Museums and Stuff

New Museum Podcast: Queering Museums

A new podcast began in February to mark LGBTQ+ month and is seeking to give an insight into the different way that LGBTQ+ museum workers and people in related fields are changing and shaping museum practice and museums themselves.

In it's first week, Queering Museums focused on not only the importance of telling queer histories in museums to address how they have long been ignored or silenced, but also the how important it is for young people and the LGBTQ+ community to see their history represented, as well as the different ways that museums and museum professionals are trying to do it.   

Each episode features interviews with people from different museums, the project doesn’t limit itself to a particular project or approach. This includes Margaret Middleton who talks about the importance of language, including the family friendly language, that makes space for children from families in all their shapes and constellations (see poster below). Their is also a discussion about how the stories and objects are often already there in museums collections, but have been hidden or obscured by euphemism (great example given about soldiers in the American Civil War). It’s also great to hear from people who work in “less obvious” positions in the museum infrastructure, or those discussing the ways that different types of museum approach the the topics (e.g. Episode 3 when talking about science museums and centres). 

Margaret Middleton’s poster summary of family friendly language, buy it here.

The podcast quality is great and the production is slick, which makes it a pleasure to listen to. You can download it via iTunes, listen on Soundcloud or sign up using the podcast app of your choice. And don’t forget to follow their profile on Twitter and those of the masterminds behind the project: Sacha Coward, Russell Dornan and Shaun O’Boyle. 

Current Episodes: 

Related reading, projects and exhibitions:

QueeringTheMuseum.org An online resource that states: “We focus on museums due to their ability to shape and define the communities in which we live. QTM believes that museums have a responsibility to account for the role played in constructing normalized ideas of race, gender and sexuality.”

Never Going Underground exhibition at the People’s History Museums in Manchester, opened last week by Ian McKellen and telling the history of the figt for LGBTQ+ rights. 

The National Trust’s page on Exploring LGBTQ history at their sites. An interesting looks at how the LGBTQ+ stories become hidden or obscured, but not all are lost forever. Working together with Leicester School of Museum Studies to create a legacy from the 2017 anniversary of partial decriminalisation. 

Historic England’s Pride of Place project has a list of aims and objectives, not least - as the body that administers listed buildings in the UK - "nominate buildings or landscapes for consideration for local heritage listing on the basis of their significance to LGBTQ histories”.     A blogpost by the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand about their LGBTIQ+ collections and their importance in making the histories visible. 

The National Archive’s page on the Queer City project. 

If you know of any other resources, projects, podcasts or websites that you think should be inclided, get in touch. 

Listen here

Heritage Day, Vienna

Tomorrow, 25th December, is Tag des Denkmals (Heritage Day) throughout Austria. It’s a day when museums, heritage locations, libraries and more come together to show visitors behind-the-scenes aspects of the work they do, things that are normally off-limits of hidden gems. The day is organised by Austria’s Federal Monuments Authority as part of a joint, Europe-wide initiative from the EU and Council of Europe. This year's theme is "Together on the move”.

Barbara Neubauer, Chief Executive of the Federal Monuments Authority Austria

Some activities do require that you book ahead of time, so be sure to check the online programme. Whilst activities will be taking place through all nine of Austria’s states, here’s a quick round up of what is on offer in Vienna.   

Museum-related

Jewish Museum Vienna - Dorotheergasse  Themed tours through the permanent exhibition „Unsere Stadt“, looking at the ways Jewish people have lived and moved through the city. Don’t miss: The founder of modern political Zionism Theodor Herzl’s bike. Booking required.

The Austrian National Library’s Globe Museum, Herrengasse

The Globe Museum in Vienna is a one-of-a-kind place. Special guided tours looking at how the impulse of people over time to explore the limits of knowledge through travel and the intense Wanderlust that has let to discovery and adventure. Don’t miss: the astronomical instruments that helped paved the way for space travel.   

Austrian National Library’s Ceremonial Room (Prunksaal) Josefplatz

This year is the 100th anniversary of the death of Emperor Franz Josef and several exhibitions are commemorating the event by looking at different facets of the life of Austria’s longest-serving monarch. Photography and his sheer longevity means that his life is illustrated by more than state documents and official portraits.  A special guided tour through the exhibition „The Eternal Emperor“ looks at the Franz Josef’s life and reign from the perspective of his travels and state visits. 

Prunksaal in the Austrian National Library, Vienna

Honorable mention

Stephansdom, Stefansplatz

Vienna’s most famous building, St Stephan’s Cathedral, is offering tours looking at the reconstruction of the roof after the Second World War, which became a symbol of the reconstruction of Austria during the period. Includes access to areas visitors aren’t normally able to visit.

Studying museum studies has helped me become the architect of my own museum visits. I ask myself questions before, during and after my visit that change the way I interact with exhibitions and what I take home. Studying museums means that you never have a bad museum experience. Actually, you can have a bad museum experience, but you can't have a useless one. Rather than just disliking something, you reflect on why an exhibition is boring for you, what you would do differently and ask yourself why has been done like that?

One of my pet hates in a museum is small objects that can only be viewed from one angle. Not only do I want to have a good look at the object in question, but I don't want to feel like I'm in someone else's way, or holding them up. It's not only a matter of how well I can see the object, it's a crowd and flow issue. Why have the curators decided that this is the best place to put this? Is it due to narrative? Security issues? Conservation matters? Did they not expect this many people to come??

So here are the very broad questions that buzz around my head during museums visits:

When visiting museums, what are the questions you ask yourself? What have I missed that you always have in mind when visiting exhibitions?

Photo was taken in the Sherlock Holmes exhibition at the Museum of London

A twitter call out for more museum multimedia content online saw @l_brasseur (thanks!) suggest two Luxembourger institutions that have gallery talks, artist interview, exhiibition trailers and the such.

1. Casino Luxembourg (above)

2. MUDAM

The project is designed in such a way that people have to actively engage in order to vote in order to weed out "passive observers and careless voters", their reaction cannot be an instant one as they must first consider several examples. The project is based on a previous exhibition which asked people to rate photographs online. Statistics showed that participation by some people went beyond a passing engagement of a few minutes. Some people were spending up to three hours rating photographs and investing their time. 

Nina Simon's book is described as "a practical guide to working with community members and visitors to make cultural institutions more dynamic, relevant, essential places", and is available either to buy, or as a free online resource. 

Elaine Heumann Gurian reviewed it, writing:

If you want a short introduction to what Nina Simon means by "Participatory Museum", there is a video on her YouTube channel. 

From the Telegraph:

For further information from the National Portrait Gallery itself, click here. 

As mentioned in the previous post, I've whipped up a little poll as an experiment in reader participation. I want to pick your brains about what you like about museums, what really ticks you off and what you would like to see more of. 

There are but six very general questions, none of them are compulsory. Fill in what you want, leave what you think is none of my darned business. 

And if you feel like it, reblog! If enough people respond, I will write an entry rounding up the results and responding to questions (don't want to faff around with a questionnaire? There's an 'ask me anything' link on the website, feel free!) and of course, all tips and feedback will be taken on board.

Exhibition text from the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, SA. From Sociological Images blog here.

Via Nerdgasms

What can I say? This is both uplifting and depressing in it's own ways. Uplifting, because it makes me feel less alone and my difficulties are part of a larger trend. depressing because it describes the problem, but doesn't really offer much hope for the way out.

The Czech National Museum presides over Wenceslas Square in Prague and stands as a symbol in Czech history, beyond the collections contained within. 

The facade of the building has lighter  areas - patched up bullet holes from the Warsaw Pact troops in 1969 and memorial set into the pavement where national hero Jan Palach fell, having set himself on fire in protest against those same troops.  I have no idea how non-museos feel about this museum, about how people who enter the museum as something to tick off a list: 'Prague - fortress, check. Josefov, check. Museum of some description...' would feel about this museum. I was fascinated.  The museum displays are undoubtedly old and outdated. I saw not a single interactive, no new media, no modern lighting techniques, most galleries contained text only in Czech. In short, the museum was like it had stopped in time (presumably around about 1993, when they switched labels referring to Czechoslovakia to labels referring to Czech Republic and Slovakia). The comprehensive geological collection is presented 'as is', beautiful dark wooden cases display row upon row, room upon room of geological specimen along with their name and location where they were found. You marvel at the colours, hues, shapes and visual properties of the various minerals, but with no interpretation. What does this mean for me, beyond now knowing that such things exist? The prehistory section was enjoyable, but that too comes with a caveat. I loved explaining what the archaeological objects were to Wolfgang (who humours me and probably knows a good chunk of it anyway) and how I could tell, in lieu of more than cursory description in English (and it also looked quite scant for Czech speakers too). There was a mixture of original artefacts and reproductions and the makings of what could have been a really informative exhibitions and nice overview of Czech prehistory, just rather uninspiringly laid out in glass vitrines along a wall, grey or beige. I really liked the anthropology section which had lots of skeletons, and descriptions (in Czech!) about the differences between males and female skeletons and aging techniques such as dental eruption and epiphysial fusion. But again, it's only accessible if you speak Czech, or have an (over-)enthusiastic Temperance Brennan wannabe (five years post archaeology graduation, which meant much of what was said was prefaced with, "now, I think...")  Now, to be entirely fair there is a new section of the museum in a different building, but we didn't make it that far. It seems strange that with the collection they have and the fantastic building it is housed in, that they would start on a new building and leave the old one to ossify at the main site.  Has anyone seen it? What did they think?

"Let's say you work at an organization that mostly caters to a middle and upper-class, white audience. Let's say you have a sincere interest in reaching and working with more ethnically, racially, and economically diverse audiences. What does it take to make that happen?"

Via @museummedia on twitter:

"On top of the country's Devil and Witch museums, Lithuania will soon have an Angel museum in Anyksciai.

The new museum will add to the country's huge range of minature museums.

The museum, which opens on July 22, will have an opening collection of over 100 items. The initial collection of the museum was donated by a former Lithuanian in exile who returned home after the country gained independence.

The angel donor, Beatricė Kleizaitė-Vasaris, believes that the museum will help offset the devil museum in Kaunas.

The museum has already seen some interest and development. It has a display area of 180 square metres and has funding from the local government for 150,000 litas (43,000 euros)."

BBC News reports on the largest exhibition ever assembled of mummiess opening in Los Angeles. Words could not do justice to how much I would love to see this exhibition.