Lucas Museum of Narrative Art’s Post

🌍 A War on the Past: The Creeping Politicisation of Museums 🏛️ In this thought-provoking piece by Jacob Atkinson, published on Outlander Odyssey, we delve into the shifting role of museums in today’s world. Are these institutions merely keepers of history, or are they increasingly used as platforms for political narratives? From curatorial challenges to funding pressures, this article uncovers the balancing act museums must perform in a landscape of evolving expectations. 🔗 Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/ewepM92F Join the conversation: What role do you believe museums should play in society? #Museums #CulturalHeritage #HistoryMatters #PublicPolicy #MuseumStudies #PoliticalInfluence #OutlanderOdyssey #JacobAtkinson #ArtAndPolitics

How Do We Decide Whose Stories Are Told? In history, a crucial question often arises: Whose stories get told? This shapes not only how we view the past but how we teach it. Art provides a unique way to explore this, especially when discussing race, gender, and representation in Early US History. Join Cherish Christopher from the Philadelphia Museum of Art on October 16, 2024, at 7:30 pm ET for the webinar, Whose Stories Get Told? Art and Historical Perspectives. Learn how art can be used as a primary source to highlight stories often left out of mainstream historical accounts. By examining cultural history through art, this session will help teachers bring new perspectives into their classrooms, fostering discussions about who is represented in history—and who isn’t. Webinar Details Date & Time: October 16, 2024, at 7:30 pm ET Presenter: Cherish Christopher, Philadelphia Museum of Art Sign up and learn how to make history lessons more inclusive! https://ow.ly/lUYI50THirw

How do modern art museums implement strategies to diversify their collections and what are the institutional challenges? Since 1958, Moderna Museet has housed Sweden’s largest collection of Swedish and international modern and contemporary art. During a research project at the museum, I examined the 21st-century policy development of Moderna Museet’s collecting strategies to diversify its collection, drawing on intersectional theory and insights from queer studies. This week I had the opportunity to present my results to the museum’s Exhibition & Collection department. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, I was able to show how acquisition policies align with the museum's aim to question its Eurocentric and North American-oriented art collection. Moreover, I mapped the changes in the gender balance of collected artists over time and the regions where the most (and least) art is acquired. Systemic cultural change in museums is a slow process because institutional identity is often anchored in canonical processes from the past, and dependent on external funding and philanthropists. These results were the basis of my master's thesis within the MA Curating Arts, including Management and Law, for which I received an A. You can read the full text here: https://lnkd.in/dCywY7ak. Many thanks to the curatorial team for opening up about this challenging but important aspect of collecting policies, in particular to Hendrik Folkerts for the guidance throughout this research and Fredrik Liew for the invitation.

I have co-edited my first special edition journal for Art and the Public Sphere called, Queer(ing) Art, Curation and Collaboration with my partner Dr Chris Green. The overall aim of the issue is to explore current trends in queer art, curatorial practice and forms of collaboration. The articles in this issue draw on international perspectives that provide the reader with global approaches to the topics in question. You can have a read of our introductory essay below, where you can also get access to the rest of the journal. https://lnkd.in/edZCJcyF

Dr. Errol Francis, Artistic Director and CEO of Culture&, was interviewed on BBC Radio Sheffield about Culture&'s new survey 'Who Cares About Museums?'. Listen to the Interview [Interview starts at 17'45''] https://lnkd.in/gRAXNkfT Respond to the Survey! https://lnkd.in/eGFx94a9 During the interview, Errol remarked on how global majority audiences across the UK are underserved by the arts and heritage sector. Culture&'s 'Who Cares About Museums?' Survey precisely seeks to gain insight into how often underserved people attend museums and why. Errol commented: "Especially since 2020, following the Black Lives Matter movement, I think the (museum) sector is much more receptive now, to hearing about diversity. So, we would like to build on this to make the sector more inclusive and open, so arts and heritage can be enjoyed by everyone in our society. The survey is a bit like market research - it is asking people, 'what would you like to see?'. Since Culture& has strong relationships with museums, we can use this information to inform programming, events, and how we interpret collections in future work." Let us know your thoughts about museums for a chance to win a £50 voucher! https://lnkd.in/eGFx94a9 - Who Cares About Museums? is a response to Culture&’s Museums Association Conference session: Who Cares in Museums? Find out more on our website. https://lnkd.in/eN47Bm5w . . . . . . . #WhoCaresAboutMuseums #WhoCaresinMuseums #MuseumsandViolence #MuseumsAssociation #MuseumsandPower #ColonialHistories #Decolonisation #Soundscape #Colonialism #SoundArt #Diversity #Survey #EDI #Art #cultureandrecommends

New article - by me - out for the University Observer! What do I talk about: Public Art, and how and why, by its nature, this type of art is prone to be a vessel for activism. I also bring some example of queer public art, focusing in the last part of the article specifically on initiatives of public queer art in Dublin. “It could be argued that public art is the most anarchic of all; unlike other forms of art which are often institutionalised by being put in museums, public art is freely accessible and enjoyable to everyone. It escapes the necessary monetisation of experience derived from capitalism.” https://lnkd.in/es4qVT5d

Opening its doors in 2014, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is one of Canada’s National Museums, and the world’s first Museum dedicated to the evolution, celebration, and future of human rights. We helped the Museum articulate its theory of change and develop an ambitious strategic plan to help it achieve its vision of a world where everyone values human rights. #strategicplan #humanrights #theoryofchange #strategicplanning

We explore curatorial projects that give voice to communities that have been disfranchised by the ideology of neo-liberalism. Defining contemporary art galleries as public spheres, curatorial projects that are based in dialogue and dialogics reveal the conflicting and contradictory aspects of dominant cultural narratives. Through collaborative and participatory methods, progressive we co-create artworks with communities, creating alternatives to the traditional gallery system in which artists, artworks, audiences and institutions are abstracted from the world around them. With a focus on the work of artists Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, and their collaborations with individuals representing various communities – labour organizations, activist groups, cultural groups and the art world – insurgent curating is defined in terms of dialogue-based activism. Dialogue-based projects are championed as ways to catalyse emancipatory insights and the critique of neo-liberal capitalism.

Reposting this very helpful article!

In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, cultural institutions across the United States redoubled their efforts to digitize their collections of art and artifacts. This move toward digitization among museums did more than increase the accessibility of their holdings, it allowed curators to construct interactive online exhibitions catered to educators seeking unique learning opportunities for their students in a remote environment. Now, industry leaders like the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) complement their traditional exhibition schedule with robust web-based offerings as the humanities become increasingly digitized.⁠ ⁠ For example, the VMFA’s digital exhibition African American Dreams pairs art from its collection with a selection of written sources to show how African American artists both shaped and reflected the Black experience in North America spanning from 1619 to the present day. For example, the poems of Phillis Wheatley and the abolitionist writings of Frederick Douglass are put in conversation with landscapes by Robert Duncanson, the first world-renowned African American painter. In forging these connections between art and literature, African American Dreams invites young students to explore the ways in which African American artists made sense of their world while introducing them to both textual and visual primary sources. For more information on the image, we invite you to check out the exhibition using the link below. Image Credit: Marian Anderson, 1965, Beauford Delaney, American (1901–1979) Oil on canvas, J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American Art, VMFA https://lnkd.in/eM3WNWyv