UMAC 2004: Papers and Posters Presented

University Museums in Korea

The Current State and Future Direction of University Museums in the Republic of Korea

Abstract: University museums are centers of preservation and research. The beginnings of university museums in the West demonstrate the concentration on the systematization of collecting and the use of the collections for teaching. However, most university museums do not serve as cultural centers communicating to the broader community beyond specialist knowledge. This is true for not only the West but the East as well. In conjunction with the 2004 International Council of Museums general conference taking place in the Republic of Korea (ROK), this paper will focus on the university museums in the ROK. Statistics show that one-third of all the museums in the ROK are university museums. There is a strong commitment to preservation and research of specialist fields in archaeology and folk culture and history in these museums. The purpose of this paper is to examine their current and future role and importance in the Korean museum community. Three strands will be explored. They are: the evolution and current state of university museums in the West; the background of university museums in Korea; and the problematics and future direction of university museums in the ROK. It is argued that there is a definite need for re-direction of university museums in the ROK to serve as cultural centers in the region by striving to balance the four functions of a museum: administration, preservation, research, and communication.

Pre-Columbian Andean textiles - a stimulus to intercultural understanding

Abstract: The pre-Columbian Andean textiles belonging to the San Miguel de Azapa Museum of Archaeology, have always been considered purposeful items implying ethnic expression, so that style classification could lead to social identification. Aesthetic accomplishment was a plus, fibre, colour, balance and figures resulted in organic pieces to provide pleasure to the owner as well as to the viewer.

More recently, a second perception has been advanced, pre-Columbian textiles are not only beautiful but they convey messages embracing different levels of meaning other than ethnic belongings.

This paper presents a hermeneutic approach to analyse one textile of this museum's collection, suggesting an unspoken narrative of some 900 years ago. The purpose of the interpretive effort is to stimulate intercultural understanding.

Korean Folklore through Time: in the case of Hungbujon

Abstract: Recently famous Korean folktales, myths, and legends increasingly have become the thematic sources of local cultural festivals. This means that folklore is revived as the object of the regional or local consciousness and identities. Some cities and county offices competitively search for folklores that are thought to have originated in their cities and counties.

Namwon, known to be a home of famous traditional song, pansori, Ch'unhyangjon, achieved success in drawing national attention with the festival of Chunghyang. This success has driven the city of Namwon to search for another folktale that can be a theme of cultural festival. The officials and researchers in Namwon found out that Namwon is the original place of Hungbujon, one of the most famous folktales in Korea. They found evidence to show that two villages in the area of Namwon, Ayong and Songsan have a long tradition of commemoration rituals for Pak Chomzi, the incarnation of Hungbu, the main character of Hungbujon. They argued that Hungbujon was made on the basis of the life story of Pak Chomzi. Furthermore, according to their argument, Hungbu was born either in the village of Ayong or Songsan. The fictitious character was the embodiment of a real person with historical facts. The folktale which was long enjoyed by Koreans became local history. The transformation from folktale to history was a distinct feature of Hungbujon in contemporary Korea. At the same time, we can witness the similarity in its structure between the folktale and the reality. There are severe conflicts between two brothers in the folktale. Such antagonism was repeated between the two villages of Ayong and Songsan over fortunes. The clash was finally resolved by depending on the folktale.

Some scholars have argued that folklore is not simply a product of the past but is emergent, the result of a complex interaction of communication, social goals, individual creativity, and performance. They have paid attention to the interactive characteristics of folklore between the past and the present. However, the argument has not dealt with the interchangeability between the fiction and real. A good example is the making of history based on the Hungbu folktale. The genres of folklore and history are blurred in the Hungbujon's case. But what is clear in it is the structural continuity of folklore and the making of history.

POSTER: We did it!

Abstract: In 2000 in Paris, the title of my presentation was 'Funding and Museum Ownership'. In that paper I explored various possibilities for the organisation and funding for the museum that was being planned. At that time, no official decisions about the establishment of a new university museum had been made and opinions strongly favoured a foundation-based organisation with cooperating partners from institutions close to the field of the museum. In Sydney my topic was 'New forms of co-operation between the Helsinki University Museum and students', which included the idea of using the museum as a teaching aid and provider of opportunities for practical training for students of museology.

The new Helsinki University Museum was opened to the public in early November 2003. The University leadership gave its full support to the museum and took full financial responsibility for its operations - even though we operate on a modest budget, the investment comprising all operating expenses, salaries and rents is considerable. Cooperation with students was launched according to plan and has already led to concrete results: an exhibition on the folklore collection, gathered by students over a period of 130 years, which was also independently designed and mounted by students of museology, was opened in May in the premises for temporary exhibitions.

Getting the Balance Right - University Core Commitment Vs Community Outreach

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Abstract: Since the advent of an encroaching ground shift away from the age of formal education in the classroom towards an age of personal learning at every stage of life, university museums and galleries should be increasingly aware of their opportunity of returning to their earlier role as partners and initiators of these processes. In turn, the University may be mindful of an expected benefit in the form of enhanced undergraduate and postgraduate student enrolments in addition to being more highly valued by their communities in general. As significant sites for personal and lifelong learning and the fact that 70% of the learning we do in our lifetime is informal, current research on theories of learning are beginning to say that the most effective kinds of learning experiences are exactly the kinds that museums and galleries can best provide. Are university museums engaged in this process? Through the lens of a highly successful community program operating out of the Museum of Human Disease and Hall of Health at UNSW - now serving the needs of over 10,000 community visitors annually - this paper will explore the rationale of initiating such a program, the journey in a capsule, current hurdles and threats, the precarious balancing of the often shifting expectations of University management and the shedding of light and recommendations for survival in the University environment and the external competitive museum climate. Some other case studies will be presented, including collections from overseas tertiary institutions where there has been a successful promotion and foray into the wider community and the public domain.

Harnessing the Intangible - A Greek-Australian Experience

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Abstract: A history of the human experience of any given society cannot be limited to evidence such as paper documents or the objects and physical constructs of daily life. Yet, a major characteristic of countless university social history museums, and indeed their state and national counterparts, appears to be this circumscription. Tangible objects abound, and for the most part, are the major focus of an institution's exhibitions, research, and public interaction. Can intangible elements therefore become a key driving force in assisting a museum's exhibition development?

The creation of two touring exhibitions on Greek-Australians at Macquarie University's Australian History Museum has resoundingly answered, "yes". "Generations" and "In Her Own Image: Greek-Australian Women", embraced intangible heritage as their pre-eminent concern. The diverse complexity of Greek-Australian cultural identity, as manifested in a broad array of beliefs and practices, was clearly revealed through a strong interplay of oral histories (supplemented by archival/library research), with historical and contemporary photographs. The sociological and historical were married by selecting interviewees across different generations, and of different periods of migration and settlement. Voices, convictions, experiences and faces provided form to the intangible.

Further exhibitions are now planned, where the tangible is hidden and the intangible, seen.

Creating an art gallery for a university museum: Presenting both tangible and intangible expressions of a sense of place -- Alaska

Abstract: The University of Alaska Museum of the North is opening its new wing in summer, 2005. The centrepiece of the expansion is the 8,000 square foot Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery, which presents Native and non-Native Alaska art, as well as items sometimes classified as "craft," as of equal value. During the planning process which entailed numerous consultations with community members as well as museum professionals, it became clear that there was much more to an art exhibit than viewing objects on display. Surrounding each work is a wealth of non-visual features that depend on senses other than sight, such as the feeling of the media as the artist works on it, the experience of being outdoors in a wilderness setting painting a landscape, the smell of salmon roasting during the Native ceremony when a mask is used. We decided that including those intangibles in our gallery, visitors would be better able to understand the Alaskan sense of place. The end result included verbal comments by the artists themselves, recordings by Native people of what the artworks on display mean to them, opportunities to engage in hands-on art-making activities, and "The Place Where You Go to Listen," a sound experience created by real-time geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, aurora, light, temperature linked to sound-generating computers. This talk will cover the planning process and also demonstrate how we have included those intangibles in our gallery.

Moving Forward by Looking Back: How Reviewing the History of University Museums can Help Chart Plans for the Future

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Abstract: The history of university museums in America in many ways runs counter to the history of municipal and private museums in terms of programmatic content, use of collections, and public policy. University Museums from the earliest recorded examples were much freer, more experimental, and both inter- and multi-disciplinary in their development of exhibitions and programs. Many of the "progressive ideas" promoted by professional associations, like the American Association of Museums (AAM), to mainstream museums over the last twenty-five years, appeared in the exhibitions and programs of university museums decades earlier.

Over the past 15 years as this "reverse museum history" continued for university museums, many of these institutions began emulating mainstream museums, especially in terms of impressive building campaigns and emphasis on so-called "blockbuster" exhibitions. Often, these new ambitious efforts displaced the more traditional objectives of curriculum support, alternative programming and collection study. Some University Museums have been very successful in attracting significant private support for their new endeavors. However, in the wake of economic slow downs of the early 1990s as well as in the current depressed economic atmosphere, universities have turned a more critical eye toward their museum progeny. The trend has often either been to view the museum as unwanted competition for other needy campus programs vying for private and public support or, to view the university museum as a superfluous financial drain during hard times. Even if the recaptured funds from closing a museum might not amount to very much in terms of budget support, the socio-political climate has promulgated the view of the museum as non-essential to the "core" programs of the University. Looking back in history to the time when museums in this country originated in academic institutions and actively participated in the process of education, can we rediscover the elements that encourage a respectful relationship between university museums and their parent organizations? In reviewing the past, what implications are suggested for the future of university museums?

Strengthening Relationship between the University Museum and the Local Community

Abstract: The review of the present status of university museums in Korea as well as their present roles will be made in this article. Then the necessity for strengthening relationship between university museum and local community will be mentioned particularly in the present Korean context. In addition major problems university museums in Korea are facing at the moment will be discussed and appropriate strategies to overcome obstacles will be suggested. In short this article is designed to discuss necessity for strengthening relationship between university museum and local community as well as strategies. This is quite important to upgrade present university museums to upper level.

University management and the role of University Museum

Abstract: The museum was mandatory facility for the foundation of university along with the library until 1970s in Korea. However, as a new private university owner, the university museum is a burden so that the museum is excluded from the university organization law by request of new private university owners.

Regardless of over 90 university museums which have the clear and evident fundamental ideology of the foundation of the university are expanding their buildings and functions. Yeungnam University is an active museum supporter in conjunction with the education of the national identity and traditional culture education in practice which are the main education mottos of the Yeungnam University.

At the same time, Yeungnam University museum opened the public education program for the very first time among university museums in Korea. Traditional culture experience program is being held for primary school students around a year and Yeungnam University puts in practice museum tour from kindergarten to high school students. These programs need to be considered positively that a strategy of marketing activities of recruiting prospective students in near future. The University Museum curatorial staff members need to understand not only the management of university as a whole but the university museum itself and make an endeavor to develop and manage extensive and various programs.

Out of sync? - Tertiary education users' perspectives on the assessment of museum performance

Abstract: All museums, including University Museums, are accountable to a diversity of stakeholders, who each judge the effectiveness of their museum's performance in different ways. This paper reports on a case study where data from diverse stakeholder focus groups generated "possible performance indicators" reflecting both internal and external perspectives.

For its first 70 years, the case study museum was a University Museum. Its constitution was then changed to reflect its role as the principal museum of its region. While serving a broader community, it maintains its traditional academic emphasis: university researchers, teachers and students actively engage with the Museum: there is University representation on the Museum's governing body. Academics thus continue to be significant stakeholders.

Drawing on the various stakeholders' concept maps of effective museum performance, I shall report on findings from the tertiary sector stakeholders, comparing and contrasting them with other groups' perspectives. Aspects of museum performance that matter to academics differ considerably from those of other stakeholders. Can the diversity of perspectives be taken into account when considering elements for a broader paradigm of museum performance assessment to complement the formal accountability reporting of governing bodies and requirements of museum professional standards? What might this mean for University Museums?

University Art Museums: Reorientation or Expansion?

Abstract: In recent years LORD Cultural Resources Planning & Management, the world's largest museum planning firm, has been invited to study the potential for reorientation of two Ohio university art museums - those at Miami and Ohio Universities, both of which sought to integrate their museums more effectively into students' university experience. At about the same time we also planned the relocation of the Florida International University Art Museum and the expansion of Princeton University Art Museum. The new FIU Museum is now under construction. The paper would compare and contrast the approaches to reorientation of these four museums, in relation to their student bodies, their administration and their communities, and would also briefly compare university museum planning with planning for other museums.

POSTER: kkarimuseo - The Polytechnical Students' Museum

Abstract: Polyteekkarimuseo is a unique museum, not only in Finland, but also in the wider context. It was founded by students in 1958 and is still run by voluntary students. It lies within the administration of The Technical University Student Union, and is situated on the Otaniemi campus in metropolitan Helsinki.

The poster presents the unique aspects of the museum: academic student traditions, heritage and voluntary organization devoted to the long heritage of the Finnish technical students covering three centuries.

The poster is related to Panu Nykänen's presentation.

Exhibition Strategies: Collaborating with Faculty Mutually Supports Institutional Goals

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Abstract: Turning intangible into tangible educational outcomes is a daunting task. The realities of changing institutional goals have engendered strategies across disciplines, and combined with new patronage, elevate the University gallery's academic mission. We advocate exhibition development in tandem with many disciplines (language study, anthropology, philosophy, religion, art history and fine arts.) A successful strategy has included inviting a variety of faculty members within the University community to collaborate on exhibition planning, not just those faculty engaged in study of the visual arts, or with experience as "curators." Exemplary of this process is the cooperative organization of an exhibition as a complement to the 11th annual (Hahn Moo-Sook) Colloquium in the Korean Humanities series at the George Washington University scheduled for October 23, 2004.* The Colloquium series was established with an endowment created with a grant from the Hahn Moo-Sook Foundation in Seoul. This series has become one of the fine traditions of the University, and the meetings have been popular with scholars who have attended. Every single meeting has been videotaped for future educational Purposessince 1999, and they have produced a monograph each year with papers and commentaries presented at the colloquium, and with audience input included.*

The Luther W. Brady Art Gallery took the initiative to blend our mission with the Colloquium's, using the theme of Korean Education as an "intangible cultural heritage" to develop a small exhibition of traditional Korean ceramics borrowed from a local private collection. Korean vessels are highly prized expressions of an ancient tradition representing complex interactions of function, form, and design. Through text and objects, these ceramics set up a "visual dialogue" to complement the colloquium's educational goals.

* (The key characteristics of Korean civilization are rites, lineage structure, literature and education, stated Young-Key Kim-Renaud, co-convener, Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium, Professor of Korean Language and Culture and International Affairs; Chair, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, The George Washington University, whose generous collaboration is acknowledged).

Exhibition as a tool of Technical Education 1879-2004 - The Helsinki University of Technology case

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Abstract: The exhibition and museum work has been a elementary part of the technical education in Finland from the very beginning of the institutionalised technical education in 1840's. During the years 1879-1889 the Institute had a open access museum for general audience. 1889-1908 the exhibitions were arranged yearly. The turn of the century was the time of diversification of the technical museum and exhibition work. Collections were divided in to small special parts. 1927 the specific museum association was introduced to take care of the historical collections - but the association was not able to get financing for the general exhibition. The progress led to situation, where the audience disappeared.

After the WW II the museum work was organisationally divided in to different sections. At the 2000s a progress of building the exhibitions due the needs of the audience is back again. The relevant scientific collections are used for exhibition work and the number of visitors is rapidly rising in all the exhibitions.

POSTER: Archives and digital collections for the knowledge, divulgation and exploitation of architecture. A digital catalogue for the Marche

Abstract: The architecture department (DARDUS) of Polytechnic University of Marche in Ancona, based on long experience in the field of documentation and description of architecture, started in 2001 in partnership with Faculties of Architecture of Bologna, Ascoli Piceno, Venice and Milan, a research oriented in defining innovative systems and strategies for an informative resources integration and to systematize shared models of description that leads to a configuration of an archive network and databases dedicates to the architecture, to be able to give services of access, consultation and comunication to a larger public.

This project try to keep university museums closer to the territory and to integrate them to national museums network.

Among the tangible results of this work stand out the digital collections that receive and systematize a large research on the architecture of XXth century and its archival sources in the region that constitute the bases for the establishment of the modern and contemporary architecture catalogue in the Marche.

POSTER: Methods and tools for Conservation in the Digital Age: Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy as a valuable analysis instrument in Museum Conservation Sciences

Abstract: This work has demonstrated the ability of confocal imaging for volume estimate of the oil inclusion. Three-dimensional images are compiled and computerised in order to visualise the inclusion volume in a museum glass object. Computer treatment consist of calculating the whole volume of the inclusion after threshold of 2-D images of the oil which have a grey scale corresponding to the intensity variation of the emitted fluorescence, and then measuring the volume of the semi-spherical gas bubble.

Deformations of the vapour bubble 3-D image can be explained by diffraction of the laser beam due to differences of diffraction indices between oil and gas, and by the refraction light on the wall of the gas, these will have to be taken in consideration in any further measurements by confocal microscopy. Future studies on organic materials in our collection will be investigated in the future.

POSTER: New Vision - Unversity Museums & the Challenges of 21st Century In Pakistan

Abstract: Museums generally and at the departments of Universities, have often been understood in both intellectual and popular young circles as mausoleums, as centers of agglomeration of objects which no longer have a living relationship with the present. This is an image which makes it almost impossible to associate the museum with debates about contemporary cultural issues. Museums throughout the world have entered the interactive arena of 21st century; off course Digital Communications, but not the under developing countries.

A need has emerged to access strategies of program development that perfectly interface with existing missions and resources. In this paper I want to propose that now it is no longer a valid way of representing the museum, mainly because the museum is now deeply concerned in electronic media stream, making it an important site for the newly emerging 'information society'. This new relationship between electronic technologies and museums, has fundamentally questioned the traditional museum's orientation to objects. A course introducing a new situation or environment; which, I argue, would ultimately lead to the enhancement of museums image as New Vision Museums instead of mausoleums in the first place.

The primary goal of introducing New Vision University Museums is to impart knowledge that produces evidence of higher level student learning and academic performance. The initiation will involve a re-evaluation of the role of objects in museums as well as that of the role of curator and museum's relationships to communities. Further more both universities and museums will get transformed in the way that they would be able to define and deliver education through integrated, interactive Web-Sites, On Line Exhibitions and Web-based Learning. A step towards the "Free Choice Learning".

Threshold of the apparent and hidden

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Abstract: This paper discusses intangible heritage and traditional culture of collection at academic institutions in India. The ideas are grouped into: the inseparable Intangible component in the cultural milieu of the land and its significance, reflection of intangible heritage in the works of art exhibited in museums, role of university museums in promotion of traditional culture and intangible heritage.

The context is a country inhabited by one of the early civilizations of humanity, which progressed with an almost unbroken continuity of its past for over 7000 years. Its history of this land is explained by broadly categorizing it into Pre and Proto History, a difference characterized by advent of script.

Before the announcement of this topic as theme of the conference, I came across dilemmas, which arose from the limitations of works of art, to tell about themselves completely. Perhaps some other museum professionals might had a similar experience to a varying degree of intensity.

The first was exposure (as a student of museum studies) to a showcase of turbans (a head gear of textile), which of course taught me the combinations and permutations possible in style, size and shape. The objects were original and authentic but are bereft of the associations. Similar feelings were experienced when I saw a showcase of musical instruments. Another example of this feeling of inadequacy was experienced in seeing a classical miniature painting, which was narrated by singing a poem by the guide lecturer that explained the theme and plot illustrated in it. Yet another example belongs to tribal art. It is pictorial depiction of an ethnic song. I learnt of the scientific fact conveyed through it (for generations in that community) some time later through wildlife photography.

University Museums began to be established in India since second quarter of last century. They are mostly found in the east, north and west of the country. These institutions are similar in nature of their collection and governance.

Many a virtues, customs and facts not readily apparent to the visitors of university museums could be explained by planning and implementing activities that reveal, inspire and stimulate the users to appreciate the value of traditional culture and intangible heritage embedded in them. Thus the intangible heritage and traditional culture associated with the tangible objects of museums could complement the latter and enhance its value and utility. Future policies, approaches and objectives of museums should include the intangible heritage of objects.

Traditional Culture and Intangible Heritage associated with the tangible objects, would only complement the latter and enhance its value and utility.

Examples of Museum Programs for developing Intangible Heritage

Abstract: After a large-scale pottery kiln dating from the eighth to ninth century was unearthed from Gurim-village, Ewha Womans University Museum came to plan an academic seminar that would establish the pottery history of Korea as centering around the village and preserve its cultural environment.

There is an old junior high school building in Gurim-village that is no longer in use. The building is located at the very front of the village and it plays a role as the town entrance and exit. As the school building played pivotal role in the village, it was important to preserve the existent structure of the school as well as the surrounding environment of the village. With this thought in mind, the Museum proposed that Yeongam-gun, the local administrator, renovate the school building. It was successfully reopened as The Yeongam Pottery Culture Center in 1999 to establish the historic value and artistry of Korean pottery, and the groundwork to preserve Gurim-maeul(village) as a traditional village of Korea was laid out.

The Yeongam Pottery Culture Center was built as a multicultural space for the exhibition, performance, and production of traditional pottery. It also aims to function as a cultural infrastructure facility helping local arts to advance by interchanging the past and present within a traditional village where Confucianism, Korea's philosophical foundation, is still being practiced.

Through a modern art festival with a theme of clay, and a special exhibition to propose the everyday use of earthenware, the Yeongam Pottery Culture Center aims to spread the history of Korean pottery, the true hero of Korean ceramics history, and share the traditional value and beauty of Gurim-maeul.

For the preservation and advancement of Korean intangible culture, the Yeongam Pottery Culture Center holds gukak(Korean classical music) performances, as well as gatherings of traditional sihoe and chahoe as a part of exhibition performance to highlight the Korean Confucian culture that has been forgotten by the youth of today. The Center also welcomes tourists and village residents to participate in the traditional cultural performance with joy. We would like to take this moment to introduce some of our tangible cultural programs.

A picture and a visual artefact

Abstract: This paper will focus on how to reconstruct the intangible heritage through the lens. Although many photographers are keen to record the various intangible heritages such as mask dance, shaman practices and so forth. Those pieces of work could be extraordinary in terms of art. However, if a curator is try to accommodate those pictures as an exhibition purpose, the curator might be fall into dilemma, because some or exact cultural element is missing or vague in the picture. The perspective of looking at the image is quite different to the photographer and curator. Not all photographs can be a cultural document or visual artifact. Under the well organized plan should be a mandatory prior to the recording intangible heritage. The producer (curator) should be aware of the process of the ritual and a videographer as well. I am going to show the images made both a photographer and a curator and try to compare what is missing and what should be in the picture to become a visual artifact.

Intangible Heritage of University Earth Science Collections: Some Considerations for Significance Assessment

Abstract: The nature of scientific research in the Earth Sciences has changed markedly in the last couple of decades with a drift away from traditional specimen based investigations. This parallels a similar decline in taxonomic research in the biological sciences. Universities face the task of planning alternative futures for collections that are no longer considered part of their strategic framework for future research.

Specimens from previously vigorous research programs need careful assessment to avoid the possibility of losing the material basis of much scientific knowledge through hasty reactions to financial constraints. This should be the responsibility of the host institution and represents an investment in the integrity of research carried out in the university's name.

This paper discusses a range of strategies for assessing the significance of these specialised collections to ensure that their intangible heritage is not lost to future researchers. Apart from traditional elements in significance assessment such as rarity and the accessibility of collecting localities, other less tangible elements such as the impact on scientific understanding that specimens provided through their utilisation in a research program also needs consideration. The task of this form of significance assessment therefore requires specialised knowledge (curatorial and scientific) in the earth science disciplines.

The Importance of Visual References and University Museums

Abstract: Museums traditionally played a role of collecting, conserving and exhibiting cultural assets. But recently its role expanded widely. In addition to those traditional roles, scholarly survey and public education are also highlighted now and museums even became a place of enjoyment.

With all these changes, the importance of visual references is growing more and more. Visual references including photographs, video clips, maps or plans are closely related with works and sometimes help to get the critical information we couldn't get from the object itself. For example, glass plate photographs of Seoul National University Museum collection are the one and only source to visually witness a village of Gaesung Dukmulsan Sansangdong and the shamanistic ritual happened there called Dodang-gut.

Furthermore, the expansion of museums' roles and the growth of the importance of visual references reflect a change of the fundamental concept of 'museum'. As far as collection, conservation or exhibition is concerned, it was a historic work itself that was emphasized so far. But now when investigation and education are critical, we can put the information about a work in our focus. Therefore searching, surveying and delivering information will be of consequence ever more.

Especially. university museums have a purpose of academic study and education, so they should never overlook the change of paradigm and try to adapt themselves fast enough. They also have to take this flow as a desirable opportunity and succeed in constructing archives including visual references in focus as well as historic works. With this efforts, they will be able to give a boost to their role of academic survey and public education.

A Proposal for an International Museum Assessment Program for University Museums

Abstract: This paper proposes an international museum assessment program for university museums. The aim of the program is to help the museums devise new strategies to meet and survive the challenges of governance, management, public dimension, support, and collections. The keystones of the proposal are self-study and assessment, on-site peer review, analysis and consultation, and on-line distance learning and training programs.

Since 1981, the SNOMNH and thousands of other museums in the US have improved themselves by participating in the Museum Assessment Program (MAP), developed and managed by the American Association of Museums (AAM). All the museums have benefited from participation in some combination of self-study and peer review.

AAM and the MAP Advisory Committee are just beginning to explore the feasibility of international MAP assessments. Should UMAC lend its support and seek a leadership role and partnership? Should UMAC develop its own program? Based on my experience, the development of an international museum assessment program is critical for university museums. With it, UMAC can:

• Improve our ability to respond to the worldwide crisis that threatens loss of university museums and collections
• Work collaboratively to establish a program of assessment with action steps and strategies to strengthen ties with governance, increase the public dimension, illustrate the value of research and teaching, and improve the standards and practices.
• Develop technology-based resources such as on-line conferences, and distance learning through already established on-line museum studies programs.
• Increase the inclusiveness by providing opportunities for all university museums to unify and share their common strengths and solutions.
• The potential challenges to the program may be: language and cultural barriers; critique and constructive criticism; the need for knowledgeable peer reviewers; differences or levels of technology, and international travel.

University Collections as Custodians of Oral Heritage - Some Examples from Germany

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Abstract: At present the UMAC Worldwide Database of University Museums and Collections contains information about five archives that preserve historic sound storage media in Germany: the Phonetic Collection of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, the Audio-Visual Archive of the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the Hoerburger Collection of the University of Regensburg, the Sound Archive and the Archive of Animal Sounds of the Humboldt University of Berlin. These different holdings have in the past played an important role in the development of specific academic disciplines, particularly in the fields of phonetics, musicology, ethnology, and zoology.

The paper describes the sound archives as historic and cultural testimonies, based on the relationship between the collections and the corresponding disciplines. The main focus will be on the special character of these collections and their importance as research sources in past and present.

POSTER: The 20th Century Visual Arts As A Weltanschaung And An Exercise In Diversity. Cultural Inclusion: A Mission Of Contemporary Art Museums

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Abstract: To begin with, I would like to make some remarks about the city I live and work in: São Paulo (Brazil). With 10.5 million inhabitants its population is mostly descendant from the Portuguese who colonized our country, Africans who were brought as slaves and, especially during the last one hundred years, from European immigrants (mainly from Italy, but after World War II, from almost all European countries), and a great number from Japan and lately, from Bolivia and Korea. Although circa 80% of these people declare themselves Roman Catholics, there are about 30 different religions or sects registered by our census. In my city alone there are 1.2 million children 0 to 6 years of age. In short, São Paulo is a megalopolis that breathes cultural diversity.

In Brazil prejudice is not an issue that is discussed openly. It surfaces most crudely not against different nationalities, races or skin colors, not even between different religions or genders, but between different social classes and their inherent cultural diversity.

Due to our colonial heritage and present economic situation, one of the most serious problem presently is the great number of deprived children who, with little or no educational opportunities, are brought up with no chances of developing a readiness to learn, and a knowledge to solve problems, much needed skills to keep in touch with ever changing professional demands. For this population the access to public universities - that are free and only accept good students - is most of the time an unreachable dream.

I am very apprehensive about the lack of future for these socially and culturally discriminated children of the poor families. As a museum worker, until recently active in a museum of contemporary art within one of the most important public universities of Brazil - São Paulo University - I think it is the work, or better, the mission of public university museums to create programs that put the intangible heritage, represented by the museum's collection, to work as a device in the process of social inclusion.

Therefore I created and executed during 8 years a program that uses in its core the immense immaterial patrimony that is the sum of all the dreams, thoughts, poetic imagery of the artists' creative power. I imagine that we all agree that the varied cultural heritage that permeates the collection of an art museum, the product of the sum of the combined artists' creativity, portrays a creativity that nourishes itself on imagery based on models deeply rooted in their childhood, their families' myths and stories, the ethnic practices and religious beliefs from the surrounding environment. In short, works of art are rooted in and emerge from the memory of these experiences, and their related weltanschaung. The creative energy of art, its capacity to encapsulate imageries based on different referents, has the power to act as a means for the preservation of cultural identities.

Bearing this in mind, the program is constructed of several stages that lead the participants to a satisfactory relationship to the museum experience. These stages aim at developing a critical conscience by teaching visual arts as a language that expresses our present world and its multicultural characteristics, thus making them aware of the relevance of arts in the education of young children, as well as of cultural identity in times of globalization.

The evaluation of the results of the program showed that a contemporary art museum can be welcoming and enticing for audiences that generally do not consider museums of any interest to their lives. It also showed that carefully conceived programs can bring about a change in attitudes in relation to the importance of arts in learning and an awareness of matters related to cultural identity, self-esteem and critical thinking. However, the comments made by the participants revealed that the fact that it was developed within a museum inside the campus of the São Paulo University was an unreachable dream come true.