Border Violence, Democracy, and the Museum

This article is a re-edited version of the opening prelude to the author’s The Museum’s Borders: On the Challenge of Knowing and Remembering Well (Routledge, 2021). Based on reportage concerning the Windrush scandal, this article makes the case for the museum to be understood as an autonomous institution critical to knowledge-based democracies. The scandal, exposed in 2018, was the result of the British Government’s “hostile environment,” a brutal approach to immigration that ensnared historic migrants to Britain from the Caribbean. Resulting in state violence against Black British citizens, it revealed the degree to which Britain remained mired in institutional racism. Museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions played a critical role in recovering and asserting the history and legitimacy of these people.

What a Museum Cannot Bear Witness To

The primary motivation behind this study is assessing how successful “inclusive” urban museums really are in representing ethnic/religious minorities. The research site is Bursa City Museum, Turkey, where the Bursa Jewish Community used to be one of the key social and cultural elements of the city. In-depth interviews are the main method of study, since the opinions of this minority on the subject are the main focus. The main aim here is to reveal the ideas of the community (whose collective memories are threatened with extinction) about being represented in the museum, and from this analysis to make constructive suggestions for the institution. It seems that the community cares about being identified as part of the city, but is indifferent to the institution of the museum, partly due to problems in the ways in which they are represented.

Aratoi: Our Journeys to Aotearoa

How can regional art galleries support the development of cultural understanding in their communities? The 2019 collaborative project Aratoi: Our Journeys to Aotearoa between Nelson, New Zealand’s Suter Art Gallery te Aratoi o Whakatū and eight local schools explored this question. Students’ artworks were hung alongside the gallery’s collection, enriching dialogue within the exhibition through the provision of voices otherwise absent. Building on the gallery’s collection and history, this project demonstrated the evolution of the gallery’s colonial roots into a broader discussion of culture. Participating teachers believed the project allowed public recognition of students’ abilities and ideas; expression of a school community’s special character; cross-curricular learning; cohesive whole school learning; bicultural learning; and pre-service teacher development. It also enabled meaningful exploration of Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories.

The Making of Conservation Science

On 9 October 1947, the National Gallery in London opened the Exhibition of Cleaned Pictures. Some seventy masterpieces that had undergone various treatments since 1936 were brought together and exhibited in this groundbreaking show. Much criticized, but also praised by many, the exhibition sparked the so-called “cleaning controversy.” It goes without saying that both the exhibition as well as the ensuing controversy impacted generations of scholars of all stripes. So much so that the exhibition was mentioned in virtually all the lectures that were delivered during the Brill Nuncius seminar held on 29–30 April 2021, which focused on the formation of conservation science in the post-World War II period, from the 1940s through the 1970s.

“Talking Critically Yet Harmoniously”

Lagi-Maama Academy & Consultancy (Lagi-Maama) is a cultural organization based in Aotearoa New Zealand that we (Toluma‘anave Barbara Makuati-Afitu and Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai) formally established in August 2018. What we do involves mediating at the intersection of Indigenous communities and institutional settings, to create a more harmonious and hoa/soa/ balanced time-space, by imbedding different ways of knowing, seeing, and doing.

Are Museums Allowed to Keep a Secret?

Today many ethnographic museums are questioning the hierarchical power relationships implicit in the act of representing the cultures of others. In this article I analyze the way that the curator of the South American section of the Weltmuseum Wien chose to deal with the exhibition of sacred and secret objects, that is, those things that only specific categories of individuals are allowed to view. If we exclude storage as a possible solution, what is the proper way to treat artifacts such as these? How should the expectations of an audience attracted to the idea of the exotic, and perhaps forbidden, be satisfied? How can this challenge be transformed into an opportunity to reflect about what we have, or have not, the right to do?

Exhibition Reviews

Museum of Russian Icons, Clinton, Massachusetts by Sheila K. HoffmanLocal Cultures Assisting Revitalization: 10 Years Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, National Museum of Ethology (Minpaku), Osaka by Aya TanakaTianjin Museum of Finance, Tianjin by Bai XueVegetation and Universe: The Collection of Flower and Bird Paintings, Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou by Ni Na Camellia NgThree Kingdoms: Unveiling the Story, Tokyo National Museum and Kyushu National Museum, Japan, and China Millennium Monument, Nanshan Museum, Wuzhong Museum, and Chengdu Wuhou Shrine, People’s Republic of China by Mingyuan JiangTempest, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart by Ashleigh McLarinWonders from the South Australian Museum, South Australian Museum, Adelaide by Sandra KearneyBrett Graham, Tai Moana, Tai Tangata, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth by Riria Hotere-BarnesThe “Inbetweenness” of the Korean Gallery at the Musée Guimet, Paris by Sumi Kim

Exhibition Review Essays

The Museum of Removals in Vila Autódromo, Rio de Janeiro by Bruno Brulon SoaresDifferent Histories: A Story of Three Exhibitions in Canberra by Jennifer CoombesNational Treasures: Airing New Zealand’s History on the Small Screen by Ailish Wallace-BucklandE Hina e! E Hine e! Mana Waahine Maaori/Maoli of Past, Present and Future by Hollie Tawhiao

Social Sciences and the Cultural Sector in England

Drawing on a literature review of over two hundred items, this commentary describes what drove the English cultural sector’s interest in the social sciences from the 1980s, and the social sciences’ interest in the cultural sector. The social sciences offered the cultural sector the means to evidence and advocate its assertions of social and economic impact in line with government requirements. Their economic valuations and sociological analyses of its patterns of employment were both written on commission and independently. But despite the potential for complementary collaborations, the relationship between the social sciences and the cultural sector has been subject to the conflicting interests of the various constituencies involved. Various economists have commented on the costs of financial value being held in higher regard than human value. Perhaps this will mark a moment when cultural policy and those activities that the state-supports will become more unequivocally celebrated for adding value to society.

Book Review Essay

Care-ful Participation in Museums: A Review of The Museum as a Space of Social Care by Nuala Morse