Concerning the Telling of Painful Tales: The Case of Masks of the Sacred Bush

April 28, 2012

Abstract   The public seems more likely to take issue with what history museums say than with what art, anthropology, and natural history museums say. In part, this is because these disciplines are understood to be challenging, not least because of the often opaque language and methods designed to impart psychic distance from their content. Exhibitions [...]

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Remembering and Disremembering: A Museum Perspective

April 28, 2012

Abstract   Ken Waliaula’s essay in this issue, Remembering and Disremembering in Africa, acutely observes the interaction of individual memory with what has been remembered and “disremembered” (willfully erased) by local communities and larger national political structures in Kenya. His reflections on the way society deals with memory offer valuable insight into museum-making. Exhibitions can accommodate [...]

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Chan Screven’s Contributions to Visitor Studies

April 28, 2012

Abstract The recent passing of Chan Screven—for the last 50 years a giant in the field of visitor studies—compels a pause for reflection. The professional legacy he left behind is briefly described in this article. Get the full article. Stephen Bitgood Ross J. Loomis Article first published online: 4 APR 2012 DOI: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2012.00133.x

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Remembering and Disremembering in Africa

April 28, 2012

Abstract   In remembering the attainment of political emancipation, post-independence African countries have learned to narrate the official national narrative and to forget other stories. Commemoration of the nation’s past almost always goes hand in hand with officially decreed national amnesia. Therefore, the story of the nation has to be narrated and remembered by forgetting certain [...]

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The Digitization of Pacific Cultural Collections: Consulting with Pacific Diasporic Communities and Museum Experts

January 23, 2012

Abstract  Reservations about the digitization of cultural collections center on the wish for universal access and scalability. This push toward the digital can infringe on the different levels of access (or non-access) often required by indigenous communities, particularly for secret and/or sacred cultural objects. Consultation is necessary before digitizing cultural objects in order to ensure [...]

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Art in the Rotunda: The Cham Collection at the National Museum of Vietnamese History

January 23, 2012

Abstract  National museums play an important role in representing national identities in complex and culturally diverse societies. The National Museum of Vietnamese History was established by the government in 1958 to preserve the country’s national heritage and present a discourse of nation building from prehistory up to 1945, when the country gained independence from French [...]

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Engaging Islam: Working with Muslim Communities in a Multicultural Society

January 23, 2012

Abstract  Recent global political events have pushed Islam to the center stage in European and American museums. Since 9/11 there has been a substantial increase in exhibitions featuring Islamic art, the Muslim world, and the Middle East (Flood 2007; Winegar 2008; Ryan 2009; Shatanawi 2012). For museums in Western Europe, the presentation of Islam-related topics [...]

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Searching for “Community”: Making English Rural History Collections Relevant Today

January 23, 2012

Abstract  Rural history museums in England developed with the support of local and national communities. Over the past 20 years, they have increasingly been seen as out of touch with contemporary countryside issues and museum practice. This article explores some of the meanings of the term “community engagement” for this type of collection. It aims [...]

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Curating a Bhopal People’s Movement: An Opportunity for Indian Museums

January 23, 2012

Abstract  This article explores the curatorial opportunities and challenges that emerge from an exhibition project in the central Indian city of Bhopal, the site of one of the world’s worst industrial tragedies in 1984, involving the Union Carbide pesticide factory. The government wants to build a memorial at the site, but some survivor groups say [...]

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Museu da Maré: A Museum Full of Soul

January 23, 2012

Abstract  This article examines new developments taking place in Brazil, which shed light on ways museums can contribute to solving social problems in the twenty-first century. Museums bear the challenge of reinventing the logic of community engagement in increasingly unstable and unequal urban contexts. The Museu da Maré is the first museum to be established [...]

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