Curators With and Without Collections : A Comparative Study of Changes in the Curator’s Work at National Museums in Finland and in the Baltic States

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-138
Author(s):  
Jana Reidla
Keyword(s):  
Regional Differences ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
History Museum ◽  
The Past ◽  
Museum Professionals ◽  
National Museums ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
New Museology

Abstract Traditionally, the curator’s work has been in close connection with the main functions of the museum - preservation, research, and communication. The changes that have occurred at museums over the past few decades have also influenced the profession of curator. Specialisation has taken place inside the museum, and so the curator’s functions have also changed. This article focuses on the curator’s field of work at national museums in Finland and in the Baltic states. The analysis is mainly based on interviews conducted with curators and other museum professionals at the Estonian National Museum, the Estonian History Museum, the National History Museum of Latvia, the National Museum of Lithuania, and the National Museum of Finland. Emanating from the PRC model provided by the Reinwardt Academy as well as the global changes induced by the new museology, the focus is on the curator’s connection with museum collections. The analysis shows that the curator’s role is not similar in all the museums under discussion; there are regional differences in structure, curatorial duties, and priorities. While at some museums the curator is regarded as a collection keeper who can also do some research, at others they are rather researchers and have only infrequent contact with collections.

scholarly journals Identity and the Controversial Experiences of Museum Researchers: The Case of the National Museums of Finland and the Baltic States

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-122
Author(s):  
Jana Reidla
Keyword(s):  
Baltic States ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Museums ◽  
Market Driven ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
New Museology ◽  
Discursive Patterns

AbstractThis paper* highlights the internal contradictions of museum institutions when they are influenced by neoliberal market-driven policies and new museology from the viewpoint of the museum-working researcher. Museums increasingly interface with the public because they are now part of the leisure market. Recent transformations have affected the roles and responsibilities of museum researchers. Whereas marketing, communication and sales specialists have gained more prominence in museum decision-making, the researchers’ role has been marginalised. Semi-structured interviews at five national museums in Finland and the Baltic States give voice to museum researchers and reveal their subjective reflections. The interviews revealed two discursive patterns: 1) caring for museum collections is more of a priority than conducting research, and 2) if academic results are prioritised, researchers are less involved in servicing the collections. The analysis showed how perceived marginalisation has caused role conflict and ambiguity for researchers, and that current shifts reduce researchers’ motivation to contribute to research.

National Museums, National Narratives, and Identity Politics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Lleras
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Resistance To Change ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Museums ◽  
Insight Into

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the surge of identity politics and the diversification of heritage and the tensions that arise with the traditional role of national museums that are expected to support the model of a unitary national identity through their narratives and collections. Engaging with distinct patrimonies and transformations in museums checkmates stagnant notions of heritage, but in turn, these actions might also instigate resistance to change. A case study at the National Museum of Colombia will provide an insight into competing notions of heritage, which can be understood as the relics of a material past, but may also be seen as the meanings created about the past. This analysis instigates thoughts about the role that history and historians might play in the elaboration of narratives of identity.

Reinforcement of the NATO Eastern Flank

2020 ◽  
pp. 153-179
Author(s):  
Przemysław Furgacz
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Military Equipment ◽  
Eastern Flank ◽  
The Past ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
Hybrid War ◽  
The Baltic

After the landmark annexation of Crimea and eruption of hybrid war in the Donbas, some states that in the past used to be under Soviet domination began to ask their stronger NATO allies for increased military presence in the Alliance Eastern flank. The worsening security environment in the Eastern Europe, the fear against potential swift Russian incursion, the relative weakness of Eastern European armies, the significant strategic exposure of the Baltic states, these factors influenced the Alliance's decision to augment NATO military presence in the states bordering Russia. Actions like deployment of additional battalions, prepositioning of heavy military equipment, intensified joint multinational military drills are intended to reassure the most vulnerable NATO member states and to deter Moscow from taking too audacious and too assaultive measures. The author shortly describes the actions NATO has made since 2014 in order to strengthen its military presence in the Eastern flank with particular emphasis on U.S.-enhanced forward presence in the region.

Freight Transport Restructuring in the Baltic States

2003 ◽  
Vol 1820 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauri Ojala ◽  
Cesar Queiroz
Keyword(s):  
Freight Transport ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Border Crossings ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Persistent Problem ◽  
The Past ◽  
Freight Forwarding ◽  
General Transport ◽  
The Baltic

A brief outline of the restructuring of the freight transport sector in the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) is provided that focuses on the provision of logistics and freight-forwarding services in international transport and trade. The three countries have made significant progress in all areas of the transport sector in the past 10 years. During this period the private sector has taken over a large part of the transport sector. Despite the very positive development, continued efforts are needed to improve the transport sector further. Issues pertaining to national legislation are recognized to be of high priority in all three countries, but cooperation in customs issues between countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States is problematic. Also delays in border crossings, especially to and from Russia and Belarus, appear to be a common and persistent problem in the Baltic States. The general transport-supporting services and the performance of customs have improved substantially during the past decade. Entry of foreign operators, especially in international road-based transport and logistics services, has restructured the logistics market profoundly. It can be argued that the efficiency of the industry and the overall quality of services have improved substantially.

scholarly journals Introduction to the special issue “Climate of the past 2000 years: regional and trans-regional syntheses”

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 611-615
Author(s):  
Chris S. M. Turney ◽  
Helen V. McGregor ◽  
Pierre Francus ◽  
Nerilie Abram ◽  
Michael N. Evans ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Regional Differences ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Past ◽  
Global View ◽  
Past 2000 Years ◽  
Recent Climate ◽  
Observational Record

Abstract. This PAGES (Past Global Changes) 2k (climate of the past 2000 years working group) special issue of Climate of the Past brings together the latest understanding of regional change and impacts from PAGES 2k groups across a range of proxies and regions. The special issue has emerged from a need to determine the magnitude and rate of change of regional and global climate beyond the timescales accessible within the observational record. This knowledge also plays an important role in attribution studies and is fundamental to understanding the mechanisms and environmental and societal impacts of recent climate change. The scientific studies in the special issue reflect the urgent need to better understand regional differences from a truly global view around the PAGES themes of “Climate Variability, Modes and Mechanisms”, “Methods and Uncertainties”, and “Proxy and Model Understanding”.

Russia will increase covert Baltic interference

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Liquefied Natural Gas ◽  
Lightning Strike ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Military Exercise

Significance In line with such concerns, Estonia held a large military exercise, Hedgehog, on May 4-15, involving 13,000 troops. On May 6, Lithuania launched Lightning Strike, a military exercise involving 3,000 troops in a simulated defence of the country's new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Klaipeda. In December, Latvia said Russian submarines had approached its maritime borders more than 50 times in the past year. However, Russia's more overt activities also pose a major risk to the Baltics. Impacts Russian intelligence will continue to target not just Baltic secrets but, through them, NATO and EU ones. Russian operations will aim to create division by playing on discontent within sizeable ethnic Russian minorities who feel marginalised. NATO will increase the rate and size of Baltic drills to reassure the Baltic states.

Regional differences in winter sea level variations in the Baltic Sea for the past 200 yr

2008 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 384-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit Hünicke ◽  
Jürg Luterbacher ◽  
Andreas Pauling ◽  
Eduardo Zorita
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sea Level Variations ◽  
The Baltic

scholarly journals (Re)Shaping History in Bosnian and Herzegovinian Museums

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-329
Author(s):  
Vanja Lozic
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
National Museum ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Transitions ◽  
History Museum ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The Republic

The current article explores how political changes in the past 130 years have shaped and reshaped three major museums in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The overall aim is to describe structural processes of national museum building in BiH and the ways the museological representation of history is connected to state and nation making and to political transitions and crises. The analysed museums are the National Museum of BiH, the History Museum of BiH, and the Museum of the Republic of Srpska. The source material analysed consists of the directories and the titles of exhibitions; secondary material, which describes previous exhibitions; and virtual museum tours. The article illustrates that during the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, which established the National Museum in 1888, the museum played an important part in the representation of Bosnian identity (bosnjastvo). After World War II, in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, all three analysed museums were summoned to interpret the past in accordance with the guidelines of the communist regime. Since the 1990s, a highly ethnicized process of identity building and of the musealization of heritage, and history permeates all three museums analysed here. When it comes to the central exhibition-themes following the 1990s war, one could conclude that whereas the National Museum and the History Museum highlight the recent creation of an independent BiH and ostracize BIH-Serbs, the Museum of the Republic of Srpska asserts the ostensible distinctiveness of the Republic of Srpska and excludes the narratives about BiH as a unified and independent nation-state. If an agreement about the future of BiH and its history is to be reached, a step towards multi-vocal historical narratives has to be made from both sides.

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