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International Museum Day 2020 — Message from UMAC Chair

Dear friends and colleagues,

When this year started I was far from imagining that IMD 2020 would be so ‘unusual’. We were planning to commemorate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, the Museum Definition was everything everyone was talking about, by now we should be preparing our Annual Conference in Sydney. It seems all part of a different time and space, a different world.

Still, the commemorations of IMD 2020 will go ahead across the world as planned, of course — mostly on digital platforms — with a ‘physical’ 3-day follow up between 14-16 November to coincide with the 74th anniversary of ICOM. Read more information here.

As usual, I invite the global community of university museums and collections to join IMD 2020. You can find several materials in ICOM’s website, including the poster, hashtags for social networks, an introduction to the theme and so much more.

I hope you are all well. So many colleagues tell me that the workload has increased during lockdown, but I am sure you have been doing a lot of thinking as well, and are, as I am, concerned about the months to come.

As the culture sector gradually reopens during the next weeks in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, for me it’s hard to ignore that so many small museums, theaters, libraries, will probably never reopen. Dozens of our colleagues have already been laid off or furloughed (especially museum educators). I am concerned with the future of many higher education museums, collections and heritage.

You can read in Inside Higher Ed recent interviews with some of our colleagues from the US explaining why these are dangerous times for university museums.

Paradoxically, I believe museums, collections and heritage are more essential than ever.

For so many people across the world, this is a time of grief, suffering, solitude and enormous challenges. If there is anything we learned in the past weeks is that we need each other. We need to reach out to others who are close and who are far, and stay together as never before. It’s a lesson about connectedness, solidarity and kindness that communities across the world are teaching their own politicians and governments.

Spaces like museums play a very important role in this increased need for connectedness. It is the museums’ values of timeless permanence and sense of collective belonging — more than the art itself, or the science, or paleontology, or whatever — that offer stability, hope and unity as the rest of our lives seems to crumble and largely evades control.

For many years, and certainly since I became a museum professional, I do not think there has been a more urgent need to open our doors and just be there for anyone who wants. This is ‘inclusion’ in the proper sense of the term.

I wish you all a great IMD 2020. I will be on ZOOM tomorrow between 1 PM and 2 PM Lisbon/London time — nothing special, nothing prepared, just about being together. If you have a moment, please consider dropping by to say hello.

Warmest wishes.

Lisbon 17.05.2020

Marta Lourenço, University of Lisbon

UMAC Chair

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UMACJ: Call for Papers

University Museums and Collections Journal

The journal about museology and higher education

ISSN 2071-7229

The University Museums and Collections Journal is a peer-reviewed, on-line journal published by the International Committee for University Museums and Collections (UMAC), a Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

The journal publishes original research on aspects of museology and museum practice in higher education globally. Articles published in the University Museums and Collections Journal explore theoretical concepts of museology in a higher education setting. Leading scholarship on the materiality of higher education also features.

The Editorial Board of the Journal welcomes original articles submitted by researchers at any time. We also welcome correspondence with authors on possible contributions to the Journal.

For information on publishing your work in the journal, the Editorial Board, the review process, selection criteria and submission guidelines, please read more here.

For further questions and correspondence on publishing in our journal, please contact the Editor Andrew Simpson.

 

 

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Notice of Cancellation UMAC 2020, Sydney

The UMAC Board, in close consultation with the UMAC 2020 Local Organising Committee, has been closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation across the world and within Australia and has decided to cancel the UMAC 2020 conference that was to be held at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney, in September.

The UMAC Board has reluctantly reached this decision in view of current restrictions and uncertainties about when social and economic life and international travel will return to normal in Australia and worldwide.

The UMAC Board is currently considering the University of Sydney hosting the UMAC conference in 2023. In the meantime, the UMAC 2020 registration process has been suspended and preparatory activities for 2020 have now ceased.

The conference would initiate the commemorations of the 20th anniversary of UMAC and was to include a review of the past 20 years of university museums and collections as well as a look into the futures of the sector.

We hope to host a ‘marker’ event later in 2020, possibly online, to hold our 20th Annual General Meeting, acknowledge the 20th anniversary of UMAC and attribute the UMAC Award 2020.

We would like to thank all who have been involved in planning the conference and especially thank members of the UMAC community for their support with the record number of outstanding submissions, totaling 138 from 30 countries and territories. While the conference cannot proceed, we hope to capture some of this material in digital activities this year and in a special edition of extended abstracts for the University Museums and Collections Journal. There will be more communication on this from the Journal Editor shortly.

We look forward to seeing you all in Dresden in 2021.

David Ellis, Chair UMAC 2020 Local Organising Committee

Marta C. Lourenço, Chair, ICOM-UMAC

 

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Revista CPC, University of São Paulo: Special Issue on University Museums Call for Papers

 

REVISTA CPC n. 30 – edição especial
Dossiê Museus universitários: patrimônio, experiências e reflexões
 

CHAMADA DE TRABALHOS: até 30 de junho de 2020.
 
Seja na forma de coleções de potencial museológico inseridas em departamentos ou laboratórios, seja na forma de unidades inseridas na estrutura universitária em que se verifica a realização de todas as etapas do processo museológico, é recorrente na formação ou na trajetória das universidades a presença de museus e ou estruturas afins. Contudo, também parece ser recorrente ora a invisibilidade dessa presença, ora sua redução a determinados aspectos da prática universitária, ainda que tais coleções e práticas museológicas tenham em vários momentos exercido papel fundamental na promoção de ações de ensino, pesquisa e extensão universitária.
 
É neste sentido que a Revista CPC, periódico eletrônico do Centro de Preservação Cultural da USP, abre chamada de artigos científicos para o Dossiê Museus universitários: patrimônio, experiências e reflexões, a ser publicado em dezembro de 2020. Assim, convida a comunidade acadêmica para a submissão de trabalhos que evidenciem pesquisas, experiências e reflexões sobre a presença desses museus, coleções e práticas museológicas espalhadas pelas diversas estruturas universitárias, ressaltando e problematizando suas especificidades, limites, desafios e potencialidades. 

Veja mais aqui.

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MÁS MUSEOS: Vol. 2 No. 1

UMAC congratulates the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for another issue of the digital journal MÁS MUSEOS (Vol. 2, No. 1), just published.

This issue includes a lecture by UMAC Chair Marta C. Lourenço (in English with subtitles in Spanish), an article about the debates around the ICOM museum definition by Silvana Arago Telona, and so much more.

An issue to explore!

 

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University Museums from Home

As universities across the globe switch to remote learning and university museums and collections’ professionals are #workingfromhome as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, we want to hear from you.

1) The Challenges of Remote Work

How is your university museum, university botanic garden or university collection coping with remote work? Which impact did it have on your daily practices? How are you addressing museum issues that require some degree of physical staff (e.g. conservation, security, others)? We would love to hear from you.

2) The Challenges of Keeping the Engagement

The International Museum Day 2020 is still going ahead — digitally. Many museums are taking digital to a whole new level and reinventing themselves online. Innovative activities, from webinars, online seminars and lectures to digital exhibitions, hanging out with curators on zoom, collections and archives digital access, social networks games and quizzes, and so many others, can now be seen online.

How are you keeping your audiences engaged? Which activities did you postpone, transfer online, or cancel altogether? Who is being left behind due to lack of access or resources?

3) The Challenges of Solidarity

University museums are also directly contributing to the minimize the suffering in affected countries and communities, from promoting solidarity campaigns and mobilizing medical equipment to university hospitals and health centers to donating their stock of masks and alcohol, joining experts’ task forces and unpacking relevant scientific information to the public.

What solidarity initiatives is your university museum, botanic garden or collection directly or indirectly supporting?

Please reply in the comments below and provide information and links. We will amplify most of the initiatives in UMAC social networks.

#UniversityMuseumsFromHome

 

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DEADLINE EXTENSION: Publication Professionalising Museum Work in Higher Education: A Global Approach

Call for Chapters Proposals Submission Deadline:

30 April 2020

 

Full Chapters Due:

31 August 2020

 

This book is the outcome of the research project P-MUS (Professionalising Museum Work in Higher Education: A Global Approach), developed between 2017 and 2019 by UMAC, ICTOP, Universeum and AAMG, and supported by the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
 
The main goal of P-MUS was to increase the use of higher education museums and collections in the training of museum professionals. In a first approach, this use seems natural. Physics and Biology graduate and post-graduate students use laboratories for developing practical skills and competences. One should expect something similar to happen with museums or cultural heritage students. They would naturally use the museums, collections and cultural heritage infrastructure of their university for training. Paradoxically, this use is fragmented, irregular and not as likely as it would seem.
 
There are multiple reasons for this seemingly paradox. Higher education museums and collections are considerably heterogeneous and they cover all disciplines. Many may be ‘under the radar’ or lack institutional statute . The large majority were created (and still are) around teaching and research activities by professors, researchers, technicians, students, librarians, and alumni. These professionals are, in general, not exposed to mainstream museum practice; they are more bound by disciplinary and historic traditions rather than a shared understanding of museum practice. Between 2019 and 2019, P-MUS developed a global survey aiming at profiling these professionals. Who are they? What is their background training? What are their expectations? What professional networks do they belong to? The results of the survey will be presented and analysed in the first section of this book.
 
The second section of the book is the subject of this call for chapters. Many university museums, collections and heritage around the world are used in the training of future professionals. We want to examine why and how university museums and collections play central and integral roles in graduate and post-graduate courses (the occasional visit is not enough). Are university museums and collections used to develop course content, to illustrate practices, to develop skills, as field work for internships, essays, theses? How does it work? Where are the success cases and what makes them successful? What are the strong and weak points?
 
A broad range of papers is invited, from comprehensive essays to case studies, methodological texts and historical perspectives. Interdisciplinary contributions are encouraged. Priority will be given to museum and cultural heritage courses (e.g. Museum Studies, Museology, Museum Education, Heritage Studies), but we are also interested in the use of the university museums and collections in the training of other professionals, particularly in non-traditional areas, such as History, Medicine, Biology, and others. Priority will also be given to cases from countries where literature in English is scarce.
 
Professors, researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before 30 April 2020, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly outlining the museum training case-study (objectives, resources and results) and briefly discussing the roles played by university museums and collections. A proposal submission template is available here.
 
All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers.
 
This publication is expected to be released in 2021.
 
Language: English.
 

Important Dates

30 April 2020: Proposal Submission Deadline
15 June 2020: Notification of Acceptance
30 September 2020: Full Chapter Submission
19 December 2020: Final Chapter Submission
 
 
More info and inquiries:
Marta C. Lourenço, University of Lisbon
 
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Accreditation of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogotá

 

Gustavo Ortiz Serrano, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogotá (courtesy MCA).

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá, a museum belonging to the  Minuto de Dios University, has been awarded  accreditation by the Accreditation Commission of the American Alliance of Museums in all the best practices processes for museums and joins the community of institutions that have chosen the path of excellence.

The Accreditation Commission expresses its admiration for the important work done by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá with the support of the Minuto de Dios University and congratulates it for being the first accredited museum in Iberoamerica which positions it as a leader among its peers.

Read more here.

For Gustavo Ortiz Serrano, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Bogotá, a member of ICOM since 2003 and who has served as President of the Colombian Committee, Vice President of the ICOM-LAC alliance and Vice President of the Advisory Council, “this recognition is a motivation to continue the work and the goals that the ICOM international council of museums has set for the benefit of the culture, heritage, and coexistence of humanity”.

UMAC warmly congratulates the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Minuto de Dios University of Bogotá, for this outstanding recognition. Well done!