Reviewing and Reframing
Cultural Identity in the University Gallery: Curating and Inclusive Pedagogical Practices
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dr. Christa Irwin, Ashley Hartman
This paper explores ways in which art historians and art therapists might collaborate through pedagogical practices that focus on cultural identity exploration in a museum setting. We explore ways in which museum objects can connect to interpretive and engagement strategies designed by art therapists to enhance the exploration of intersectional aspects of one’s identity around culture, family, and religion. We present a recent collaboration that incorporates the use of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as student-led curation in a university gallery to develop a model for designing inclusive practices in the museum. Students in an undergraduate seminar entitled Global Baroque Art will curate an exhibition of seventeenth-century objects (using reproductions) that contribute to the formation of cultural identity through representations of family, spirituality, and religion. Graduate students from art therapy courses Family Art Therapy and Multicultural Issues in Art Therapy will then design interpretive strategies and experiential arts-based workshops based on this student show. This paper presents a summary of the results of this ongoing collaboration. The project explores opportunities for new ideas around connecting the museum and the community, as well as intersections between art history and art therapy in the academic and museum fields. Future implications for research in this area are also discussed.
Non-fungible Tokens and the Rethinking of Digital Art, the Collector, and the Museum
Innovation Showcase Cesar Santalo
We are at a paradigm shift from the traditional way we understand communication, technology, art, gaming, and education. As we pay close attention to what is happening in blockchain technology and Web 3.0, we see these decentralized and disruptive forces as growth opportunities for faculty and students in business, science, art, design, gaming, communication, and education. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, refer to tokenizing digital art through crypto platforms—a process that allows artists to authenticate their original digital works. Disruptive technologies in transportation, finance, art, and communication have increased the accessibility and usage of these products and services. NFT technology is now making everyone an art collector and dealer. Blockchain technology authenticates digital artwork and reinforces scarcity and uniqueness. Only two years ago, the entire NFT market was worth almost $200 million, and now in 2022, NFT’s have been traded in the tens of billions of dollars. In 2021 Beeple’s collage, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, sold at Christie’s for over $69,000,000, a watershed moment for digital artists and collectors. This presentation introduces NFTs as a game-changing technology for artists, collectors, and museums and further explains how this technology is democratizing the industry. Lynn University may be one of the first, if not the first, universities in the country to create a crypto wallet and NFT Museum.
Facing Three Ways: Conservation, Public Access, and Commercialisation in an Urban Public Arts and Heritage Organisation
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Derek Bryce
This paper explores the tensions between heritage conservation and its commercialisation within an urban public sector organisation, Glasgow Life, responsible for cultural and leisure services and for the custodianship and management of public heritage. Using mobile qualitative methods, it seeks to understand the perspectives of front-facing staff working in a range of roles across several of the organisation’s heritage locations in the city of Glasgow. It uses the context of ancestral tourism, a growth-heritage tourism segment (Alexander, Bryce & Murdy, (2017) identified as a potential area of commercial opportunity by the organisation, to develop its arguments. Its findings suggest tensions surrounding the commercialisation of public heritage and inclusive access, with a lack of consensus on how to balance these competing priorities. Investigating delivery of ancestral tourism with this large public heritage organisation brings these tensions into stark relief, highlighting the challenges associated with delivering and coordinating bespoke services in sites which attract many thousands of visitors. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed as well as recommendations for future research.
Educational Programs Integrating Visits to the Science and Technology Museum: A Research Framework View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dimitrios Koliopoulos, Kalliopi Meli
In this study, we present the structure, the features, and the functionality of a research framework concerning the design and implementation of educational programs that integrate visits to the Science and Technology Museum. The main goal of these programs is the students' cognitive progress, i.e., the construction of scientific knowledge elements. It is essentially a framework for analyzing, developing, and evaluating the didactic approach of the science and technology museum from the formal education point of view (university, school). First, we briefly present the mechanisms for transforming scientific reference knowledge into knowledge to be taught and diffused in the museum and school. Secondly, we describe the four elements that work as information inputs and suggest the foundations for the design of the objectives and content of these programs. Finally, we demonstrate examples of research efforts related to designing and evaluating programs that address preschool and primary school students.
