by capitalising on its already robust digital and virtual platforms.","PeriodicalId":45701,"journal":{"name":"MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41586432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/13500775.2021.2059244
A. Labrador
Abstract We now regard the COVID-19 pandemic as a disaster like no other caught as we were, by the lack of foresight into its impacts on our lives and our work. With the creative and tourism industries most affected, museums were forced to reinvent their management strategies. In the context of Southeast Asia, the most immediate shock was the absence of visitors around mid-March 2020 when museums were forced to close and only a handful of staff were allowed to report for work to curb a silent and deadly disease from further spreading. From conversations I have had with colleagues in the region through email and messenger, I realised that it took us some time to adapt to this new emergency situation. Our Disaster Risk Preparedness programmes focused on anticipating shorter, more dramatic events such as fire, flood, and civil strife. The shift from physical programmes to digital ones was difficult for many of us who did not consider the online format as effective as those public programmes we present in our galleries and activity centres. This article attempts to give an overview of Southeast Asian museum managers’ perspectives from conversations I had with them between March 2020 and October 2021, when most Southeast Asian museums were opening tentatively. Bearing in mind the impacts on our staff, we discussed how the pandemic might determine how we run our facilities and organisations, and the potential relevance of this perspective on an international scale.
{"title":"The Empty Museum: A Southeast Asian Perspective","authors":"A. Labrador","doi":"10.1080/13500775.2021.2059244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13500775.2021.2059244","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We now regard the COVID-19 pandemic as a disaster like no other caught as we were, by the lack of foresight into its impacts on our lives and our work. With the creative and tourism industries most affected, museums were forced to reinvent their management strategies. In the context of Southeast Asia, the most immediate shock was the absence of visitors around mid-March 2020 when museums were forced to close and only a handful of staff were allowed to report for work to curb a silent and deadly disease from further spreading. From conversations I have had with colleagues in the region through email and messenger, I realised that it took us some time to adapt to this new emergency situation. Our Disaster Risk Preparedness programmes focused on anticipating shorter, more dramatic events such as fire, flood, and civil strife. The shift from physical programmes to digital ones was difficult for many of us who did not consider the online format as effective as those public programmes we present in our galleries and activity centres. This article attempts to give an overview of Southeast Asian museum managers’ perspectives from conversations I had with them between March 2020 and October 2021, when most Southeast Asian museums were opening tentatively. Bearing in mind the impacts on our staff, we discussed how the pandemic might determine how we run our facilities and organisations, and the potential relevance of this perspective on an international scale.","PeriodicalId":45701,"journal":{"name":"MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41752987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/13500775.2021.2016285
Massimo Bernardi
Abstract Several indicators suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic has raised public awareness around climate and environmental emergencies, and expanded global consciousness around the interdependencies of natural systems and their individual components. These trends add up to a growing awareness of both environmental damage and social injustices, brought to wide global attention by the 2019 Climate Strikes and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests of 2020. How can museums take advantage of this new social and activist climate, as we resurface form the severe limitations imposed by pandemic-related health and safety measures? The concept of the Anthropocene stands out as the most powerful, all-inclusive topic that museums can leverage to reshape their relationship with a new form of citizenship during and following the Covid-19 crisis. In this article, and drawing on my work and experiences at the MUSE – Science Museum in Italy, I will offer some discussion around the urgent need, for the entire museum community, to review museum polices and activities in light of the Anthropocene paradigm, a process that museums must undertake thorough a complex process of internal strategic change. One key issue with pervasive consequences over several museum activities is the need to shift our storytelling from the humanity-against-nature narrative (a 20th-century environmentalist view) to a humanities-against-(other)-humanities narrative, which more properly describes the current Anthropocene-era conflict between different values and ethical principles with regard to the ontological status of our planet. Moreover and above all, museums need to become increasingly aware of their political role in society, and be prepared to assert it more than is customary in our practices. If the commitment to the United Nations 2030 Agenda honours the institutional task of museums, the proposal for critical debate on Anthropocene issues stands out as the main challenge for museums who wish to fulfil their social and political roles in a post-Covid-19 world.
{"title":"The Covid-19 Pandemic and the Inescapable Challenge of the Anthropocene for Museums","authors":"Massimo Bernardi","doi":"10.1080/13500775.2021.2016285","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13500775.2021.2016285","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Several indicators suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic has raised public awareness around climate and environmental emergencies, and expanded global consciousness around the interdependencies of natural systems and their individual components. These trends add up to a growing awareness of both environmental damage and social injustices, brought to wide global attention by the 2019 Climate Strikes and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests of 2020. How can museums take advantage of this new social and activist climate, as we resurface form the severe limitations imposed by pandemic-related health and safety measures? The concept of the Anthropocene stands out as the most powerful, all-inclusive topic that museums can leverage to reshape their relationship with a new form of citizenship during and following the Covid-19 crisis. In this article, and drawing on my work and experiences at the MUSE – Science Museum in Italy, I will offer some discussion around the urgent need, for the entire museum community, to review museum polices and activities in light of the Anthropocene paradigm, a process that museums must undertake thorough a complex process of internal strategic change. One key issue with pervasive consequences over several museum activities is the need to shift our storytelling from the humanity-against-nature narrative (a 20th-century environmentalist view) to a humanities-against-(other)-humanities narrative, which more properly describes the current Anthropocene-era conflict between different values and ethical principles with regard to the ontological status of our planet. Moreover and above all, museums need to become increasingly aware of their political role in society, and be prepared to assert it more than is customary in our practices. If the commitment to the United Nations 2030 Agenda honours the institutional task of museums, the proposal for critical debate on Anthropocene issues stands out as the main challenge for museums who wish to fulfil their social and political roles in a post-Covid-19 world.","PeriodicalId":45701,"journal":{"name":"MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47752989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/13500775.2021.2016280
Leslie Azócar, Oscar Hauyon
Abstract The Museo Gabriela Mistral, dedicated to the only Latin American woman to have yet won the Nobel Prize for Literature, is part of the state network of museums in Chile. It is located in Vicuña, in the Elqui Valley. Prior to the pandemic, it received 140,000 visitors annually, mostly women and elderly Chileans, according to data provided by audience studies. Located in the poet's birthplace, its different spaces explore the memory and the personal and collective remembrance of Mistral, allowing each visitor’s individual ideas about her to emerge and vividly manifest throughout the exhibition and the property. This leads us to affirm that memory is present as a structural part of this museum, since memory requires a physical place with which to form historical and emotional connections. When the Covid-19 related lockdown began on 16 March 2020 in Chile, the museum was forced to migrate its successful onsite experiences to online counterparts. It had to divert its focus to a digital community that was unknown and little-explored up to that point, since the museum had prioritised the onsite experience. 16 months into the pandemic, including nine months of closure for the museum followed by partial and sporadic openings – as well as 70,000 social media engagements in March 2021 alone – it is worth asking: is the museum effectively closed? Moreover, who makes up the online community interested in Gabriela Mistral? This article explores these questions, including through the lens of the museum’s limited technical capabilities and available budget.
{"title":"From an Onsite to an Online Experience: The Case of the Museo Gabriela Mistral de Vicuña","authors":"Leslie Azócar, Oscar Hauyon","doi":"10.1080/13500775.2021.2016280","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13500775.2021.2016280","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Museo Gabriela Mistral, dedicated to the only Latin American woman to have yet won the Nobel Prize for Literature, is part of the state network of museums in Chile. It is located in Vicuña, in the Elqui Valley. Prior to the pandemic, it received 140,000 visitors annually, mostly women and elderly Chileans, according to data provided by audience studies. Located in the poet's birthplace, its different spaces explore the memory and the personal and collective remembrance of Mistral, allowing each visitor’s individual ideas about her to emerge and vividly manifest throughout the exhibition and the property. This leads us to affirm that memory is present as a structural part of this museum, since memory requires a physical place with which to form historical and emotional connections. When the Covid-19 related lockdown began on 16 March 2020 in Chile, the museum was forced to migrate its successful onsite experiences to online counterparts. It had to divert its focus to a digital community that was unknown and little-explored up to that point, since the museum had prioritised the onsite experience. 16 months into the pandemic, including nine months of closure for the museum followed by partial and sporadic openings – as well as 70,000 social media engagements in March 2021 alone – it is worth asking: is the museum effectively closed? Moreover, who makes up the online community interested in Gabriela Mistral? This article explores these questions, including through the lens of the museum’s limited technical capabilities and available budget.","PeriodicalId":45701,"journal":{"name":"MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59810641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/13500775.2021.2016282
Jimena Lobo Guerrero Arenas, María Fernanda Zuluaga Medina
Abstract 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.
{"title":"Re-imagining Museums in a Pandemic: New Governance For a Living, Open and Sustainable Museum","authors":"Jimena Lobo Guerrero Arenas, María Fernanda Zuluaga Medina","doi":"10.1080/13500775.2021.2016282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13500775.2021.2016282","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract 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.","PeriodicalId":45701,"journal":{"name":"MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44927100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/13500775.2021.2016286
Friederike Landau-Donnelly, Avni Sethi
Abstract In this paper, we examine how the Conflictorium – Museum of Conflict in Ahmedabad, India, grapples with the complex and interrelated phenomena of emptiness and absence. We explore how emptiness at once appears, disappears, and reappears in museum spaces, and how activist curatorial choices around exhibition-making and community engagement intermingle with subtly enforced prohibitions (i.e., orchestrated or planned absences) from state actors. Accordingly, we discuss emptiness as both a spatial and discursive challenge, which mobilises tensions around what a museum ‘is’, what takes place in museums and who undertakes such actions. While we take note of the unprecedented phenomenon of emptiness in museums around the globe due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we nevertheless argue that emptiness has always existed in both traditional, larger-scale museums and in alternative (e.g., community-organized, self-funded, temporary or smaller) institutions. Emptiness can be perceived in various ways, but often manifests in privileging some narratives over others, excluding certain voices, bodies, and stories while granting others ample space on pedestals and exhibition walls. Forging a critical engagement with existing museum definitions, the Conflictorium considers a museum to be ‘nothing’ more than what its artists, curators and diverse audiences make of it – thus placing emptiness, as one manifestation of more structural absence, at its core. In accordance with this ‘negative’ approach to museums, we interweave political theories of conflict and antagonism (Landau et al. 2021; Marchart 2018) with critical museum studies’ accounts on the ‘radical democratic’ (Sternfeld 2018) and ‘activist’ museum (Janes and Sandell 2019) to conceptualise how emptiness can operate as a crucial component of (un)making museums as places for activism. In conclusion, the paper offers a conceptual discussion of activist museums’ political engagement with emptiness beyond pandemic survival strategies.
摘要在本文中，我们考察了印度艾哈迈达巴德的冲突博物馆（Conflictorium——Museum of Conflict）是如何应对空虚和缺席这一复杂而相互关联的现象的。我们探索了博物馆空间中的空虚是如何同时出现、消失和重现的，以及围绕展览制作和社区参与的积极策展选择如何与国家行为者微妙地强制执行的禁令（即精心策划或计划缺席）相融合。因此，我们将空虚视为一种空间挑战和话语挑战，它调动了人们对博物馆“是什么”、博物馆发生了什么以及谁采取了这些行动的紧张情绪。尽管我们注意到由于新冠肺炎大流行，全球博物馆出现了前所未有的空虚现象，但我们认为，无论是传统的大型博物馆，还是其他（例如社区组织、自筹资金、临时或小型）机构，都一直存在空虚现象。空虚可以通过各种方式被感知，但通常表现为将某些叙事置于其他叙事之上，排除某些声音、身体和故事，同时在基座和展览墙上给其他人足够的空间。Conflictorium与现有的博物馆定义进行了批判性的接触，认为博物馆“无非”是其艺术家、策展人和不同观众对它的看法，从而将空虚作为更具结构性缺失的一种表现置于其核心。根据这种对博物馆的“消极”态度，我们将冲突和对抗的政治理论（Landau et al.2021；Marchart 2018）与批判性博物馆研究对“激进民主”（Sternfeld 2018）和“活动家”博物馆（Janes和Sandell 2019）的描述交织在一起，以概念化空虚如何作为使博物馆成为激进主义场所的关键组成部分。最后，本文对激进博物馆的政治参与进行了概念性讨论，探讨了疫情生存策略之外的空虚。
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Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/13500775.2021.2016273
Yang Jin, Liang Min
Abstract During the Covid-19 lockdown from the end of January to March 2020, museums in China were forced to temporarily close, consequently devoting more attention to online activities. Apart from official websites, many museums increased their online activities on China-based video livestreaming platforms such as Kuaishou, Douyin and Bilibili, etc., as well as on the audio livestreaming platform Himalayan. Other online activities were carried out via social media and e-commerce platforms including WeChat, Vlog, Taobao, Tianmao, Jingdong, Meituan and Tencent. Shaanxi History Museum (SHM) represents one of the typical examples of cultural institutions that bolstered their online activities during the pandemic. This article explores the effects of Chinese museums’ livestreaming activities, which constituted the core of their online initiatives during the pandemic. By reviewing different types of livestreaming activities carried out by museums, as well as conducting online surveys, face-to-face interviews and analysing data surrounding the Shaanxi History Museum, it will critically discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese museums’ livestreaming activities, with potential implications for museums in China and worldwide. Ultimately, it suggests that Chinese museums’ development of online activities relies on applying a systematic, diversified and digitalisation-driven communication strategy.
{"title":"Public Benefits or Commercial Gains: Chinese Museums’ Online Activities in the Covid-19 Age","authors":"Yang Jin, Liang Min","doi":"10.1080/13500775.2021.2016273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13500775.2021.2016273","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract During the Covid-19 lockdown from the end of January to March 2020, museums in China were forced to temporarily close, consequently devoting more attention to online activities. Apart from official websites, many museums increased their online activities on China-based video livestreaming platforms such as Kuaishou, Douyin and Bilibili, etc., as well as on the audio livestreaming platform Himalayan. Other online activities were carried out via social media and e-commerce platforms including WeChat, Vlog, Taobao, Tianmao, Jingdong, Meituan and Tencent. Shaanxi History Museum (SHM) represents one of the typical examples of cultural institutions that bolstered their online activities during the pandemic. This article explores the effects of Chinese museums’ livestreaming activities, which constituted the core of their online initiatives during the pandemic. By reviewing different types of livestreaming activities carried out by museums, as well as conducting online surveys, face-to-face interviews and analysing data surrounding the Shaanxi History Museum, it will critically discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese museums’ livestreaming activities, with potential implications for museums in China and worldwide. Ultimately, it suggests that Chinese museums’ development of online activities relies on applying a systematic, diversified and digitalisation-driven communication strategy.","PeriodicalId":45701,"journal":{"name":"MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47329259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/13500775.2021.2016281
Anna Pluszyńska
Abstract Although the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the temporary closure of cultural institutions is not propitious, there are some opportunities for museums. In fact, the crisis may represent an incentive for change. One of the crucial issues in this crisis is the matter of copyright management in museum collections. Copyright is a valuable asset for organisations, on which the possibility of using artworks depends: without the regulated legal status of the work’s authorship, it is not possible to use the work’s copy and share it via electronic media, for example. Today’s crisis is an opportunity to shift perspectives and propose or even enforce new, more strategic solutions instead of mere short-term stopgaps. The aim of this paper is to answer the following questions: Is implementing copyright-management strategies a temporary need or a necessity? I do not wish to advocate for copyright reform but instead to examine what actions we need to take to formulate and implement copyright-management strategies. This topic will be discussed by drawing on the case study of the Polish History Museum to better explain the phenomenon in question (Stake 1995). The Polish History Museum is creating its first permanent exhibition, and it is the first institution in Poland to develop a copyright-management strategy for its collections. Having analysed interviews as well as secondary sources, I will answer additional questions. What were the stages in the open-policy formulation process? What procedures and organisational changes have been introduced in the museum? What are the current benefits and dangers of implementing copyright-management strategies? I will also discuss legal issues to provide a better understanding of copyright’s potential as a valuable and immaterial resource of museums. Although the analysed case is Polish, it presents examples of implementing copyright-management strategies that may inspire other museums, including those based abroad.
{"title":"Copyright Management in Museums: Expediency or Necessity?","authors":"Anna Pluszyńska","doi":"10.1080/13500775.2021.2016281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13500775.2021.2016281","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Although the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the temporary closure of cultural institutions is not propitious, there are some opportunities for museums. In fact, the crisis may represent an incentive for change. One of the crucial issues in this crisis is the matter of copyright management in museum collections. Copyright is a valuable asset for organisations, on which the possibility of using artworks depends: without the regulated legal status of the work’s authorship, it is not possible to use the work’s copy and share it via electronic media, for example. Today’s crisis is an opportunity to shift perspectives and propose or even enforce new, more strategic solutions instead of mere short-term stopgaps. The aim of this paper is to answer the following questions: Is implementing copyright-management strategies a temporary need or a necessity? I do not wish to advocate for copyright reform but instead to examine what actions we need to take to formulate and implement copyright-management strategies. This topic will be discussed by drawing on the case study of the Polish History Museum to better explain the phenomenon in question (Stake 1995). The Polish History Museum is creating its first permanent exhibition, and it is the first institution in Poland to develop a copyright-management strategy for its collections. Having analysed interviews as well as secondary sources, I will answer additional questions. What were the stages in the open-policy formulation process? What procedures and organisational changes have been introduced in the museum? What are the current benefits and dangers of implementing copyright-management strategies? I will also discuss legal issues to provide a better understanding of copyright’s potential as a valuable and immaterial resource of museums. Although the analysed case is Polish, it presents examples of implementing copyright-management strategies that may inspire other museums, including those based abroad.","PeriodicalId":45701,"journal":{"name":"MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48115812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/13500775.2021.2016283
R. Hoffmann, Christopher Hölzel, H. Henning
Abstract This paper focuses on the experience of managing an exhibition project, undertaken by young professionals from the Museums of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin during the Covid-19 pandemic. The exhibition Status. Power. Movement was on display at the Berlin Cultural Forum (Kulturforum) from September 2020 to February 2021. In this interdisciplinary project, 13 co-curators selected 130 objects from 14 collections and asked how status is represented in movement. This article provides insight into how we experienced and dealt with the creation of our first exhibition amid an unprecedented crisis. Our project was confronted with the reality of the unfolding pandemic and empty museums. Key questions and concerns arose, such as: can the exhibition be opened? How to manage the planning uncertainty and, furthermore, how to deal with this ubiquitous event in our exhibition? As a result of the considerable restrictions, communication processes within the team and collaboration with external partners became extremely difficult. Our contribution adds a critical perspective from young professionals to the now-familiar discourse around museum work during a pandemic. In it, we share solutions we developed during the crisis, such as a Covid-19 themed intervention and the development of an online format for the exhibition. We additionally aim to show how we adapted our communication processes amid the crisis, working within a large cultural institution with multiple structural layers. Drawing on our experiences, we discuss issues of museum risk and crisis management. We also underline the need for a new critical discourse that would enable professionals to share experiences, responses and solutions to the ongoing pandemic and future crisis situations.
{"title":"Managing an Exhibition Project in the Midst of the Covid-19-Pandemic: A Case Study in Berlin, Germany","authors":"R. Hoffmann, Christopher Hölzel, H. Henning","doi":"10.1080/13500775.2021.2016283","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13500775.2021.2016283","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper focuses on the experience of managing an exhibition project, undertaken by young professionals from the Museums of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin during the Covid-19 pandemic. The exhibition Status. Power. Movement was on display at the Berlin Cultural Forum (Kulturforum) from September 2020 to February 2021. In this interdisciplinary project, 13 co-curators selected 130 objects from 14 collections and asked how status is represented in movement. This article provides insight into how we experienced and dealt with the creation of our first exhibition amid an unprecedented crisis. Our project was confronted with the reality of the unfolding pandemic and empty museums. Key questions and concerns arose, such as: can the exhibition be opened? How to manage the planning uncertainty and, furthermore, how to deal with this ubiquitous event in our exhibition? As a result of the considerable restrictions, communication processes within the team and collaboration with external partners became extremely difficult. Our contribution adds a critical perspective from young professionals to the now-familiar discourse around museum work during a pandemic. In it, we share solutions we developed during the crisis, such as a Covid-19 themed intervention and the development of an online format for the exhibition. We additionally aim to show how we adapted our communication processes amid the crisis, working within a large cultural institution with multiple structural layers. Drawing on our experiences, we discuss issues of museum risk and crisis management. We also underline the need for a new critical discourse that would enable professionals to share experiences, responses and solutions to the ongoing pandemic and future crisis situations.","PeriodicalId":45701,"journal":{"name":"MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45927070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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