The conversation
What are the challenges for museums in addressing contemporary conflicts?
Dear Stuart: Imperial War Museums (IWM) has addressed conflicts in Afghanistan, the Middle East and against Isis in recent years. There are many challenges in doing this, but it is vital for museums to add depth to the events we read about in headlines. Today’s conflicts are constantly developing, so an element of flexibility is important to prevent exhibition content and interpretation from instantly outdating. Access to serving military personnel requires a relationship with the Ministry of Defence and there is a need to balance its requirements for security against the needs of a museum’s collection. Service personnel often carry digital cameras and phones, making digital content more prevalent, but this material can have a short shelf-life, so proactive collecting is crucial.
Best wishes, Matt
Dear Matt: Visitor responses to recent National War Museum exhibitions about contemporary conflicts confirm an appetite for interpretation in this area. The challenges include avoiding conclusive statements and value judgments about evolving situations without appearing anodyne, an especially delicate task when representing participating forces for which we do not speak directly. The use of an interpretive intermediary – in our case the work of an official war artist offering an individual and subjective viewpoint – has been one successful approach.
Best wishes, Stuart
Dear Stuart: Collecting items related to contemporary conflicts for the long term is vital, as well as curating displays that engage visitors while these events are still front-page news. IWM launched its ongoing Contemporary Conflicts Programme in 2009 with both aspects in mind. Museums can add valuable context to contemporary conflicts. IWM’s collections range from the first world war to the present, allowing us to present recent wars in their wider context. But for visitors most familiar with the two world wars, the unconventional warfare and counter- insurgency operations of recent times are hugely different. So communicating complex events as clearly as possible is vital.
Best wishes, Matt
Dear Matt: Similarly, visitors will often have an awareness of the political complexities surrounding contemporary conflict that has become lost from popular memory of earlier wars. Thinking about serving individuals, the things they use, and the things they keep in memory of the experience, might be different in form, but are often similar in function to the military material culture of the past. As such, they link back to earlier collections and displays, and can aid understanding of earlier conflicts – including in those parts of the world where British forces have recently been engaged.
Best wishes, Stuart
Dear Stuart: The perspective of the individual who has donated collections material can be vital for interpretation. With contemporary conflicts, we often interpret objects using the donors’ words and voices. This has added immediacy and placed the emphasis on first-hand experience, lessening the need for a definitive museum voice on events that are still unfolding.
Best wishes, Matt
Dear Matt: And therein lies the beauty of contemporary collecting. Unlike IWM, we have not sought to build up archives of oral testimony, but in selecting contemporary objects, we have the chance to ask donors questions about the context in which they were used or acquired, and preserve the memories attached to them. We wish we could ask such questions about objects from earlier centuries.
Best wishes, Stuart
Best wishes, Matt
Dear Matt: Visitor responses to recent National War Museum exhibitions about contemporary conflicts confirm an appetite for interpretation in this area. The challenges include avoiding conclusive statements and value judgments about evolving situations without appearing anodyne, an especially delicate task when representing participating forces for which we do not speak directly. The use of an interpretive intermediary – in our case the work of an official war artist offering an individual and subjective viewpoint – has been one successful approach.
Best wishes, Stuart
Dear Stuart: Collecting items related to contemporary conflicts for the long term is vital, as well as curating displays that engage visitors while these events are still front-page news. IWM launched its ongoing Contemporary Conflicts Programme in 2009 with both aspects in mind. Museums can add valuable context to contemporary conflicts. IWM’s collections range from the first world war to the present, allowing us to present recent wars in their wider context. But for visitors most familiar with the two world wars, the unconventional warfare and counter- insurgency operations of recent times are hugely different. So communicating complex events as clearly as possible is vital.
Best wishes, Matt
Dear Matt: Similarly, visitors will often have an awareness of the political complexities surrounding contemporary conflict that has become lost from popular memory of earlier wars. Thinking about serving individuals, the things they use, and the things they keep in memory of the experience, might be different in form, but are often similar in function to the military material culture of the past. As such, they link back to earlier collections and displays, and can aid understanding of earlier conflicts – including in those parts of the world where British forces have recently been engaged.
Best wishes, Stuart
Dear Stuart: The perspective of the individual who has donated collections material can be vital for interpretation. With contemporary conflicts, we often interpret objects using the donors’ words and voices. This has added immediacy and placed the emphasis on first-hand experience, lessening the need for a definitive museum voice on events that are still unfolding.
Best wishes, Matt
Dear Matt: And therein lies the beauty of contemporary collecting. Unlike IWM, we have not sought to build up archives of oral testimony, but in selecting contemporary objects, we have the chance to ask donors questions about the context in which they were used or acquired, and preserve the memories attached to them. We wish we could ask such questions about objects from earlier centuries.
Best wishes, Stuart