MASS’ Post

I love this essay from Seb Chan, expanding on some of the ideas we talked about in our Podcast conversation last year which you can listen to here https://lnkd.in/eT3eE57C

We commissioned six essays to include in the Digital Works Conference printed programme, here's ACMI CEO, Seb Chan's piece "In praise of friction" https://lnkd.in/ew5TWsZV "Over the last decade or so, I’ve been actively designing and advocating for museum experiences that run against this grain. Designing for slowness, designing for friction, whilst also designing for the first time museum visitor is difficult. Designing for slowness means upending ‘first impressions’. Designing for slowness means getting in the way a bit. Designing for slowness means having a greater understanding of context and a willingness for human intervention. Post-pandemic, slowness and human contact is uncomfortable. We don’t necessarily like to be in the presence of strangers. But strangers we must befriend." https://lnkd.in/ew5TWsZV

📢 The call for proposals for MCN 2024 is extended until Friday, June 21. Proposals are being accepted for: - 45-minute sessions - 15-minute case studies - Ignite talks (five-minute, fast-paced presentations)   Consider these questions when crafting your proposal:  - How have you used technology to create a more engaging, accessible, or impactful experience? - What key takeaways can you share from collaborative projects that leveraged the expertise of both new and experienced professionals? - How have you adapted, iterated, or advanced an idea gained from a previous exchange? - What can you share with the next generation of museum professionals? - What experiences can help inform seasoned professionals? 🔗 Submit your proposals: https://lnkd.in/eRMPy38r

Last week, I attended the Museum Association conference in Leeds. One of the sessions I attended was about the work of the Anti-Racist Wales project where museum practitioners talked about their experiences of working on the project. Here are a few useful take-aways from an interesting presentation that I’ve been thinking about: A collections review can give you a new perspective on what you already hold. Start with familiar or everyday objects. What can you unpick about them to widen their stories? Don’t let the fear of offending people cause paralysis, but do your homework and keep an open mind. Think about your cultural competency. Give lived expertise and experience the credit it deserves but be careful about making assumptions about expertise or interest from community groups - communities are not homogeneous! Widening narratives is core work, it needs time and resource. The project-based nature of how funding is allocated is a challenge, but the real legacy of project funding is a change in practises and approaches. When we look at collections from multiple angles, everyone benefits and we all learn more.

How is your organisation funded? We’re working with Creative Scotland and Museums Galleries Scotland to understand the funding sources for the cultural and heritage sectors. We’re particularly interested in how organisations assess opportunities around private investment. 💸 Understanding how organisations currently approach this will help us see where more support might be needed around policies and decision-making. We encourage you to participate in the anonymous Creative Scotland survey, which closes on Friday 6 September. Creative Scotland will publish the research results. We’ll review these findings from a heritage perspective to strengthen our sector’s resilience aligning with Scotland’s strategy for our historic environment, “Our Past, Our Future.” 👉 https://ow.ly/2r8W50T2RjQ

Journal 47 ‘Communities and care’ is now up on our website. Over the next few months we will be spotlighting the work of our contributors and revealing the second series of our podcast.  This week we are looking at 'How do we begin to tell the story of a river?'. The article was written by by Ali Reid and Claire Pounder with Dr Paul Stewart, all from MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art)/ Teesside University. This article is a reflection on the creative beginnings of MIMA's exhibition 'People Powered: Stories from the River Tees', which was on display in MIMA’s galleries in central Middlesbrough from July to December 2023. The last 20 years has seen a rise in gallery engagement practice towards new methods in terms of how publics experience exhibitions, artists and museums. From an educational aesthetics point of view, this is defined by Paul Stewart as viewing a particular type of gallery engagement and curatorial activity as a facilitation of, or an engagement with the aesthetic process, with the method of learning at its heart, rather than a substitutive process of translation or engagement to an existing curatorial activity. People Powered: Stories from the River Tees at MIMA is an example of this.  Communities and care is a response to the UK Government’s ‘Levelling up’ agenda connected to a perceived lack of culture or other infrastructure. At its core, is the idea of engaging communities, most often used in the professional arts sector to refer to collective groups working together, defined by a distinguishing factor across a shared experience. Take a journey through visual art practice, engagement and participation in the era of placemaking and levelling up, simultaneously exploring the uses of the word care in relation to this work. Login with your member details to read our journals: https://buff.ly/3Var3KO. #teesunicreativearts #teesside

𝐁𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐖𝐚𝐱 𝐄𝐏𝐒, 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐚𝐩 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 30𝘵𝘩 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘭’𝘴 𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘦 For the 30th edition of de Appel’s Curatorial Programme we have welcomed four collectives who are learning and practising lumbung as a model and method for collective organisation. The programme is geared towards taking the lumbung practices of documenta fifteen as a case study. Lumbung during documenta fifteen developed into both a rhizomatic collective of collectives, and the practice of decentralised collective redistribution, transforming the art institution and its exhibitionary logic. This edition of the programme is dedicated to collectives whose art and curatorial practice is distinguished by its role as a conduit for the communities with which it engages. The programme is in collaboration with Sandberg Institute’s Temporary Master Programme and Gudskul’s Collective Study and extends into 2025/2026 as a fellowship. Tropical Tap Water interviewed the participating collectives. Here you can find their conversation with Biquini Wax, a multipolar arts collective and permeable cultural center in Mexico City. Since its inception in 2008 it has been committed to be an interdependent art-space collectively managed by and for the cultural community interested in the intersection of contemporary arts and critical thought. It is both a communal living/working/hang out space as well as a self-organized study center/experimental exhibition-making (para)site. The participating members present in Amsterdam are: Denisse Vega de Santiago, Gerardo Contreras, Mili Herrera. Read the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/eZde4HAc Drawing: Tropical Tap Water

3 TIPS FOR LOOKING AFTER YOUR COLLECTION⁠ ⁠ 1) Different approaches - When looking after your collection, you will need to decide whether you wish to take a museum or an archive-based approach.⁠ ⁠ 2) Be consistent - The key to good collection management and care is consistency.⁠ ⁠ 3) Be patient - Managing and caring for collections can be a time-consuming task. Time invested in this work is never time wasted.⁠ ⁠ For more info, check out our toolkit on the website!: https://bit.ly/3AVWzWl

Today we acknowledge Te Pūtake o te Riri, He Rā Maumahara - our national day of remembrance of the New Zealand Wars. As part of our commitment to deeper conversations around these pivotal moments in our history, we have recently opened our newly refreshed gallery, Atarau: Stories of the New Zealand Wars.  The Museum will also be illuminated in pounamu green tonight.    The word atarau means many things. In te reo Maori 'ata' means shadow, early dawn, shape or reflection. While 'rau' can mean many, forever, a beat or rhythm. Those multiple meanings are a metaphor for history. When painful histories are brought out of the shadows and into the light, they can be better understood.  Featuring taonga, contemporary artworks, and diverse perspectives, Atarau offers visitors insight into the circumstances, people, and events of the wars, and reflects on the experiences of those involved. This interim display is the first step in a larger program aimed at enhancing public knowledge and understanding about these pivotal stories.  Visit Atarau: Stories of the New Zealand Wars to connect with stories that continue to shape our society, now open on Level 2. Free with Museum Entry.    

“Make Your Marketing Message Clear and Irresistible. Be the One in the Cave with the Flashlight.”— Fabienne Fredrickson If you want to have authentic messaging for your museum that gets visitors into your museum doors you need three things: Clarity, Consistency, and Confidence. I believe that these “3 Cs” are the keys you need to unlock authentic messaging that is unique and will set you apart from the rest. As a museum, you are asking for your audience’s most precious commodity, their time. Your authentic messaging will lead them to know, like, and trust your museum and want to plan some time to spend with you. Want to learn more? Check out today's blog post: https://lnkd.in/eUeTiWb8