New Horizons (Asynchronous - Online Only)
Museums as Urban Acupuncturists and Cultural Rejuvenators : Singapore’s Heritage Institutions in Action View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alvin Tan
The museums of today are not only expected to present exhibitions and programmes within their walls – they are increasingly expected to interact with the community and revitalise their neighbourhoods. This paper shares the National Heritage Board of Singapore’s application of Jaime Lerner’s concept of “urban acupuncture” in three historical neighbourhoods using the case studies of the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, the Malay Heritage Centre and the Indian Heritage Centre. It illustrates how these institutions act as focal points for their communities, as showcases for the history and heritage of Balestier, Kampong Gelam and Little India respectively, and as place-makers for these neighbourhoods. It highlights key initiatives including the development of heritage trails and way-finding signage for the abovementioned neighbourhoods and the introduction of a new “Street Corner Museums” Scheme (launched in 2020), which involves the three institutions venturing out into their neighbourhoods, and collaborating with key stakeholders to establish satellite “mini museums” that tell the history of their trades (or businesses) as well as the micro-stories of the people behind them. It also showcases the institutions’ signature programmes such as Neighbourhood Sketches and cultural festivals, as well as neighbourhood-level art interventions initiated by other stakeholders. In doing so, this study shows how these “pinpricks” of actions have attracted new visitors, improved stakeholder relations and cooperation, and revitalised and re-energised the three historical neighbourhoods.
Repurposing a Historic Landmark: The Tangier American Legation Museum Gives Back View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jennifer Rasamimanana
Created by a US non-profit in 1976, the Tangier American Legation Institute for Maghreb Studies (TALIM) and its museum are housed in the former American Legation compound, given to the USA in 1821 by Sultan Moulay Souleyman, and which received national landmark designation in 1982 -- the only one located outside the USA and its territories. Established to honor Moroccan-American diplomatic and cultural friendship, TALIM's museum and research library host visitors and scholars from Morocco and around the world. In 1999 TALIM began to concentrate more on supporting the residents of Tangier's old Medina through initiating a partnership with the Fondation Tanja Al Medina to launch an Arabic and economic literacy program for women living in the Medina. In 2015, that outreach expanded to Tangier youth, both by offering English language scholarships to public middle and high school "STEM" students from the Medina, and then to offer arts education and street performance workshops to Medina children, including special needs children, as well as to at-risk youth from new peripheral neighborhoods of Tangier. In 2019 TALIM launched a #SupportMoroccanArtists concert series to offer free concerts by up and coming Moroccan musicians to Tangier youth audiences. While the Covid-19 pandemic led to the temporary closure of the Legation to the public, our online outreach expanded as we offered live online concerts attracting thousands of viewers as well as small hygiene and safety workshops for our neighbors, that included street performances. We share best inclusion practices.
The Architectural Integration between Museum and School: Analyzing the Museum of Art of Rio View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bianca Manzon Lupo
Located in the historic center of Rio de Janeiro, the Museum of Art of Rio (MAR-RJ) is an institution created for carrying out a transversal approach of the city´s history by exhibiting art and culture visual collections. The museum mission is based on the principle of articulating museum and art education through the creation of the Escola do Olhar, which contributes to educating teachers that work in the municipal network. The MAR-RJ was conceived from a partnership between the City of Rio de Janeiro and the Roberto Marinho Foundation (FRM), a private non-profit institution linked to Grupo Globo, the largest Brazilian communication conglomerate. The FRM has been exploring the concept of edutainment in Brazilian museums since the beginning of the 21st century. The equivalent importance given to both museum and school can be architecturally seen in the MAR-RJ project. Designed by Bernardes + Jacobsen Arquitetura, the MAR-RJ integrates two existing buildings in Praça Mauá for the creation of a suspended walkway and a concrete marquee. This study examines the symbolic and spatial relations established between education and museum at MAR-RJ, analyzing both architectural and curatorial conception. To this end, we take as an example the exhibition “Women in the MAR collection” (2018), an interesting case of collaborative curatorship that integrated women who worked at the Escola do Olhar as curators.
Under Siege - Inclusive Narrative in an Urban Landscape of War: A Proposal for a Driving Tour of the July, 1863 Siege of Jackson, Mississippi
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session David Davis
We consider preserving and narrating contested histories of decentralized urban warfare by developing a driving tour of key sites in US Civil War siege of Jackson, Mississippi, in July, 1863. This proposed inclusive, accessible, decentralized driving tour would occupy the commemorative space between isolated singular monuments to individual, collective, or unknown soldiers and interior museum exhibits and narratives detached from the physical landscape of battle. Unlike battlefields and skirmishes in rural settings, urban warfare is more inclusive of the impact of war on civilian populations of freed and enslaved African-Americans, poor and elite women and children, and other populations not otherwise involved or represented in military campaigns. It serves as a microcosm of the impact of siege warfare on a civilian population. Not only would this serve as a counter-narrative to the legacy of memorials and commemorative monuments under fire in most states, but it serves as an opportunity to preserve endangered historic sites in a changing urban landscape. Finally, the siege tour sites can be viewed as chronotopes, Bahkin’s "points in the geography of a community where time and space intersect and fuse." Chronotopes thus stand as monuments to the community itself, as symbols of it, as forces operating to shape its members' images of themselves." These are “places where the knots of narrative are tied and untied . . . . [Places that] make narrative events concrete, make them take on flesh, cause blood to flow in their veins.”
Play to Learn: Playground in the Museum – Not Just for Children View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zsanett Abonyi
While at their beginning as cultural institutions the role of museums was to raise the public’s level of education and culture, nowadays their role has become more diversified. This paper investigates aspects of learning in museums through entertainment. Fun has a positive effect on motivation levels, determining what we learn and how much we retain. Learning isn’t a one-off event. It requires repetition and dedication. If the experience is fun, learners will stay curious and keep coming back for more. The success of the games developed over the past years in the Aquincum Museum - such as scavenger hunt games in playful narratives - underlines the significance of the entertainment and edutainment within the walls of cultural institutions. Mystery stories are favored for this type of games and offer a new context in which museum exhibits are integrated. In contextualized scavenger hunts visitors as players can connect the exhibits with broad scientific fields (such as mathematics, models, communication) and they have the chance to engage with the details of some exhibits and to think more broadly about multiple exhibits (combining depth and breadth).
