Cultural Connections (Asynchronous - Online Only)
Queering the Museum's Mission: Collecting and Exhibiting LGBTQ+ History and Developing Community Stakeholders
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stephanie Yuhl
What happens when we shift the focus of collecting, preserving, and disseminating LGBTQ+ history from major metropolitan centers, such as San Francisco, Berlin, Paris, and New York, to smaller cities? How might our traditional preoccupation with collecting LGBTQ+ histories in large urban spaces actually serve to re-marginalize at-risk populations and flatten the historical interpretation of urban landscapes? How can real inclusion (beyond the idea of diversity) and community partnership transform museum practice, mission, and audience? As lead scholar of LGBTQ+ Worcester For The Record, an archive-building, oral history, and exhibit project affiliated with the Worcester Historical Museum in the second largest city in Massachusetts, USA, I will respond to these questions by sharing our project goals, collecting and community engagement strategies, and our successes and ongoing struggles. Because the collection and exhibition of queer history is so often overlooked in our professional spaces, exhibitions of this sort challenge understandings of the publics we engage and the voices that must shape our work. Likewise, these projects require alternative grassroots methodologies to both collect and interpret marginalized histories and to integrate community-led initiatives into the work of institutions without replicating existing exclusionary power structures within our organizations. This sort of project can function as a site of serious social justice work that encourages political consciousness and engagement with new museum stakeholders in non-majority communities. As the threat to LGBTQ+ rights and safety is on the rise in many spaces across the globe, collecting and exhibiting queer history is more important than ever.
A Study on the Situation of Farm Houses in Pre-war Japan Using the Photograph Archives of the Attic Museum View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fumiyo Suzaki, Seizo Uchida, Hidekazu Sensui
The aim of this paper is to clarify the aspect of the situation of farm houses in pre-war Japan, analyzing the photographs of Attic Museum as materials. This museum established by Keizo Shibusawa as Attic Museum Society in 1921 for the research of the folklore and cultural studies. This society came to be a department of Kanagawa University in 1982. The archives of this organization include a lot of photographs and movies from pre-war Japan. This paper studies the situations of rural farm houses analyzing those materials, especially focusing on life spaces such as kitchens and toilets.
Bring In the Users: Acknowledging Existential Authenticity through Domestic Interactions with Professionally Handmade Artifacts View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Orly Nezer
This paper examines professionally handmade pottery through the lens of use in material culture, specifically focusing on the particular characteristics of the interaction between objects and users in consumers’ homes in an attempt to examine what is communicated through the use of professionally handmade pottery ware. My study points to evidence that through their consumption and use of professionally handmade pottery and the cultivation of home aesthetics, consumers communicate solidarity with makers and their choices. Consumers’ perceptions of the maker as an ideal other and the residual effects of their interactions with the maker on the interactions with the artifact at home are rarely addressed by theories that generalize the value of contemporary craft in Western culture. The study, which is rooted in my fieldwork, stands in contrast to the abundance of theoretical studies on craft consumption and representation in museum collections and souvenir stores.
Buried Truths: Deconstructing Canadian Museum Collections through Repatriation of Indigenous Human Remains and Sacred Objects View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Liz Feld
Museums have increasingly been exploring inclusion and diversity work and engaging in decolonizing educational programming. Complicating this undertaking are the fraught and violent histories that live within many, if not most, museum collections. The Aboriginal peoples of Canada suffered from systemic cultural genocide for hundreds of years through treaties signed under false pretences, the pillaging and theft of sacred objects and human remains, and the devastating Sixties Scoop and Residential School system. In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a report with ninety-four calls to action that address the crimes committed against Indigenous populations. This paper examines whether Canadian museums should be obligated to participate in furthering decolonizing counter-narratives through the repatriation of Indigenous remains and sacred objects in accordance with TRC recommendations.
Museum Age Friendly Spaces: Educational and Social Relationships between Museums and Older People that May Be Lost and Achieved in a Pandemic Scenario View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Olga Susana Costa Coito Araujo, Meire Cachioni
Rapidly ageing population increases the demand for activities with learning and social stimulation. Museums are well placed to provide such a function reaching individual and social impacts but with visits reduced by normatives of isolation and waves of museums closed is very important to understand what impacts can be lost and achieved. The objective to identify evidence for relationships between museums and older audiences using a review of 8 databases and 2 university repositories. The search retrieved 810 potential sources, 39 sources met the inclusion criteria. They focused on the educational aspect of museums and were produced by psychology and gerontology, museology, arts and education disciplines. Museums play an important role on health (emphasis on psychological and physical wellbeing), socialization (discussing stereotypes, reducing isolation, redefining social roles), socioeconomic aspects (with local focus on services, partnerships) and on creative aging (promoting non-formal education with lifelong learning at different levels).
