Sacred objects as image enhancement
Upholding the significance of a particular value an artefact is seen to have while it remains in a museum collection is surely problematic, as Moira Simpson observes in Standing on Ceremony (Museums Journal October 2005, p14-15).
The perception of such objects is altered the moment they are taken from their original location into a collection. The approach to curation outlined in the article is surely based on the assumption that a curatorial interpretation of an artefact is an appropriate way to acknowledge its status. Even if there is consultation with a 'source culture', an object's meaning can only ever be an interpretation within a museum.
Museums by their very existence can never capture the true essence of an object, but they can offer a version of that status in terms of explanation and illustration. They could therefore could be accused of adopting a patronising stance toward so called 'source communities'.
Meaning shifts from context to context, and I would argue that entry into a museum collection is an extreme change which cancels any possibility of suitably capturing original essence. An attempt to apply a set of values, as suggested, will always have an element of curatorial judgement which will skew or taint the essence of the object.
Joshua Reynolds, the first president of the Royal Academy, instilled painting, particularly portraiture, with classical values and references. This was done in order to raise the status and value of the artist within society, rather than as a direct appreciation of classicism.
I believe that the approach to curation described in the article could be seen in a similar light. Museums could be accused of adopting this stance in order to enhance their politically-correct credentials, and in the current social/political landscape this equates to a measure of enhanced value and status.
James Higgins, Glasgow
We are still open
Following Louise Gray's article on the Petrie Museum's Panoptiscope installation (Museums Journal November 2005, p41), readers should note that the museum is still open! We are due to close on a temporary basis in 2008 and will reopen in a new home called the Panopticon in 2010.
Hugh Kilmister, acting manager, Petrie Museum
Stars and swipes
Platypus asks reprovingly, how can astronomers know that there are more stars in the Universe than grains of sand in all the beaches on Earth? (Museums Journal November 2005, p65). Easy. They use observation, mathematics and statistics.
In fact, it turns out there are 10 times more stars in the visible universe than all the grains of sand on earth - a number in the region of 70 sextillion, or seven followed by 22 zeros. Professor Mark Brake, who delivered the analogy Platypus referred to, was being conservative.
Mario Di Maggio, Planetarium manager, Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum
Feeble courses raise false hopes
Derek Janes is quite right that a decent, and decently-paid, job in a museum has always been hard to get (Museums Journal October 2005, p13).
But he is wrong to say that nothing has changed since he started work in the profession 36 years ago. What has changed is the nature of the training available and the rise and rise of the postgraduate museum studies course.
Many of these courses are very good but there are now far too many of them, producing a large surplus of graduates and this has the cruel effect of causing people to waste their lives looking for paid work that simply does not exist.
A national review is required and the weaker courses should be closed down, curtailed or, at the very least, forced to stop promoting themselves as vocational without a detailed explanation of just how unvocational they can turn out to be. Training without a job at the end of it is not really training at all.
Adam White, curator, Lotherton Hall, Leeds Museums and Galleries
Their Past… your future audiences
How disappointing that A Lost Battle (Museums Journal October 2005, p38-39) does not do justice to the UK-wide initiative, Their Past Your Future (TPYF).
Here in Scotland TPYF continues to be a resounding success, with thousands of people, young and old, participating in a large number of innovative and celebratory initiatives. One of our six lead regional partners, South Lanarkshire, reported over 9,000 visitors exploring the exhibition in East Kilbride, with many more participating in associated events in the region.
This is the first project of this kind the Imperial War Museum (IWM) has run - ambitious if you take into account nine exhibitions simultaneously touring four countries, comprising 70 venues in total. That the content must appeal to visitors of all ages and spark interest in a number of different locations (town hall, arts centre, military barracks, museum) demonstrates just what a huge undertaking this is.
Throughout Scotland, primary school pupils have become 'War Detectives' and are currently producing projects telling the story of the second world war in their area.
Each partner in TPYF Scotland also receives an outreach kit, developed by the IWM, which focuses on four main themes that are covered in the exhibition: the impact of war on individuals and their families, on places and landscapes and on society in the long term, and how and why we remember the second world war.
These themes appeal to those who lived during the war and those who are learning about it for the first time.
We have had an overwhelmingly upbeat response to the initiative in Scotland, with many successful events, including talks and lectures, exhibitions, museum visits, sing-songs, and film nights, to name but a few.
These have prompted substantial and positive press coverage on almost a weekly basis, and we continue to be impressed by the inventiveness and creativity of those involved. If everyone showed the defeatist attitude of Caroline Worthington in her article, initiatives such as this would never get off the ground.
Joanne Orr, director, Scottish Museums Council
I saw Their Past Your Future twice - at the Forum in Norwich, where the exhibition was simply set up in a public space, and at the Wolsey Art Gallery, Ipswich. Here the display was considerably enhanced by a local dimension - artefacts from the town's own wartime history and a series of activities for everyone from the young to older people from residential homes.
As it was in school holidays, children and parents were targeted with great success. Many visitors had childhood wartime reminiscences. There was even a Dig for Victory garden.
The team at Ipswich Museums Service, including Ruth Gillan, the community studies project officer, made outstanding use of the basic exhibition, and on a shoestring budget. What a pity Caroline Worthington did not see it in Ipswich.
Alan Swerdlow, vice-president, Friends of the Ipswich Museums
Croydon Museum and Heritage Service managed and facilitated the Their Past Your Future exhibition during its run at the Whitgift Shopping Centre, Croydon. Staff from the museum service and the shopping centre management consider the exhibition an unqualified success.
During its four-week run the exhibition lured over 12,000 visitors away from the pursuit of designer bargains. The diversity of age and cultural background of visitors to the exhibition was far more in line with local demographics than we could have hoped to achieve if we had hosted the exhibition in our own Clocktower galleries.
The review missed the point - the exhibition has been designed as a starting point for venues to develop their own emphasis and tell their own stories, although I agree that it is sad that the exhibition does not include a German's story.
Tam Wragge, exhibitions manager, Croydon Museum and Heritage Service
Their Past Your Future was by no means perfect, but it had to be accessible to a wide age range, from primary school pupils to those who had lived through the second world war, and might have ended up failing to please either audience.
However, of the 7,405 visitors who visited the exhibition not one made an adverse comment to that effect. The muted colours made rather less visual impact than I expected and the object curtains didn't do much for me either.
But the outreach programmes are the main point. Each hosting venue receives £16,000 for these. With the training and very good marketing support, this meant that we could make the exhibition the centrepiece of a range of displays and activities, with an increase of 155 per cent in our visitor figures.
TPYF may lack the aesthetic appeal of a Spitfire but, like the Hawker Hurricane, the whole package was very definitely 'fit for purpose'.
Stephen Irwin, education officer, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
While the Museum of London may have set its version of TPYF adrift within its huge atrium area, at Tullie House in Carlisle we sited the tent-like structure in the centre of our main gallery.
Around the outside walls we placed cases of artefacts and images relating to Carlisle and North Cumbria during the second world war, along with a manned area dedicated to interactive activities.
While it might have been possible to research and devise an entire second world war show ourselves, TPYF not only saved us huge amounts of time and resources, but also came with funding for outreach projects that brought new audiences into contact with the museum.
Matthew Constantine, keeper of social history, Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle
Upholding the significance of a particular value an artefact is seen to have while it remains in a museum collection is surely problematic, as Moira Simpson observes in Standing on Ceremony (Museums Journal October 2005, p14-15).
The perception of such objects is altered the moment they are taken from their original location into a collection. The approach to curation outlined in the article is surely based on the assumption that a curatorial interpretation of an artefact is an appropriate way to acknowledge its status. Even if there is consultation with a 'source culture', an object's meaning can only ever be an interpretation within a museum.
Museums by their very existence can never capture the true essence of an object, but they can offer a version of that status in terms of explanation and illustration. They could therefore could be accused of adopting a patronising stance toward so called 'source communities'.
Meaning shifts from context to context, and I would argue that entry into a museum collection is an extreme change which cancels any possibility of suitably capturing original essence. An attempt to apply a set of values, as suggested, will always have an element of curatorial judgement which will skew or taint the essence of the object.
Joshua Reynolds, the first president of the Royal Academy, instilled painting, particularly portraiture, with classical values and references. This was done in order to raise the status and value of the artist within society, rather than as a direct appreciation of classicism.
I believe that the approach to curation described in the article could be seen in a similar light. Museums could be accused of adopting this stance in order to enhance their politically-correct credentials, and in the current social/political landscape this equates to a measure of enhanced value and status.
James Higgins, Glasgow
We are still open
Following Louise Gray's article on the Petrie Museum's Panoptiscope installation (Museums Journal November 2005, p41), readers should note that the museum is still open! We are due to close on a temporary basis in 2008 and will reopen in a new home called the Panopticon in 2010.
Hugh Kilmister, acting manager, Petrie Museum
Stars and swipes
Platypus asks reprovingly, how can astronomers know that there are more stars in the Universe than grains of sand in all the beaches on Earth? (Museums Journal November 2005, p65). Easy. They use observation, mathematics and statistics.
In fact, it turns out there are 10 times more stars in the visible universe than all the grains of sand on earth - a number in the region of 70 sextillion, or seven followed by 22 zeros. Professor Mark Brake, who delivered the analogy Platypus referred to, was being conservative.
Mario Di Maggio, Planetarium manager, Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum
Feeble courses raise false hopes
Derek Janes is quite right that a decent, and decently-paid, job in a museum has always been hard to get (Museums Journal October 2005, p13).
But he is wrong to say that nothing has changed since he started work in the profession 36 years ago. What has changed is the nature of the training available and the rise and rise of the postgraduate museum studies course.
Many of these courses are very good but there are now far too many of them, producing a large surplus of graduates and this has the cruel effect of causing people to waste their lives looking for paid work that simply does not exist.
A national review is required and the weaker courses should be closed down, curtailed or, at the very least, forced to stop promoting themselves as vocational without a detailed explanation of just how unvocational they can turn out to be. Training without a job at the end of it is not really training at all.
Adam White, curator, Lotherton Hall, Leeds Museums and Galleries
Their Past… your future audiences
How disappointing that A Lost Battle (Museums Journal October 2005, p38-39) does not do justice to the UK-wide initiative, Their Past Your Future (TPYF).
Here in Scotland TPYF continues to be a resounding success, with thousands of people, young and old, participating in a large number of innovative and celebratory initiatives. One of our six lead regional partners, South Lanarkshire, reported over 9,000 visitors exploring the exhibition in East Kilbride, with many more participating in associated events in the region.
This is the first project of this kind the Imperial War Museum (IWM) has run - ambitious if you take into account nine exhibitions simultaneously touring four countries, comprising 70 venues in total. That the content must appeal to visitors of all ages and spark interest in a number of different locations (town hall, arts centre, military barracks, museum) demonstrates just what a huge undertaking this is.
Throughout Scotland, primary school pupils have become 'War Detectives' and are currently producing projects telling the story of the second world war in their area.
Each partner in TPYF Scotland also receives an outreach kit, developed by the IWM, which focuses on four main themes that are covered in the exhibition: the impact of war on individuals and their families, on places and landscapes and on society in the long term, and how and why we remember the second world war.
These themes appeal to those who lived during the war and those who are learning about it for the first time.
We have had an overwhelmingly upbeat response to the initiative in Scotland, with many successful events, including talks and lectures, exhibitions, museum visits, sing-songs, and film nights, to name but a few.
These have prompted substantial and positive press coverage on almost a weekly basis, and we continue to be impressed by the inventiveness and creativity of those involved. If everyone showed the defeatist attitude of Caroline Worthington in her article, initiatives such as this would never get off the ground.
Joanne Orr, director, Scottish Museums Council
I saw Their Past Your Future twice - at the Forum in Norwich, where the exhibition was simply set up in a public space, and at the Wolsey Art Gallery, Ipswich. Here the display was considerably enhanced by a local dimension - artefacts from the town's own wartime history and a series of activities for everyone from the young to older people from residential homes.
As it was in school holidays, children and parents were targeted with great success. Many visitors had childhood wartime reminiscences. There was even a Dig for Victory garden.
The team at Ipswich Museums Service, including Ruth Gillan, the community studies project officer, made outstanding use of the basic exhibition, and on a shoestring budget. What a pity Caroline Worthington did not see it in Ipswich.
Alan Swerdlow, vice-president, Friends of the Ipswich Museums
Croydon Museum and Heritage Service managed and facilitated the Their Past Your Future exhibition during its run at the Whitgift Shopping Centre, Croydon. Staff from the museum service and the shopping centre management consider the exhibition an unqualified success.
During its four-week run the exhibition lured over 12,000 visitors away from the pursuit of designer bargains. The diversity of age and cultural background of visitors to the exhibition was far more in line with local demographics than we could have hoped to achieve if we had hosted the exhibition in our own Clocktower galleries.
The review missed the point - the exhibition has been designed as a starting point for venues to develop their own emphasis and tell their own stories, although I agree that it is sad that the exhibition does not include a German's story.
Tam Wragge, exhibitions manager, Croydon Museum and Heritage Service
Their Past Your Future was by no means perfect, but it had to be accessible to a wide age range, from primary school pupils to those who had lived through the second world war, and might have ended up failing to please either audience.
However, of the 7,405 visitors who visited the exhibition not one made an adverse comment to that effect. The muted colours made rather less visual impact than I expected and the object curtains didn't do much for me either.
But the outreach programmes are the main point. Each hosting venue receives £16,000 for these. With the training and very good marketing support, this meant that we could make the exhibition the centrepiece of a range of displays and activities, with an increase of 155 per cent in our visitor figures.
TPYF may lack the aesthetic appeal of a Spitfire but, like the Hawker Hurricane, the whole package was very definitely 'fit for purpose'.
Stephen Irwin, education officer, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
While the Museum of London may have set its version of TPYF adrift within its huge atrium area, at Tullie House in Carlisle we sited the tent-like structure in the centre of our main gallery.
Around the outside walls we placed cases of artefacts and images relating to Carlisle and North Cumbria during the second world war, along with a manned area dedicated to interactive activities.
While it might have been possible to research and devise an entire second world war show ourselves, TPYF not only saved us huge amounts of time and resources, but also came with funding for outreach projects that brought new audiences into contact with the museum.
Matthew Constantine, keeper of social history, Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle
