I couldn’t have been the only one to notice the irony of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) hosting the excellent three-day conference From the Margins to the Core, given the historical marginalisation of its African collections (see link below for more on the V&A’s view of Africa).
The international-facing conference was broad in its speakers and content, looking at the increasing significance of diversity and equality in museum and heritage policy and practice. It was an exciting three days with an air of open discussion and new voices – elements often missing at many museum and heritage conferences.
Mark O’Neill, director of policy, research and development at Culture and Sport Glasgow and one of the speakers, made the point that temporary exhibitions are often seen as outside of the “pure knowledge” of the general museum.
Any attempts to put this right should be done in the physical space of the museum, and not digitally or online – areas that are seen as an add on and not core to the museum. As much as we may think the web is the future – and the future is now – the physical and the tangible still reign supreme.
At the V&A, an Africa Curators’ Group has been formed to find a way forward to display the 3,600 items dating back to the fifth century discovered in its collection. Early on in the conference there was said to be “talk” of an African gallery. And it was revealed that in December last year, V&A director Mark Jones had mentioned this at a public event.
But it was all just talk. The V&A has decided that its African collections are best addressed by a web-based project that will focus on 20th-century and contemporary design, graphic arts and performance arts “to play to its established strengths”.
And what will happen to the ancient and historical material that the museum holds? There were excuses such as “there is no obvious space at the moment” and there can’t be an African gallery “without substantial justification”. Well, isn’t the need, and I would hope desire, to redress the balance justification enough?
Too slight a regard, Museums Journal June 2007, p16
The international-facing conference was broad in its speakers and content, looking at the increasing significance of diversity and equality in museum and heritage policy and practice. It was an exciting three days with an air of open discussion and new voices – elements often missing at many museum and heritage conferences.
Mark O’Neill, director of policy, research and development at Culture and Sport Glasgow and one of the speakers, made the point that temporary exhibitions are often seen as outside of the “pure knowledge” of the general museum.
Any attempts to put this right should be done in the physical space of the museum, and not digitally or online – areas that are seen as an add on and not core to the museum. As much as we may think the web is the future – and the future is now – the physical and the tangible still reign supreme.
At the V&A, an Africa Curators’ Group has been formed to find a way forward to display the 3,600 items dating back to the fifth century discovered in its collection. Early on in the conference there was said to be “talk” of an African gallery. And it was revealed that in December last year, V&A director Mark Jones had mentioned this at a public event.
But it was all just talk. The V&A has decided that its African collections are best addressed by a web-based project that will focus on 20th-century and contemporary design, graphic arts and performance arts “to play to its established strengths”.
And what will happen to the ancient and historical material that the museum holds? There were excuses such as “there is no obvious space at the moment” and there can’t be an African gallery “without substantial justification”. Well, isn’t the need, and I would hope desire, to redress the balance justification enough?
Links
Too slight a regard, Museums Journal June 2007, p16
