The Theseus Temple in Vienna’s Volksgarten is a Grecian-style temple built in 1819-1923. It was originally built to house just one piece of art: the sculpture entitled “Theseus defeats the Centaurs”. The sculpture was however removed at the end of the 19th century and is now the centrepiece of the Art History Museum’s (Kunsthistorisches Museum) dramatic staircase.
Following an extensive renovation in the last years, and as part of the the KMH’s Modern and Contemporary Art Programme, the temple is once more being put to it’s original use to house exceptional works of contemporary art, one at a time. The current exhibit - Ugo Rodinone - is the first is series of exhibitions that aim to do just that.
The Theseus Temple is free to enter and is set in the beautiful Volksgarten, in the heart of the city and just a two minute walk from the main museum itself and several of it’s satellite branches.
Do you like archaeology?
If so, you might like the British version of Time Team’s online “academy” where some of the regulars give introductions to their specialties. They are all on youtube too, so bound to get you caught in the eternal black hole of related videos and suggested channels. You were warned.
Zweistromland / Land of Two Rivers
installation, mixed media, 1985-1989
[…] Throughout his career Kiefer was a maker of books, one-of-a-kind works like medieval manuscripts. His most monumental expression of this interest is “The High Priestess/Zweistromland/Land of Two Rivers”. This sculpture consists of two bookcases (labeled after the rivers Tigris and Euphrates) containing about two hundred lead books, all on a superhuman scale. Some of the books were blank; others contained such things as obscure photographs of clouds or dried peas. It was a many layered work dealing with the artifacts of knowledge. […] *
Today is World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. To celebrate:
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) in partnership with UNESCO and various other partners from corporations to civil society is launching the world campaign “Do One Thing for Diversity and Inclusion”, aimed at engaging people around the world to Do One Thing to support Cultural Diversity and Inclusion.
How much do you love the fact that museums is number one?
Edit: Quelalexandradit quite rightly points out:
All of these are great EXCEPT #7. Holy shit. The “stereotypes” game? That’s really not okay.
How about if we replaced that with the “facts game.” You put a post-it note with a country on your head, and then everyone else gets to check Wikipedia and tell you facts about the country and its culture. Then you win if you guess the country correctly.
I got so excited about #1 only scanned the rest…
What a Physics Student Can Teach us About How Visitors Walk Around an Exhibition
From the Smithsonian blog which highlights some of the limitations of how we assess the successes and failures of exhibition layout and route design and suggests ways to improve/expand how we evaluate.
Radio documentary: The Heritage Wars
Interesting documentary from the BBC (available to all) discussing how the heritage industry - including museums - are becoming more competitive in how they attract audiences.
There’s a nice bit where the presenter states: “I can’t believe I’m saying this, as a historian, but I’m off to meet Henry VIII”. What’s nice about it is how excited she sounds! It’s not just children that enjoy the activities aimed at children!
How the Getty protects their sculptures from earthquakes.
Diane Lees tells DCMS how the Imperial War Museums plan to commemorate the centenary of WWI
The Imperial War Museum was founded during the WWI and so the museums is not only celebrating their founding, but also commemorating the outbreak of the Great War in the coming years. But it also means that the Lambeth branch of the IWM will be closed for six months in 2013 to have a major refurb. It’s no secret that it’s my favourite museum in the whole wide world, so let’s hope I’ll be reporting back in a year or so with a positive review of the changes!
Positionspapier ‘Museum selbstbewusst’
For those who can speak German, the Austrian Museums Association (MÖ) has released a new position paper as the kickstarter to a new campaign to highlight the breadth and importance of Austrian museum collections. The release features a section that emphasises the way in which museums connect with people and groups from all areas of life and with various backgrounds and how it is possible to create exhibitions that offer critical and fresh perspectives. It stops short of saying that museums have an obligation to this this, but this explicit statement of recognition is nevertheless a welcome.
The various elements of Austrian museum work and important points are summarised at the end of each section in the paper as follows (my translation from the original):
- Museums are cultural service providers and offer diverse opportunities for involvement and participation
- The museum is a place where horizons are constantly being widened
- The museum is a place of inspiration
- Austrian museums have more museum visitors per year than there are inhabitants
DOWNLOAD: ‘Museum selbstbewusst. Gegenwart und Zukunft der Museen in Österreich’
Das Positionspapier von Museumsbund Österreich und ICOM Österreich kann ab sofort unter
http://www.museumsbund.at/MuseumSelbstbewusst.pdf
heruntergeladen werden!
The UK Museums Association has released guidelines on internships. Taking a ‘positive view’ of the potential of internships, they do however recognise that there should be value for both the museum and the person doing the interning. That is to say, that making coffee or filing is probably not what an intern has in mind when they apply for museum experience.
It goes on to to state:
The MA believes that all internships should:
- Pay reasonable work-related expenses and give interns reasonable access to staff benefits (such as free tickets to exhibitions or events).
- Be planned and structured with a clear brief, specific job content and a named line manager or supervisor.
- Give a clear outline of what is being offered to interns, and what is expected of the intern.
- Offer an agreed training and development plan with the intern, setting out what learning opportunities will be offered.
- Ensure that potential interns are told whether there is a realistic chance of the internship leading on to employment.
- Be of a minimum of eight weeks and a maximum 12 months (if paid) and a maximum of three months (if unpaid).
However, elsewhere on their site, they have an article that also highlights some of the problems - such as the threat to workplace diversity (those who can afford to work for free and the real possibility that people will end up feeling ‘exploited and undervalued’). And this in a climate where paid traineeships and internships are wildly oversubscribed (five places at the British Museum attracted 1533 applications and 3200 graduates for 20 places in Scotland).
Here in Austria, the situation isn’t any better. Routinely, longer-term, unpaid internships (or those with a small degree of funding - roughly €300/£240/$380 per month) are advertised in the jobs section with the sort of required candidate qualifications to be expected of entry-level and above jobs and job descriptions to match.
I know, museums are underfunded and rely to some degree on the willingness of well-educated people to work for less money than they would get in other sectors, if they get paid at all. However, it is exclusionary practice. I work part-time (30 hours per week) to fund my way through my PhD. It makes the PhD a very slow process and so I wanted to gather some practical experience at the same time. Keep my hand in, as it were. I have one full day per week that I wanted to give to a museum on a long term basis. Perhaps I could proofread English materials for them? Do tours for them? I don’t want something really that relies on the fact that I am a native English speaker - especially when I have spent so much time learning German! - but I was prepared to help out. No takers. I know the downside of having someone who only comes once per week, but no one was even prepared to meet me and discuss the possibility.
And so, the cycle of having to work (anywhere) to fund studies to get a museum job hinders the actual studying and interning that would help me get said job. Does anyone know of any schemes or museums that have found a way to alleviate the situation? Have you worked out a way out of this conundrum?
BBC History Magazine's free guide to Museum at Night
Oh, and here is a google map of events up and down the UK.
26 Treasures
26 Treasures was a project that began at the V&A and soon spread across Great Britain. 26 writers (including ex-Poet Laureate Andrew Motion) wanted to investigate how they could encourage people to engage with museum objects in a more emotional way. Each writer was randomly assigned an object from the museum’s collection and asked to write a 62 word piece about it. The website offers a blog, creation stories and more as insight into the process and the outcomes.
Items range from Chinese porcelain figures to a 16th century Scottish guillotine, and the results are now being compiled in to a book. Much like Kickstarter, Unbound is a website that asks you - the public - to help fund projects (in this case books) and offers you something in return, with different packages available, determined by how much you donate. The book is now funded, but the various packages are still available (starting at £10 for the ebook and your name at the back in thanks).
Does anyone else know of any other such museum-related funding projects?
Multimedia from Museums (videos)
Museum websites are now full of extra information and resources. Many of the free museum studies resources are from famous institutions. You might remember too, that a couple of months ago, I reposted a blog entry about the 40 most viewed videos YouTube videos from Zoos, Aquariums and museums.
I thought it might be interesting to compile a list of museum that have video content hosted on their websites or elsewhere to save you lovely people the hassle of searching around. The emphasis is on materials in English, as I think most of the subscribers to this blog are English speakers.
It’s also interesting to note how many museums have uploaded a couple of videos and then nothing for months or years. Were they not getting a return on the investment? How can it be measured in such a short period? I didn’t include museums that only had a couple of videos and hadn’t been updated in a long time.
Museum Studies - Universities and Associations
University of Michigan - Full lectures from the “Exhibiting Controversy: From Mapplethorpe to ‘Body Worlds’ and Beyond” and the “Conversation about…” series, including ‘Museums and Communities’, “Museums and Civic Engagement” and more.
Centre for the Future of Museums - An initiative of the American Museums Association as a repository for ideas about museums and society. Could be one to watch.
University of Hawaii - Including an exhibition planning series and a lecture about ‘getting cultural heritage on the national agenda’.
Smithsonian Education - So good it comes up twice. This is the link to the museum studies specific playlist.
Seton Hall, Centre for Museum Ethics - Their mission statement says it all: “The Institute of Museum Ethics mission is threefold: * To promote accountability, transparency and social responsibility in the museum * To foreground museum ethics as one of the most pivotal issues to museum professionals in the twenty first century * To create a physical and virtual community of emerging and practicing museum professionals and museum studies faculty who use our resources to make informed decisions about ethical issues.”
The Museum Computer Network - Sounds pretty dry perhaps, but has some good debates and interesting technology spotlights.
UK
National Museums Liverpool - Vimeo. Behind-the-scenes interviews, conservation, exhibition teasers, access guides to the various sites. Best of all, that many of the videos are also available with BSL interpretation.
Victoria and Albert Museum - Vimeo. A massive 603 videos! Covering all manner of content, exhibition summaries, info about specific art movements, lots on fashion, lectures and more.
Harris Museum, Preston - Vimeo. Some really interesting videos, including the historian Dan Cruickshank talking about the Industrial Revolution in Preston, historical film, exhibition intros and community projects.
National Museums Scotland - Vimeo. In-depth looks at specific objects, special events and a series about how museum exhibitions are created (specifically, the role played by the various professionals, from conservation to marketing).
Museum of London - Vimeo. Interesting talks with prominent people from Wayne Hemmingway to Will Self, animations from the exhibitions and short info-docs, e.g. “Dickens, Crime and Victorian London”.
Imperial War Museums - Not many videos yet, but giving them the benefit of the doubt. Hold the press: they have a YouTube account too, with much more content.
Pitt Rivers Museum - Historical film archive
National Railway Museum - Vary train based (as you might imagine) including a series about the the restoration of the Flying Scotsman.
National Army Museum - Interviews with veterans, features relating to temporary exhibition (e.g. “War Horse: fact and fiction”), Lunchtime lectures and more.
Tate - Home of “Tate Shots”, short pieces with artists talking about their work and studio visitis, recordings of live performances and more.
The Courtauld Institute - Shot videos including introductions to the collection, spotlights on particular pieces, techniques etc and introductions to exhibitions.
Natural History Museum - Playlists that address different exhibitions, symposia and lectures, the history of the collection, scientific areas (e.g. Biodiversity) and artistic interventions.
National Media Museum - Community engagement, highlights from the Bradford Film Festival, discussions with actors, documentary series about the Internet.
The Manchester Museum - another prolific uploader with a comprehensive, high-quality offering. Everything from school trips, curator talks, discussions, object biographies and a series called “Collective Conversations” including one highlight about the Police and Coronor investigation of the ‘Lindow Man’. Museum Studies highlight: “Museums and social issues about disability”.
The Ashmolean - A relatively new (Jan 2012) but growing collection of videos looking at the galleries, recent development and education.
US
Harvard Museum of Natural History - Vimeo. In-depth lectures and talks, information about the research that the museum carries out and answers to some of those burning NatHist questions like; why did the human head evolve to what we have now? What is a forest?
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - Vimeo. Sneak peeks and documentary-style information about the Silk Road.
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - Youtube. Discussions, interviews, factual snippets, evolution, demonstrations of how material culture is made and identified, teacher orientations etc
Smithsonian Education - Comprehensive! Teacher and student orientations, museum related lectures, education videos, heritage and history month related videos.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Comprehensive (500 videos at time of writing): exhibitions spotlights, staff interviews, lectures, object profiles and much more.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Survivor interviews, discussion and lecture interviews, work in relation to other genocides, objects spotlights and more.
The Mütter Museum - Guess the object, one minute object spotlights, curator lectures.
The Smithsonian Museum of American Art - Lectures and symposia, ‘Director’s Choice’ tour of the museum, exhibitions and conservation.
MOMA - Spotlights on different techniques, movements, women artists, exhibitions current and upcoming, walkthroughs, interviews and more.
The National Museum of the American Indian - Lecture series, native storytelling practices. Museum studies highlight: what seems to be the whole of the conference titled “(Re)Presenting America: The Evolution of the Culturally Specific Museum”.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library - An ‘Artefact of the month’ feature, performances, ‘Historian Insights’ playlist and a playlist dedicated to speeches given by Barack Obama that reference Lincoln. History in action! FDR’s has a channel too. As does JFK. More of a Clinton fan?
The Museum of Jewish Heritage - An eclectic mix of survivor testimonies, discussions and lectures.
The Netherlands
The Stedilijk Museum - Vimeo. Some of the content is in English, including workshops and introductions to the museums.
The Van Gogh Museum - Curators, artists and researchers discuss Van Gogh’s life an work, examination of his technique and details of ongoing research projects.
Australia
Museum and Gallery Services Queensland - Very museum studies oriented, rather than visitor oriented. Presentations, discussions and such-like.
The Australian Museum - Behind-the-scenes snippets, community programmes and indigenous craft sessions, collections tours and more.
Canada
Museum of Health Care - Vimeo. Curator interviews, object explanations, family events and activity packs explained, presentations etc.
Austria
Vienna Jewish Museum - Most videos are in German, but there are a couple of overview videos in English, including the virtual reality reconstruction of the medieval ghetto.
Germany
The Jewish Museum - Very obligingly has two channels, one for English and one for German. Museum Studies highlight: Playlist called “What we won’t show you”, described as “The objects a museum displays are significant. But what museums won’t show you can be equally revealing. In these film clips, staff of the Jewish Museum Berlin talk about what you won’t see, thereby shedding light on German-Jewish life, on collecting, restoring, presenting as well as on ethical questions and political debates.”
These represent some of the more prolific or universally interesting examples, but there are hundreds more to choose from. Mustard Museums, Hello Kitty, Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, National Quilt Museum or Dr Pepper. There truly is something for everyone.
If you want to wade through all the channels that show up on YouTube when you search for ‘museum’, click here.
Did I make a glaring omission? Let me know your favourite (any platform) and I’ll add it. I’ll also add a tab to the museumsandstuff homepage so the list can be easily accessed like the free resources.
Museum of Liverpool reachers one million visitors in nine months
This doesn’t really surprise me, everyone I know at home seems to have been once at least. You would think my Dad had shares the way he talks about it!
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