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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)

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Caves & Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura are World Heritage too!

The Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura, Germany, whose collections are at the Museum of the University of Tübingen, was also listed this weekend as World Heritage by UNESCO.

40.000 Jahre alte Figur eines Wildpferds aus der Vogelherdhöhle

Read more (in German).

This means that 2017 is already a fantastic year for university heritage in Europe.

Many congratulations to this wonderful and well deserved recognition!

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University of Strasbourg is World Heritage!

The main building of the University of Strasbourg, the neo-Renaissance Palais Universitaire, constructed between 1879 and 1884 and designed by German architect Otto Warth (Photo F. Zvardon, University of Strasbourg archives, courtesy Jardin des Sciences)

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, presently meeting in Krakow, Poland, just announced that the Neustadt — the late 19th and early 20th century urban development of the city of Strasbourg, which includes at its very heart the University of Strasbourg (the University Palace depicted in the photo, but also the Astronomical Observatory, the Botanic Garden, the Zoology Museum and Jardin des Sciences, and several other buildings) — just entered the World Heritage List.

See more here.

UMAC is extremely glad and proud of these wonderful news and congratulates the city of Strasbourg, the University of Strasbourg, and all partners involved for this successful and entirely deserved recognition.

 

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UMAC AWARDS 2017: NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

The UMAC Award is presented annually to a university museum or collection in the world whose projects or initiatives demonstrate innovation and creativity, excellence and transferability of ideas that can be adopted by other university museums and collections, and that have significant impact on the host university, the community or society at large.

 

The nominees for the 2017 UMAC Award are (in alphabetical order):

 

Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair (ONAYLF)

Sam Noble Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma

Every spring, hundreds of students, teachers and community members gather at the Sam Noble Museum, University of Oklahoma, for the Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair (ONAYLF). The Fair celebrates language diversity, with live presentations of song, speech and story and students compete in material submission categories like poster art, films, books cartoons and advocacy essays.

The Fair has encouraged and supported the efforts of Native communities in Oklahoma and the surrounding region to document, revitalize and perpetuate their ancestral languages. The growth of the Fair over 15 years has established the event as a major celebration of indigenous languages.

Replication of the Curie experiment on radioactivity

University of Rennes

The first quantitative measurement of radioactivity was made in 1898 by Pierre and Marie Curie. They used a prototype experiment based on a quartz balance. These measurements led to the discovery of radium and polonium.

 In 2015, Bernard Pigelet and Dominique Bernard achieved the delicate replication of the Curie prototype at the University of Rennes 1. Using an original quartz balance and pieces from historical instruments identified in the collections of the University they could make the experiment fully operational and it is now regularly presented to the public, through a permanent exhibition, online videos and particular events.

 The ‘I C Taiwan Exhibition’

National Cheng Kung University Museum

The NCKU Museum, cooperating with National Technical Museum, the City of Prague Museum and the Mendel Museum of Masaryk University in Czech Republic, presents the exhibition ‘I C Taiwan’ as the largest international exhibition organized by a Taiwanese university. The exhibition features a matrix of interdependent themes about Taiwan; the melding of religious cultures, the innovation of traditional techniques in cope with preserving historical and cultural heritages. The Czech museums hosted the exhibition from July 2015 until January 2016.

Media release

The winner of the Award will be announced at the UMAC 2017 General Assembly, 6 September, in Helsinki.

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UNIVERSEUM has a new President!

 

 

UMAC is delighted that UMAC member Sébastien Soubiran, from the Jardin des Sciences/University of Strasbourg (France), was elected President of UNIVERSEUM, the European University Heritage Network, on 10 June 2017.

UMAC wishes Sébastien the best promoting European university heritage in Europe and beyond. We are looking forward to even more collaborations with him and the newly-elected UNIVERSEUM Board.

We also profit to thank Sofia Talas, the former UNIVERSEUM President – also a UMAC member – her precious contribution to university museums and collections and to UMAC. The organisation of the last UMAC Annual Conference in Milan would have not been possible without her.

UMAC wishes both the best of successes!!!

 

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Finding Betsie! In search of an elephant skull

At one time in its history, the Zoology Collection of the Ghent University Museum had the skull of ‘Betsie’, a locally most famous elephant of the former Ghent Zoo (1851-1904). During this period many cadavers of animals were transferred to our collection for educational purposes. But when the Ghent Zoo presented the university with the cadaver of Betsie who died in the winter of 1887-1888, the university thought it to be too expensive to process. The zoo then decided to have only the skull cleaned for their own little museum. When the Zoo went bankrupt in 1904, the Zoology Collection bought the skull at the public sale of all the Zoo’s assets.
This skull is of enormous cultural and historic value for the City of Ghent and its University. But sadly enough, not knowing what it was at the time, the skull was traded for other skull with a person called ‘Jan Cools’. When I became the curator of the Collection, and when I learned what the skull was, I tried to talk with Jan Cools who had already sold it to someone in England or even Canada, to ask him to get me the address. He promised to do so, but sadly enough he died two days later. So yet again, a dead end.
2017 is a triple anniversary: the Ghent university and the Zoology Collection are 200 years old, and I also this year I am a curator of this Collection for 20 years. It would be great to get Betsie back home for this anniversary.
So now hear my appeal: please, please, help us find back the skull of the elephant Betsie, so we can bring her back home. If anyone recognizes parts of this story or the name Jan Cools, please contact me at dominick.verschelde@ugent.be; also read the extended story here. 

Dominick Verschelde

Zoology Collection, Ghent University

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First UMAC Professional Development Workshop

MUSEUM BOOT CAMP: Surviving and Thriving within a University 

Jill Hartz, University of Oregon, USA

This workshop is directed to museum professionals (particularly higher education museum professionals).
Participants will be introduced to the importance of aligning the museum/collection’s mission with the university (parent institution) mission; to evaluate the museum/collection’s educational role within the university structure; to apply basic theoretical and methodological skills to the development of a strategic plan, policies, and procedures; and to obtain a working knowledge of mission-driven strategic planning and implementation.

Workshop Participation Fee (includes morning coffee and tea service, light lunch, and workshop materials):
– Regular: 60 EUR
– UMAC members: 50 EUR

Payment by bank transfer — see details in registration form.

Questions?
Barbara Rothermel, UMAC Vice-President, rothermel@lynchburg.edu

Register now

Jill Hartz has served as executive director of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, Eugene, since August 2008. She was director of the University of Virginia Art Museum in Charlottesville from 1997 to 2008 and previously worked in various capacities at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University as well as in the publishing field.  She has organized numerous exhibitions, primarily in the contemporary art field, and is the editor of five books, including Rick Bartow: Things We Know But Cannot Explain (co-edited with Danielle Knapp, 2015) and Hindsight-Fore-Site: Art for the New Millennium (University of Virginia Press, 2003).  Knapp and Hartz co-curated the Bartow traveling exhibition of the same name. Ms. Hartz is currently president of the national Association of Academic Museums and Galleries and a reviewer for professional museum programs, including accreditation. She received her MA with Honors in English Language and Literature from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in 1973 and pursued undergraduate studies at Oberlin College in Ohio.

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Serbian University Museums and Collections

How much do you know about university museums and collections in Serbia? Probably not much, right?

A survey published this year for the Universeum annual conference in Belgrade will change that.

 

Živan Lazović, Darko Mitrović, and Ivana Mitrović (eds). Serbian University Heritage: University of Belgrade, 2017.

 

Congratulations to the editors!

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