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New MSc in Modern Material Artefacts, University of Glasgow, UK

This programme engages with historical and scientific concepts and practices for the interpretation, investigation and preservation of museum and archive collections. It is designed to enable you to become proficient in object-based techniques from art history, material science and conservation for the interdisciplinary study of commercial synthetic materials in applied arts and social history collections. A key strength of this programme is its focus on modern materials as common artefacts that includes fibres and colourants as well as plastics. Read more.

Starts September 2018.

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New Issue MUSEUM INTERNATIONAL

From the latest ICOM Newsletter:

We are pleased to announce that the new issue of Museum International, dedicated to the ICOM 2016 General Conference theme ‘Museums and cultural landscapes’, has just been published. The printed version is now available. We have redefined the journal’s layout and design to be more aesthetically pleasing and readable, bringing out a more dynamic, vibrant whole.

Free access to the articles will be available to ICOM members for 30 days, through the Wiley Online Library platform: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/muse.2017.69.issue-1-2/issuetoc

Wiley offers a reduced subscription fee to all ICOM members. To subscribe, please visit the Museum International homepage at: http://ordering.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/subs.asp?ref=1468-0033&doi=10.1111/(ISSN)1468-0033

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Travel Grants for the next ICOM-ICT Workshop Beijing

ICOM-ITC April 2018 workshop
 
The ICOM International Training Centre (ICOM-ITC) is announcing the organisation of its tenth training workshop that will be held from 9 to 17 April, 2018 in Beijing, China. ICOM, ICOM China and the Palace Museum are pleased to award travel grants to international participants attending the training workshop called Managing a Museum Today.

Please apply online: https://icom.formstack.com/forms/icom_itc_april_2018_application
The application forms should be filled out and the required documents should be sent before Midnight (CET) Wednesday 20 December, 2017.

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Davis Museum at Wellesley College, USA, Wins Best Soft Power Cultural Activation Award

On Friday, September 29, at the Leading Culture Destinations Awards event in London, the Davis Museum at Wellesley College won the Best Soft Power Cultural Activation Award. The honor recognizes the ingenuity and global impact of ART-LESS: the Davis Without Immigrants, an initiative, and intervention launched by the Davis Museum in February 2017.

  

ART-LESS responded to President Trump’s first executive order on immigration, issued on January 27, 2017—a proposed “Muslim ban” on entry to the United States that left many feeling alarmed, threatened, and frightened. The goal of the ART-LESS initiative was to demonstrate the critical role that immigrants to the United States have played in the arts, via both their creative contributions as artists and their philanthropic roles as museum donors. It also articulated the Museum as a public space for critical discourse on matters of national importance.

 

Dr. Claire Whitner, Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs and Senior Curator of Collections, says “the Davis puts cultural pluralism at the heart of our mission; to take that seriously means to create programming that emphasizes that value and defends it when threatened.”

 

During this six-day event, which encompassed the American “Presidents’ Day” holiday, the Davis Museum de-installed or shrouded all works of art in its permanent collections galleries that were either created by or given to Wellesley’s art collection by immigrants to the United States. Approximately 120 works of art—roughly 20 percent of the objects on view in the Museum’s permanent collections galleries—were either taken down or covered in heavy black cloth. Signage was posted next to each affected piece to indicate “Made by an Immigrant” or “Given by an Immigrant.” The concept and its impact were dramatic, particularly in light of a sluggish response among most American museums. The initiative garnered extensive international media coverage.

   

“I believe that museums can be important political spaces,” said Lisa Fischman, the Ruth Gordon Shapiro ’37 Director of the Davis,” for generating discourse, social engagement, and smart activism. Through actions like ART-LESS, the Davis takes a stance on contemporary issues, modeling social activism and political integrity for students—for the next generation—and for the larger community. Particularly at this moment in the nation’s history, it is extremely important to demonstrate the impact of immigrants—past, present, and future—on American cultural life. ART-LESS posed an invitation: taking the Davis as a microcosm, one might extrapolate out and consider the tremendous impact of immigrants on the nation as a whole.”

https://www.wellesley.edu/davismuseum/

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At Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, USA, a new take on curation and collaboration

Boris Oicherman, the Weisman’s new Cindy and Jay Ihlenfeld Curator for Creative Collaborations, is throwing tradition out the window.  The position is the museum’s first endowed position,  which means that it will be funded in perpetuity.  Funds to endow the position were given by Cindy and Jay Ihlenfeld, both former employees of 3M corporation that is headquartered in Minnesota.   While 3M may be best known for”Scotch tape,” today its biggest sales are business to business.  3M is known around the world for innovation and creativity. 

Boris Oicherman is a practicing artist with a Ph.D. in color science and an extensive background in printing technologies, computer programming, and digital color imaging. He recently completed a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts at Stanford University in California. Hired in July  2018,  he has a big project ahead of him.

“I want to create an environment where you do not need to define your project,” Oicherman said. “You will need to define your ideas, your agenda, why you want to do this and what direction you want to go, but you’ll be absolutely free to develop it over a year at least, and after that year, we’ll see what happens.” His job is basically to engage professors from diverse disciplines with artists in a collaborative process.

“When you think about a university, you think about education and what education can be, and the role the museum can have on that education, in changing it and making it better,” Oicherman said. 

Oicherman challenged the current role of the museum and its potential by asking over-arching questions like, “Why have a museum at a university?”

“Art, I believe today, is a totally unique thing that can be absolutely anything. There’s not a thing that you point a figure on and say ‘hey, this cannot be art,’” Oicherman explained. “That gives amazing freedom to artists.” 

Oicherman aims to manifest this freedom by organizing strategic interactions among different fields of knowledge within the University of Minnesota. Artists will interact with biologists, neuroscientists, engineers, designers—the possibilities are endless.

Over the course of a year, Oicherman will budget and plan for the space to become a center point for creative collaboration and will begin the project’s implementation mid-June 2018. Rather than an application that is proposal and submission based, Oicherman prefers to hold open office-hours where he hopes conversations, ideas, and relationships may be developed. 

“I’m looking for artists that are interested in very open-ended projects, that are interested in working with other people and that have crazy ideas because this is what the whole place is about,” Oicherman said. “The crazier the better.”

WAM.UMN.EDU

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Becas Ibermuseos: Inscripciones abiertas!

LANÇADA A CONVOCATÓRIA DAS BOLSAS IBERMUSEUS DE CAPACITAÇÃO 2017

O Programa Ibermuseus apresenta a convocatória das Bolsas Ibermuseus de Capacitação 2017.

Com esta ação, o Programa pretende promover a qualificação profissional das equipes de museus, além de estimular a circulação do conhecimento e facilitar o intercâmbio de conteúdos, experiências, práticas e conceitos entre os países da Comunidade Ibero-americana.

Ler mais (in Portuguese and Spanish)

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La Universidad lanza el Programa Dered Museo UNDAV

Con el fin de dar continuidad al diseño  de acciones que se focalicen   en  el  análisis   crítico y reflexivo  de  producciones   expresivas, simbólicas, comunicacionales y artísticas que se generan en la Universidad  y en el entorno comunitario, la Universidad Nacional de Avellaneda lanza el Programa Dered Museo UNDAV, una iniciativa desde una perspectiva transversal, transdisciplinar e interinstitucional que propone acciones  orientadas a la detección factores de identidad artística que están presentes en lo cotidiano. 

En este sentido el Programa Dered Museo UNDAV busca fortalecer los vínculos  de las sedes  de la Universidad con sus barrios, desde  acciones  y producciones culturales que ensayen  respuestas a las problemáticas particulares de cada comunidad, como así también  poner en valor y difundir el patrimonio  tangible e intangible  relevado en las mismas y aportar  a la generación de financiamientos extra  institucionales a partir de la transferencia de productos y servicios originados en el marco del Programa.

A tal efecto, Dered Museo UNDAV ofrecerá un circuito de muestras a partir de convocatorias de participación abierta y gratuita dirigida a artistas de la comunidad UNDAV y la región sur en general, recorriendo trabajos realizados en los distintos lenguajes artísticos que podrá abarcar desde la producción textil, el dibujo, la pintura, el grabado, cerámica, escultura, instalaciones, producciones audiovisuales, multimedia, literarias, entre otras.

More info, please contact: Hugo Oscar Arámburu (coordinator of the Programme)