In-Heritance

Blog redirect to "Museums without Borders"

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Dear Readers,

Thank you for checking out In-heritance, the blog that has served Heritance for over two years. In keeping with Heritance's new program focus, Open Museum, we are consolidating our two separate blogs into one: "Museums without Borders" .

In "Museums without Borders", you'll find two to three new posts per week on issues related to curating a collection on Open Museum (OMo): issues such as costs and benefits to the OMo curator, strategies for planning and building an online collection, intellectual property and copyright law, and OMo's web 2.0 technology as a tool for community outreach.

Please visit us at Museums without Borders and consider bookmarking the blog as well as Open Museum so that you can follow developments ( and get as involved as you choose!) in helping to build what we hope will become the global museum.

Best wishes,

Maureen Doyle
Executive Director of Heritance
Co-Founder Open Museum

Weekly Member Update

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:06:00 +0000

Heritance supports Open Museum, Open Museum is a non-commercial, participatory exhibit space open to all. Open Museum hosts exhibits of museums, organizations and individuals from around the world.

NEW COLLECTION: Open Museum has launched a new collection, "Kate Emlen, the Paintings". For Kate, who received her MFA at Yale and resides in Vermont, the world is her studio. Her paintings depict a range of settings and themes, from still life to New England seascapes and Italian landscapes. To experience this collection

OPEN MUSEUM BLOG: The Open Museum Blog, Museums without Borders, gives a brief, daily update on what's happening at Open Museum You can see photos from exhibits and learn about new features. Bookmark or subscribe in your RSS feed reader.

NEW FEATURE: It is now possible to "email this page to a friend" and become a "friend of a museum" on Open Museum. Museums will soon be able to share their news with their Open Museum friends.

WEEKLY DIGEST: This week it will become possible to subscribe to a weekly digest of new objects on Open Museum. The digest will highlight six objects, giving a photo, link and short description.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT: Open Museum now offers more technical support to the visitor. Take the introductory tour on the Home Page or Select "Learn more about..." while exploring the Museums, Collections, Objects and Tours.

CURATOR OUTREACH: Open Museum continues to give demos to prospective Open Museum curators. Next week we will be meeting with the Hood Museum at Dartmouth. This week we met with the Howe Library in Hanover, New Hampshire and will begin to train our first co-curator, Kiku Langford from the AVA Gallery and Art Center.

WEMUP, Weekly Member Update

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:23:00 +0000

Heritance announces that Open Museum is now available to the public!

Open Museum -- a non-commercial, participatory exhibit space -- is a free service provided by Heritance, a US-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Open Museum is in Alpha release, which means it is under development and in need of testing.

If you are a friend of Heritance, a lover of museums, an amateur of web 2.0 or just plain curious, visit now.

Take an introductory tour; register; browse the collections and join a museum tour. If you feel like it (and we hope you will!), please help enrich your own and other people's experience of Open Museum by rating and tagging objects or contributing comments in the form of text or photos.

Give the site a workout -- as much or as little as time permits -- and tell us what you think. Don't worry about breaking anything! What doesn't work is as important to tell as what does, and no problem is too small! We value your opinions and count on your critiques, compliments, and comments to make the site better.

Post your thoughts as a comment here or send a messages through the feedback link on Open Museum or by an email.

Also, invite your friends, family and colleagues to check out Open Museum:

Weekly Member Update (WEMUP)

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:33:00 +0000

OPEN MUSEUM ONLINE, OM_o: OM_o has built a fifth exhibit, the Upper Valley through the Artist’s Eye, a collection of 37 oil on canvas landscapes by the Spanish artist, Félix de la Concha. To view the exhibit: www.openmuseum.org
Keep in mind that the site is still under development. OM_o is planning a public release in February.

CONFERENCES & DEMOS: Heritance has been accepted as a presenter to the annual, national conference ‘Museums and the Web 2009’ (MW), April 14-18 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jeff Doyle, Heritance Director of Technology, will be giving a demo of Open Museum online. OMW is the largest international conference devoted to the exploration of art, science, natural and cultural heritage on-line.

OUTREACH: Heritance will continue to give demos of OM_o to representatives from NH/VT cultural organizations. The list to date includes: AVA Gallery, Baker Library at Dartmouth, the Hood Museum, Scuplturefest, the Vermont Arts Council, Barro Sin Plomo, Norwich Historical Society, Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance, Vermont Historical Society, as well as numerous individual artists. Next week there will be a demo for the Aide to Senator Patrick Leahy who is an avid photographer and supporter of the arts. If your organization is interested, contact us: info@heritance.org

TWITTER: Follow developments at Open Museum online on the Twitter account “OM_o”. It’s a new technology that permits brief, frequent communications and whose purpose has yet to be fully developed. If Twitter is new to you, go to Twitter, register for an account (free), search “OM_o” and click “follow”. It is possible to follow a number of museums and arts organizations, including the Hood Museum which recently launched a Twitter presence.

RESOURCES: Flickr Commons is an exciting new resource available to all of us for free. In their words, “The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer. You're invited to help describe the photographs you discover in The Commons on Flickr, either by adding tags or leaving comments.” Many institutions are using Flickr Commons, including the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian and the New York Public Library; they have all launched ambitious projects to share and co-curate their photo collections.

WEMUP

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:05:00 +0000

Heritance Weekly Member Update (WEMUP)

TWITTER: Follow developments at Open Museum online on the Twitter account “OM_o”

OPEN MUSEUM ONLINE, OM_o: Alpha testing is underway for three pilot exhibits. OM_o is building a fourth exhibit, Sculpturefest 2008. It is possible to view the site, at this time, but not register till 2009. Note the new abbreviation is OM_o, the same as the twitter account name.

BLOG IN-HERITANCE: From now on, the WEMUP news will also appear on the Blog/news page of the Heritance website & http://blog.heritance.org/

BLOG OM_o: Open Museum online (OM_o) has named its blog “Museums without Borders”. To read the latest post “Won’t OM_o steal my visitors?” http://blog.openmuseum.org/2008/12/wont-omo-steal-my-visitors.html

CONFERENCES & DEMOS: OM_o has submitted an application to do an OM_o demo at ‘Museums and the Web 2009’ (MW), April 14-18 in Indianapolis, Indiana. MW is the largest international conference devoted to the exploration of art, science, natural and cultural heritage on-line: http://www.archimuse.com/conferences/mw.html

Changing Faces: Museums & Community

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:03:00 +0000

A recent study conducted by Museum Insight Audience finds that only 11% to 21% of core visitors to museums find that the museum adequately reaches out to the community and connects with it. And that is "core visitors"! "Non core visitors", which is a growing segment of the total population, doesn't think museums connect at all.

MIA points to the need for museums to build a strong relationship with their communities: The face of the American population is changing rapidly; as the proportion of Americans who comprise the traditional museum audience will shrink considerably over the next thirty years. Building a strong relationship with the local community is an important method of creating and maintaining relevance to an evolving audience.

Sporting events or museums: did you know...?

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:10:00 +0000

.. that according to the same NPR article mentioned earlier today, over 6 times as many people attend museums as major-league sporting events? About 140 million people in the U.S. will attend sporting events this year; about 840 million attended museums last year. Of course, many more watch sports online, but that's instead of attending. On the other hand online museums "serve as teasers"', actually inspirintg people to visit real-life exhibits.

npr: 'The Memory of Mankind'

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:54:00 +0000

On November 24, National Public Radio launched a series on museums in the 21st century . The first broadcast, which you can hear now tells the story of what the former Director of the Met, Philippe de Montebello, calls "The Memory of Mankind". The story wends its way from the ancient Greeks (who coined the term "mouseion", a temple to the Muses, who kept watch over the arts and sciences) up to the Museum of Online Museums .

A poem on Heritance

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:42:00 +0000


Not Alone

                     For Lewis Hyde


                     light snow
                                       light
                     snow

                                       The capacious is

                                 a heritance
                                 across  a land

                     resembling waves ,


*

(c) Peter Money
Reprinted with permission of the author.

Peter sent a note saying that he had been inspired to write the poem by a NYT article about Lewis Hyde (author of the Gift Economy)

Open Museum Online RFC

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:19:00 +0000

Heritance is currently working on the development of Open Museum Online.

Open Museum Online is a Web 2.0 service that allows any individual or organization, regardless of funding, location, or current technological capabilities, to create dynamic online exhibits of their collections. Exhibits can include text, photo, video and audio contributions, all of which will be automatically aggregated into a global museum. Open Museum Online users can participate as curators (creators of exhibits), or as visitors to the exhibits. Visitors interact with the exhibits on a variety of levels, including commenting, rating, tagging, making guided tours, contributing content, and joining in community-wide discussions. (potentially a screen shot here of the listing of facets in the global museum with a tag cloud?)

A bit dry, but here's the summary report of the Heritance Request for Comments on the concept of Open Museum Online....

Heritance recently created a preliminary market research survey to gauge interest and gain feedback regarding a proposed Open Museum Online project. Heritance sent an email with a Request for Comments to 104 museum industry professionals who subscribed to Heritance's WEMUP (Weekly MEMber UPdate).

The RFC outlined the concept of OMO and asked recipients for feedback on several aspects of the project: proposed product features, cost to participate, enticements to adoption, and stumbling blocks to adoption. The survey also asked recipients for any additional comments they would like to add. Heritance set a deadline for responses of (date).

25 of the 104 total recipients responded to the survey. 22 respondents answered all the questions in the survey; 3 responded to the email but did not answer some or all of the questions.

Many features of the proposed Open Museum Online product appealed to respondents. The most appealing features to respondents in the survey were the perceived ease of use of the product, its accessibility, the idea of OMO as a venue for collaboration and mentorship, the potential for interaction between museums, and the potential opportunities for younger museum employees to get more involved in planning and creating museum exhibits.

Respondents also expressed multiple concerns about some of OMO's proposed features. Recipients listed 18 different concerns they had about potential OMO features. One respondent was concerned about displaying objects out of the context of the museum; another suggested that the project would require extra work for an already overworked staff. Several respondents worried that a rating system of exhibits could lead to overly negative ratings, making it necessary for museum personnel to expend additional time monitoring the exhibits. Other respondents felt that features were missing, including a 360-degree view or different angled view of objects.

Responses about how much museums would be willing to play for a service like OMO were quite mixed. Several respondents were unable to provide a concrete figure, while others suggested figures ranging from a few hundred dollars to a thousand euros. Others suggested it be a percentage of the museums' marketing budgets, or a sliding scale, and some simply responded with $0.

When asked what they envisioned as the biggest stumbling blocks to adoption, respondents indicated they were concerned about busy staff or lack of staff; lack of time, technical ability, and technology (internet); cost; constraints on creativity and collaborative creating; and the risk of trivializing objects by taking them out of context. Respondents also expressed concerns about copyright, multiple languages and lack of digital material.

When asked what they thought would entice museums to implement OMO, respondents offered several suggestions, including a demonstration of effectiveness with other museums and communities; targeting a larger and different audience, such as younger users and users in different countries; using OMO as an education tool or for curriculum development. Some respondents suggested that ease of use, visual attractiveness, and a working online sample would be enticements for museums to try OMO. Other respondents suggested that the possibilities of interaction between research and professional colleagues would be appealing to museums, as would OMO's use as a marketing tool or working tool for co-curating exhibits, and the idea of contributing to global bank of information on objects.

While respondents have some reservations about aspects of OMO, 20 out of 25 indicated that Heritance should pursue development of OMO. 1 respondent indicated that Heritance should not and 4 were undecided. Based on the positive response to the RFC and subsequent conversations with some respondents, Heritance has decided to proceed with the development of OMO in concert with Zirgoflex, a registered Vermont L3C (designated low-profit) social venture specializing in the design, development, and deployment of web-based products supporting public sphere collaborative content production.

Stories from a Wounded Country: South Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:36:00 +0000

Philippe Denis and Radikobo Ntsimane, announced the release of their new book: Oral History in A Wounded Country: Interactive Interviewing in South Africa, Philippe Denis is professor of History of Christianity and Radikobo Ntsimane is a researcher in Oral History and Religious History, both at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Philippe and Radikobo are collaborators with Heritance on the Mpophomeni Ecomuseum in the former black Township of KwaZulu-Natal. They are respectively the director and the deputy-director of the Sinomlando Centre for Oral History and Memory Work in Africa at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

They write: With the end of apartheid and the exciting, but elusive, advent of a new nation, South Africa is witness to the emergence of a new generation of oral historians whose aim is to develop a broader, more inclusive and culturally sensitive understanding of the South African past. In a country still wounded by a legacy of racial discrimination, the retrieving of oral memories is a task more urgent than ever.

Oral History in a Wounded Country shows how the cultural, political, socio-economic and intellectual evolutions that gave birth to South Africa as we know it today affect the oral history process. It seeks to help practitioners, whether they use oral history as one technique among others to gain a better knowledge of the past, or envisage oral history as an academic discipline in its own right, to reflect critically on their practice and find better ways of handling the interview process. The challenge is to appreciate the complexity of South Africa’s diverse histories, while being attentive to the dynamics of the interview and their effect on both interviewers’ and interviewees’ sense of identity.

The book can be purchased on-line via Kalahari.net and will be available on Amazon.com from the end of October.

Openness in the air

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:46:00 +0000

Although some museum curators and directors fear that technolgy poses a threat to the quality of exhibits and the integrity of the institution, many other museum people see the Web, in particular Web 2.0, as an opportunity to make the museum into a public institution that engages with its environment. Open Museum Practices, including Open Museum Online, are the raison d'être for Heritance. Heritance is not alone. This year dozens of annual museum conferences are focused on technology and its democratizing effects. Here's one such conference and a good explanation of the growing interesting in the Open Museum.

Hidden Treasures for Museum People

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:41:00 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the US National Parks Service has created a clear, simple and comprehensive Museum Handbook that is free and available online. Given that the Parks Service is responsible for the stewardship of hundreds of parks (I stopped counting, when I arrived at "C" in the index and already reached 40 parks), I should have realized sooner that museums, as much as parks, are their core business. They maintain an attractive, but limited because it is static, website , that gives you a feel for the scope and value of the collections in their care. The site carries the somewhat uninspiring name, Museum Management Program that points to a web 1.0 creation whose end ought to be near. I'd love to see this site undertake to engage visitors through the Web 2.0 technology that is available.

Looking back at 1988 Yellowstone Fires

leafandscreen@gmail.com (A.J.) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:55:00 +0000

NPR did an excellent story this week about the 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park and how the media coverage of the fire led to public outrage and misunderstanding.

I'd recommend a listen to anyone who's interested in how public sites of national symbolic significance can be recast depending on the story that gets told and the facts shared.

Listening to the report, I also wondered how the emotionally charged handling of the story at the time created a lasting impression in the American public about the essential meaning of wildfires, and the drama and emotional tone of wildfire stories.

The report is by Liane Hansen and Laura Krantz.

MoOM

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:09:00 +0000

Museum of Online Museums (MoOM), the invention of Coudal Partners, is a hip site that has recently received lots of recognition. As CP recounts on their website:

Tons of new listings and exhibits have been posted for the summer at our Museum of Online Museums. The MoOM was featured on All Things Considered and in the NY Times. It was also selected as one of Time Magazine's 50 Coolest Websites and was discussed on a recent episode of NPR's Hello Beautiful!

MoOM features a variety of exhibits which it groups into three categories "museum campuses" ( linked to "bricks and mortar" institutions), "permanent collection" (of particular interest to design and advertising) and "galleries, exhibitions and shows" (ecclectic and ever-changing). Although a visit to MoOM is worth the detour, it does not permit the full range of visitor participation you might imagine in today's Web 2.0 world where tagging, rating, comments, and reviews are the norm.

Voice Mail Museum, what next?

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:53:00 +0000

How far can museums go with interactivity? Voice mail museum is a nifty experiment in content creation by visitors. Is it just a kooky and creative anomaly or a premonition of the way museum's do exhibits? The popularity of the Brooklyn Museum's exhibit, Click, whose collection consists of photos taken and selected by the public suggests that the latter is highly possible. Even probable. We may be living through what historians will later see as seismic shift in what the public expects and gets out of the museum experience.

NPR Story about Music and Contemporary Art in Houston

leafandscreen@gmail.com (A.J.) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:25:00 +0000

NPR All Things Considered story by Wade Goodwyn highlights the pairing of music and artwork.
(Thanks to Kathy for picking this up)

American Museum - Music Part of Human Origins

leafandscreen@gmail.com (A.J.) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:25:00 +0000

At the Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, there's a section on the origins of music. I hope to check it out soon.

Music and Museums

leafandscreen@gmail.com (A.J.) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:24:00 +0000

One part of culture that I feel that museums struggle to represent is
music. You might say - but music isn't meant for museums! It's meant
for concert halls, stages, cafes and venues of all kinds, but not the
dry silence of a museum. (It is kind of striking how it seems
everywhere you go - the grocery store, old navy, the elevator, the
dentist, Wal-mart, a soundtrack is pumping out, but museums are usually
dead quiet).

Cleveland's Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame tried to find a way to show and
represent music history, with mixed results. It's been criticized for
being overly commercial and vapid, and the building an eyesore.

A couple years ago I visited the Morgan Library and Museum in New
York, and on the top floor was an exhibition of priceless original
musical scores - the original handwritten sheet music by famous composers.
What the curators did was pair these scores with recordings and
headphones of the music performed by orchestras, so you could listen
and follow along. In some cases you could listen to several versions. There's something thrilling about getting inside the mind of a composer by seeing his handwritten notes and hearing the
music simultaneously.

How do you imagine music could be represented in a museum?
Take our poll on the left-handside of the page !

News from the Georgian Daily

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:31:00 +0000

A link to news from Georgia.

Petition by Secretariat of the Georgia Symposium on the Arts

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:43:00 +0000

The Secretariat of the International Symposium of Georgian Art has sent the following request to sign their petition:

Dear Friends--this is the least we can do to stop the Old Soviet
Monster, the Russian Military Complex, to pour on Georgia its hatred
towards the West, the US and the whole civilized world and its
democratic values.

Please sign this petition and send it to as many people as
possible. It's up to you to support and protect Georgia's
integrity.

Statement to Russia from ICOM Poland

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:40:00 +0000

A copy of the letter to ICOM by the Chair of ICOM Poland:

Dear Allisandra, Ms. President of ICOM,

The Polish Committee of ICOM is terrified by the Georgia war. For the next time we are faced with unreasonable, cold aggression which destroys not only human beings, but many of splendid culture places. I must express my impression that we all - the members of ICOM should immediately react and help Georgian people to secure their museums, culture places, architecture. I think we all ICOM members should claim to both presidents of Russia and Georgia to stop destructions. Please take under consideration our proposition.

With kind regards,

DOROTA FOLGA JANUSZEWSKA
Chair ICOM Poland
JANOWSKIEGO 8, 05-082 STARE BABICE, POLAND
+48 22 7330489; +48 696 048 780

Georgians on their own against the Russians

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:42:00 +0000

Georgia, "the darling of the west", has been the recipient of much international aid and investment, as well as special attention from the US administration, most recently by a visit from Condoleezza Rice. And yet no country is likely to respond to the Russian invasion with more than a "tsk tsk".

It's not a question of failing to join NATO either. Even if Georgia had been admitted, as the US administration wanted, it's hard to believe that NATO would have responded with force. Among other concerns, Moscow is a short flight to Berlin, the Russians have a hand on the valve to Europe's natural gas pipeline and everyone knows that US military and public don't have the bandwidth to enter any new arenas. The Russians further sealed Georgia's fate by timing the invasion while the world was distracted by the Beijing Olympics and the final months of the US presidential race.

It seems to me that Georgia is on their own against the Russians.

Here is what some Georgians have to say about the situation in a plea for the world to respond:

Sacred and Secret Heritage: The diversity and sensitivities of African cultural traditions: A personal view

noreply@blogger.com (Maureen) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:50:00 +0000

by Helene Vollgraaff
Heritance Participating Professional and Secretary of the South Africa ICOM

The South African Museums Association (SAMA) 72nd National Conference took place from 24 – 26 June 2008 in Cape Town and included a special session on Diversity and the Role of Museums organised by ICOM-SA. The conference was well attended by just over 140 delegates. This report is a personal view and does not reflect the full discussion at the conference. The conference proceedings will be published by the South African Museums Associations.

Despite the theme, the discussions at the debate at the conference focused on identity issues, access and power relationships. As Professor Crain Soudien, the facilitator of the wrap-up session put it, the conference dealt with the pressing issues facing South Africa in every sphere today. In some ways, the debate mirrored discussions around xenophobia and the brand of African nationalism associated with the current South African government.

A controversial perspective, but one not without significant support, is the opinion that defines “authentic Africa” as “black Africa”. This definition of African excludes people from European and Asian descent, many of whose roots on the continent date to the 17th century. While not explicitly stated, it also excludes the descendents of the first inhabitants of the country, namely the Khoisan. This view of the “authentic African tradition” considers other influences as a foreign corruption of the “authentic” and sees the museum as having the task of conserving and documenting this “authentic” version in cooperation with the gatekeepers of these traditions. One speaker cautioned the delegates to focus on their own culture as one cannot fully understand the traditions of the “other”.

Though no serious heritage practioner will argue against a process of informed consultation with community members and respect for traditional structures, the above perspective does raise serious concerns. Are traditions static or should one accept that living in a globalised world will influence traditions and that adapting to these influences is as valid as changes in previous centuries? And, how do one deal with discriminatory traditional practices, for example against women? Is respect for traditional practices not sometimes used to continue with these discriminatory practices and to affirm the position of those already in power?

An interesting paper in this regard was that of Paul Tichmann of the Luthuli Museum. The Luthuli Museum honours the life of Chief Albert Luthuli (1898-1967), a former ANC President and South Africa’s first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Luthuli, Chief of the Grooutville Umvoti Mission Reserve, challenged discriminatory traditional systems by allowing women into the kgotla. The kgotla is the centre of political power and decision-making in traditional African societies and women are still excluded from this powerful arena. Luthuli thereby indicated that these traditions may be challenged and adapted to conform to contemporary human rights values. The main thrust of Tichmann’s paper was that the Luthuli Museum uses the value system of Chief Luthuli to address contemporary social problems such as the recent xenophobic attacks.

Paul Tichmann’s paper was also one of the contributions that put a South African twist on the meaning of the sacred. Does sacred imply a religious site or can a site of significant political meaning also considered to be sacred? Another paper in this regard is that of Sabine Marshall of the University of KwaZulu-Natal whose paper dealt with two museums on the site of the Battle of Blood River (1836). The Battle of Blood River between the Voortrekkers and the local Zulus has been a significant symbol within African nationalism for many years. The two museums gave opposing views of the battle and Blood River is a clear example of a site that is sacred (in the political sense) to a section of one ethnic group, but has little relevance to the rest of South Africans. Marshall argued that the existence of two museums, a strategy that has been duplicated elsewhere, does provide a workable solution in respecting diversity in the country as it acknowledges that sites/events may have different meanings to different sections of the South African population.

Another theme that ran through the conference was that of museums as agents of social change (to borrow the phrase from ICOM). The keynotes to the ICOM-SA session, Kurt Dewhurst, Marsha McDowell and Diana N’Diaye urged museums to measure their success not in outputs, but in terms of the impact they have on society. My own paper, Depicting Religions: The Iziko Bo-Kaap Museum as case study, argued that religions are diverse and one always have to make choices of which viewpoint will be emphasised. Though these choices should be informed by thorough research and an understanding of the dynamics of the community, it will also be informed by your own values – in the case of Out and About Muslim Women Today, support for gender equality (a viewpoint that have strong support amongst Muslims in Cape Town).

During the wrap-up session, it was argued that museums should not only reflect cultural traditions, but critically engage with them. It was also argue that people are relational beings – we know ourselves through interaction with the “other”, including people of other cultures. Museums do not only play a role in creating understanding between different cultures, but also by focusing on which values are shared across cultures. In his wrap-up, Prof Crain Soudien urged museums to be bold and to become active participants in public debate.

Traditional Dance in Adjara, Georgia

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:46:00 +0000

During our visit to the Gonio Fortress at Batumi (on the Black Sea near the border with Turkey) we were treated to a performance of polyphonic singing and traditional dance.