the best in heritage
18TH EDiTion
Dubrovnik, Croatia, 25 - 27 September
The Best in Heritage
Š
Dubrovnik 25 - 27 September 2019 18th edition
in partnership with International Council of Museums (ICOM) and Europa Nostra with the support of Creative Europe
Dedicated to the memory of Kenneth Hudson (OBE) & Georges Henri Riviere
contents
Contents
i10 > #ArchiveLottery
– A Different Digital Engagement..........................................28 Museum of London Archaeological Archive: #ArchiveLottery
i11 > Shanghai
Culture Brand Weeding Through the Old to Create the New.......................................................30 Shanghai History Museum: Again Here Rings the Bell and Shanghai History
i12 > An
Essential Cultural Experience for All Ages.......................................................32
The Conference has Become of Age.............4 What We Found With the Lost Palace...........6 i1 > Making
Contact – Experiments with Digital Donations....................................10 Contactless Donations Experience by National Museums Scotland
i2 > For the Personal Experience.................12 Hungarian National Museum: GuideNow - Extended Multimedia Guide System
Mississippi Civil Rights Museum: Chaney Goodman Schwerner Theater i13 > A
Visual Explanation That Made Museum Visitors Look at Van Gogh’s Art in a New Way...................................34 Van Gogh Museum: Seeing with a Japanese Eye
i14 > Bridge
Between Past and Future - A New Museum for the New Generation..............................36 Virtual Museum of Fine Arts by Alexander Lavrov
i3 > An Interactive Learning Experience......14 Roman heritage: PO.RO.S – Museu Portugal Romano em Sicó
Heritage as an Agent of Change..................38
i4 > Sizzling
1 > Stories Told by People, War Childhood Museum
in the Intersections, Songlines, Tracking the Seven Sisters....................16 National Museum of Australia: Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters Interactive
i5 > Treasury of Folk Culture........................18 Museum of J. A. Comenius, Czech Republic: The Embroidery Craft i6 > From
a Vision to the First Automated 3D Scanning Pipeline...................................20 Cultlab3D: Automated Scanning Technology for 3D Digitisation
i7 > RMG’s
Space Lives: Growing Digital Engagement...........................................22 Royal Museums Greenwich: Space LIVES
i8 > Taking
a Closer Look: Americans Online......................................................24 National Museum of the American Indian: Americans
i9 > Digital
Revolutions & Storytelling: Engage. Inspire. Educate.......................26 #Romanovs100 & #1917LIVE
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for People.........42
2 > Immersion,
Interaction & Inspiration Introducing Canon of Dutch History.......46 Holland Open Air Museum and Kossmann. dejong: The Canon of Dutch History
3 > Capturing
and Curating the Spirit of a Transformative Era.................................50 Centre d’histoire Montréal: Explosion 67
4 > An
International Research Programme Created Thanks to the Synergy Between the Most Respected Institutions of Europe.....................................................54 Epico: European Protocol In Preventive Conservation
5 > Seeing Things Differently.......................58 Rijksmuseum Boerhaave by Studio Louter / OPERA Amsterdam 6 > Cultural
Rejuvenation in Old Town Leh, Ladakh.....................................................62 LAMO Center
as Catalyst for Conversation and Change....................................................66 Detroit Historical Society
8 > The
Alka of Sinj - A Living Witness to History.....................................................70 Alka Of Sinj Museum
9 > Developing
Unique Cultural and Creative Products..................................................74 Hebei Museumi
10 > Friends
and Neighbours: How Community Makes a Capital Project....78 Tate St Ives
11 > Archaeology Brought to Modernity.......82 Staatliches Museum fur Archaologie Chemnitz 12 > Commemorating
the Memory of Political Repression..............................86 State Museum of History of GULAG
13 > A Thought-Provoking Museum.............90 Museum of Natural and Environmental History, Shizuoka 14 > A Museum in Transition........................94 EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art Museum
Island and Humboldt-Forum: A New Centre for Art and Culture in Berlin...98 15 > Inclusive
and Innovative Museum Centre..................................................102 Estonian National Museum
16 > Cultural
Heritage Education: Supporting Engagement and Participation...........106 Culture Leap: Educational Programme
17 > Revitalization
of Kyomachiya: Preserving the Cultural Cityscape and Vivid Tradition of Historic Kyoto..................110 Shijo-cho Ofune-hoko Float Machiya
18 > Living
the Tradition
Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding ......114
19 > Collecting Birmingham.......................118 Birmingham Museums Trust 20 > The
World for Venice and its Heritage, for More Than 50 Years.......................122 Association Of The International Private Committees For The Safeguarding Of Venice
21 > The
Museum of Tomorrow As a Soft Powerhouse ........................................126 Museum of Tomorrow
22 > Integrated
Approach to Heritage Conservation .......................................130 bač fortress
23 > Changing Course!..... ..........................134 Maritiem Museum Rotterdam 24 > From
Assigned by Power Museum to Creating Museum With Locals...........138 Museum of Modern art PERMM
25 > "Museum+":
New Development and New Achievements of Museums........142 Three Gorges Museum (Chongqing Museum)
26 > A
New Museological Paradigm in Abrantes..............................................146 Museu Metalúrgica Duarte Ferreira (Tramagal)
27 > We
Connect People. We Connect Stories.................................................150 Emigration Museum in Gdynia
28 > This
Is What Democracy Looks Like: Youth Civic Engagement Through Contemporary Art..................... .........154 Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago: SPACE (School Partnership for Art and Civic Engagement)
Presenters..................................................158 Keynote Speakers and Moderators...........169 Excellence Club......................................... 172 The Future of Exhibiting: EXPONATEC COLOGNE 2019...........................................174 International Council of Museums........... 176 EUROPA NOSTRA: The Voice of Cultural Heritage in Europe ....................................178 European Heritage Association.................180 Best in Heritage Conference Exhibition....182 Museums and Galleries of Konavle...........183 Meyavert Glass Engineering......................184 Dubrovnik Museums..................................186 Partners, patrons, sponsors and support.187
contents
7 > Crisis
introduction
The Conference has Become of Age Professor Tomislav S. Šola director, the best in heritage
Beginning with the help of family and friends, this conference has turned into an international event of certain renown. But, being grown-up is not an achievement by itself; retaining curiosity and the ability to constantly rediscover the world is. That is what I wish for the conference. It was conceived like this. It should continue accordingly. The conference was a response to a world growing more and more competitive, but also in constant search of quality criteria. Specifically, in the domain of heritage. Two decades ago, excellence in professional practice was still an emerging concept. The idea behind the Best in Heritage was to contribute to a nascent heritage profession while, discreetly, providing practical arguments for the science of public memory. However, for the working agenda it was enough to concentrate upon public responsibility, best performance and capacity to support quality development. Museums, with their unique attractiveness, always seemed qualified to lead the way amongst memory institutions. They still seem the strongest case in point when we advocate the importance of public memory in this troubled world. This edition is significant also because ICOM has become our main partner. In 2001, when the conference was about to start, ICOM granted its patronage and, consequently, a legitimacy to it. We now have it upgraded still further. Back then, luckily, other pa6 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
trons (ICOMOS, ICCROM, IFLA, WFFM) joined readily. Decisive financial support came from the Ministry of Culture of Croatia. UNESCO’s Venice Office provided decisive support and continued it for some years. Others followed and some are still with us. However, without being locally accepted and recognized we would have never made it. The Museums of Dubrovnik have been, since the first day, a reliable partner. The City of Dubrovnik joined us willingly at the right moment. The partnership with Europa Nostra (2005) was a major improvement. Conceptually, it demonstrated the strength of the conference as a unifying platform, connecting private and civil society. Public memory is one, although divided in tasks and assignments as life commands. The benevolent stakeholders allowed us to keep our specific profile sharp and recognizable. Every September we present a handpicked choice of 42 ambitious projects from all over the world, specifically those that gained a prestigious award in the preceding year. Some fifty competent juries, national and international, sift through some one and a half thousand projects annually. Almost 300 of them have been granted some kind of recognition. This exhaustive, unique, updated list is always freely accessible at our website, and so is the conference archive. It must be mentioned that all our achievement is based upon the juries’ effort. We are grate-
fully spreading quality information about change-makers, about the creative individuals and teams capable of influencing others. With the continuous support of a prestigious global company, MEYVAERT Glass Engineering, the conference expanded: IMAGINES is a specific choice of awarded multimedia and otherwise technologically based projects that may interest a growing circle of heritage specialists, but also completes our insight into the facets of professional excellence. Out of many innovations we have tested, only one was strong enough to survive as Spotlight: insight into an exceptional example of professional excellence by the choice of the organiser. The motivated professional public, the moderators and last year’s winners (who act as a jury) choose, at the end of each part of the programme “The project of influence” for the current year. It is increasingly important to have an orientation and good examples when trying to increase the quality of our professional performance. So the conference is a sort of benchmarking tool. We depend upon the professional public and it was friends and colleagues that appeared at the first edition of then an unknown con-
ference. Slowly this support turned into a changing Advisory Board with Stephen Harrison, first Chairman (Isle of Man), Frans Schouten (Netherlands), Hartmut Prasch (Austria), later on Giora Solar (Israel), Vladimir I. Tostoy (Russia)...until the excellent present Board, for a decade wisely led by John Sell (UK, Europa Nostra). The team has changed over the years too. The conference owes all former members deep gratitude for their great work: Ida Marija, Darko, Lela, Ana, Siniša, Dona, Katja, Željka, Elvis, Morana, Eugen, Nikolina, Domagoj, Koraljka... Darko Babić was the first project manager. From 12 projects at the beginning, we now present 42, maintaining the productivity of the conference and making it freely accessible the year round, regularly presenting it in Cologne (Exponatec) and China (Chinese Museums Association’s congress and fair), producing an exhibition of projects and publishing a fully-fledged publication. With a decade of managing it, Luka is doing an excellent job. This year in Dubrovnik he is leading the team comprised of our volunteers Koraljka, Domagoj, Eugen, Sen, Petra, Dominik and Karla.
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imagines keynote address
What We Found With the Lost Palace Tim Powell Head of R&D Studio, Historic Royal Palaces The Lost Palace allowed thousands of visitors to explore Whitehall Palace - 300 years after it burnt to the ground. We were lucky enough to go on to win the Innovation Award at the UK Museums + Heritage Awards 2017, the EU-wide Heritage in Motion Award 2017 and the IMAGINES award at Best in Heritage 2018.
with interaction artists Chomko & Rosier, theatre company Uninvited Guests (with sound artist Lewis Gibson) and software developers Calvium Ltd.
For this article I’d like to share eight thoughts about how heritage organisations can best approach digital and technology innovation. These are principles that we’ve either confirmed through the Lost Palace, or learnt from it.
1. We are part of the experience economy
But first, what did the Lost Palace do for our visitors? It took them around the contemporary streets of central London - between Big Ben and Nelson’s Column, past Downing Street and through the heart of the UK Government - and allowed them to experience the history hidden beneath their feet. From Henry VIII meeting Anne Boleyn, Shakespeare performing King Lear, Nell Gwynne ‘entertaining’ Charles II, Guy Fawkes being interrogated for the Gunpowder Plot and Charles I being executed. It did this by combining immersive audio theatre, interactive location-based technology, architectural installations and live performance. It was commissioned and produced by Historic Royal Palaces in collaboration 8 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
Here are eight things we’ve learnt from the project:
Visitors don’t come to heritage sites to find out facts and figures. They go to wikipedia for that. Instead they want experiences that are meaningful, memorable, moving - and shareable on social media. If we want to keep our existing audiences - and also reach new ones - we need to be the very best at telling our stories. But there’s a warning in here. It means we can now be compared directly with different cultural, media or entertainment forms. How do we compete? How do we become more Game of Thrones?
2. The physical is digital (and vice versa) We spend too much of our lives looking at and touching screens. Visiting a heritage site should be an escape from this - but this doesn’t mean we have to forego the
3. Embrace the power of the non-visual
The Lost Palace devices included a lot of technology - hacked phones, microprocessors, gesture recognition and transduced audio amongst others - but it was all hidden in a handheld wooden object. By making the digital interface invisible and also allowing human actions to become the triggers for digital content, we allowed visitors to focus on the spaces and freed their imagination to engage with the stories.
There’s an assumption that cutting edge technology means strapping a headset to your face. It’s certainly true that there are incredible innovations happening within the virtual and augmented reality worlds, but these are often beyond the budgets and skill sets of cultural organisations. There are often more effective ways to create impact - sound has huge power for creating virtual worlds. The Lost Palace audio was recorded using binaural sound. This is a recording technique which mimics the way the THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019› 9
> © Historic Royal Palaces
near-magical storytelling capabilities of digital technology.
During this scene the device became a haptic object - visitors could feel his heartbeat in their hands. As they heard him prepare for execution, they felt his heartbeat get faster. When the axe fell, his heartbeat stopped. We often talk about enabling out visitors to stand in historic footsteps - this felt like a uniquely emotive and visceral way to achieve this.
5. Make your audience feel safe and empowered When we go to the cinema or the theatre we know how to behave. Sit in the seats and look at the screen. We know what’s expected when we go to museums or galleries or other cultural sites.
human ears perceive sounds - acutely aware of their proximity and direction. This allowed us to do two special things: firstly to have the performances happen all around the listener - giving the impression of shared space with historic characters; and secondly to have characters speak to the audience directly making them active participants rather than bystanders.
4. Digital can be emotional - use technology as a trigger Organisations often focus on how digital can deliver information and enable transactions. But it can also make people laugh, cry and hold hands. This is its true power. The most emotionally intense point of the Lost Palace was the execution of Charles I. 10 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
Use of immersive technology breaks these rules - and can leave audiences feeling vulnerable. We need to take special care to look after our audiences whilst these formats enter the mainstream - to make sure they understand how to get the most out of the experience.
6. Do things differently, not different things What are the things you’ve always wanted to do but never been able? Digital technology offers new ways to fulfil those ambitions. But to achieve this you have to work in new ways with different partners. The Lost Palace started with an open call competition across art forms. From this we made and tested five prototypes - then we invited the two most successful prototypes to collaborate to create the final visitor experience. At the start of this process we could never have imagined the final form the experience would take.
8. Give yourself permission to fail - and test, test, test… I could tell you a long story about an ingenious interaction we created that used animal noises to enable visitors to locate specific content. But the short version is this: we thought it was the cleverest thing we’d done - but not a single person in our test audience was able to work out how to use it. They just heard chicken noises. So we had to put it in the bin (along with our egos). We had failed.
One of the major outcomes from the Lost Palace has been establishing a dedicated R&D Studio within the Public Engagement department at Historic Royal Palaces - to put the lessons learnt from it into practice. The studio exists to experiment and innovate – exploring new ideas and concepts to engage the public in our spaces and stories. The focus is on signature live events, art installations and the use of emerging technologies. We are a dedicated team of two and operate a rolling programme of residencies for artists and creatives from the physical R&D Studio space at Hampton Court Palace.
THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019› 11
≥ all images © Historic Royal Palaces
Artists are often guided by a vision and focussed on process. Our job is to get the product from the process and keep the visitor in that vision. To ensure that creativity happens without chaos. We need to become comfortable with being creative producers, not artistic directors.
Failure as part of the creative process is to be celebrated. Every failure encountered is one saved from the visitors of the end experience. Bringing in test audiences that are the same as your target audience is essential. During the Lost Palace development we ran 15 rounds of testing and iterative development of the key interactions. > Smashing Charles II's sundial - #TheLostPalace
7. Organisations have an essential role to play
Making Contact – Experiments with Digital Donations
Contactless Donations Experience by National Museums Scotland Museums and the Web GLAMi Groundbreaking Award 2018
Rob Cawston Head, Digital Media ≥ www.nms.ac.uk ≥ R.Cawston@nms.ac.uk ≥ National Museums Scotland Chambers Street Edinburgh EH1 1JF United Kingdom
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Following the rise of contactless payments in the commercial sector, charities and cultural institutions are adopting the technology to increase income streams. Whilst coin donation boxes have long formed part of the fabric of museums, the sector is now exploring emerging digital tools to create new types of giving experiences. Focussing on a series of experiments at the National Museum of Scotland, this article outlines the core challenges in creating donation experiences using contactless technology. By examining the projects' success and failures, and sharing insights about visitor behaviours, the presentation reveals lessons for the sector as museums look to embrace new ways to generate in-venue support. Results will be placed in the context
of the rapidly changing contactless market and shifting patterns of consumer behaviour to explore cultures of giving in the sector and point towards future developments. Across four distinct trials of contactless technology a range of key questions posed are: How does the positioning of the contactless terminal within the museum space affect the frequency of visitor donations? What types of experience and core messaging can best attract attention and prompt interaction? How does the use of contactless technology for donations differ from commercial transactions—and how can organizations build visitor confidence in new technology to facilitate new ways of giving?
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For the Personal Experience
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Hungarian National Museum: GuideNow - Extended Multimedia Guide System AVICOM Prize for Mobile Application Gold 2018
Gábor Szabó
Head, Productuion, VARyou Digital ≥ www.guidenow.eu ≥ gabor.szabo@guidenow.eu ≥ Guide Now Bartók Béla street 105-113. 5/B/I 1115 Budapest Hungary
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GuideNow has been designed to minimize installation resources and to provide a simple and state-of-the-art service. Multimedia content may contain text, audio, image, animation, video, augmented reality. All related exhibitions are equally accessible, so there is no need to develop customized applications for each exhibition or museum. The system ensures that multimedia exhibition contents can only be accessed on the spot. Museums
can centralize uploading materials via a transparent administration interface at their disposal, greatly simplifying the overall management of exhibition materials. Museums connected to the GuideNow system receive continuous feedback on visitors’ satisfaction and habits. The app records e.g. how many visitors connected to which exhibition, what language they chose, which audio materials they listened to, as well as the exact time and length of their connection. Statistics and graphs are also available for the museums which helps them profiling the visitors and thus improve the exhibitions. The application also allows museums to send push notifications about new exhibitions, activities, campaigns and other important issues. Indoor navigation, social media connection, and educational games can also be integrated.
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> GuideNow in practice
GuideNow is a complex, dynamically expandable, easy-to-use multimedia guide system. Visitors can easily access exhibition contents via their own smart devices. They no longer have to queue to use old-fashioned audio guides. Our interactive multimedia guide offers them a more comfortable, personal and improved visitor experience. In 2018 this multimedia guide system gained a gold medal in the mobile application category at the F@IMP 2.0 organized by AVICOM in Germany.
An Interactive Learning Experience
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Roman heritage: PO.RO.S – Museu Portugal Romano em Sicó Heritage in Motion Best Achievement Award 2018
Filipe Marques CEO, M&A Digital ≥ www.digital.grupoma.eu www.poros.pt ≥ filipemarques@grupoma.eu info@poros.pt ≥ M&A Digital E.N. 1 nº 4156 3780-901 Avelãs de Caminho Anadia – Portugal ≥ PO.RO.S Quinta de S. Tomé Av. Bombeiros Voluntários de Condeixa-a-Nova, nº 41 3150-160 Condeixa-a-Nova Portugal
Be part of the civilization that changed the world. The PO.RO.S – Museu Portugal Romano in Sicó is located in Condeixa-a-Nova, a municipality where many vestiges of Roman civilization are still visible. Opened in May 2017, PO.RO.S has 1.200m2 of exhibition area. In 11 thematic rooms it’s possible to learn and experience the culture of the Roman occupation in Terras de Sicó.
At PO.RO.S every visitor starts by passing through the tunnel of time. From this point on, the only elements of the 21st century are the multimedia installations that will teach you every detail of the Roman people. With the interactive experiences, you’ll feel like a soldier ready to leave for another conquest, you’ll be taken to a relaxing Roman spa and you’ll dress like a true Roman of the time with the help of an interactive mirror.
2000 years ago, at the edge of the empire, the Romans established, in Conimbriga, a truly Romanized center that mirrored the customs and traditions of its capital, Rome.
This museum is the right place to discover how Rome embraced diversity, reconciled diverse cultures, religions and languages, transforming them into the cradle of the Western civilization.
In this museum, you will travel back in time and return to the golden age of Roman civilization.
PO.ROS was distinguished in 2018, with the Heritage in Motion “Best Achievement Award”.
THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 17
Sizzling in the Intersections, Songlines, Tracking the Seven Sisters.
National Museum of Australia: Songlines: tracking the Seven Sisters Interactive MAPDA 2018 Award for Program Website / Level B
Sarah Ozolins
Head, International and Domestic Engagements, National Museum of Australia ≥ www.songlines.nma.gov.au ≥ Sarah.Ozolins@nma.gov.au ≥ National Museum of Australia PO Box 1901 Canberra ACT 2601 Australia 18 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
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It is in the intersections between the western and Indigenous worlds, or the spaces of the coloniser and the colonised, the ancient and the contemporary, that the Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters award-winning exhibition plays. Seven Sisters is an archetypal narrative of love, lust, tragedy and comedy, of trickery and bravery belonging to that great pantheon of epic sagas which all civilisations have in order to explain the human condition. It is Australia’s Book of Genesis, our Ilyad and Odyssey. The genesis of the project was initiated from the community, reaching out to the National Museum of Australia to preserve the Seven Sisters story for its future custodians, and for the enrichment of Australia and the world. They urgently sought assistance “our songlines are all broken up and we need your help to put them back together before
it is too late”. Under-pinned by rigorous research, it took over seven years to develop, travelling across 7000 kilometres along the songlines of Australia’s deserts in collaboration with some twenty community knowledge holders and a rich conglomerate of western knowledge holders. The younger generation needed to be engaged in this place-based oral tradition and to do this the songlines were animated “making culture cool” by digitizing the dreaming. The result is an ancient story presented in a contemporary light, taking visitors on an immersive and engaging sensory journey in Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters.
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5. Museum of J. A. Comenius, Czech Republic: The Embroidery Craft AVICOM Prize Web Site Gold 2018
Veronika Provodovská Keeper, Ethnographic Collection ≥ www.mjakub.cz www.remesla.mjakub.cz ≥ muzeum@mjakub.cz ≥ Museum of J. A. Comenius Přemysla Otakara II. 37 Uherský Brod 688 01 Czech republic
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Treasury of Folk Culture
The ‘Embroidery Craft’ website is part of the eponymous project focused on preserving the intangible cultural heritage of the district of Uhersky Brod, a small area in South Moravia, rich with folklore and folk costume tradition. The website contains a number of detailed tutorials (animations, videos, photographs, drawings and descriptions) and is being expanded to become a well of knowledge for those who wish to uphold this tradition. Currently, it contains over 70 stitch animations searchable by name and location. In one section, you will learn how to make an embroidery step by step. The web has been gradually expanded to cover traditional weaving techniques, decorating Easter eggs, and home decorating techniques. Although the website is primarily focused on
the preservation of traditional local crafts, it is also visited by people from more remote areas. Some stitches are widespread and used elsewhere, others may help to study the structure of similar stitches. Last, but not least, the website shows the diversity of folk culture and the creativity of the people who have shaped it. The website is customized for mobile phones and can serve as a guide to folk costumes and their place of origin, as the stitches and embroidery motifs are characteristic of specific areas, or can help the users to make their own creations. In addition to the website, the project also includes an exhibition, a book (containing a number of pictures of costume parts and craft instructions), and practical workshops where people can consult the museum conservator and folk artisans. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 21
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6. Cultlab3D: Automated Scanning Technology For 3D Digitisation EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2018 - Research
Martin Ritz Deputy Head, Competence Center, Cultural Heritage Digitization, Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research
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From a Vision to the First Automated 3D Scanning Pipeline
≥ www.igd.fraunhofer.de ≥ Martin.Ritz@igd.fraunhofer.de ≥ Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research Fraunhoferstrasse 5 64283 Darmstadt Germany
CultLab3D received the Europa Nostra Award 2018. The department of Cultural Heritage Digitization continued to realize novel visions and is now active both in the domains of cultural heritage and the industry, demonstrating in both fields that the scanning systems are capable of coping with challenging materials while producing high quality in short time, which is due to continuous improvement of intelligent algorithms such as shape-adaptive view planning. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 23
> CultArm3D-P: Fully automatic high-detail geometry
The very first proof of concept of this vision materialized as a wooden arc prototype. Shortly after, a new department was founded, dedicating itself to research and development of autonomous 3D scanning technologies, continuously driving forward the limits of quality and speed.
The first version of an autonomous scanning street consisting of collaborative 3D scanners, CultLab3D, was showcased in Marseille at the Digital Heritage International Congress 2013. By 2015, the entire system was already fully automatic and solely controlled by a single tiny touch pad, serving as interface to enter the artefact ID via QR code to establish a link between the physical artefact and its digital 3D model.
≼ CultLab3D: Fully automatic 3D scanning street
At the beginning there was a vision: To do the next step from static dome-like structures, the state of the art in optical material behaviour acquisition back in 2012, towards high throughput and automation. Instead of countless static light sources and cameras, we envisioned a system consisting of two rotating arcs, opening up countless possibilities through automation and serving as a research platform for a wide range of optical acquisition techniques for geometry and material behaviour.
RMG’s Space Lives: Growing Digital Engagement
Royal Museums Greenwich: Space LIVES Shorty Award for Best Cultural Institution 2018
Lisa Leigh Head of Marketing, Royal Museums Greenwich ≥ www.rmg.co.uk ≥ RMGenquiries@rmg.co.uk ≥ Royal Museums Greenwich National Maritime Museum Greenwich, London SE10 9NF United Kingdom
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Working across major events such as the New Crescent Moon sighting and Lunar
Each Live has gone from strength to strength, building audiences, growing engagement and helping support record attendances for the Royal Observatory on site.
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> Astronomers use our collection to discuss the Lunar Eclipse
In 2018, RMG launched a pioneering new project - Space Lives – with the aim of growing online communities and engaging new audiences in the topics of space and astronomy. This innovative series streamed major astronomical events to audiences worldwide through one of the most accessible platforms available – Facebook Live. Combining standout live-streams, expert commentary, user generated content, SEO strategy and press channels to drive awareness, the project delivered exceptional results.
Eclipses, RMG streamed content live from telescopes at the Royal Observatory to the Royal Museums Greenwich Facebook page. The Space Lives programme has reached hundreds of thousands of people online and resulted in digital engagement rates higher than any other museum worldwide. Ahead of each event, we reached out to the widest possible audience by producing event-related search optimised web pages and promoting the live streams though press. Our astronomers provided expert content, accessible commentary and celebrated our historical site and collections throughout each event. We also incorporated an innovative audience-focused approach with the inclusion of user generated content, interactive Q&As and guest presenters.
≥ Streaming a lunar eclipse through the Annie Maunder Astrographic Telescope
A top-ten UK visitor attraction, Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) is the place to discover sea and space exploration, pioneering architecture, art, and British history. RMG manages four iconic sites, including the 344-year-old Royal Observatory – Britain's first state-funded scientific research institution.
Taking a Closer Look: Americans Online
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National Museum of the American Indian: Americans IDCA Best Website Award 2018
Laurie Swindull Web Project Manager ≥ nmai-info@si.edu ≥ www.americanindian.si.edu/americans/ ≥ National Museum of the American Indian Fourth St. & Independence Ave., SW Washington, DC 20560 United States
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Native people are nearly invisible in the United States. They make up less than 1 percent of the population, and are mostly absent from today’s great national debates. Yet representations of Indians are ubiquitous. Dream catchers, mascots, weapons, place names, fashion, advertising—they wallpaper contemporary American life, so common that they seem to require no discussion. The National Museum of the American Indian suggests these themes and representations deserve a closer look. The Americans website launched in tandem with the opening of the exhibition of the same name at the museum in Washington, DC. Americans uncovers the many ways American Indian images, names, and stories have been part of the United States’ history, iden-
tity, and pop culture since before the country began. Not only does Americans reveal the phenomenon of hiding in plain sight, it asserts that these prevalent images, words, and stories are a powerful way to understand a country forever fascinated and conflicted by its relationship with American Indians. This presentation will review the ways in which a monumental gallery installation of hundreds of Indian-themed artifacts was successfully translated to a synoptic online experience that both immerses users in this imagery and provides opportunities to explore iconic stories, such as Pocahontas and the Trail of Tears, and a unique American Indian perspective on Thanksgiving. #NDNsEverywhere THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 27
#Romanovs100 & #1917LIVE Shorty Award for Best in Education 2018
Ivor Crotty Deputy Director, Creative and Innovations, RT ≥ www.1917live.red www. romanovs100.com ≥ ivor.crotty@gmail.com ≥ RT TV Bldg.3, Borovaya St. 111020 Moscow Russia
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Digital Revolutions & Storytelling: Engage. Inspire. Educate.
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Our mission is to bring important stories to life and change how people learn history through innovation in educational storytelling that utilizes the power of digital tech, visual craft and social media. Presenting #1917LIVE & #Romanovs100: social media storytelling projects which help people engage with history and become active participants in digital storytelling through Q&As, polls, contests, VR and AR experiences. #1917LIVE answers the question ‘what if Twitter existed 100 years ago?’ to tell, in real-time, the story of Russia’s 1917 revolutions 100 years after the events that reshaped the modern world. The Romanovs, Russia’s last royal family, owned the world's first portable cameras and used them to document almost every meaningful event in their lives. We gave their extraordinary, private photo archive a second, digital life in #Romanovs100, merging a
large visual data set with transmedia storytelling. The project culminated in AR photo album combining the visual language of photography with AR tech that breaks traditional print format boundaries to create a new kind of history text that is informative, engaging, empathetic and interactive, designed to educate and inspire future self-learners. Teachers have acclaimed our work for portraying a lived-in history, amplifying new voices, embracing multiple narratives and conveying to students the ambivalence and unintended consequences of decisions that ultimately shaped important events. Media professionals recognise our innovation ethos, determination to inspire our audience to learn through innovation, and our focus on empathetic storytelling as a response to the highly polarised online environment we often experience.
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10.
Museum of London Archaeological Archive: #ArchiveLottery Museums + Heritage Innovation Award 2018
Adam Corsini
Archaeological Archive Manager ≥ www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london ≥ acorsini@museumoflondon.org.uk ≥ Museum of London Archaeological Archive Mortimer Wheeler House 46 Eagle Wharf Road N1 7ED london United Kingdom 30 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
#ArchiveLottery – A Different Digital Engagement
To some extent the activity replicates the feeling of archaeological discovery at the time of excavation. It offers a personal direct engagement with staff and a unique item from the collection for each individual that plays. Of the numerous people that have experienced #ArchiveLottery, without exception, each has provided positive feedback.
#Archivelottery is a simple and effective way to open up museum collections and received the Innovation Award at the Museum & Heritage Show 2018.
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> Collections Manager Adam Corsini on periscope - screen shot
The original scheme began as an interactive Twitter experiment, which rapidly revealed its potential to expand as an engagement project. Continuous experimentation built up to the launch of a series of #ArchiveLottery events for #ExploreArchives week, where we aspired to attract a worldwide audience and inspire other institutions. By having its own hashtag it also generates its own method of self-dissemination, with the ability to quickly search for previous results on Twitter.
≼ Museum Visitors playing #ArchiveLottery
ArchiveLottery is an interactive public engagement activity which uses social media and digital technology to create an unpredictable and unique moment of discovery. Participants choose a number, equating to a shelf location within our store. Staff then pick an object at random from that shelf and engage the player with it. Versions have included the use of Twitter, Skype and live broadcasts over Periscope and it has become a feature of any group tour to the Archive.
i Shanghai Culture Brand Weeding Through the Old to Create the New 32 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
11. Shanghai History Museum: Again Here Rings the Bell and Shanghai History AVICOM Grand Prix - Claude Nicole Hocqard prize of AVICOM 2018
Shan Shan Tan Head, Information Center ≥ www.shh-shrhmuseum.org.cn ≥ jessica_yyf@163.com ≥ 325 West Nanjing Road Huangpu District Shanghai China
With the help of modern display and exhibition technology, Shanghai History Museum looks back into the 6000-year history of Shanghai and becomes a comprehensive chronological museum with a new concept that reflects the history of Shanghai including the revolutionary history of the city. For Shanghai History Museum, the building itself is the biggest exhibit. The building, featuring both classicism and eclecticism (construction finished in 1934) was originally the building of Shanghai Race Club. The bell tower, with a height of 53 meters, is one of the most important landmarks of contemporary architecture in Shanghai. After the foundation of the new China, the building of Shanghai Race Club was protected and transformed into Shanghai Library, Shanghai Museum and Shanghai Art Museum successively.
In 2017, Shanghai History Museum finished construction and was opened to the public.
Urban Essence— International Integration The brand-new Shanghai History Museum, through the integration of history and technology as well as the interaction of stories and performances, explains the new concept exhibition and display of museum: to make the cultural relics come alive. As an advocate for World Excellent Urban Museum Alliance, the new Shanghai History Museum will carry out broad and profound cultural exchanges so as to become a nationally renowned and world class comprehensive urban museum complying with the top criteria and best level of international museums.
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i An Essential Cultural Experience for All Ages 34 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
12. Mississippi Civil Rights Museum: Chaney Goodman Schwerner Theater MUSE Video, Film, & Computer Animation Gold Award 2018
Pamela D.C. Junior director, Two Mississippi Museums ≥ www.mcrm.mdah.ms.gov ≥ info@mscivilrightsmuseum.com ≥ Mississippi Civil Rights Museum 222 North Street Jackson, MS 39201 United States
The Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner theater documents the 1964 murder of Freedom Summer volunteers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. The three young men, who were working with the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, were investigating the fire bombing and beating of parishioners at Mount Zion Methodist Church in Neshoba County. As they were returning to Meridian, the men were stopped by Neshoba County sheriff’s deputy Cecil Price. They were jailed for several hours with no phone call and later released. After being released, their car was followed and pulled over by several cars filled with members of the Ku Klux Klan. The men were removed from their car and all three were fatally shot. Colleagues searched frantically for their comrades. FBI Agents found their smoldering vehicle days later and the search for the
missing workers went from a rescue to a recovery. Local, state, and federal agencies searched for the missing men for forty-four days. A tip from an informant, a highway patrolman from Meridian, sent investigators to a dam on an old farm outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi, where the men’s bodies were recovered. Local funeral homes refused to honor the families’ wishes to bury the three civil rights workers together. James Chaney was buried in Neshoba County and Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were returned to New York for burial. The Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner Theater was designed by Hilferty and Associates, fabricated and installed by Exhibit Concepts, Inc. and the film was produced by Monadnock Media Group and narrated by broadcast journalist Howard Ballou.
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i13. A Visual Explanation That Made Museum Visitors Look at Van Gogh’s Art in a New Way 36 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
Van Gogh Museum: Seeing with a Japanese Eye Museums in Short Award 2018 / Exhibits
Jolein van Kregten senior Curator of Education ≥ www.vangoghmuseum.nl ≥ info@vangoghmuseum.nl ≥ Van Gogh Museum P.O.Box 75366 1070 AJ Amsterdam The Netherlands
How could the Van Gogh Museum help its audience to really see what Vincent van Gogh admired in the Japanese prints he loved so much? And how could we assist them in discovering the stylistic and compositional elements the artist took from the Japanese woodcuts and integrated in his own art? The animation video ‘Seeing with a Japanese eye’ was the answer to these questions. It became an essential part of the exhibition Van Gogh & Japan in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (23 March-24 June 2018). With some sixty paintings and drawings by Van Gogh and a large selection of Japanese prints, this exhibition explored the fundamental impact the Japanese example had on Van Gogh’s art. The Japanese prints were very different from the European art Van Gogh was used to. They taught him a new way of looking at the world. ‘Seeing with a
Japanese eye’, Van Gogh called it in a letter. It changed his art forever. The video provided a visual explanation, with a bare minimum of text. Our goal: after watching the video people should be able to look at an art work by Van Gogh and really see the elements he ‘adopted’ from the Japanese examples, such as the dominant diagonal, the bright colour planes, and the abrupt cut-off of subject matter at the edges of the picture plane. The video therefore functioned as an eye opener: allowing everyone who was interested, to look at Van Gogh’s art ‘with a Japanese eye’. Title of the film: Seeing with a Japanese Eye; Year of production: 2018; Length: 02:01; Director: Erik Ankoné (Creative Beards);Soundtrack: Max Sombroek (Nineyards); Production: Creative Beards, Utrecht. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 37
Bridge Between Past and Future - A New Museum for the New Generation
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Virtual Museum of Fine Arts by Alexander Lavrov Heritage in Motion Best App Award 2018
Alexander Lavrov CEO, Next.space www.nextspace.work www.nextspace.online ≥ hello@next.space ≥ Next.space Bol'shoy Bul'var 42 Scolkovo, Moscow 121205 Russia
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This project has a decade long digital history, focused on the story of the physical world of the last century. The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is a museum complex that is currently in possession of one of the largest world art collections from Ancient Egypt and Greece to the present. The idea of creating a Museum quarter on Volkhonka Street was conceived by Ivan Tsvetaev, the founder of the Museum. In 2014, a competition was held to design the architectural concept of the Museum quarter, which the project Rhizosphere won. After the completion of the reconstruction project, nine museums will operate on the territory of the Museum Quarter. For achieving a joint design process with museum staff, architects, builders, government and other stakeholders, a virtual interactive 3D model of the whole Museum Quarter was
developed. This system has already been used for the Olympic games, the largest transport hub - La Sagrera in Barcelona and many other large-scale projects, but it was the first museum implementation for a system like this. Every member of the project team can simulate their work using this 3D interactive tool. We can use it to place pictures, statues, security guards, lights, cafes, chairs, and many other items. The Museum has made plans for its future as far forward as 2025. It is very important for an exhibition which contains some of the world’s most valuable heritage (such as the work of the Pre-Raphaelites). More than 3000 children participate in museum programs and planning the museum of the future. They became young curators and the Museum understands how the next generation will see museums in 2025.
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core programme keynote address
Heritage as an Agent of Change Errol van de Werdt General Director, TextielMuseum Tilburg Last year the TextielMuseum in Tilburg, in The Netherlands, was rewarded by the Best in Heritage audience and professional jury for its innovative museum concept. The TextielMuseum is an interactive place where designers, artists and the public are inspired by old artisanship and manual work. It is a place where we are creating a dialogue about the past and present and the opportunity to think about the future. The collection is a source of knowledge and inspiration for the creation of new heritage. Goals of the museum are an inclusive participation of our public and a focus on a more safe and sustainable world. Being awarded has opened the doors for further steps in the development of your organization. It is encouraging and stimulating to go on. Potential sponsors are more interested in supporting you. This congress is challenging us to learn and to improve ourselves and to strengthen our qualities as heritage keepers. That’s a strong and important value of this congress. We are here among so many dedicated professionals from all over the world. Sharing experiences makes us all stronger in improving and engaging our museums more effectively in society. Heritage is made by people. It is made by our predecessors, our parents, grandparents. Our legacy is connecting people. It recovers what is not there anymore.
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The longer I work as a heritage professional the more I’m convinced about the powerful potentials of heritage and culture. Taking a position in the middle of society creates opportunities to influence its development. As my colleague said, the museum is like a Shangri La, a place were the best in people - curiosity, being open to what seems different – is stimulated. When our museums contribute in this way to society we fulfill our missions. I would like to share and exchange some considerations in heritage with you. The lessons I learned are: 1. That it is important that Heritage includes and connects everybody in society to understand and overcome differences with each other. So, heritage is for everybody. 2. Humans are makers (Sennet). In everybody hides a craftsman who likes to create and to make things. The process of creating and making things is like an adventure for our audiences. The motto in our museum is learning by doing and playing. The Dutch historian Johan Huizinga spoke about “the most fundamental elements of human culture is the instinct to play.” Playing is stimulating relationships in our community. In our culture and daily life it is fundamental shaping our society. A museum should facilitate that in an interactive way.
3. Heritage is not only about yesterday. It is present in our daily life and it should connect the present with the past and pave the road for our future steps.
increasingly important in the political and social domain. As a result of globalization, there is a growing risk of erosion of our cultural and civilizational values.
4. Heritage is a powerful tool to learn from the past and to prevent humanity repeating old mistakes, and making brand new ones, in the future. It can be used as an agent of change not only in a cultural way, but also in the social and economic domain.
These values have always been passed from generation to generation giving us a sense of safety and continuity. But they evolve in response to our rapidly changing environments. This strengthens the desire for a sense of identity. That provides us with a link to our past, through the present into our future. Maintaining cultural diversity is an important factor to prevent conflicts. An understanding of the cultural legacy of different communities helps us in creating intercultural dialogue, and encourages mutual respect for each others’ ways of life. It contributes to social cohesion, and helps people to feel really a part of and participants in our society.
Most of you are for a reason award winners already. Awards are helpful in influencing political and social systems. They position your institute on platforms and circles of influence on which our work can effectively contribute to improve our society.
Heritage As an Agent of Change Times are confusing. Fake news is professionally used around the world to influence the masses on global issues. Due to globalization and digitization our world is rapidly changing. We have created a different world from the one we are familiar with. The virtual world is becoming a real world for more and more people. Identity issues are becoming
Cultural Heritage is the Mirror of our Identity. A Vulnerable Target in Times of War The irony is that it is for this reason that cultural legacy is also a vulnerable target in times of conflict. Destruction is used systematically as an active tool of war to supTHE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 41
core programme keynote address
press our identity. The protection of cultural heritage in times of war is a serious and important matter for the sake of better times. We as collection keepers have a big responsibility in the protection of it. But on the other hand our legacy can also be used as a powerful diplomatic tool when economic and military sanctions block bridging differences.
Intrinsic Cultural Values Creating Social Economical Values. Heritage as an Agent of Change It is no longer sufficient for us to only focus on cultural values and to stay within the walls of our museums as an island in society. The museum of the future is positioned in the middle of society. It creates outreach programmes, it is inclusive, dealing with high but also with low art. More importantly, it is dealing with contemporary issues like the erosion of the identities of minorities, the importance of being accessible for everybody, and it is about the sustainability, both literally and figuratively, of our civilizational and cultural values. Our institutes should be a beacon in our daily lives and a safe harbor against fake news. The museum of the future is our guiding agent in times of change. In a fully digitized world where the real world and virtual world get mixed, it creates opportunities for reflection and sensorial experience. It is a place for debate and provides us with information about our mutual identity.
Heritage a Beacon and Safe Harbour in Rapidly Changing Times Heritage keepers strive for a future where we feel connected again to our real world. 42 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
A future where we are no longer estranged from the origins of the things around us. Discovering what heritage can do in the present for a better future day does play an important role in this. Why? Because heritage is, in a tangible and intangible way, interwoven with our daily lives. It’s all around us, without us being aware of it consciously. There was a time when we knew exactly how the sweater that we wore was made. We saw with our own eyes how grandma would choose the wool, cast it on and tap the needles together for hours on end until the sweater was finished. The situation today is very different. The making process has become largely invisible. Fashion got fast. We no longer have any idea how things are made. What they are made of. If they are good. Or bad. We have become disconnected from the world around us, estranged from the objects we surround ourselves with. In these our museums play a vital role, they are unique in the world. They bring our cultural legacy together for mutual understanding: it gives us inspiration, knowledge, craftsmanship, creation, innovation, education and entrepreneurship. Heritage is our anchor, in this rapidly changing world. It can make the world more understandable, beautiful, safer, more efficient, more social, comfortable or sustainable. Yet this is something that we are not always aware of these days. It is our role and responsibility to include every individual, no matter color, race, sex, age, where you come from, who give heritage the podium it deserves to amaze people with all its possibilities, no matter who, from professional to amateur, artist or commercial business – we have to invite everybody to discover what our legacy can do, regardless of age or station in life. Everybody can explore, experience, experiment and rethink
these tremendous sources of knowledge in our museums.
Heritage Paving our Future Besides the importance of identity, heritage is not only about the past to be aware of where we come from. It’s like a backpack full of knowledge, experiences, stories, ideas, forgotten recipes, inventions given to us by our ancestors as a tool for redesigning our contemporary life. It is not only a record of the progress of the past: it is also a way finder for the future. It is a tool to deal with present day issues to be reinterpreted. We have to rethink the way we have done things until now. Our museum, archives, libraries, monuments, and archeological sites are the main keepers of tangible but also intangible heritage in our communities. More and more focus has to be given to our intangible legacy as long as it is still around us. This is where our museums come in. There is nowhere an institute quite like the museum. We as the TextielMuseum are the only ones to bring everything relating to textiles together: inspiration, knowledge, heritage,
craftsmanship, creation, innovation, education and entrepreneurship. We connect people with the world around them. We help all to experience what heritage can do, what it means and can go on signify in the future. And how important it is to feel the world around us.
Finally The possibilities of heritage are endless. It can make the world safer, more beautiful, efficient, social, comfortable or sustainable. The museum aims to give the realm of heritage the podium it deserves, amazing all with its possibilities. We invite everyone to discover what heritage can do. Let our audiences discover what our legacy can do. It is a moral obligation as a heritage keeper to do so and to make the world a little bit better more beautiful, safer, cleaner understandable. We wish you all as winners in your country good luck with this responsible job. Take your positions in society. You all are winners already. Be an agent of change in this complex world and let’s create a powerful tool through heritage. Thank you. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 43
1. War Childhood Museum Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Council of Europe Museum Prize 2018
Jasminko Halilović
Stories Told by People, for People 44 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
Founder and Director ≥ www.warchildhood.org ≥ info@warchildhood.org ≥ War Childhood Museum Logavina 32 71000 Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina
The War Childhood Museum (WCM) is a people’s museum—people’s stories, people’s objects, people’s terms. Some of the objects on display are rare manuscripts people risked their lives to save, while others are chocolate bar wrappers that are still in production. A hundred years ago, how many museums would display chocolate bar wrappers that are still in production? The museum industry is changing with the emergence of story-based and socially conscious museums. The WCM provides a caring home for objects that are significant for those whose childhoods were affected by armed conflict.
Creation The War Childhood Museum would not have been possible in any other century. It all started in 2010, when I posted the following question online: ‘What was a war childhood for you?’ To respond people needed access to a computer, the Internet, and an email address. Responses were limited to 160 characters. Within the first day, 100 people responded. Within three months, 1,500 people had responded, with diaspora responding from 35 different countries. This research project took about two years to carry out and turn into a book. During that time, I communicated directly via email with most of the respondents. Several provided lengthier accounts of their experience and attached pictures of the items they carried with them through and past war time: ballet slippers, blankets, toys, food packaging, journals, clothes, medical supplies, and tools. The more I communicated with them, the more conscious I became of the fact that these treasures, both in story and object form, might be lost in a few years. My aim was not only to find a place to protect the objects, but also preserve their significance to individuals. Objects, without interpretation, are often meaningless. Without a story, a blanket that
embodied security for a young child during dark hours is just a blanket. The blanket is valuable because of its relationship to humanity. Without the story, without the voice, and without the experience of its owner, its significance would be lost. Upon completing my book entitled War Childhood, it became my mission to preserve these artefacts and create a platform for these stories to resound with others. I noted a distinct difference in the response from participants when I started saying ‘I am founding a museum’ rather than ‘I am working on a research project’. This response brings to light the powerful aura of the word ‘museum’. Museums are considered to be trusted institutions, important places, places to be admired, places to enjoy, and places for the community to gather. Participants were pleased to be part of the War Childhood research project, but being part of a museum solely dedicated to telling their story, was for them, something extraordinary. Museums, as respected institutions, are powerful platforms to change the way people interact with the past. For instance, before the War Childhood project evolved into a museum, the public had limited access to the War Childhood project. Museums, on the other hand, are rich because they are meeting places. Museums are also more age inclusive; research projects are typically carried out by academics, but museums are more accessible to communities, families, and individuals. Those who are not aware of the War Childhood book, might be more inclined to look up TripAdvisor’s ‘#1 thing to do in Sarajevo’, and visit the WCM. Children who might be too young to read the book can also visit the Museum. Museums have a special power to bridge gaps between citizens and cities. I dreamt that the WCM would become a place that individuals carry in their own personal maps of significant Sarajevo landmarks; landmarks that also contribute to their identity. In 2015, Selma Tanović, a medical anthropologist and doctor, and THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 45
Amina Krvavac, a researcher and children’s rights activist, joined me in dreaming up and planning the creation of the War Childhood Museum. The project team, with the consultation of several psychologists, developed a methodology and began working on creating a collection for the future museum by collecting objects, personal stories, and video testimonies. In January 2017, this project, which began online, got its permanent home in Sarajevo after a public campaign that put pressure on the government to help find a space for the WCM.
is cold, they sometimes do their homework in the Museum’s book nook. When visitors walk through the door, they are greeted by one or two members of the Museum staff who have been trained to approach visitors with warmth and sensitivity. As an institution, we are aware that you can never know what a visitor’s previous experiences might have been and how personal this visit might be, so we try to be as mindful of visitors as possible. As a small museum, one of the things we can offer visitors is a personalised experience. The Museum staff are available and willing to support visitors in any way they can.
The Museum today
The exhibition space itself is predominantly grey. The only colourful things in the exhibition area are the objects themselves. We try to curate the exhibition in much the same way: though the subject matter is difficult, we try to curate the exhibition so that stories of uncommon kindness and love also have space to breathe. The exhibition is curat-
The Museum is located close to the old town on one of the oldest streets in Sarajevo, Logavina Street. When visitors arrive at the Museum, one of the first things they will notice is a group of neighbourhood kids playing in front of the building. When the weather 46 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
ed so that a diverse set of experiences and emotions are evoked, and all stories given equal weight. Walking through the exhibition hall or main gallery, you can observe couples hugging, people sitting to listen to the video testimonies, and young children taking a specialised tour. In addition, there are often students on school visits or attending educational workshops. Education is an important pillar of the Museum’s focus. To make the subject matter more accessible, the WCM hosts educational workshops at schools around the country. Working with thousands of school children every year, the WCM aims to contribute to a greater understanding of the importance of peace.
but mostly for its subjects, the many other stories untold, and the great people that lived through and turn horror to triumph every day by existing and carrying on. You honor us with your perseverance and serve as a reminder that all can be overcome. Thank you. This comment captures what is at the heart of the Museum: the stories, which are presented with dignity and respected by visitors. These are the stories that inspire empathy and hope. Stories told by people, for people.
At the end of the exhibition, some visitors leave in a hurry, some talk to our museum guides, while others sit and rest. Visitors often write in the guest book on their way out. One entry reads: With appreciation, deep humility and love, love, love for this museum THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 47
Immersion, Interaction and Inspiration Introducing the Canon of Dutch History
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Holland Open Air Museum and Kossmann.dejong: The Canon of Dutch History arnhem, the netherlands Museums + Heritage International Award 2018
Herman Kossmann founder, Kossmann.dejong
Teus Eenkhoorn director, Holland Open Air Museum
Martine Barnhard head, exhibitions, Holland Open Air Museum ≥ www.openluchtmuseum.nl www.kossmanndejong.nl ≥ info@openluchtmuseum.nl info@kossmanndejong.nl ≥ Holland Open Air Museum Hoeferlaan 4 6816 SG Arnhem The Netherlands ≥ KOSSMANN.DEJONG De Ruyterkade 107 1011 AB Amsterdam The Netherlands
For a long time, there was a need in the Netherlands to increase knowledge of Dutch history and values. After a national debate and a failed attempt to build a national historical museum, the Netherlands Open Air Museum and the Rijksmuseum were asked to create a permanent exhibition of the Canon of Dutch History. The new presentation offers an insight into the highs and lows of Dutch history. In fifty ‘windows’, the canon takes you along the events, people and objects that define Dutch history. From the first Dutch Monarch to a prime minister in the 50s, from slavery to the canals of Amsterdam and from megalithic tombs to the present. But how to design an exhibition as an introduction to Dutch history? Central is to create a space that offers many starting points for the visitor to get drawn in by the story, with a strong balance between an attractive design stimulating all senses, and depth of content. The collection, interactives, movies, décor pieces: all elements in the exhibition
are there for a reason. All components are little narratives about a particular aspect of Dutch history. Key is the integration of these elements. An example of such integration is the Hanseatic city-story. In the middle of a décor piece of a Koggeschip (boat) that was used for trading in these cities, a hands-on interactive map is presented next to historical objects and B- and C-texts about the subject. Visitors can learn about the large network of cities through different media and from different angles, thus appealing to a wide range of visitors. Most importantly, the installation inspires people to visualize the story in their own head. People wonder, explore and talk to each other exchanging their knowledge with fellow visitors. They actively and collectively process the narrative on the spot. Instead of just ticking off the historical highlights, the exhibition tries to trigger the visitor’s imagination. While wandering through the spectacular film sets, a combination of physical, interactive and audio-visual media and unique collection presentations take visitors back in time. It’s almost like stepping into a time machine. The decorations are designed to be as familiar as possible. For instance, brick has been decorated following historical research and the timber nails of the Kogge ship are a showcase of the ship building technique during the Hanseatic period. The films that bring the decors to life follow the principles of historical realism. History comes even closer through interweaving the topics of the Canon of Dutch History with stories from everyday people. High-end technology makes it possible to meet your peer that lived ages ago. So, visitors from all ages get an in-depth experience of the past from today’s perspective. A deliberate choice was made to include actors, creating one-on-one relations that THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 49
≥ Photo Thijs Wolzak
The Canon of Dutch History, fifty themes summarizing Dutch history, has been brought to life at the Netherlands Open Air Museum. The permanent exhibition in the renewed entrance pavilion was conceived in a unique collaboration between a network of museums and historians, with the concept developed by main curator Pieter van der Heijden, spatial and graphic design by exhibition architects Kossmann.dejong, interaction design by IJsfontein and AV production by Redrum. The theatrical combination of physical, interactive and audio-visual media with collection presentations results in an engaging and fascinating visual narrative. The result is a 1780 m2 spatial collage of historic icons, interwoven with stories from everyday people, giving visitors an in-depth experience of the past from today’s perspective.
make important historical events personal and timeless. Visitors can identify with the lives of ‘ordinary’ people in a different time period. It becomes clear that history is more than a collection of Canon windows: it is one continuing, rich story with infinite connections. The Canon of Dutch History forms a starting point to discover this treasure.
> Photo Thijs Wolzak
Stepping back in time The new exhibition is distributed across four consecutive spaces. Visitors begin their journey in the tunnel-like introduction space that gradually takes them back in time, from the end of the 20th century to far beyond AD 1. How did we make light before electricity? What did children play with? And what did we eat? These stories are shared in a series of spatial film projections that give an intimate glimpse into people’s daily lives from today and the past. These fragments show our continuously changing living conditions, and with each step, draw the visitor further back in time.
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The Story of the Netherlands Then visitors enter a multimedia film set in a spectacular 16-meter-high dome room. Here ‘The Story of the Netherlands’ is presented in ten time periods. Visitors wander through the print workshop of 17th century cartographer Joan Blaeu, a church tower from the time of the Iconoclastic Fury and the everyday world of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. In the layered composition of decor, objects and film fragments, the integration of (romantic-) realistic elements add tangibility and familiarity for a wide audience. Film projections bring the sets to life. Visitors are actively challenged to uncover information using a mix of media, hands-on elements and interactive games. For example, visitors can collaborate with each other and can open a treasure chest with collection pieces. Floor and ceiling projections emphasize the continuation of time, ensure visual connection and, in combination with dynamic light and sound effects, result in a vibrant spectacle. The parallelism of media enriches and deepens the story.
After the sensory experience in the dome room, visitors enter the third room with ‘The Land and the World.’ A large panoramic film shows the Netherlands as we know it today and how it has evolved through the ages both geographically and geologically. Infographics and historic maps place these changes in a broader, international context. Graphic line patterns on the floor and walls reflect these connections.
The Canon as starting point Rather than simply listing important moments in history, the canon aims to provide a wide-angle view on certain key themes. In the last space, an 18-m-long interactive wall offers a chronological overview of all 50 ‘Windows into the Past’, showcasing the Canon of Dutch History in its monumental entirety. Here, visitors are invited to unlock more information and find connections between the Canon windows, or to play one of a series of interactive games. A digital expedi-
tion unfolds along the different Canon topics, and visitors of all ages can compete at an interactive table to win the family game.
The future of Dutch history Dutch history cannot be told in one story or place. Rather than picking one institution, the Netherlands Open Air Museum started a network that exchanges, creates and diffuses the Canon of Dutch History. The Canon network stands for proactive cooperation between a growing number of cultural organizations, which bring Dutch history to the attention of its citizens. In the coming years, the network will expand into a balanced reflection of the Canon. From the launch in 2017, important Dutch museums like the Amsterdam Museum, the National Museum of Antiquities and the National Maritime Museum have been involved in the Canon network. The network keeps expanding to this day, with more Dutch museums joining each year.
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> Photo Thijs Wolzak
Continuous change
Capturing and Curating the Spirit of a Transformative Era
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Centre d’histoire Montréal: Explosion 67 Montréal, Canada Canadian Museums Association Award for Outstanding Achievement 2018: Exhibitions
Catherine Charlebois Curator, Exhibitions and Collections ≥ www.ville.montreal.qc.ca/chm ≥ catherine.charlebois@ville.montreal.qc.ca ≥ Centre d’histoire Montréal 410, rue Saint-Nicolas, bureau 124 Montréal (Québec) H2Y 2P5 Canada
Founded in 1983, the Centre d’histoire de Montréal (CHM) is a municipal museum which focuses on interpreting the history of Montréal and of its citizens. For the past two decades, the CHM has explored ways to get closer to its community, notably by collecting oral histories and using them in its interpretation activities. Our experience and expertise has grown since 2009 with projects such as the exhibitions Lost Neighbourhoods and Scandal! Vice, Crime and Morality in Montréal 1940-1960, and, most recently, Explosion 67. Youth and their World. The Explosion 67. Youth and Their World project was a colossal one, not unlike Expo 67 itself. It involved more than two and a half years of non-stop work. No one had expected that it would be such an intense experience. As the year 2017 was approaching, we anticipated that there would be a lot of interest in the 50th anniversary of Expo 67, especially in the context of Montréal’s 375th anniversary. Expo 67 was one of the most significant events in 20th-century history for Canada, for Québec, and especially for Montréal. It had major cultural and social effects and left a lasting impression not only on the city but also on its citizens. Though the CHM wanted to mark the event, we were not sold on the idea of simply producing a straightforward commemorative exhibition and limiting ourselves to an exercise of pure nostalgia. It was important to find an interpretive angle that would provide a new perspective on the event and would engage Montrealers directly. The angle of youth quickly appeared as the most interesting road to take. We immediately saw it as powerful theme that had not yet been exploited by museums and could
draw an enthusiastic response. Our starting point was the idea of drawing a parallel, through an oral history approach, between adolescence, a crucial period in any individual’s life, and Expo 67, a watershed moment in Montréal’s history. The concept was then validated and developed with the help of an advisory committee of sociologists, historians, and archivists. Our museum has a tradition of dealing with major social themes through the use of oral history in exhibitions and with the participation of citizens in the interpretation of their own history. With the aim of maintaining this tradition, we undertook a major oral history project with people who were between the ages of 11 and 21 between 1967 and 1969. This project resulted in interviews with 47 people and more than 76 hours of recordings. The powerful emotional intensity that emerged from these personal testimonies was a wonderful discovery. It reassured us that we had made the right choice in having people who were young in the late sixties tell, in their own words, the story of Expo 67 and the story of their teenage years. In addition to featuring oral histories, it was essential that the project be mainly powered by private archives to accentuate the intimate feel of the exhibition and the personal experience of the events. Therefore, a massive preparatory research process uncovered more than 30 000 photographs, objects and archival documents, 250 archived films, and 200 musical works. Most of this documentary content was unpublished and thus outside the scope of the official sources generally used for anniversary tributes such as this. Furthermore, a yearlong invitation to the public to participate in the CHM’s collaborative research was answered by some 200 people, generating loans of more than 8 800 documentary objects, photos and archives. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 53
Thanks to this open call, more than 5 000 photographs and slides, and over 10 000 feet of amateur and professional film were digitized. In the end, close to 1 000 new artifacts and documents were acquired by the CHM. The massive amount of materials generated by the research and crowdsourcing initiatives was indubitably one of the biggest challenges of the project.
rector and documentary filmmaker Antonio Pierre de Almeida. In the end, we are delighted to find that the vision and intentions of all parties involved blended so well. There has been real dialogue between the museological approach, the cinematic approach, and the graphic design approach. This dialogue is definitely one of the great strengths of this exhibition.
With every project, the CHM endeavours to take the integration of oral histories one step further. And every time, one of the main challenges is to achieve coherence when incorporating the personal accounts into the overall concept and experience. Above all, the tangible and intangible content has to fit together perfectly throughout the exhibition itinerary. For this reason, it was essential that there be a solid basis for co-creation between the CHM’s team and the production and design team which was led by Figure 55 and Plasma (now Halo), as well as with di-
The result is an immersive and multimedia documentary exhibition. Imagined as an Expo 67 “pavilion,” it offers visitors an experience full of anticipation, mystery, emotional intensity, and discovery. Digital experiences, immersive environments, projections, and more than 35 original short documentaries provide an engaging setting for the often humorous personal accounts and the rich visual and sound archives of this watershed period.
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Visitors to Explosion 67 enter a kind of “black box,” as though virtually penetrating the minds of people who were young in the 1960s in order to explore their memories. Along the way, “memory molecules” - impressionistic and fragmented recollections - give a glimpse of the powerful impressions left not only by Expo 67, but also by the tumultuous end of the 1960s. The exhibition allows young people from that era to tell their story, and their visceral and emotionally resonant accounts allow visitors to connect with this significant moment in their lives and the development of their society. In the exhibition, oral history gives colour to the whole range of emotions and events that youth of the time period experienced. The emotional quality that we succeeded in capturing brought us a deeper understanding of the project’s themes and immersed us in the multiple dimensions of this history. With its multimedia approach and virtual reality ele-
ments, Explosion 67 is a 3D experience. The personal accounts create a fourth dimension: the human side of history. Finally, Explosion 67 was a laboratory to test and evaluate new approaches. As the CHM prepares to relocate to a new space in downtown Montréal in 2021, it is reinventing itself to become the MEM (Mémoire des Montréalais.es): a participative citizen space dedicated to the celebration of Montréal’s identity, diversity, and heritage. By exploring new ways of presenting personal accounts in a museum setting, the CHM continues to develop its expertise in documentary exhibitions and remains a pioneer among museums in its collection and dissemination of oral history
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4. An International Research Programme Created Thanks to the Synergy Between the Most Respected Institutions of Europe 56 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
Epico: European Protocol In Preventive Conservation Coordinated In Versailles, France EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2018
Valériane Rozé Associate Researcher, EPICO Programme ≥ www.chateauversailles-recherche.fr www.europeanroyalresidences.eu ≥ david.fung@sjs.org.hk ≥ Musée National du Chateau de Versailles et de Trianon 1 rue de l’Indépendance américaine RP 834, 78008 Versailles France
1 Project leader, the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and the National Estate of Versailles 8 European institutions involved Palace of Versailles Research Centre, France ; “La Venaria Reale” Centre of Conservation and Restoration, Italy ; Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów, Poland ; Network of European Royal Residences ; University of Paris I – Sorbonne, France ; Palace of Maintenon, France; Parques de Sintra - Monte da Lua, Portugal ; Prussian Palaces and Gardens of Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany. Ten specialists from international institutions, in France, Italy, Canada, United Kingdom make up the Scientific Committee. Europe’s historic houses number several thousand. Hundreds of these are open to the public and display their collections within the original interiors, ensuring the transmission of its history to the wider public. The conservation of these historic works is intrinsically linked to the monuments that house them, which presents several challenges regarding their preventive conservation. Climatic conditions, lighting, the effects of a regular stream of visitors, along with conservation measures that are often ill-adapted to the needs of historic houses create a very complex set of specific issues. The European Protocol in Preventive Conservation (EPICO) was created in December 2014 by the Palace of Versailles, in partnership with its Research Centre, the “Venaria Reale” Conservation and Restoration Centre in Turin, the Museum of King Jan lll’s Palace at Wilanów and the Network of European Royal Residences. Within the framework of sound, sustainable management, EPICO has continued its preventive approach by developing an assessment method for collections,
designed specifically for historic houses. Through the use of this new method, a preventive conservation strategy can be devised to maintain works in the best possible condition, slow down the rate of deterioration and limit the need for restoration. The international jury for the EUROPA NOSTRA European Awards acknowledges that “the EPICO programme has provided a methodology for rational decision-making based on conservation policy priorities. This approach has the potential to become a powerful tool for preserving European cultural heritage, serving as an example to follow for similar collections”.
The Fundamental Elements of the Epico Method The aim of the EPICO programme was to devise an assessment method specially designed for collections and the specific risks related to historic houses. A sustainable management strategy based on preventive conservation requires precise knowledge of the state and conservation conditions of collections. An action plan can then be drawn up to establish preventive and maintenance priorities that aim to limit the amount of restoration required; this will have a significant beneficial impact on the economic management of resources. This method can be applied to any historic house, regardless of its size or the number of collections it conserves. Using simple tools (paper or Excel depending on the size of the building, or even a database), the EPICO method aims to provide a full overview of the condition of the building to establish priorities and draw up a long-term strategy. This is based on a systemic assessment strategy in which the conditions of conservation, the state of conservation of the collection and the presentation of the works are analyzed. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 57
Cause and effect relationship of visible alteration The collections in historic houses, together with the interiors and architecture form the building’s identity and, as such, cannot be separated. Contrary to an ordinary museum, the objects in historic houses cannot be placed into any sort of logical order and displayed in museum equipment designed for the conservation of collections. Nevertheless, this intrinsic relationship between collections and their buildings will help us to find a connection between the material deterioration of collections and the environmental conditions that could be the root of the cause. Zoning Considering the large number of objects and rooms, a statistical approach is required to identify the representative sample of both the rooms (the conditions of conservation) and collections (the state of conservation). The distinctive criterion of the house and its 58 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
collections were thus identified in order to select a statistically representative sample of the palace and museum’s different conservation zones. Zoning therefore consists of identifying the zones (one or several rooms) in the historic building that meet similar criterion and then selecting a statistically representative sample of the rooms to be assessed. The main criterion used are the following: orientation; human impact; museography (example: hall, apartment, etc.) ; activities (filming, receptions etc.) Object sampling Once the zoning phase is complete, the object sampling phase can take place. Condition reports are then written up with the help of two manuals: > General alteration indicators (18 in total) > Risks and alteration causes (14 in total) Diagnostic and corrective action The impact of alteration causes and risks is measured (active or inactive) in order to prioritise practical recommendations based on
the results
International Symposium in 2017 As part of the EPICO research programme, the Palace of Versailles, the Network of European Royal Residences and the Palace of Versailles Research Centre, in collaboration with the International Committee for historic house museums (DEMHIST), organized an international symposium on Preventive preservation in the historic houses and palace-museums: Assessment methodologies and applications. This took place in the Palace of Versailles’ auditorium from 29 November to 1 December 2017. The first phase of the EPICO programme came to an end with a three-day symposium, with the participation of 51 speakers, 5 round tables, and 160 registered people representing 16 countries from Europe, North America, South America and Asia. The symposium was sponsored by 7 international organizations: ArdenPlast, Boston University, Polygon, Testo, Abiotec, CTS, ILTI Luce. The acts of this international symposium are on-line on www.europeanroyalresidences.eu , on the EPICO page. This event laid the foundations of a new method for the preservation of collections in historic houses.
Winner of the EU Prize For Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award in the Research Category In June 2018, EPICO was acknowledged by the jury as “a powerful tool for the conservation of European cultural heritage” with “tangible effects and a direct impact on the long term preservation of cultural property.
The results highlight the importance and potential of preventive conservation”:
2018-2020 Programme As a result of its initial international success, the EPICO programme has launched a new phase, from 2018 to 2020, with several aims: 2018: Enhancement and application of the EPICO assessment method for the Palace of Versailles and Trianon and for partner residences 2019: Publication of the acts of the international symposium on the Network of European Royal Residences website www.europeanroyalresidences.eu, on the EPICO page Creation of a specialised web platform for the preventive conservation of historic houses on the Network of European Royal Residences website www.europeanroyalresidences.eu, on the EPICO page 2020: Digital publication of the EPICO method manual Special training course for the preventive conservation of collections in historic houses designed for the staff at historic house museums and pupils of conservation-restoration of cultural heritage: the Ecole du Louvre, “La Venaria Reale” Centre of Conservation and Restoration, University of Paris III –Sorbonne Nouvelle, University of Paris I, University of Cergy-Pontoise etc .
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave by Studio Louter / OPERA Amsterdam Leiden, The Netherlands IDCA Best Scenography for a Permanent Collection 2018
Jeroen Luttikhuis Partner, OPERA Amsterdam
Barend Verheijen Partner, Studio Louter ≥ www.opera-amsterdam.nl www.studiolouter.nl ≥ studio@opera-amsterdam.nl info@studiolouter.nl ≥ OPERA Amsterdam Asterweg 20P2 1031 HN Amsterdam The Netherlands ≥ Studio Louter Lutmastraat 191 E 1074 TV Amsterdam The Netherlands
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Seeing Things Differently
Science is about seeing things differently. By looking differently, scientists in the Golden Age discovered that our planet was not the center of the universe. Looking differently taught us that life is much smaller than we’d ever imagined. Looking differently caused humans to be able to engineer life. Seeing things differently was the starting point for the spatial concept and the interpretive plan by OPERA Amsterdam and Studio Louter for the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, European Museum of the Year 2019.
Themes translated into meaningful metaphors
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave is situated in Leiden, the Netherlands, and reopened its doors in December 2017 after a two-year refurbishment process. The museum has a world-renowned science collection, containing unique objects like the first microscope, made by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Einstein’s pen and the early anatomical books of Vesalius. The collection of the museum is famous and important. However, the objects themselves don’t always reveal these values to the untrained eye. Rijksmuseum Boerhaave therefore invited OPERA Amsterdam and Studio Louter to develop a plan for the complete refurbishment of the museum that would allow visitors to experience the history and relevance of science in an unforgettable, meaningful and innovative way.
Studio Louter/OPERA Amsterdam drew inspiration from the specific qualities of all premises in the stately historic building. The building is old and diverse with each space having its own unique quality. Those qualities were used to create five meaningful spatial concepts: the excitement of a research loft, the austere atmosphere of a hospital ward, the rhythmic pattern of a row of old houses, the open nature and roughness of a workshop, and the imposing height of a cathedral.
The challenge in renewing science museum Boerhaave was to bring the visitor into contact with the stories and people behind the instruments. Studio Louter/OPERA Amsterdam used the Emotional Design method to develop an overall interpretive concept: seeing things differently. Scientists made important discoveries because they looked at things differently. Just like scientists, we wanted the visitors to look differently too.
Previously, the museum presented its collection chronologically. In the new presentation, we guide visitors through five distinct themes - “Golden Age”, “Illness & Health”, “Powerful Collections (Enlightenment)”, “Water, Electricity & Data (technology)” and “Big Questions (modern science)”. Each theme was translated into a meaningful emotional metaphor that guided the interpretation.
Presentation techniques make the stories personal Each theme uses a mixture of presentation techniques in order to create a visitor experience that is intimate and open to everyone. The unique collection is presented in such a way that you can marvel at the beauty and ingenuity of it. But it’s always placed in a personal narrative context, making it possible to connect on an emotional level with the object, and the ideas and scientist behind it. This personal perspective helps the visitor to make emotional connections with seemingly unseductive objects. Or as the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad stated: “The new Boerhaave shows the people behind the instruments.”
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Interaction was an important element for the new approach. The entire multimedia line is designed to let the visitors see themselves through the eyes of scientists, to see themselves differently. Using the interactives, the visitor himself is always literally part of the experiment. They can see their own X-ray scan dance; their heartbeat becomes part of a story about the history of the ECG and their face is compared to those of 19th century Lombroso pictures of criminals. The visitor becomes a medical ethicist when their opinion is asked about everyday ethical dilemmas. One of the most spectacular exhibits is the anatomical arm projection. The visitor places their arm on a table, and they see a projected scalpel cut it open, revealing the inside of the body. Vesalius’ 17th century anatomical research is projected and explained on their arm.
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Studio Louter/OPERA Amsterdam have looked differently at the building, the collection and the visitor. This has resulted in a museum that invites visitors to forge an emotional bond with the objects, and with the scientists who used them. This way the visitors will start to realize the significance of science for today’s society.
Result Specialists from Studio Louter, OPERA Amsterdam and Rijksmuseum Boerhaave worked together on the storyline and concept. Thanks to the close cooperation of the two agencies, the interpretive plan, the spatial concept and presentation tools were perfectly coordinated. The spatial design was done by OPERA Amsterdam. Interpretation experts from Studio
Louter produced the AV together with Sho Sho and Gado Gado. Pieter van der Heijden (XPEX) was the overall project manager on the client side. The construction was realized by Bruns and the hardware by Mansveldt. The exhibition has been realized within the budget and planning. The first pitch was presented in September 2015 and the renewed museum opened in December 2017.
audience in debates on important scientific and ethical issues of our time."
OPERA Amsterdam/Studio Louter won numerous awards with the work on the refurbishment of Rijksmuseum Boerhaave. Not only did they receive three AVICOM F@ IMP Awards and two International Design and Communication Awards, the museum was declared European Museum of the Year 2019. The jury stated: “The exceptional public quality of this museum is the result of the artistic way in which science is communicated. The result is science with a human face, inspiring curiosity, wonder and involving a wide THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 63
6. LAMO Center Ladakh, India UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage Conservation / Award of Distinction 2018
Monisha Ahmed Executive Director
≥ www.lamo.org.in ≥ info@lamo.org.in lamocentreleh@gmail.com ≥ The LAMO Centre P O Box 152 Below Leh Palace Old Town, Leh Ladakh 194101 Jammu & Kashmir India
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Cultural Rejuvenation in Old Town Leh, Ladakh
The government of India has declared 11 monuments of national importance in Ladakh, and these are protected in law against alteration and demolition. But the region is home to countless more historic buildings and structures and these have no protection under national or state legislation. Some are included within the protection zone around national monuments, but at times even these are vulnerable.
and their spacious five-storey house below Leh Palace was an exquisite example of vernacular architecture with richly decorated interiors, intricate wall paintings, wooden balconies and screens. In 1984 the family had left their house for a new one in fields below Leh Palace, where facilities such as water and electricity were easily available, as well as access by a motor safe road. Their original house was then occupied intermittently by a monk caretaker, but most of it was left to decay. Many rooms were without roofs and walls had collapsed, beams had bent, pillars warped and water penetration had occurred leaving the interiors in a bad state. The neighbouring Gyaoo house was in an even worse state, as it had not been lived in for around hundred years. In addition, the external areas around both homes were covered in garbage, human and dog waste.
The Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (LAMO), was established in 1996 to articulate an alternative vision for the arts and media in the region. Alarmed at the neglect of heritage buildings in Leh and the rate of demolitions, LAMO wanted to demonstrate the rejuvenation of a historic building and to contribute to the social and cultural life of the community. Encouraged by the words of the then Principal of the Moravian Mission School, Elijah Gergan, who said, “The successful restoration and rehabilitation of one historic structure in Leh, will be the most effective statement to demonstrate the potential and value of the much neglected architectural heritage of the town.” It was another decade before LAMO found a space in a historical building, but today the LAMO Centre comprises of a complex of two 17th century historical houses in the Old Town of Leh.
LAMO took the houses on a long-term lease, and then worked with John Harrison to draw up a plan to convert the homes into a community arts and media centre. The organisation’s brief was that it wanted a space from which it could conduct outreach programs, research and documentation projects, workshops, artist residencies, performances and exhibitions that showcase Ladakh’s material and visual culture, performing arts and literature. The restored buildings were accordingly designed to accommodate a library, offices, artist’s studio, and spaces for exhibitions, performances and workshops. A sound studio was added more recently. At the same time, the LAMO Centre would in itself be a historic example of Ladakhi material and visual culture. The restoration process would also display the history of the building, a continuous history of accretions and adaptations over several hundred years.
In 2003, conservation architect John Harrison introduced LAMO to the Munshi family. The Munshi had been Secretary to the King,
In the restoration process one of the principal aims was to retain as much as possible of the original fabric. That included building THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 65
≥ LAMO Centre with view of Old Town Leh, and the new town that has expanded beyond it
So many historic towns and heritage buildings in the Himalayas have been lost or irrevocably damaged through wars, colonisation, natural disasters and redevelopment. In contrast, much in Ladakh had survived till the beginning of the 21st century. But now, as the pace of modernization has accelerated in the region, that is also changing. Threats to built heritage are now imminent and have been increasing with each passing year.
> The LAMO Centre with Leh Palace in the background, Photo Tashi Morup
elements such as walls, beams, pillars, and windows – these were to be repaired rather than replaced, and to be repaired in situ rather than rebuilt. Where rebuilding was necessary, the materials were salvaged and reused. Intact bricks were re-laid; broken bricks remixed and remoulded. Wooden balconies and screens were re-assembled from the salvaged fragments, with some new timber sections pieced in where required. Weathered woodwork was retained because it was still functional, and also because it spoke of the age and history of the building. Traditional materials and construction systems which included masonry walls and timber posts and beams with earth roofs, were to be used, both in the repair of the existing building and in the new-built sections. New materials introduced were wiring for electricity, bitumen felt for waterproofing on the roof, and glass for windows. Both LAMO and the architect wanted to demonstrate that generous, positive spaces for a 21st century
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public use could be created in a ‘traditional’ building. The building restoration took five years to complete as Ladakh has a short work season, from May through to September, because of the intensely cold winter. However, a small wall painting conservation project in one of the rooms took place in 2017. The short working season meant that costs escalated with each year. In the years since the restoration, the LAMO Centre has become a vibrant space, holding art exhibitions and festivals, workshops, music performances and film screenings amongst many other activities and events. The Centre is extremely popular with the youth of the region as they see it as a space that enhances their creativity and for open discussion. LAMO has also conducted several projects working on issues relevant to Ladakh – water for instance, receding glaciers, looking at the fragile ecology of the area and
At the same time LAMO has also been raising awareness of Old Town Leh’s vast historical importance, its cultural, social and economic contributions as well as the imminent problems and threats the area faces. It has worked with both the stakeholders and residents of the area, as well as local leaders and policy makers to increase the understanding of the significance of this part of the town and its importance for future generations of Ladakhis. The organisation has carried out numerous research and documentation projects on the area, made short videos and films, initiated a visual archive, encouraged new photography, published children’s books, hosted art exhibitions, and conducted heritage walks, amongst other activities, in-
cluding several talks and presentations on the Old Town of Leh. It has already been amply demonstrated that historic houses can be upgraded for modern living, and that derelict buildings can be brought back to provide valuable community services. There is an urgent need for an inventory of heritage buildings and structures in Ladakh, as well as laws to protect them. If the restoration of the Munshi and the Gyaoo homes and the establishment of the LAMO Centre set a precedent for the rejuvenation of other buildings in the Old Town of Leh, and perhaps the larger Ladakh area, it will have served its purpose. At the same time demonstrating how simultaneously these buildings, or spaces, can bring pride to local residents as a rich source of potential livelihood as well as knowledge about their history and the lives of the people who created them. Thus they can endure as a precious part of the region’s legacy, one that will prevail for future generations. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 67
> Exhibition opening at LAMO - 'Among those Mountains - 9 Contemporary Artists from Ladakh', 2014
the challenges it faces. Many emerging contemporary artists in Ladakh have first shown their work at LAMO; artists from other parts of India, Japan, Korea and Canada have held residencies there.
7. Detroit Historical Society Detroit, United States National Medal for Museum and Library Service 2018
Tracy Smith Irwin Chief Exhibitions & Enrichment Officer
Marlowe Stoudamire project director, Detroit67 ≥ www.detroithistorical.org ≥ elana@detroithistorical.org ≥ Detroit Historical Society 5401 Woodward Avenue Detroit, Michigan 48202 United States
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Crisis as Catalyst for Conversation and Change
The year 2017 marked the fiftieth anniversary of devastating, racially-charged violence in Detroit. The week-long riot/rebellion left deep scars on the region’s population and radically changed the demographic landscape. In order to properly commemorate the event, the Detroit Historical Society (DHS) formed a regional civic engagement project titled, “Detroit 67: Looking Back to Move Forward,” with the goal of convening the community around this difficult historic conflict. Initially seen solely as an exhibition opportunity, the effort took on a life of its own, and grew to include six key deliverables: the Detroit67: Perspectives exhibition at the Detroit Historical Museum; the publication Detroit 1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies; an oral history project dedicated to collecting the varied stories of this event; an ongoing series of partnerships and programming; a community placemaking component; and a replicable model of the process to share. It was understood early on that our staff could not tell this story alone. Beginning in 2014, over 120 individual, organizational and institutional partners were brought into the project. Advisory panels, which helped inform all facets of the process, consisted of scholars, community activists, and business and government leaders. The DHS also served as an informational convener for numerous other cultural organizations commemorating the events of 1967 in various
manners, from symphonic interpretations to art installations. Simultaneously, the DHS embarked upon an aggressive Oral History Project which offered several avenues for public interaction. Over 500 submissions—processed, transcribed and available online—served to inform the DHS book and exhibition, and numerous partner-generated articles, plays, poems and a documentary. The 3,000 square foot exhibition is both comprehensive and highly experiential. Visual and oral resources solicited through the project were heavily leveraged to make the product both immersive and original. Spontaneous and facilitated visitor conversations within the galleries have validated the need for this initiative. The DHS staff worked closely with partner organizations on over 180 events, from symphony performances to dialog sessions, which helped inform the project and advance conversations about race and class diversity and inclusion. Partnership activity revitalizing seven neighborhood parks, including one at the epicenter of the 1967 rebellion which— until this action—bore no indication of its importance in the city’s history. The Engage/ Reflect/Act (ERA) model and it’s four critical imperatives—race relations, youth engagement, neighborhood advancement and economic opportunity—have been shared with organizations around the world. The exhibition’s July 2017 opening received broad media coverage. In the first six months, over 60,000 people visited the exhibition, 10,000 people participated in co-produced partner programs, and 26,000 visited the oral history web portals. The Detroit 67: Perspectives exhibit, along with Society staff, appeared in print and electronic media across the United States, and in Canada, Britain, THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 69
≥ Image courtesy of Detroit Historical Society
What are the consequences of engaging a major American city in the search for a collective truth, even as the individual truths that make up that community are as disparate as the citizens? And what if an institution dedicated to truth were to use that process to help define the community for the next generation? The Detroit Historical Society decided to find out.
France, Germany and Russia. The potential reach of the media coverage over the summer alone was 344.24 million people.
> Image courtesy of Detroit Historical Society
Over the two years since the anniversary, the Detroit67 Project has continued to have a significant impact. In the most basic sense, the overarching social message of the project—embraced by DHS management, employees, trustees, stakeholders—caused a significant cultural shift within the organization to accommodate the breadth of the endeavor. Indeed, it changed our perception of ourselves, but also the perception of the Society within the community. The “moving forward” aspect, which has its own gallery, forced the organization to look beyond traditional, historically-based experiences, toward engaging visitors about their future—and about engaging future visitors. The topics—inclusion, equity and diversity—currently represent a high priority for 70 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
educators and thought leaders seeking to get younger citizens involved in their communities. The museum has had high school groups from across the United States as well as numerous regional institutions, visit specifically to have facilitated conversations in the Detroit 67: Perspectives space. Our Education and Outreach teams created special programs focused on bringing younger people to have uncomfortable conversations in a safe environment. A week-long immersive program, “Detroit Design 2067,” proved to be a successful program that brought together a dozen diverse eleventh- and twelfth-graders to learn Design Theory from professionals in various fields and apply its concepts to specific problems facing the Detroit area. Also successful were programs held in local libraries that addressed economic equity and personal financial strategies. Community and cultural leaders from around the world—including this august or-
The project affected the physical element of our traditional mission; a public call for photos and film has significantly enhanced our archival holdings from this period. Success of the Oral History Project has resulted in partnerships with other researchers and allowed the project to pivot from “Detroit67” to a broader collection strategy called “The Neighborhoods: Where Detroit Lives.”
The Detroit Historical Society has been fortunate that organizations within our professional discipline have also taken notice. The overall project has received four prestigious awards, including the National Medal from the Institute for Museum and Library Services and the History in Progress Award from the Association for State and Local History. The edited volume, Detroit 1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies, has garnered five publishing awards to date. The civil unrest that shook Detroit in 1967 represents the most destructive and divisive such event in 20th century American history. Its impacts affect the city today and tinges its future. As the 2017 anniversary approached, the Detroit Historical Society understood that we could either let this historic moment pass as an unpleasant memory, or use it as a catalyst to engage, reflect and stimulate action to move Detroit forward. We chose the latter. Feedback from all quarters suggests that seeking truth by engaging your entire community has very positive consequences. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 71
> Image courtesy of Dr. Carol Chadwick Burleson, Detroit Historical Society Collection
ganization—have also taken notice. The DHS has received calls from various cities recently wracked by racially-stoked violence—Ferguson, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland; Paris, France—wanting to know more about our process and our ERA model. In March of this year, a group representing border communities in the Republic of Ireland and British Northern Ireland came to Detroit to examine issues including policing, housing and employment inequity. They began their visit at the Detroit Historical Museum, to gain perspective and interview our staff specifically about our youth engagement strategies.
The Alka of Sinj - A Living Witness to History
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Alka Of Sinj Museum Sinj, Croatia EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2018
Tomislav Barhanović Curator ≥ www.alka.hr ≥ muzej.alke@gmail.com ≥ MUZEJ SINJSKE ALKE Put Petrovca 12 21230 Sinj Croatia
Introduction The Museum of Alka of Sinj is one of the most state-of-the-art museums in Croatia. Its permanent exhibition meets the highest museum standards, both when it comes to presentation and technology, and offers a variety of interactive content that stimulates all of the senses of its visitors. Though the museum is dedicated to heritage, its approach is unquestionably modern, presenting the uniforms, equipment and weapons of alkars through multimedia installations, films and other new media. The story that the Museum of Alka of Sinj tells with its archival materials represents an indispensable part of the history of Sinj and the Cetina region, one that is deeply embedded into the collective memory of all Croatians.
The Alka Of Sinj What is Alka? Alka of Sinj is a knight’s tournament in which a rider on horseback has to pass the Alka's racecourse length of 160m in full gallop within 13 seconds, and aim their spear at the doubled ring called an alka. According to Statute, a maximum of 17 alkars (the spearmen) can participate in Alka competition; the winner is the one who wins the most points in three races. Alka of Sinj commemorates a victory of the people of Cetina region over the numerous Ottoman army in 1715, in honour of the heavenly patroness the Madonna of Sinj, who, according to tradition, helped in the victory. Alka tournament starts with a procession in which more than 100 people and 27 horses participate. The procession starts from Alka halls, also the location of the Museum, to the Alka Racecourse, where the tournament is held. Alka's participants wear solemn uniforms and equipment. Alka of Sinj is maintained by strictly defined written rules. The Alkars, or spearmen, need
to be flawless residents born in the Cetina region. It takes lots of effort, renunciation and love to become an Alkar. Love for Alka and horses begins in youth, so it is no surprise that all boys in Sinj want to be Alkars. Even present Alkars were just boys who were learning how to ride horses and helped older Alkars care for the horses. The core activity of the Alka Knights Society is maintenance of the knights’ tournament. Being a member of the Alka of Sinj is a true honour. Actually, the whole local community indirectly participates in the maintenance of Alka. Alka is integrated into the life of the whole Cetina region. Its residents are very proud of their tradition, which they have carried on with love. In 2010, the Knight’s Tournament of the Alka of Sinj was included on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
The Museum of Alka of Sinj The Museum of Alka of Sinj is dedicated to the knights' tournament 'Alka of Sinj', which is held every year in the town of Sinj in August. It demonstrates the game (knight’s tournament), rich clothes (or uniforms), weapons and equipment worn by participants of the Alka procession. The Museum was opened in 2015, precisely on (or behalf on) the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Alka of Sinj. The creation of the Museum was initiated by Board members of the Alka Knights Society. The Board, like the whole Society, consists of volunteers who take care and actively participate in the Society’s work. Their cooperation and enthusiasm were a significant help, especially with valuable suggestions about the concept and the realisation of the Museum. It is necessary to point out the participation THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 73
of the Alkars themselves in the conceptualization and realization of the Museum, particularly in movie shootings for the Museum exhibition display. One of the most complicated things was the development of a movie demonstrating the Alkar in full gallop, because it required 1000 people from the local community to participate. The leader of the Alkars organized the replication of the Alka tournament with the participation of almost a whole Alka procession. The local community was always ready to cooperate and unselfishly helped in every activity. Members of the Alka procession also dedicated time to the realization of exhibition display. The Museum of the Alka of Sinj would not be this valuable without them. The true value of the Museum lies in its strong supporting role to the Alka. The Alka competition is held only once a year, but now (thanks to the Museum) visitors have an op74 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
portunity to have a closer look at everything about Alka and its meaning throughout the whole year, and to understand things which it is not possible to perceive at a racetrack. The Museum provides detailed information about elements of the tournament, its peculiarities, rules and history. The permanent exhibition display is equipped with most modern forms of museum presentation and interactive content which provides more prudent knowledge and multilayer presentation. The exhibition display consists of several units: a reduced Alka procession (or parade); typical (or representative) participants of the Alka tournament, including presentation of their uniforms and equipment; the Alkar spearman performing in the race (or alkar the spearman at gallop), battle history and tournament winners. There is a selection menu on a big screen where visitors can choose a year and see the short
movie about that year's winner. The proportions and location of the screen provide impression of real attendance at the racetrack. Very important parts of the Museum are the Alka procession and the Alkar spearman at gallop, static figures complemented with movie projection and authentic sounds giving a full impression of the atmosphere at the racetrack. A no less important segment of the Museum is the intangible heritage preserved by the annual maintenance of the Alka tournament. Multimedia content is updated every year and we are free to say it is a way of keeping and archiving the whole manifestation of Alka.
browse all kinds of content such as a rich digital archive located in the gallery. From this point in the Museum, visitors are able to have a bird's eye view on the Alka procession. We are free to say that after four years of existence, the Museum is well accepted, visited and loved by the local community, but also recognised as an important guardian of its own identity.
The visitor has the opportunity to learn the names and purpose of clothes (or uniforms), equipment and weapons, and every unit is accompanied (or completed) by films. Interesting presentation and interactive elements provide every visitor with the opportunity to THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 75
Developing Unique Cultural and Creative Products
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Hebei Museum Shijiazhuang, China chinese museums association / Most Innovative Museums in China 2018
Luo Xiangjun Director ≥ www.hebeimuseum.org.cn ≥ Hebei Museum 4 East St, Changan Qu Shijiazhuang Shi Hebei Sheng, China
Hebei Museum is located in downtown Shijiazhuang City, between Zhongshan Road to the north and Fanxi Road to the south, the East Avenue to the east and the West Avenue to the west, where the traffic is convenient. The whole museum consists of two parts, the north part of which is the old museum, or the “Long Live the Mao Zedong Thought” exhibition hall built in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution, a colonnade-style architecture imitating the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Containing 16 exhibition rooms, the old museum has the gross floor area of 20.028 sq m; in 2001, it was proclaimed as the provincial-level key cultural and historic heritage. The south part is the new museum, which began to be built in 2006; it has three stories above ground and one underground; the external appearance is a refined colonnade-style based on that of the old museum. The new museum has the gross floor area of 33.100 sq m divided into 11 exhibition rooms. The general area of the old and new museums is 53.128 sq m, the exhibition area is over 22.000 sq m, and the old and new museums are linked together by the lofty Sunshine Hall. To the north of the old museum is the Culture Square and to the south of the new museum is the new-built South Square. The buildings of the old and new museums are harmoniously integrated in an elegant and comfortable environment, forming the symbolic architectural landscape with strong cultural atmosphere in the capital of Hebei Province. Hebei Museum is the only provincial-level comprehensive museum in Hebei Province to date; it is the national patriotic education base and national Class-A museum. At present, over 150,000 artifacts are collected in Hebei Museum, among which 334 pieces (sets) are Grade One, including the artifacts unearthed from Mancheng Han Tombs, the porcelains of the four famous ancient kilns in Hebei, the blue-and-white porcelains of
the Yuan Dynasty, the stone sculptures, the painting and calligraphy artworks of famous artists and scholars of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the revolutionary relics of the War of Resistance Against Japan, which are unique collections. In addition, over 50.000 books, including many rare ones published in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, are collected in Hebei Museum, which makes it one of the main collectors of the local gazetteers of Hebei Province. At the time of the completion of the new museum, we trimmed the development sequence of the history of Hebei Province and utilized the unique collections of our museum, presented the basic exhibition system with our special features. The permanent exhibitions have History and Art themes, which are arranged across nine subjects. Through more than 5.000 pieces (sets) of exquisite artifacts and elaborate displaying methods, we show our visitors the history of the development of human beings in over 2 million years on the land of Hebei. The History theme choses the most splendid sections in the history of Hebei Province and presents them in six subject exhibitions, which are: “Hebei in the Stone Age”; “The Shang Civilization in Hebei”; “A Chant of Generosity and Tragedy: the Story of the Yan and Zhao States”; “The Strong Power of the Warring-States: the Zhongshan State”; “The Climax of the Great Han: the Mancheng Han Tombs” and “The Glimpse of the Recent Century: the Modern Hebei”. The Art series focuses on demonstrating the ancient art achievements of Hebei, for which three subject exhibitions are arranged: “The Murals of the Northern Dynasties”, “The Quyang Stone Sculptures” and “The Famous Kilns and Their Famous Products”. The northern district displays temporary exhibitions on four topics, including "Hebei THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 77
History", "Chinese History", "World History" and "Natural History". In 2018, Hebei Museum was awarded as the most innovative museum in China. The hebei museum has the following innovations:
1. Innovative Exhibition Planning Taking the nature of contemporary life and the needs of the public as the driving force and starting point, the temporary exhibition curator gradually explored and formed the four exhibition systems of "World History", "Chinese History", "Hebei History" and "Natural History". In recent years, about 30 temporary exhibitions have been launched every year to meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the public of different ages and levels.
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2. An Innovative Social Education Programme Innovation has created 18 major social education programs, which include "Cultural and Educational Platform", "Happy School", "Animal World in the Museum", "Bo Show Theater", "Tsing Kui Drama Club" and "Traditional Culture Benefits All People." These have been developed into gold medal social education programs
3. Innovative Cultural and Creative Products We have developed unique cultural and creative products. At present, we have developed 674 products in six categories, including cultural relic reproduction products, daily necessities and clothing.
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10. Friends and Neighbours: How Community Makes a Capital Project Tate St Ives Cornwall, United Kingdom Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018
Arwen Fitch Press and Communications Manager
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≥ www.tate.org.uk ≥ visiting.stives@tate.org.uk ≥ Tate St Ives Porthmeor Beach St Ives Cornwall TR26 1TG United Kingdom
Tate St Ives is part of the Tate family, with Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London and Tate Liverpool. The story of Tate St Ives begins with the outbreak of the second world war and the relocation from London to St Ives of British modernist artists Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, and their friend, the Russian constructivist artist Naum Gabo. They established West Cornwall as a new point of exchange for the international abstract avant-garde. For the next three decades, St Ives attracted many artists who shared an intellectual and aesthetic outlook that was international in scope but also deeply influenced by the physical forms and quality of light of their local surroundings. On the edge of the ocean, the original Tate St Ives opened in 1993, created to celebrate the work of the twentieth century artists who lived and worked in the town. The gallery became a model for how museums connect to their location and community. It engaged and inspired local visitors, as well as attracting people from across the UK and the world. Such was its popularity that the original building soon lacked the necessary facilities and scale. In 2003/4 a new building project was conceived to extend and improve the original gallery. From the outset, the project became as much about how we work and engage with community as about the building. The building project was neither quick nor easy. For Tate St Ives, working in a dispersed, often economically deprived rural community, one of the key challenges is reaching out to locals and engendering a sense of their ownership of the gallery. The first idea, to build behind the gallery, on a car park, caused concern for a small town where parking is
scarce. Negative feedback on the building plans in 2005 halted the planning process and started two years of intense community consultation. We created a community endorsed brief: no additional iconic build; work with the townscape and keep the parking. In addition we ensured the gallery continued to engage with town and community. This led to our Community Liaison Group, establishing the community as gallery stakeholder. The brief included gallery programming, with a desire to see the story of St Ives and modern art year-round, ambitious temporary shows, engaging family and learning activities; and a unique Cornish context. Alongside fundraising for the building, Tate St Ives received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the ambitious six-year St Ives Legacy Project. A multi-stranded scheme, it included the Town Project, connecting local schools and families with their artistic heritage, the Look Group Project supporting discussion groups about visual art for communities across Cornwall, two curatorial internships, a Cultural Heritage Apprenticeship, and further training opportunities for staff, volunteers and the local sector. Launched in October 2009, Look Groups are an innovative way of generating community-led learning across our rural region. Based on the idea of a book group, Look Groups are a network of informal groups throughout Cornwall whose members meet once a month to talk about art, artists and ideas, no prior knowledge about art required. Tate St Ives gave set-up support and each community runs its own group. There have been between 10 - 21 groups operating at any one time. Tate St Ives has been contacted by people wanting to set up Look Groups around the world, and our online resources promote THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 81
≥ Tate St Ives at Dusk, 2017 Photo © St Ives TV
St Ives, a small Cornish town on the southwest coast of England, is a unique location for a major art gallery. Its rich artistic history goes back over two centuries.
> 2019 Tate St Ives © Tate Photo Luke Hayes
Look Groups as an open source model for adult learning.
town, as well as bringing some of the world’s most exciting contemporary art to Cornwall.
The opportunity came to build next the gallery with a new project. In 2013 the original architects, Evans and Shalev, were commissioned for the refurbishment works to their building, adding two new learning spaces.
The visitor’s experience has been firmly placed at the heart of Tate St Ives’ thinking with a focus on a warm welcome, greater access to art and a strong sense of the unique location. With a larger more welcoming reception, artworks positioned in entrance areas, more comfortable facilities, an improved shop and a café reflecting a more relaxed Cornish ambience, the gallery presents a cohesive offer that successfully combines integrating the past with the present, giving local and international context, and creating an accessible visitor experience rooted in expert knowledge through art, archive and activity. These changes resulted in increased visitors, to an estimated 311,000 a year and benefits to the local economy, worth £10.5 million per annum over the next 10 years, equating to 197 Full Time Equivalent jobs in the wider tourist sector.
Jamie Fobert Architects was commissioned to design a major extension to increase the art display space for visitors and to provide compact, efficient art handling and staff accommodation. The coastal setting and vernacular of St Ives informed the design of the 1,325m2 new building. Entirely excavated into the hillside, the new gallery extends the existing gallery sequence in a continuous journey. Since it launched in October 2017, Tate St Ives offers twice as much space for visitors to see art, with gallery area increased from 500 to 1,095m2. The gallery is now able to give a permanent presence to the twentieth century artists who lived and worked in the 82 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
The strength of our gallery lies not only in the scope and ambition of its programme,
Art Fund Museum of the Year is awarded annually to a truly visionary organisation – one that readily rethinks established ways of working, and offers great quality and ingenuity in all its activities. The prize champions what museums do, encourages more people to visit and gets to the heart of what makes a truly outstanding public facility. The judges present the prize to the museum or gallery that has shown how their achievements of the preceding year stand out, demonstrated what makes their work innovative, and the impact on audiences.
Stephen Deuchar, Art Fund director and chair of the judges, said: ‘Tate St Ives tells the story of the artists who have lived and worked in Cornwall in an international context. The new extension to the gallery is deeply intelligent and breathtakingly beautiful, providing the perfect stage for a curatorial programme that is at once adventurous, inclusive and provocative. The judges admired an architect and gallery team who devoted some 12 years to this transformational change, consulting with the local community all the way.’ Since it re-opened, Tate St Ives has proven that positive engagement with local communities over a capital development can act as a catalyst for real change. A new, better museum has been created through an open, honest dialogue which responds to the aspirations and concerns of the people of St Ives.
Following the successful launch of the new Tate St Ives, the gallery entered the prestigious award for 2018 and won.
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> 2019 Tate St Ives © Tate Photo Luke Hayes
but also in its ongoing commitment to and engagement with its community. Having established and meaningfully retained key relationships through the process of its expansion, the gallery has become a vital cultural resource in the region and beyond.
11. Archaeology Brought to Modernity SMAC Staatliches Museum fur Archaologie Chemnitz Chemnitz, Germany European Museum Academy DASA Award 2018
Jens Beutmann Senior Curator, SMAC 84 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
≥ www.smac.sachsen.de ≥ jens.beutmann@lfa.sachsen.de ≥ State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz Stefan-Heym-Platz 1 09111 Chemnitz Germany
In 2014, the State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz (smac) opened as the successor to the former Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Dresden. For the first time the new museum presents a permanent exhibition on the archaeology of what is now the territory of the Free State of Saxony, a federal state in Germany. The museum is housed in an icon of classic modernism, the former Schocken Department Store. With its exhibitions on Salman Schocken, Erich Mendelsohn and the history of the building itself, the museum fulfils its obligation to the German-Jewish heritage and 20th century history.
Main exhibition The exhibition concept and scenography of the smac combine to form an innovative narrative whole. The journey through human history is arranged in ascending chronological order, beginning with the oldest finds on the first floor (dating from 300,000 years ago) and ending on the third floor with the early industrial period (around 1850). Nevertheless, the smac does not narrate history in a strictly linear fashion. Instead, the focus is more on how a specific region has changed over a period of about 300,000 years. In particular, the exhibition shows how the territory of the modern Free State of Saxony has evolved, through the influence of humans and against the background of its environment and climate, from a natural landscape first into an agricultural landscape and eventually into a modern cultural landscape. This concept
is reflected in the scenography by borrowing the various ways of museal display from other academic disciplines (natural history, the natural sciences and history) and combining these with landscape panoramas and special lighting effects, so that intellectual, non-verbal and sensory communication go hand in hand. Furthermore, the time-dynamic model of Saxony and a 22 metre high section through geological and archaeological strata present a synopsis of history in space and time. By overcoming disciplinary and presentational boundaries, the smac has succeeded in making its contents accessible to a much wider range of visitors beyond those already interested in archaeology and human history.
“Bow front” exhibitions The three complementary exhibitions about the life and work of Erich Mendelsohn, the history of the Schocken Company and the Chemnitz department store, and Salman Schocken – who was not only the co-founder and co-owner of the company but also a Zionist, book connoisseur and publisher – merge seamlessly with the main exhibition. They are staged on three floors directly behind Mendelsohn’s famous bowed front. Thus, as well as fulfilling its primary purpose as a state archaeological museum, the smac also makes an important contribution towards confronting the darkest period of German history, namely the persecution of the Jews under National Socialism and the resulting loss of Jewish culture.
Inclusion and diversity In 2017 the smac spent time and money on making the permanent exhibition more accessible, especially to people with visual or acoustic impairments. Furthermore an auTHE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 85
≥ smac Wall of Everyday Objects on the third floor
The first thing that strikes first-time-visitors to our museum is the view from the lobby through the breach in the ceiling up into the 3-storey permanent exhibition. Immediately, everybody realizes: this is not what we expected; this is a cool, beautifully designed, colourful learning machine.
dio guide in plain language (Leichte Sprache) and a video guide in sign language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache) were introduced. Inside the museum a number of technical aids are available for the use of visitors with mobility impairments. For the benefit of foreign visitors or people of migrant background, all the texts in the museum are in German and English. The audio guides are in German and English, too, and for the main archaeological exhibition also in Czech. On our family day, children and adults under the guidance of experimental archaeologists can try their hand at a range of prehistoric technologies. Teaching across subject boundaries is a big issue in secondary schools. For the near future we are preparing programmes that utilize elements of our permanent exhibition for interdisciplinary education. A “museum chest” (Museumskoffer) containing genuine objects and teaching aids to “Jewish identities in Chemnitz before 1938” is already available. The contents of this chest can be used by school classes or project groups to 86 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
prepare visits to our “bow front exhibitions” and to the traces of Jewish life within the city.
Public involvement and temporary exhibitions The pre-history and history of Saxony cannot be told without the European perspective. Neanderthals were a European phenomenon and the first farmers came here from southeast Europe. In the migration period, different peoples left their traces and today’s Saxons might mostly be descendants of Slavic and German speaking settlers from the Middle Ages. The “local” mining industry was in fact already “international” in late medieval times. Applied to the present, this means “We all have a migration background”. Thus our slogan “7000 years of Multiculturalism” (“Multi-Kulti seit 7000 Jahren”) put up in large letters on our façade in 2015 during the swelling public debate on the future role of immigrants (“PEGIDA” - movement) was a political statement. Since 2016 our annually “Meet New Friends” event brings together immigrants and natives. Our small summer
ing regions in the heart of Europe. Our next large exhibition, Life at the Dead Sea, will open while the Best in Heritage conference is taking place in Dubrovnik. It deals with the archaeology of this very special region which was at the intersection of different cultures and beliefs for at least 12,000 years. Future exhibition projects deal with the city as a global phenomenon and with jewellery and personal adornment in an anthropological perspective.
In our special exhibition programme we try to promote public appreciation of cultural diversity and address universal issues that are still important today. So far we staged exhibitions on the Archaeology of Vietnam, Money and Death & Ritual. Our first special exhibition on Bronze and Iron Age salt mining in Austria linked the important mining tradition of the Erzgebirge Mountains around Chemnitz with its prehistoric forerunners. Last winter we put Saxony Bohemia 7000 on our exhibition stage, which explored the vicinity and distance between these two neighbour-
In 2014 the overall concept of the smac was awarded the Museum Prize of the hbs-kulturfonds, part of the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung. In 2016 the smac was a nominee for the European Museum of the Year Award. Furthermore, we received a number of design accolades, including seven for the time-dynamic model of Saxony and one for our corporate design. Including the DASA Award of the European Museum Academy 2018 the smac has received 14 awards and mentions.
Awards
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> smac moderator explains a settlement model
2019 exhibition 2 Million Years of Migration was taken over from the Neanderthal Museum and wanted to be part of the political debates within the city, that took on a new and sometimes disturbing dynamic in the wake of the events of August 2018, when Chemnitz came into the focus of international media. We support an Open Space, run by the Municipal Art Collections and situated behind the famous Karl-Marx-Monument, whose aim is to bring together people of different political and ethnical background and strengthen dialogue.
12. State Museum of History of GULAG Moscow, Russia Intermuseum Grand-prix 2018
Anna Stadinchuk Deputy Director for Development ≥ www.gmig.ru ≥ info@gmig.ru ≥ State Museum of History of GULAG 1-y Samotechny pereulok 9/1 127473 Moscow Russia 88 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
Commemorating the Memory of Political Repression
The GULAG History State Museum represents an approach of memory museums, dealing with history of the corrective forced labor camp system that served as an instrument of state repressive policy in the Soviet Union between the 1930s and the 1950s. For the more than 20 years of the existence of the GULAG system, about twenty million people passed through the camps, colonies and prisons, and a tenth of these stayed in the GULAG forever. Eventually, the word GULAG, originally the acronym for Head office of the camps, became an ominous symbol of lawlessness, life on the verge of death, forced labor and human injustice. The Museum’s major mission is to redefine and to preserve the historical past for future generations. Notably, the Museum provides a public space for presentation, exploration and discussion of the most relevant aspects of forced labor and political unfreedom in the USSR. The permanent exhibition, named GULAG in Human Fates and History of the Country, aims to depict the history of GULAG as a single process with an inherent logic. In particular, the exhibition narrates a story starting from the foundation of a huge industrial corporation of forced labor economics to the liquidation of the system after Stalin’s death. The exhibition approaches GULAG history through the human dimension. The interactive multimedia format enables a visitor to face GULAG survivors, to hear prisoners’ voices. In 2018 the GULAG History Museum was awarded by the Grand Prix of International Intermuseum Festival devoted to the issue of Museums and Society. At the end of the Festival three projects of the GULAG History Museum were shortlisted, while two of them won in the nominations.
The Evidence – the Winner in The Best Scientific-research Museum Project Category The Evidence is a series of exhibitions consisting of one object, reflecting the Stalinist repression. The first exhibition - Evidence: Little Book - presents a handwritten book with drawings and verses created by the GULAG prisoner Olga Ranitskaia for her son Sasha in 1941–1942. During Stalin’s Great Purge, in 1937, Ranitskaia was accused of spying for Poland and sentenced to five years in a Karlag labor camp in Kazakhstan. In the camp she worked at the meteorological station. While she was in the camp, her son Sasha stayed with his grandmother. Olga created a handwritten diary for him entitled Weather-Devil: Works and Days. It looks like a graphic novel and consists of 116 pages of drawings and witty verses on how the main character, Little Weather-Devil, the author’s alter ego, endures in the camp. The bookbinding is made of leather ornamented with a piece of snakeskin on the front cover. In 1942, sixteen year old Sasha, unabled to endure the bullying of his schoolmates due to his mother’s imprisonment, committed suicide. He had never seen his mother’s diary. Probably, several empty but numbered pages at the end of the diary evidence Olga’s grief about the death of her son. Journalist of the Novaia Gazeta newspaper Zoia Eroshok discovered this diary only about 70 years after its creation. It was sent to the newspaper by a woman from Siberia, whose mother saved this book from the camp in 1946. The only thing known was that this diary had been created by a woman named Olga, who probably worked at the meteorological station in Karlag. Zoia started her investigation to identify the author and to reconstruct her biography. In 2014 she donatTHE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 89
> Works and Days by Olga Ranitskaia
ed this unique artifact to the GULAG History Museum. Based upon preliminary results of Zoia Eroshok's research, the museum's staff requested information on the diary's author from the archives of different secret police agencies, courts, and other organizations in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. It took seven years to collect all elements into the whole narrative and to present it in the frame of the exhibition. The Museum also published a copy of the diary in a small handbook format including archival documents, notably the record of Ranitskaia’s interrogation, and the memoirs, documents and poetry created by Ranitskaia later.
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Social and Volunteer Center – The Winner in the Category The Best Project Aimed at Social Interaction The GULAG History Museum provides support to people who have suffered from political repression; most of them are at an advanced age. As a result, established in 2014 the Social and Volunteer center aims to make the life of the victims of Stalinist repression better and help them share their experience with the next generations. Volunteers of the Museum take care of 135 elderly victims of the Stalinist persecutions by helping them with the housework, accompanying them to medical appointments, congratulating them on holidays and arranging their leisure. For example, during 2018 the Center’s employees and volunteers made over 5000 phone calls to people who needed help.
The Museum holds regular tea-parties where these people communicate with each other, the Museum staff and volunteers, participate in poetry readings and watch performances of children’s music and dancing teams. The Museum also organizes visits to Moscow museums and exhibitions and even holds Beauty Days when women can get a facial treatment. The other part of volunteers’ activity is to collect archival documents, to translate texts and to organize museum events. Moreover volunteers participate in describing the items brought from the expeditions to the former GULAG camps locations.
Association for Russian Museums of Memory – winner of the category The Best Project Aimed at Interregional Interaction As the GULAG network covered many parts of the USSR, regional museums can also contribute to the history of Stalinist repression. Since 2015 the GULAG History Museum has
sought to join regional museums in the Association for Russian Museums of Memory to spread out the knowledge about the GULAG in modern Russia. The Association engages state, private and public foundations, as well as individuals to support the activity on memory preservation, research and reconsidering of the tragic past of Soviet history. The mission of the project is to collect evidence of the GULAG system and to popularize knowledge on this tragic part of Soviet history all over the country. As a consequence, the Association aims to provide a public space for museum collaboration, to advance modern principles, methods, and technologies on preserving the cultural heritage in the field of memory. In other words, the Association enables the museums to correspond to modern social agendas. The GULAG History Museum arranges annual meetings for Association members to find new ideas for collaboration, to discuss how the complicated past should be explored. At present the Association consists of 32 members.
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13. Museum of Natural and Environmental History, Shizuoka shizuoka, Japan German Design Award for Excellent Communication 2018
Kazuyoshi Yamada Professor, Curatorial Division ≥ www.fujimu100.jp ≥ koichi1_shibukawa@pref.shizuoka.lg.jp ≥ Museum of Natural and Environmental History 5762 Oya, Suruga Ward Shizuoka 422-8017 Japan
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A ThoughtProvoking Museum
Shizuoka Prefecture is located in the centre of Japan, along the coastal line of the Pacific Ocean. The Prefecture has the highest mountain in Japan - Mt. Fuji (3,776 m.a.s.l.) - and the deepest bay in Japan - the Suruga Bay (approx. 2,500 m.b.s.l.). The difference in elevation exceeds 6,000 meters. This situation leads to a rich natural environment; for instance, the highest number of areas of bio-diversity in Japan. The population in Shizuoka Prefecture is approximately 3.6 million, resulting in moderate economics (10th in Japan) The Museum of Natural and Environmental History, Shizuoka, was opened on March 26, 2016 as a new prefectural museum at the site of the former Shizuoka Minami High School. The appearance of the museum renovated the closed school buildings. The museum has researched not only natural history, but also the anthropogenic impacts on the environment throughout history (environmental history), and exhibited more than 3,000 specimens of natural history to consider what “a rich life” truly means for future generations.
“Thinking” Museum In the Museum Basic Plan, compiled in 2014, it was emphasized that there was a need to develop activities focusing on soft power, through museum functions such as research, collection, education, and exhibition. In response to this plan, the theme of the museum's activities was set to "A New Way of Life in Shizuoka". After opening in 2016, it became apparent that the museum has been positioned as a platform for “thinking” through the brilliant future of the earth and humanity.
Here, we describe some of the hallmarks of the museum. 1. A “thinking” exhibition The concept of the permanent exhibition is “Thinking.” Each exhibit room recreates a school setting (e.g., chairs, desks, blackboards) and aims to stimulate thinking by showcasing the exhibit theme indirectly. Also, signs that symbolize the exhibit themes are shown in the hallways. By using an integrated design for exhibit spaces and graphics, the entire museum becomes a space that encourages thinking. Using the old school premises and furniture lowered construction costs and reduced the environmental load. Therefore, the museum is a facility that symbolizes a new building stock era for a sustainable society. In addition to the development of the installation exhibition, which is disadvantaged by the fact that the space available is only the small space of a classroom unit, we have expressed a story exhibition to encourage thinking and dialogue. 2. Setting middle yard area In the museum, the middle yard area was set up as the inter-connected area between the front (exhibition area) and back (storage area) yards. In that area, not only is local nature such as plants, insects, fossils in Shizuoka Prefecture introduced to the younger generation, but also the visualization of how to make and treat specimens as an open kitchen. These activities in the middle yard area enable all visitors to understand the significance of keeping these kinds of specimens in the museum.
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≥ fujimu photo exhibition room 3
Introduction
> fujimu photo entrance area
3. Mobile exhibition (Transport of the Museum) From 2016, the museum has been running “Musuem Caravan,” a mobile exhibition kit mainly for use at elementary and junior high schools in difficult-to-visit areas in the Prefecture. Shizuoka Prefecture has a wide area, 200 km in distance from east to west. Although the museum is located in the central area in the Prefecture, some of the students in elementary and junior high schools in the Prefecture will find it hard to visit the museum within a few fours. In order to enable all students to experience the museum, four mobile exhibition kits, on the topics of Plants, Fish, Insects and Fossils, were created and sent out to schools. The number of schools visited since 2016 is more than 130. Finally, it was able to visit all cities and towns in the Prefecture. Also, during long holidays in school, it was exhibited at commercial facilities and station terminals for the pro94 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
motion of the museum. This has resulted in awareness of the museum increasing year by year. 4. Human resource development by soft-power The Museum has more than one hundred volunteers (it calls them “museum supporters”). Museum supporters take on such museum activities as guides for exhibitions, support for education events, performances of seasonal experienced events, total maintenance of the museum, the preparation of specimens and so on. Museum supporters encompass a broad demographic, from university students to seniors of approximately 80 years old. The museum has established a sustainable system to actively participate in museum management. Hence, not only visitors to the museum but also volunteers are promoting human resource development through such museum activities.
There are special rooms, such as the “Kid’s room” and “Picture book café” in the Museum. These rooms are available even for infants and toddlers with parents. The Museum should be active in community contribution. Because the Museum can be a central place of commutations in local people as well as a place for education. The museum is totally open for all generations. For this, it aims to become a platform for “thinking” the brilliant future of the earth and human.
Conclusions Regarding the current situation, the number of visitors to the museum over the last year is approximately 80,000 people: that is the same level as 2016 (the first year), and an increase of 20% on the previous year. Also, visitor satisfaction in the last year reached
97%, according to the questionnaire survey. In addition, it is a clear fact that the display design of the museum has received many evaluations not only from Japan but also from overseas. This evidence indicates that a new museum, which emphasizes soft-power and “Thinking” the museum theme of “A New Way of Life in Shizuoka”, is widespread knowledge among people in the Prefecture. In the beginning, the Museum was noted only as a vacant school facility. However, currently, the museum is recognized as a gathering place of knowledge, and has become a platform to create a new way of life which is sustainable for the future. Although there are issues with dealing with people with disabilities and inbound demand in the museum, we are also working on resolving these issues soon.
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> museum caravan
5. Local contribution
14. EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art Espoo, Finland Finnish Museums Association Museum of the Year 2018
Pilvi Kalhama Executive Director
A Museum in Transition 96 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
≥ www.emmamuseum.fi ≥ info@emmamuseum.fi ≥ EMMA Exhibition Centre WeeGee Ahertajantie 5, Tapiola Espoo Finland
Substantially, EMMA is characterised by site-specific exhibition productions, artistic collaboration, and collection activities which are tied into every action of the museum. We aim to be a leader in museum work when it comes to experimenting with new methods in communicating artistic work and the actual topics of art within our society – in interaction with our audiences and close communities. We believe that EMMA can set an example in the art museum sector, where museum work is done for the benefit of art, people and society.
A philosophy of a new museum concept During the years 2016-2018, EMMA completed an innovative development project that has opened a new chapter in the museum’s history: EMMA extended its premises and broadened activities by creating a new concept entitled Aukio. Aukio is a Finnish word meaning a plaza or an open space. The original purpose of creating a new operational concept for the museum grew from the will of mediating EMMA’s design collections in a
fresh way. Aukio is dedicated to the world-famous designer and artist couple Rut Bryk (1916-1999) and Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985). The catalogued collection comprises more than 5,200 objects and the archival material an estimated 20,000 documents. The collection includes unique works of art, design objects, drafts and sketches, plans, prototypes, materials and documents such as photographs and newspaper clippings. However, from the very beginning it was obvious that their legacy reaches out to today and contemporary design. The new space was opened to the public in November 2017 and its development has continued since then. In 2018, EMMA was awarded with The National Museum of the Year Prize by ICOM and the Finnish Museums’ Association. According to the jury’s statement, the museum’s impact is considerably wider than its area of operation and through the Aukio concept EMMA has permanently elevated professional museum standards. One can’t emphasize enough that Aukio was done in collaboration. No big steps are possible to take alone. In EMMA’s case, the project was carried out in collaboration with the Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation, the City of Espoo and the Exhibition Centre WeeGee where EMMA is located. We received a grant from the City of Espoo for permanent furnishing and professional gear and another grant came from the Finnish Heritage Agency for hiring a digital curator and a designer. However, the extension was designed to be very cost-efficient and modifiable in keeping with the principles of sustainable development. Improvements are continuously made in response to visitor feedback and current needs of artists shown in the changing exhibition space.
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≥ photo Ari Karttunen EMMA
EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art - has undergone some profound changes during the past few years. In this article I will discuss the reasons and philosophy of EMMA for its development activities. In the beginning, much attention was paid to the strategy work of the museum and developing the organization itself. We asked: what is our main task, how can a museum function at its best, and how can we get all the departments to work for the same strategic goal? When the foundations are in good condition, it’s possible to take bigger steps. Nowadays motivated personnel, effective processes and cost-awareness enable that. A fluent way of working and aiming for mutual goals makes the museum dynamic and ready for innovation.
> Photo: Ari Karttunen / EMMA
How to combine the historical archives into contemporary cross-disciplinary art and design processes, was the leading question posed for the planning of Aukio. Our concept does not have an international reference; its architectural solutions and operating model are unique. The initial inspiration came from a concept competition entitled Sharing, organizedby EMMA and the Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation to gain new ideas for presenting and storing a museum collection and archive. The goal was to achieve a vibrant connection between Bryk’s and Wirkkala's extensive life work, contemporary design and different audiences. Some one hundred designers, architects and offices from around the world took part in the competition. The final operating concept was carried out with young architects Heini-Emilia Saari and Johanna Brummer (Wanderlust). One of the crucial elements in terms of the result was also EMMA’s research of international visible storages and open archives, and innovation of digital solutions. 98 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
The layers of Aukio In a nutshell, Aukio combines several different elements: A unique visible storage solution dedicated for collections and archives to be made accessible to the public. At the same time, it is an open working space for collection personnel. The purpose is to make the collection and the behind the scenes work of the museum transparent and all information easily accessible to the public, curators and researchers. There is also a space for temporary, cross-disciplinary design exhibitions. The collection functions as an “invitation” for designers to explore both the legacy of Bryk and Wirkkala and actual cultural phenomena. Aukio is laid out in a series of rings and consists of spatial elements, each of which has a specific function: On the outermost ring is the visible storage, where collection objects are stored or undergo work related to the management of the collection. It is a non-curated area where the
The centre ring is a so-called working wall; where different perspectives or highlights from the collection are presented interactively. Its thematic contents vary based on research being conducted by academics, visiting curators and the museum staff. Here visitors can explore the archive by opening drawers, touching materials or using a digital application to create works themselves. In addition, visitors can examine an archive of more than one thousand newspaper clippings, view photographs or study how the artists worked in different ways. At the centre of Aukio there is space for curated temporary exhibitions that present topical design phenomena and processes. The space in the middle is like a typical modern
“white cube” but its walls are made of perforated metal plates. Visual transparency and interaction between exhibitions, the working wall and the visible storage is an essential element of the concept.
Supporting artistic processes To summarize, the leading mission of EMMA is to make artistic work visible and its messages reachable for as many as possible. In the end, all our activities return to the very core question of the essence of an art museum. Today, a big museological discussion is circulating around art museums’ purposes. In a critical context of radical museology, we must ask whether art museums stand for promoting blockbuster exhibitions or supporting the value of art dealing with the crucial discussions in our current society. At EMMA, we have chosen the latter to be the most important reason for our existence. By mediating the work of Bryk and Wirkkala, and especially by facilitating contemporary artists’ and designers’ work, EMMA is fulfilling its institutional task as an art museum. We prefer aiming to be a leader who will show the way for the future, not only one that stays in the past. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 99
> Photo: Ari Karttunen / EMMA
objects are placed in crates, on shelves and in showcases. Presentation of the collection includes digital content. This enables visitors to independently study details of the objects and the processes whereby they were made. There is an aquarium-like space where the audience can follow museum professionals – researchers, conservators and photographers – working and see how the collection is stored, studied and packed for tours, undergoing conservation or photographed.
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Hermann Parzinger president, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation ≥ www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de ≥ info@hv.spk-berlin.de ≥ Stiftung PreuSSischer Kulturbesitz Von-der-Heydt-Str. 16 – 18 10785 Berlin Germany
spotlight
Museum Island and HumboldtForum: A New Centre for Art and Culture in Berlin
One of the most prominent tasks of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is the development of the historical centre of Berlin. The heart of it is the UNESCO World Heritage site Museum Island (Fig. 1), which spreads out into the Spree Island like an acropolis of knowledge and art with five outstanding museum buildings. The development of the Museum Island began in the early 19th century, and it was finished in 1930. After the destruction of World War II and the restorations during the GDR, a new epoch for the Museum Island started after German Unification in 1990. The ‘Master Plan Museum Island’ began in the late 1990s. It involved the complete overhaul of all buildings, the first-time restoration of the New Museum and the addition of the James Simon Gallery as the new entrance building for the Museum Island. Of special importance was the New Museum, which we re-opened in 2009 after its heavy destruction in 1944 by an air attack on Berlin. Prior to the restoration it had stood as a ruin on Museum Island for almost seventy years. The concept pursued by David Chipperfield included the preservation of all structures and interior design that had survived from the time of Stüler, as well as the addition of new architecture that blends in harmoniously with the historical structures while at the same time clearly contrasting with them. The result was a new masterpiece of architecture, which received among
many other national and international prizes the EU Heritage Award/Europa Nostra Grand Prix in 2010. The restoration of the Pergamon Museum, which began in 2013, is currently ongoing. It will receive a fourth wing, and on the main level of the Pergamon, visitors will get the opportunity to make a true round tour through the history of architecture of antiquity, starting with monumental architecture from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, continuing with Greek-Roman antiquities (Pergamon altar) and ending with Early Islam. Master Plan Museum Island is still far from being completed. Another challenge, closely related to it, is the rebuilding of the Berlin Palace, the future home of the Humboldt Forum south of Museum Island, which was blasted by the communist regime in 1950/51. There has always been a close relationship between the Palace and the Museum Island, because all museum collections originally started in the Palace. The new institution of the Humboldt Forum is named after brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt for their cosmopolitan thinking and their conviction of the equivalence of all world cultures. The project of reconstructing the Berlin Palace was and is to some degree controversial. A main argument in its favour was the idea of closing the gap in the historical urban planning of Berlin’s historic centre by rebuilding the Palace. The Humboldt Forum in this new Palace is divided into various spheres. The ground floor will be a large event centre including temporary exhibitions, multi-functional rooms and spaces for performances, theatre and cinema shows, panel discussions, debates and academic events for the public (Fig. 2). Around the Schlüter Courtyard the visitors will find museum shops, cafés and restaurants.
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≥ fig.2 - Future Entrance Hall of the Humboldt Forum. © SHF / Architekt: Franco Stella mit FS HUF PG
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is by far the largest cultural institution in Germany and one of the most important in the world. It emerged from the cultural institutions of the former State of Prussia, which was dissolved after the end of World War II. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation includes museums, libraries, archives and research institutes of national importance and international reputation.
> fig.3 - ooperation with representatives from indigenous communities in the Amazon Basin. Š SPK / photothek.net / Inga Kjer
On the first floor the Humboldt University will have a gallery for science exhibitions of continuously changing topics, and the City Museum of Berlin is preparing a larger exhibition on the history of the relations between Berlin and the world. The second and third floors are reserved for the presentation of the non-European collections of the Berlin National Museums of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation from Africa, Asia, Oceania, Australia and the Americas. They will invite to a journey around the world, drawing on the immense collections of the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art, both of which are among the most important of their kind worldwide. In that process, we attempt to present the collections in a completely new manner by cooperating with specialists from the countries of origin in order to develop new narratives and share the power of explanation and interpretation (Fig. 102 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
3). Issues of colonialism and of the history of the collections as well will be treated. These new methods of cooperation and co-production shall bring us to a new understanding of the world and the entanglement of world cultures. Therefore it is so important to include the perspectives of others when presenting the collections of their past. It will be particularly important to intersperse and enliven the exhibition floors at the Humboldt Forum with zones that will allow for educational elements as well as various activities originating from the respective cultural regions. During the planning process of the Humboldt Forum, there are already considerations about how to deal with the phenomena of contemporaneity. This includes the dialogue with works from contemporaneous artists, too.
When the Humboldt Forum progressively opens its gates in 2019 and 2020, a big vision of the 21st century will become reality – a vision that goes back to preliminary considerations more than 150 years before. As a
site of the art and culture of Europe and their roots in the Near East, the Museum Island was already the big vision of the 19th century. The Humboldt Forum, featuring the arts and cultures of Africa, Asia, Australia, Oceania and the Americas and connecting them with Europe, is our vision in the early 21st century. Jointly, Museum Island and Humboldt Forum will be an outstanding place for the cultures of the world. Both, Museum Island and Humboldt Forum will create a new cultural nucleus in the historic centre of Berlin, providing the visitors with knowledge about the world, because we are convinced that only knowledge and education are the strongest weapons against nationalism and racism and paving the way for tolerance, respect and a peaceful future of our society. This is perhaps the most important agenda of the Humboldt Forum.
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> fig.1 - arial view of the Museum Island Berlin after the completion of its renovation and restoration. © SPK / Art+Com; Schloss: eldaco 2015
The Humboldt Forum is intended to be more than a museum, a place of manifold encounters with the arts and cultures of the world. There will be a focus on special programmes for children and adolescents, with the goal of introducing them to other cultures of the world. Particularly in a city like Berlin, which is becoming increasingly multicultural, multireligious and multiethnic, it is of crucial importance to give people from other cultural spheres a cultural home and to share things from their regions of origin with them. That way, they will hopefully establish ties with the Humboldt Forum as a site of their cultures and histories.
15. Estonian National Museum Tartu, Estonia european museum forum / Kenneth Hudson Award 2018
Alar Karis director
≥ erm@erm.ee ≥ www.erm.ee ≥ Estonian National Museum Jänese Str 24 51009 Tartu Estonia
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Inclusive and Innovative Museum Centre
The Raadi site is a multi-layered area that was a former Baltic German manor complex; it then housed the museum in the 1920s and 1930s, becoming an important national symbol. After WWII the territory of the museum became a Soviet military airbase and the whole area was cut off from the urban space of the city. From the 1990s, after Soviet military forces left Estonia, the area was abandoned and became a deserted socio-psychological wilderness. The reconstruction of the museum has given rise to significant urban development and environmental improvement as well as real change in public attitudes to the area. The new building (designed by DGT Architects) was inspired by the surrounding landscape and its former uses, and brings together different meanings and perceptions. The ENM’s renewal process involved not only the creation of the physical environment, but also the development of a new complex cultural institution. The museum was opened with new collection depositories, office space and public activity areas, including an education centre, a folk culture centre and exhibitions. The permanent exhibition, Encounters, deals with Estonian everyday life from the first settlers to the present day, while Echo of the Urals looks at the traditional life of Finno-Ugric peoples. In addition to exhibitions, the museum welcomes visitors to a rich cultural programme, as the museum hosts and
organises around 600 events per year for different audiences. The construction of the new museum building and production of new permanent exhibitions triggered a rethinking of the museum’s identity and goals. National museums have an important role in exploring people’s belonging. Today people attribute great significance to their place of origin and thus one of the goals of the museum has been to support a feeling of belonging within a globalised world, while also rephrasing traditional national narratives for contemporary needs. Although the new museum building was opened quite recently, the ENM is an old museum, founded in 1909. The first items for the museum were originally collected in the latter part of the 19th century. Collecting has been carried out with the help of thousands of volunteers, many of whom continue to be involved in museum activities. The collections and research projects help to prioritise and acknowledge the personal stories and experiences of museum audiences. The renewed ENM adopted an open approach to Estonian culture. The goal of the museum is to show the everyday life of various cultural and social groups in Estonia throughout the history of Estonian settlement. Currently, the most important questions regarding the sustainability of culture are related to changes in cultural consumption. Museums continue to be popular in Estonia. According to statistics, there were 3.5 million museum visits in 2017 (in a country with 1.3 million inhabitants). At the same time, almost half of the population in Estonia does not regard the more institutional type of museum attractive. There are specific challenges relating to the younger generation, whose cultural consumption habits are strongly directed towards the digital. In the renewal process, the ENM followed the curTHE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 105
≥ ENM's building photo by Tanel Kindsigo
The Estonian National Museum (ENM) is a state owned, non-profit, cultural, education and scientific institution. It is an open and inclusive environment for learning and creativity that develops according to the expectations of society. In October 2016 the ENM relocated to a new 35 000 m2 building in the grounds of Raadi Manor just 2 kilometres from the centre of Tartu.
> ENM Echo of the Urals photo byBerta Vosman
rent approaches to the role of the museum in society by presenting itself as an institution for which the life experiences of people are important. Permanent exhibitions and education programs offer people from different sociocultural backgrounds links and touchstones to their identity. The scenography for the Encounters and Echo of the Urals permanent exhibitions appeals to different visitors and enriches people’s expectations of the museum. Encounters is based primarily on an analytical approach that reflects a diversity of perspectives. The Echo of the Urals adds an emotional layer and offers visitors sensory experiences. A separate exhibition space at the Encounters permanent exhibition is reserved for participatory exhibition initiatives (the DIY Exhibition Hall), enabling ENM to produce three exhibition projects a year. The exhibitions are selected from ideas submitted by the general public and are decided on according to a public vote. One out of three exhibitions annually in this space is curated by young people to foreground their perspective on various topics. 106 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
At the Encounters permanent exhibition the most important innovation guiding choices of both content development and design solutions is the dialogical method, applied using two techniques: a) during the curation process, subjective views based on different source materials were continuously juxtaposed; b) participation was introduced into the exhibition space. Original artefacts, installations, documentary and fiction films produced for the exhibition, archival AV materials and a digital layer, including large databases accessible through touch screens, visualisations of research results and hypothesis were used. The production of the permanent exhibition facilitated an institutional turn from monovocality to multivocality, which is to say that in addition to the curators, museum audiences also have a say on different areas of museum work (collecting, interpreting, exhibition production). Participatory principles were also used in the production process of the second permanent exhibition, Echo of the Urals, where representatives of various Finno-Ugric groups were involved in the exhibition production as co-curators, experts and contributors.
Exhibitions use innovative techniques in areas such as design, the multi-lingual presentation system, technology such as e-tickets, and 3D printed mannequins based on scans of real people. The future e-ticket also allows visitors to take the museum content home with them and participate in the exhibition content after the visit. The ENM’s Education Centre was created to facilitate education activities ranging from preliminary to adult education and to different migrant communities, through the use of contemporary education approaches. Initially, increased attention is being given to collaboration with formal education institutes and with teachers in order to ensure their applicability to the school curriculum. The ENM is also a centre of knowledge transfer
in the wider sense, bringing together cultural experts and relevant enterprises. In recent years public interest in product development using folk culture and cultural heritage has increased strongly. The ENM’s Folk Culture Advisory Centre provides counselling for small- and large-scale businesses, for which the museum shop is a good platform for finding clients. The ENM is an example to other national museums due to its particular role in Estonian society, becoming subject to increased attention, expectation and responsibility. The potential of these big central museums includes being an agent in directing social and cultural innovation and a creator of social cohesion. Creating dialogue at the national museum has been a brave step that is well respected by the local community. And the museum has received positive public interest and feedback, particularly from groups who are not regular museum visitors. The visitors have accepted the new museum, something that is clear from the fact that in the first 2 years the museum had more than 500 000 visitors from more than 90 countries, which is remarkable in a city of just 100 000 inhabitants.
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> ENM Encounters photo by Berta Vosman
For the Estonian academic community the new permanent exhibitions represent contemporary creative research communication. The research community was involved in the exhibition production in order to integrate more recent research results, meaning also that because of the character of the exhibitions a wide spectrum of research disciplines could contribute, often through cross-disciplinary collaboration.
16. Culture Leap: Educational Programme Helsinki, Finland EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2018
Ira Vihr eälehto Project manager, Culture Leap: Cultural Education Plans ≥ www.kulttuuriperintokasvatus.fi ≥ ira.vihrealehto@kulttuuriperintokasvatus.fi ≥ Association of Cultural Heritage Education in Finland Hallituskatu 2 B, 3. krs. 00170 Helsinki Finland
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Cultural Heritage Education: Supporting Engagement and Participation
According to another study, 85% of Finnish children have a hobby and 85% of municipalities currently provide basic art education. These are good figures that we can be proud of. But what about the 15% who do not have a hobby, and the 15% of municipalities where there are no cultural activities? What about those areas where children’s cultural activities are occasional, or are notable by their absence? Those regions and people lack opportunities and the ability to act in a culturally equal environment. They are usually the same people who are already in a more disadvantaged situation (in socio-economic, agency, education, etc. terms) and whose likely life-outcomes are worse. Our goals are: > to focus on the 15% and make culture, arts and cultural heritage structures accessible and inclusive; > to increase participation and provision from 85% to 100%. We have designed a Cultural Education Plan that aims to give everyone an opportunity to have agency in culture, and the right to be an actor in a cultural and artistic environment. We want close cooperation between educational and cultural actors. This will create paths for children to find and experience culture, to visit cultural sites, and the right to interpret, shape and produce culture. The Cultural Education plan supports individual and diverse cultural identities while helping to understand the broader global community. Children learn about cultural diversity and
develop the associated skills of engagement, comprehension, cooperation and dialogue. When children are able to participate and influence, they are more likely to take responsibility for cultural heritage, for its maintenance, development and renewal. The Cultural Education Plan ensures that all children and young people in a region get an equal chance to experience cultural heritage. The Plan is based on the national curriculum and it guarantees every pupil the same opportunity to participate. In the curriculum, cultural education is integrated into different subjects, thus ensuring that pupils have an equal opportunity to participate in and learn about art and culture. It relates culture to the whole curriculum, rather than focusing on specific, individual subjects such as art or history. The Cultural Education Plan is founded on cooperation between the education and culture sectors, various art and cultural institutions, art schools, local associations, and local artists. Multidisciplinary expertise, a clear distribution of responsibilities, and the utilization of large networks ensure a good result. The Cultural Education Plan helps participants to familiarise themselves with the culture and cultural heritage of their home town or region, while encouraging an understanding of the diversity of local culture. Children and young people participate during the school day without being dependent on potentially expensive extra-curricular activities. The Plan promotes children's opportunities to create their own culture and art. While the Cultural Education Plan takes into consideration the needs of schools, it also increases the visitor volumes of cultural services and widens their audience base. The Cultural Education Plan also helps to educate the culture and art audiences of the future, and to provide employment opportuniTHE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 109
≼ Children's cultural network BARK
Participation in cultural activities is a human right. Why does one child participate while another does not? A Finnish study shows that the higher the socio-economic status of the family, the fewer barriers that exist, and the more positive the feelings towards museums that the children experience (af Ursin, 2016).
> Art Testers project
ties for local artists. The Cultural Education Plan also enables a municipality or region to highlight its own special cultural characteristics, thus supporting local cultural operators and anchoring the young inhabitants into their surroundings.
of 450 people. Further workshops are now being arranged in areas that do not yet have a Cultural Education Plan in place.
The Culture Leap project aimed to increase the number of Cultural Education Plans in Finland. This multifaceted project produced an online tool that enables municipalities to independently prepare a Cultural Education Plan based on their local and regional heritage. The tool is freely available to all, and operates in three languages (Finnish, Swedish and English).
Culture Leap was developed with the cooperation of the Association of Cultural Heritage Education in Finland and the Association of Finnish Children’s Cultural Centres. The principal partners were the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, the Finnish National Board of Education, and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland. The project was funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. In addition, the Arts Promotion Centre supported the organization of a workshop tour.
Prior to the project, just 43 of the 311 municipalities in Finland had Cultural Education Plans in place. As of 2017, as a direct result of this project, 90 plans had been implemented in municipalities around Finland and a further 50 plans were being developed. Workshops have taken place in 15 locations, reaching 83 municipalities and an audience
Example: The City of Rauma includes World Heritage education in its municipal cultural education plan. Third graders are taken on guided field trips to Old Rauma and fifth graders to Sammallahdenmäki, which are World Heritage sites. The tours are planned by cultural heritage professionals, with teachers providing pedagogical knowledge.
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As challenges and development targets are set and met, it is important to highlight demographic changes: the diversity of languages and cultural backgrounds is increasing, but there are also changes in the age distribution of the regions. The number of children is decreasing in Finland, and, as cultural rights apply to the whole population, there should be plans for adults and seniors as well. Finally, the following questions should be considered: > Do children have equal and fair access to cultural services in your home town? > What is the minimum that a child should learn or experience about cultural heritage? > What will children learn when they are involved? > Who does the planning? > Are you involved?
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> Children's cultural center Lastu
The Cultural Education Plan also helps the museum to plan their year: they know what age pupils they will meet and what is expected from them. They know that they are offering good pedagogical material. At the same time, teachers know what to expect from the tour so that they can better integrate the visit into their teaching. Activities are not limited to during the visit: lesson plans are devised for before and after, so that the visit is not just an extraordinary event that happens outside of the normal school day and building, and the beneficial effects of the visit are maximized. The Cultural Education Plan offers new learning environments as children move outside classrooms. It prepares cultural heritage content for teachers, reducing the burden on teachers and duplication of effort, thereby streamlining the preparation of such material. It helps to develop the cultural supply directed at children. The City of Rauma has realized that culture can be an important visitor attraction and a welfare service, and ways of exploiting both aspects.
Revitalization of Kyomachiya: Preserving the Cultural Cityscape and Vivid Tradition of Historic Kyoto
Shijo-cho Ofune-hoko Float Machiya Kyoto, Japan UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage Conservation / Award of Excellence 2018
Hung-Hsi Chao programme associate, world monuments fund ≥ www.wmf.org ≥ hprim@wmf.org ≥ World Monuments Fund Empire State Building 350 Fifth Avenue Suite 2412 New York, NY 10118 United States
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17.
Since 2000, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) has been bringing international attention and resources to the preservation of cultural resources in Japan. Our work in the country has ranged from the conservation of mid-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century imperial convents, to repairing historic cityscapes damaged by natural disaster, to raising awareness of modern icons in need of a new use. In each project, WMF works in collaboration with local organizations and government entities. These projects strive to implement best practices in the areas of advocacy and financial support and demonstrate public/private approaches to preserving historic sites at risk.
The Beauty and Sorrow of Kyoto Machiya In Kyoto, WMF’s recent work has focused on the preservation of machiya, traditional wooden townhouses dating from the Edo period (1603–1867). Fostered by a culture that integrated urban living and commerce, the machiya have long defined the historic urban character of the ancient capital of Kyoto. In recent decades, great numbers have disappeared as a result of rapid urbanization, the financial and technical difficulty of restoration and maintenance, and government regulations that create burdens on owning, restoring, and inheriting them. Machiya are a critical part of Japan’s architectural, aesthetic, and cultural legacy. They incorporate centuries of Japanese principles of architecture and design, traditional craftsmanship, materials, functionality, simplicity, nature, landscape, and gardening. The construction of new machiya became difficult after WWII because their traditional wooden architecture could not meet the new fire and
earthquake safety standards adopted in the Building Standards Act of 1950. As such, the only way to sustain and preserve traditional Japanese building crafts is through the restoration of historic machiya. Unlike preservation efforts that focus on an individual building, the Kyoto Machiya Initiative seeks to preserve a building type—one that is essential to local identity and sustains the unique cultural fabric of historic Kyoto.
Kyoto Machiya Revitalization Project In 2010, Machiya Townhouses were included on WMF’s flagship program, the World Monuments Watch. With support from the Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration (KCCC) and the Kyomachiya Revitalization Study Group (currently Kyomachiya Council), WMF kicked off the Kyoto Machiya Revitalization Project. This project aimed to work towards model solutions to some of the common threats that challenge the survival of machiya through community action, preservation, and revitalization of machiya in Kyoto. The first phase of the Kyomachiya Revitalization Project was helping to restore a building owned by the Kamanza neighborhood association. Working with the KCCC and the Kyomachiya Council, WMF successfully completed the first pilot project in 2010 to restore a midsized machiya in Kyoto’s Kamanza-cho neighborhood. It demonstrated how owners of similar midscale buildings could avoid demolition and restore badly altered machiya to their original forms. The restored building now houses a restoration resource center, benefiting many local machiya owners. A design guideline booklet was published to help other owners make restoration decisions about windows, shoji screens, and historically appropriate changes.
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≥ Shijo Ofune-hoko Float and Machiya in the Parade
Forward: WMF in Japan
> Main Façade of the Machiya (Before Restoration), 2016
As Machiya in Kyoto continue to be in danger of disappearing as a result of urban development and an aging population, the Kyoto machiya were again included on the World Monuments Watch in 2012 to focus attention on local efforts to preserve them. The second phase of the machiya revitalization project finished in 2012 with the restoration of another machiya, Old Muranishi Residence, which was originally converted into a museum and currently is being used as a privately-operated structure to promote Kyoto culture and tourism. It was a large-scale machiya conservation project that addressed the challenges of restoring and preserving larger buildings, as well as those facing the difficulties of elderly ownership. The project also studied how to help families incorporate a public use to make the machiya financially sustainable. 114 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
The Revival of Ofunehoko Float Machiya For hundreds of years, the sacred procession of Yama and Hoko floats occurs every summer during the Gion Festival in Kyoto. However, the community centers that host the festival floats are apt to be overlooked. There is a need to reaffirm the profound importance and cultural value of these community centers as neighborhood assets. The restoration of Shijo-cho Ofune-hoko Float Machiya (Hoko Kaisho), the community center of Shijo-cho town, was the third phase of World Monuments Fund’s Kyoto Machiya Initiative Program. In this phase, WMF continued to work closely with committed local partners, KCCC and Kyomachiya Council, to implement a comprehensive restoration of the two-story main building, its warehouse,
In April 2017, through local stewardship in close coordination with the owner, Shijo-cho Ofune Hoko Preservation Association (OHPA), restoration of the wooden building was completed. The machiya again serves as the home of the Ofune-hoko Float, providing space for conducting rituals, music rehearsals, and community activities. This project received the Award of Excellence in UNESCO’s annual Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Preservation in November 2018.
the recovery of intangible cultural heritage. A series of public events were also designed to share the lessons learned from the project and to strengthen the network of stewards of machiya in Kyoto. This project has successfully set a revitalization and regeneration model for other machiya in Kyoto and throughout Japan through community engagement, meticulous restoration, and international cooperation.
Conclusion Through its proud return to the annual summer Gion Festival in 2017, Shijo-cho Ofunehoko Float Machiya demonstrates its significant value as an incubator and vehicle for THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 115
> Community engagement of restoration
and its courtyard garden, called Tsuboniwa, a characteristic feature of machiya in Kyoto.
18. Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding Betina, Croatia European Museum Forum / Silletto Prize 2018
Kate Šikić Čubrić Director
Living the Tradition 116 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
≥ www.www.mbdb.hr ≥ muzej@mbdb.hr ≥ Muzej betinske drvene brodogradnje Vladimira Nazora 7 22244 Betina Croatia
Since the 1970’s, locals in Betina have had strong cultural motives to create an institution which would stand to inherit their rich shipbuilding history and absorb local knowledge of building wooden boats, especially the Gajeta. This realisation of their aspirations was finally achieved when the Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding opened. It began in 2011 with the forming of a civil association named Betina Gajeta 1740, and plans were immediately put in place to create the present day museum. The association was founded in order to preserve traditional and unique building knowledge of the Gajeta, or Betina Gajeta. The council implemented the community’s dream to represent and communicate their art of shipbuilding, and innovate systems to include all related heritage. The Association brought their proposals to local authorities represented by the Municipality of Tisno. The Municipal Council Tisno agreed to establish a Museum, property was purchased, and a site established in which varying experts worked on permanent displays of Gajetas and the different processes involved in shipbuilding. The museum’s working group, together with Betina Gajeta 1740, collected items for the museum, recorded storytellings from shipbuilders, sailors, fishermen, farmers, ethnographers, historians and all local people willing to help. All items on display have been donated by local people, museum texts were derived from storytellings, and in all videos actors were local people who gladly participated in activities that preceded the opening of the museum. The concept of the Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding, opened in 2015, consisted
of two phases: the first phase of the project realization was related to the design of the museum building and the opening of the permanent exhibition. The second phase was the realization of the external part of the exhibition - the open-air museum. The indoors museum exhibition presents the principles of building small wooden boats and places them in the historical context over time, while the outdoors exhibition displays real-life functional boats in situ. The core of today's open-air museum was established by the boat owners themselves. After they renovated and fitted with sails their wooden boats and began competing in lateen sail regattas in the early 2000s, they themselves started to moor their boats in the northeast part of the harbor. Over the years, by unregistered rule, the boats in that part of the harbor would be moored according to their brand. On 7 March 2019, the Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding was granted a concession to part of the local harbor. On the basis of the Agreement signed with the Šibenik-Knin County, the Museum has been granted a concession on maritime goods for the purpose of using the berths for the presentation of traditional wooden boats as museum exhibits. Boats have their place in the harbor according to their brand, originality of construction, conservation, sails fitting and adherence to traditional materials and equipment. There are 43 boats berthed at the open-air museum. In the reserved area granted to the Museum, berthing rights are awarded to boats, not the owners. The open air exhibition was opened in June 2019. Opening the museum only fuelled the local community and wooden boat owners to further contribute to the current cultural hive THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 117
≥ Entrance to the museum - scale model of bracera
Betina, in central Dalmatia on the island of Murter, is famous for its wooden shipbuilding craft and is also the only remaining centre for small wooden shipbuilding and in recent years has become a synonym for traditional shipbuilding.
> Museum multimedia room
in Betina today. On the streets of Betina locals, led by museum staff, organise and participate in folklore demonstrations, sailing and rowing regattas, workshops, lectures, presentations, boat parades and many other cultural events with the aim to popularise traditional wooden boats, wooden shipbuilding and related cultural heritage. The museum has become a place where people spend their free time in creative workshops or presentations, but also a place where they can perform their own events. A direct result of efforts is the increase in the number of newly built wooden boats along Šibenik region coastlines, and an increase in the number of repairs and reconstructions, all adding to the restoration and an increase in wooden boats keeping the culture alive and prevalent. Boat owners repair their boats regularly and a sense of pride can be 118 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
seen in their ownership. Their boats can be seen in new folklore manifestations organised for tourists, and the making of wooden boats represent of the island’s cultural heritage and local identity. Owning a traditional wooden boat become popular. Many examples of new boat orders are by clients of maritime heritage, wooden boat lovers, and longtime guests to the island of Murter. This encouraging trend has all local shipyards full with new boat orders and repairs years in advance. The Ministry of culture of the Republic of Croatia protects the knowledge of building a wooden boat in the traditional way, and this knowledge is still spread among our local shipbuilders. They are knowledge holders and active participants in the museum’s good work, but the museum serves them too in preserving an art which was also preserved by their ancestors for centuries; they too, in innovative modern ways, are pass-
After years of voluntary work, today we can proudly say that to own a wooden boat is not just a commitment to the heritage and ancestors, but a step forward to the future. Today, the wooden boat is an identifying symbol representing the whole area where it comes from. If we consider the Mediterranean area, or Northern European seas, we can see that there are a growing amount of maritime manifestations and festivals which aim to promote and protect maritime and shipbuilding heritage. Sea and ship enthusiasts or admirers are increasing and their work is becoming prevalent today. Wooden boats are not relicts from the past and are part of
our future as we move forward in new ways while respecting the old. The museum’s work in Betina presents a bright example, which is followed by other costal cities, not just in Croatia but beyond our shores. Betina Museum is a proud holder of the Silletto award, which the Museum received in 2018 from the European Museum Forum in the category ‘Museums and Communities’ for outstanding work and extraordinary commitment to social responsibility, being a model of relations between museum, community and local enterprises. In 2019, Betina Museum received the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award in the category ‘Education, training and awareness-raising‘.
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> Open-air museum, display of wooden boats in the harbour from above
ing their knowledge on. Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding perfectly illustrates the significance and importance of maritime and shipbuilding heritage in the development of the identity of the island Murter.
19. Birmingham Museums Trust Birmingham, United Kingdom Museums Association UK Museums Change Lives Awards 2018 / Best Project Award
Ellen McAdam Director ≥ www.birminghammuseums.org.uk ≥ BMAG.Enquiries@birminghammuseums.org.uk ≥ Birmingham Museums Trust Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Chamberlain Square Birmingham B3 3DH United Kingdom 120 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
Collecting Birmingham
I became Director of Birmingham Museums Trust in 2013, having formerly been Head of Glasgow Museums. One of my first observations was that the collection contained remarkably little that represented working-class life, including post-war immigration to the city. This absence was reflected in the visitor demographics, which were dominated by elderly, white, middle-class visitors. This does not reflect the makeup of the 1.2 million-strong population of Birmingham, which is exceptionally young and very diverse. The story of immigration to Birmingham is a complex one, but the largest groups are from Britain’s former colonies, the African Caribbean population from the West Indies and the South Asian population from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Nearly 50% of the city’s population is now Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME). In 2015 I therefore suggested applying for project funding to collect objects that would enable us to tell stories about working-class and immigrant lives – about growing up, living and working in Birmingham. The resulting project, Collecting Birmingham, was supported financially by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Over 2,200 people from four inner-city areas participated. We collected over 1000 objects by donation and purchase. And in 2018 we won the UK Museums Association Museums Change Lives Best Project award.
The philosophy of the project was underpinned by the fact that the collection and venues are the property of the citizens of Birmingham, held in trust by their democratically elected representatives on Birmingham City Council. As an educational charity, Birmingham Museums Trust serves the people of Birmingham and visitors to the city, balancing the maximum possible access to the collection in the present with the need to preserve it for future generations. We have an obligation to provide a service to all our communities, especially those who may experience barriers to participation for social or economic reasons: Birmingham contains many areas that score highly on the Index of Multiple Deprivation. We know from audience research that the subject areas that interest our traditional visitors – Pre-Raphaelite art, for example – are not those that interest people from other socio-economic groups or different cultural heritages, who tend to be more interested in the history of the city in which they live. So much for the aspiration. Among the staff of BMT in 2015 it would be fair to say the project was not received with undiluted enthusiasm. Longstanding members of staff repeatedly said “I don’t understand this project”, code for “I don’t approve”. We set up an expert panel, but it was perhaps weighted too much towards academic specialism, and in future we will think more carefully about community expertise and understanding. The expectation was that we would mainly acquire by purchase, although I was more interested in encouraging a long-term tradition of donations, and in the event donations far exceeded purchases. We recruited project staff, not all of whom understood or sympathized with the project’s aims and methods, and adjustments to the composition and management of the team were needed. It took some time for the team to realize THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 121
≥ original photo
The city of Birmingham, alongside Liverpool and Glasgow, has one of the UK’s three great historic, encyclopedic regional collections. It consists of around 1 million objects across almost every imaginable collection area, displayed and stored in nine venues. It is the largest civic museum service in England. Since 2012, the independent educational charity Birmingham Museums Trust has cared for the collection and venues on behalf of Birmingham City Council.
> Mrs McGhie-Belgrave MBE, Photo: Birmingham Museums Trust
that the project was about relationships, not objects. In any community project, talking, preferably accompanied by drinking and eating, is essential. It is a social process. We had an extensive programme of events and consultation, mainly in community settings and often by invitation from community groups. We recruited community volunteers to support the project. We also had many smaller conversations with individuals and groups. A lot of the conversations were about value – financial, cultural, personal and historical. Many of the communities did not trust the museum service, with its association with government, to value what they valued. Resolving this took time, and tea. We were collecting personal and community testimony – memories - as much as objects. Even when we acquired by purchase, we invited the community to guide our selection, and recorded their reasons. We came to understand the importance of actively maintaining the relationships we have created in the long 122 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
term. One element of the project involved working with community partners to interpret and display the objects we acquired through the project in our museums across the city. Our original target had been 40 objects, and we collected over 1000, so we had ample material to choose from. The exhibitions were well attended and received positive feedback, contributing to the sense of community ownership of the museums. Another strand of the project involved providing advice to individuals and community groups on how to preserve and interpret their own collections. Collecting Birmingham was one of a varied programme of projects in Birmingham Museums Trust over the last four years that have grown and diversified our audiences while changing the culture and practice of the organization. Other projects have included an exhibition partnership with the
new objects to acquire for Birmingham’s collection. We continue to build a network of relationships across the communities of the city and internationally that we hope to maintain and develop in the future. More people from more communities are visiting our museums and joining in our events and activities. We have learned that knowledge and expertise do not reside only with academics, and that our audiences have a lot to teach us. We have become a more open, innovative and confident organization that finds it easier to consult with and accept advice and input from partners on how to use the vast public asset that is the city of Birmingham’s collection.
Collecting Birmingham has been part of a process of change in Birmingham Museums. We will never go back to a position in which curators are the sole gatekeepers of what THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 123
> Recreated photo smiling
Arts Council Collection, which addressed contemporary issues such as LGBTQ rights and feminism, attracting young audiences. Even younger audiences, many of them still in buggies, came (bringing their parents) to see Dippy the Diplodocus from the Natural History Museum. We worked with a group of activists to explore the legacy of the British Empire and decolonize the museum in a gallery called The past is now. And with Knights of the Raj, Birmingham artist Mohammed Ali attracted new audiences to a joyous exhibition about the tradition of “Indian” (actually Bangladeshi) restaurants in Birmingham. Most recently, our traditional audience (and some of our newer ones) have queued to see drawings by Leonardo from the Royal Collection.
The World for Venice and its Heritage, for More Than 50 Years
Association Of The International Private Committees For The Safeguarding Of Venice Venice, Italy EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2018
Paola Marini chairwoman
20.
≥ www.comitatiprivativenezia.org ≥ info@comprive.org ≥ Associazione dei Comitati Privati Internazionali per la Salvaguardia di Venezia c/o UNESCO Office in Venice - Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe 4930 Castello - 30122 Venice Italy
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The then Director General of UNESCO, René Maheu, launched an appeal on December 2 which opened the International Campaign for Venice and Florence and called upon the entire world to prove its solidarity towards the two Italian cities saying, among other things: “I address a solemn appeal to the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind for the preservation and restoration of the damaged cultural treasures of Florence and Venice.” The world’s mobilisation was unprecedented, first for Florence where the Italian Art and Archives Rescue Fund (UK) and the Committee to rescue Italian Art (USA) started working thanks to the involvement of their “founding fathers”: Sir Ashley Clarke, a former UK Ambassador to Italy, and Colonel Gray, who had participated in the liberation of Italy with the US Army. They first focussed on Florence, and with many young people coming from all over the world they were called “the angels of mud”; they worked to rescue mostly archival documents. At a certain point the emergency in Florence was over but Francesco Valcanover, who was then in charge of the safeguarding of Venetian monuments, met Sir Ashley Clarke and told him that the emergency was not over in Venice and asked them if they could move work there. This is how everything started: some 50 Committees were created around the world to preserve Venice and funded laboratories, research, restorations of architectural heritage and of works of art of any type, grants for
students from all over the world (also in collaboration with ICCROM) were also awarded. The UNESCO campaign became a Joint Programme between the UN Agency and the Private Committees in which three different partners collaborated with different roles: the individual Private Committees (supported in every and any step by the Association’s Permanent Office) funded projects that were indicated by the local institutions of the Italian Ministry for Culture (called “Soprintendenze”) according to the needs of each work of art, its budget and location and connection with individual Committees. UNESCO granted administrative support and the surveillance of the international community on how the privately raised funds were spent. The Joint programme with UNESCO came to an end early this century, for economic reasons, but the Committees continue spending between 5-6 million Euro per year for Venice, creating a virtuous circle, since restorations and projects usually involve local firms, restorers, and professionals, who have the opportunity to work in Venice and then also to live in Venice, thus keeping the city alive, thus contributing to contrast mass tourism that is deeply modifying the city and its lagoon. Two of its members train young people to become restorers and give them the opportunity of working in the framework of actual projects; another one focuses on the dissemination of the appreciation of museums to school children and also to senior citizens; two of them are concentrated on cultural research and the organisation of meetings to disseminate the knowledge acquired by means of such research, the others mostly finance restorations, publications about restorations and artists, and exhibitions, in collaboration with local, national and international institutions.
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≥ The façade of the Church of San Stae on the Grand Canal, restored by the Fondazione svizzera Pro Venezia and about to undergo maintenance
On November 4, 1966, Northern Italy was hit by terrible weather: a huge toll in human lives was paid in some areas of the country; the Arno river flooded Florence and the aqua alta kept Venice flooded much more than its usual 6 hours.
> Dedalus in the dome of the re-created Renaissance Tribuna Grimani, by Venetian Heritage
So far more than 1,000 different projects have been financed by the Committees, who sometimes join forces if the project is particularly demanding and also if they share some interest for this particular work of art.
The list of projects is available on the Association’s website.
Most of the funding is private, apart from the financial support received by the Fondazione svizzera Pro Venezia, which also comes from the Swiss government and the Canton Ticino (the Italian speaking Canton). The Association also try to raise awareness on the daily problems of the city by issuing Recommendations that are sent to the public authorities and to the press, and to support some locally initiated initiatives. 126 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
> The current list of the members of the
Association – from 11 different countries (in alphabetical order) is:
Name of the Committee
website
UNITED STATES Italy Italy Austria
America-Italy Society of Philadelphia Associazione Amici dei Musei e Monumenti Veneziani Associazione Cavalieri di San Marco Comitato Austriaco per la Salvaguardia di Venezia “Venedig lebt” Comitato giapponese Venezia aVvenire Comité Français pour la Sauvegarde de Venise Comunita Ebraica di Venezia Deutsches Studienzentrum in Venedig/Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani Fondazione Svizzera Pro Venezia Istituto Veneto per i Beni Culturali Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti Pro Veneziakomitéen Denmark Pro Venezia Sweden Save Venice Inc. Stichting Nederlands Venetië Comité The Venice in Peril Fund Universita Internazionale dell’Arte (UIA) Venetian Heritage Venice Gardens Foundation World Monuments Fund
www.aisphila.org www.amicideimuseivenezia.it www.cavalieridisanmarco.it www.venedig-lebt.at
Japan France Italy Germany Switzerland Italy Italy Denmark Sweden United States The Netherlands United Kingdom Italy Italy/ U.S.A Italy United States
www.venezia.is-mine.net www.cfsvenise.com www.jvenice.org www.dszv.it
> Some representatives of the Private Committees on the occasion of their last AGM at the Venice State Archive
Country
www.provenezia.ch www.ivbc.it www.istitutoveneto.it www.provenezia.dk www.provenezia.se www.savevenice.org www.poortersvanvenetie.nl www.veniceinperil.org www.new.univarte.it www.venetianheritage.org www.venicegardensfoundation.org www.wmf.org
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21. Museum of Tomorrow Rio de Janeiro, Brazil leading cultural destinations awards / best soft power organisation 2018
Ricardo Piquet Director ≥ www.museudoamanha.org.br ≥ contato@museudoamanha.org.br ≥ Museu do AmanhA Praça Mauá 1 - Centro - CEP 20081-262 Rio de Janeiro/RJ Brasil 128 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
The Museum of Tomorrow as a Soft Powerhouse
The Museum of Tomorrow is a new variety of science museum. The first science museums - natural history museums, for instance - provided glimpses of the past through their collections of fossils, relics, vestiges; then came demonstrative museums, showing the ways of science, its methods and discoveries, and presenting facts and laws of nature. The proposal of the Museum of Tomorrow is to employ the resources of contemporary science to offer to its visitors a journey of exploration of possible future scenarios. In this sense, it is a museum of applied sciences, which provide for a peculiar collection of possible futures. The main philosophical concept supporting such an approach is that, contrary to our common sense about time - which, since the diffusion of an extraordinary artifact, the mechanical clock, we conceive of as a straight line of instants, upon which a marker called “now” moves uniformly, carrying with it all of reality - tomorrow is not a date in the calendar, or a place where we will arrive, that is, tomorrow is not finished and ready, waiting for us to arrive there. Rather, “tomorrow” is to be understood as construction, and we will all take part in this construction, as persons, citizens, members of the human civilization. Thus, each “today” may give rise to different possible tomorrows, because the actions that we choose to take now will shape the road ahead and select among various possible outcomes. Causes give place to effects; that is what science is about, and causal connections is what the Museum wishes to invite its users to reflect upon. Such an innovative project exhibits some unusual features. Science is an ever-evolving endeavor, always reviewing and, if evidence thus imposes, renewing its concepts and statements. If the future scenarios exhibited by the Museum are science-based then they will be, necessarily, transient, so
the Museum needs to be able to update its contents accordingly - otherwise, it would become a Museum of Yesterday very quickly. Other museums are built to preserve a given repertory; the Museum of Tomorrow must constantly renew his own. This leads to the requirement that all of its exhibiting content should be digital, that is, amenable to cybernetic manipulation. Thus, a system called the Cerebro was developed in order to receive and manage all the digital information comprising the exhibit contents, from videos and images to interactive programs and recorded data. Also, a cohort of academic and scientific institutions was selected to perform as trusted providers of science news and reports, and a Scientific Committee was chosen to supervise the academic integrity of the Museum’s presentations. Another issue regards the elaboration of future scenarios, by means of forecasts, estimates and projections provided by these accredited partners. Given the extent and variety of the subjects that these scenarios must incorporate, it was soon concluded that the traditional separation of disciplines in terms of Natural Sciences versus the Humanities, or Exact Sciences in contrast to Historical ones, was of little use. A new distribution of disciplines was required to deal with the latitude and inherent complexity of the matters at stake, and the decision was to make use of a suggestion by the physicist Victor Weisskopf: the Museum’s contents should be organized according to the polarity between sciences of Unity (that is, referring to what is common in the Universe - the particles, atoms and molecules of which all things are composed, and the evolving Cosmos to which everything belongs) and sciences of Diversity (which regard to the particular fraction of the Cosmos where an extraordinary peak of complexity took place, namely, the planet Earth). Therefore, Particle Phsysics, Chemistry, Astrophysics, Cosmology, are Cosmic THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 129
sciences, and Geology, Physiology and Psychology are Terran sciences, or sciences of the complex system Earth. This basic conceptual structure was used to lay the foundations of the main narrative of the Museum’s “permanent” exhibition, in terms of a sequence of great questions that humans have ever been asking themselves: Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we? Where are we heading to? How do we want to go, that is, which values do we want to convey to the future? Each of these questions is embodied in a different expographic setting, aimed at conveying a diverse sensorial and emotional environment - immersive, monumental, impending, labyrinthic, and homely ambiences, respectively, the Cosmos, Earth, Anthropocene, Tomorrows and Us areas. Alternatively, each space could further be seen to correspond to a distinct temporal image or modality, in a sequence reading Everlasting, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrows, and Now. Another fundamental aspect of the project is of an ethical nature. The college of consultants that helped develop the scientific contents presented in the main exhibition posed a very important interrogation: the Museum 130 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
works with future scenarios and forecasts, and while some of these future perspectives are certainly stimulating, there are others that can be frankly disturbing (as is the case with some extreme climate change projections). Is it ethically correct to invite people, in a public education installation, to contemplate threatening or even ominous possible events? These questionings led to the understanding that the Museum’s statements should be entangled in a set of permanent values, that is, all of the Museum’s contents and activities should abide by fundamental ethical guidelines. These directives were reunited under the labels of Sustainability - how do we want to live with the world? - and Conviviality - how do we want to live with each other? Together with the diffusion of Knowledge and the fostering of Innovation, these ethical guidelines are the mainstays of the Museum operation. And now one last aspect can be addressed - that of the relation of the Museum with its publics. Already in the course of the construction of the premises, it became evident that the city area where the Museum was being installed, in spite of the neglect and de-
In order to face this pluridimensional challenge, it was required that programs were developed for the local neighbors, for city dwellers, for Brazilian visitors as well as for international tourists, that is, the Museum should be simultaneously profoundly local and global so as to take in all sorts of publics - while giving special attention to children, families and high school students. Integrity and persuasion were the features most required to accomplish such tasks, and strong investments should be made so as the Muse-
um team could display the kind of soft power necessary to succeed in this challenge. Three and a half years after its opening, here are some figures about the Museum: close to 3.8 million visitors; 50 thousand students received per year; 50 percent of the visitors are not regular museum users, and 12 percent had never been to a museum before (that's about 450 thousand newbies); 96 percent enjoyed the visitation; 80 percent want to change their habits; 37 percent do engage with recommended institutions after the visitation; of the 30 thousand neighbors, 4.5 thousand became a friend of the Museum; InterMuseums, a program of a combined visitation to pairs of museums, has reached 25 members; 10 international museums and galleries were inspired by the Museum, and are on the way to establish a network of future-oriented museums. One could say, the Museum of Tomorrow indeed became a powerhouse for knowledge but without ever losing its softness. Luiz Alberto Oliveira, Chief Curator. Museum of Tomorrow | IDG THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 131
> photo by Byron Prujansky
cay it suffered during the last decades, had an immensely important role in the history of Rio de Janeiro City and, in fact, of the whole Country. Urban landmarks surrounding the Museum’s building accounted for this foundational narrative, and more than one hundred cultural institutions were active within its neighborhood - many connected to the “Little Africa” tradition. It was clear that the Museum would arise in an already rich, albeit troublesome, cultural environment, and so the relation with the neighbors was indeed of crucial importance to achieving its objectives as an education equipment.
Integrated Approach to Heritage Conservation
22.
Bač Fortress bač, serbia EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2018
Slavica Vujović Chief, Architectural Sector, Provincial Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments petrovaradin ≥ www.eng.pzzzsk.rs/vekovi-baca/tvrdjava-bac.html ≥ office@pzzzsk.rs ≥ Provincial Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Štrosmajerova 22 21131 Petrovaradin Serbia 132 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
How to preserve and use cultural heritage is a question that all the professionals, property owners, local communities, competent institutions and many others ask every day. In the early 21st century, the Provincial Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments Petrovaradin, one of 13 institutions involved in the protection of immovable cultural properties in the Republic of Serbia, has put a focus on protecting the Bač Fortress that was devastated. The Bač Fortress is an authentic "water town / burg", designed as a defence system adapted to marshy land, quite unique among the fortifications on the left side of the Danube River. The Bač Fortress consists of a fortified castle with a barbican and an area where the mediaeval suburb used to be, now only a mediaeval Gate Tower remains. The fortified castle began construction in the 14th-century with additions made in the 15th- and 16th-centuries. In the early 18th century the Bač Fortress suffered severe destruction when the castle lost irretrievably more than half of its built structures. Reconstruction and research on this whole complex has been done continuously since 1958, though with shorter or longer interruptions. The great historic and architectural importance of this fortress obliged generations of conservationists to search for the best ways and means of its reconstruction, having in mind the complexity of the problems that encompass the degree of the unexplored sites and locations, the historic data at hand and the state of the ruins. Two periods of higher concern can be noted: 1957-1962 and 1980-1985, when both archeological research and conservation was in progress. However, since it was not assigned any use, the Donjon tower– the keep - continued to degrade, and such a negative trend culminated when a fire broke out in the 1990s.
A new conservation campaign started in 2003 with remedial interventions on the Donjon and the archaeological excavations were resumed once again. From 2006, the Bač Fortress, along with other heritage properties and the wider Bač area investigations and usage became a part of a Development Project of Integrated Protection of the Municipality of Bač Heritage "Centuries of Bač”, initiated by the Provincial Institute (author S. Vujović). The goal was to research and increase knowledge; to implement key conservation principles in its preservation; to find a sustainable use for the site; and to raise awareness of its value among the community. In 2018 the “Centuries of Bač” Project approach implemented on the Bač Fortress along with the results obtained during a period of more than a decade were highly rewarded with the Grand Prix the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards in the category of conservation. When evaluating the achieved results, the significance of the partnership between the Provincial Institute, as a project leader, and the key partners: the Fund for Preserving Cultural and Historical Heritage “Centuries of Bač”, the University of Novi Sad Faculty of Technology and the Museum of Vojvodina, was highlighted, with their important roles in investigations and museum activities. Then a wide range of financial support was underscored, as it was provided from regional, national and international sources, including the EU funding. Those efforts were particularly noticed by the Jury: “This project is an exceptional example of heritage preservation based on interdisciplinary collaboration. To achieve this, the project leaders have made use of European resources to research and carry out necesTHE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 133
sary preliminary investigations, which in turn has led to the implementation of a correct management strategy. A sustained effort has been made to maintain the aspect of the ruin through careful conservation. In addition there is a strong educational component relevant to the entire region”. Broad scope of researches were carried out in the field of: archeology, architecture, chronology and the methods of their construction and the causes of both structural and material degradation; the technology of producing construction materials: bricks, mortar, stone; possibilities of technology improvement of applied materials for the future conservation - especially through the European research project HEROMAT. Conservation and restoration works were conducted in the interior of the Donjon tower. Implementation of the old techniques and craftsmanship was a key point in this demanding enterprise. Carefully placed installations and fixtures did not jeopardise the tower’s authenticity and its historic ambience. Different procedures and combined 134 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
technical protection measures of the Fortress structures were done on built structures that remained underground (and made visible): the Cistern, the Fortified Castle Gate Tower, and on the overground remains: the South and South-west ramparts, the Square Tower, the Chapel Tower and the Round Tower with stone corbels. Introducing the purpose and various aspects of use for this cultural property was valued highly in overall results evaluation. The project has successfully integrated the Bač Fortress into the life of the local community and has found a sustainable use to ensure its future. It has been restored, its archaeological remains preserved and its interior transformed into a visitor centre and exhibition space which helps visitors to interpret the wider cultural landscape of Bač. It has also become a centre where professional knowledge about heritage conservation and management is gained, enhanced and shared. For the past 15 years the Fortress has also been the regional central point for the European Heritage Days, an initiative of the Council of Europe. Due to the success of
this project the Bač Fortress was listed on UNESCO’s Tentative List in 2010, as a part of the “Historical place of Bač and its surroundings”. Today, the Donjon tower is available for use for various activities, has its permanent exhibition of the archaeological material on two levels: the second level exhibits stone fragments and terracotta, whilst the fourth level displays ceramics, metal and glass objects. Furthermore, the basement holds all the archaeological material from the dig (author N. Stanojev). The room with a fireplace is of particular interest and numerous meetings of professionals and students from both this country and abroad have been held there (workshops, seminars, promotions, exhibitions), as well as heritage programmes. An exciting point for visitors is an observation deck below an impressive roof structure, which allows a wide view of the plains. The tower has also become a destination for film crews and tourists. Here, the cultural, historical, and socio-economic values of the tower as a cultural heritage are interlaced in the best possible way.
Besides the results obtained on the Bač Fortress, the value of other Bač and cultural landscape monuments was emphasised. “The town of Bač shows influences of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Byzantine, Islamic and Baroque styles, along with examples of vernacular architecture. The built heritage pays testimony to the cultural diversity of the area, linking the Balkans with Central and Western Europe. Some of its most iconic structures are now listed as national monuments: namely the Bač Fortress, the Bodjani Orthodox Monastery and the Franciscan Monastery of Bač. The Fortress is located in close proximity to the Danube, a river which has provided a link between many European countries”, the jury noted. The lessons learned were communicated to the public through a publication Cultural Heritage – How to Preserve and Use: Centuries of Bač Contribution and the exhibitions bearing the same name, along with various conferences and workshops. We offered some answers...
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Changing Course!
23. Maritiem Museum Rotterdam Rotterdam, The Netherlands BankGiro Loterij Museumprijs 2018
Lucie Kuijpers Development Manager ≥ www.maritiemmuseum.nl ≥ voorlichting@maritiemmuseum.nl ≥ Maritiem Museum Rotterdam Postbus 988 / 3000 AZ Rotterdam Leuvehaven 1 Rotterdam The Netherlands
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The excitement was enormous, when on May 18, 2018, a camera crew invaded our museum. They came bringing good news. We had won the BankGiro Loterij Museumprijs 2018! After five months of persistent persuasion to get votes, we had become ‘Museum of the Year’. As a consequence of the 42, 477 people who voted for us, the Museum has a new course set for the horizon.
of the Port of Rotterdam. Our collection is one of the top 3 maritime collections in the world and consists of more than 1,060,000 objects. Paintings, charts, ship models, but also everyday objects such as the cutlery from luxury cruise ships. Our oldest ship model dates back to the 15th century and is the oldest ship model in the western world.
Since 1990 this award has been granted annually to a Dutch museum by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the BankGiro Loterij and the Dutch Museum Association. It is one of the largest cultural awards in which the public vote is primary. Each year there is a different theme, and each year three different contesting museums are preselected by a professional jury. In 2018 the selection was for museums with a focus on technology.
The museum receives 218,000 visitors each year. 70% of them live within 40 km of our museum, 42% are under the age of 24. We welcome families, business groups, tourists and history lovers and are regarded as a ‘day out for the entire family’. The vast majority of our visitors do not generally have a maritime background. Our director at the time - Frits Loomeijer - realised that in order to connect with visitors, we needed to focus on the present and the future instead of only looking back at history. But he also realised that the choice which stories to tell might be different than expected.
Our ‘Raison d’être’
Looking Beyond the Horizon
You might think that a maritime museum isn’t first and foremost a museum for technology. But have a look at our history and it is very obvious. Prince Hendrik was one of our founding fathers back in 1874, the time of the first oceangoing iron vessels. He joined forces with a committee of 19th century shipbuilders, entrepreneurs that wanted to show their latest achievements, tell about innovations and simply share the splendour of technology that helps to conquer the sea with all. After 145 years, our museum’s mission isn’t really that different.
We arranged a dinner with 20 key figures in the maritime industry in 2011 and asked them which stories we should tell. To our surprise we discovered that no other maritime museum in the world was telling the story of offshore. But neither were we. We can’t live without energy and a big part of our resources comes from the sea. This sector is highly innovative, has a major effect on our global economy and supplies jobs for many in the maritime sector. Why had we missed this as a museum? We started a new project with major consequences. It changed the way we work.
At the Maritime Museum we tell stories of the maritime world, both inside our building and outside in our harbour with our historic vessels and cranes. We are located in the heart of Rotterdam, in the actual birthplace
The offshore project had four goals: 1. The assembly of a national offshore collection. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 137
≥ Offshore Experience at Maritime Museum designed by Kossmann and De Jong designers
How a New Focus Can Change the Way a Museum Works
> Located in the heart of Rotterdam
2. Research into the history of offshore at PhD level 3. Create a state-of-the-art ‘Offshore Experience’ 4. Develop programs for schools with a focus on technology The Maritime Museum joined forces with 56 partners. In 2012 we made a proposal based on first ideas about the project. We talked to CEOs who knew everything about shipping and technology, but had never been to our museum. It sometimes felt like a crusade for culture, but turned out to be a new way of looking at cultural entrepreneurship. The industry became our source of knowledge, provided us with state of the art ship models to add to our collection. They became our true ambassadors and made the project financially possible. This close cooperation was a first in our profession and therefore feared by many. At every meeting at that time with other museums we were questioned thoroughly on ethics.
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In December 2016 we opened an 800 m2 exhibition with a reception attended by 450 CEOs from the Maritime sector, politics and the cultural world. During the first weeks, we had to think about crowd control. You see 45 min waits at blockbuster art exhibitions, but hardly ever in a maritime museum. Our number of visitors rose by 19%. A lot of people working in the industry state they had never visited our museum before the Offshore Experience. The museum has become a popular location to hold business events.
Education Research shows the Maritime Museum inspires children to consider the maritime sector as a future employer. This project is an example of how a museum can change views but also lives. We are proud of the 15,000 students that visit us annually. In the past we offered them a historical program. Now schools come to us because of our technology programs. The Offshore Project was the start of a new focus for our educational
Prize Winning The Offshore Experience was awarded with the Offshore Energy Public Outreach Award in 2016. Never before has a cultural institution won this maritime industry award. We won the Silver SponsorRing and because of the marvellous design of Kossmann and de Jong designers, we won the Bronze European Design Award. There were several other nominations but becoming ‘Museum of the Year’ proves that this newly laid out course is successful. It took a long term effort, much persuasion and flexibility. But the high amount of votes we got for the Bankgiro Loterij Museumprijs is the best proof of success.
The Future The €100,000 that comes with this title has been allocated to the development of a new pavilion. In this ‘Leuvepaviljoen’, opening fall 2020, the Port of Rotterdam is going to build a hub for tourists visiting Rotterdam. We are building publicly accessible workspaces on the quay side entrance. Here we combine the ‘real work’ needed to maintain our historical fleet with telling maritime stories to a broad audience. You can see the real blacksmiths and carpenters at work, but also learn about new techniques used in shipbuilding. You can even get started with maritime techniques yourself. For elementary and vocational education we will develop new programs with a focus on technology. With the Offshore Project we set sail for an adventure beyond the horizon. We are glad we made this journey despite all the challenges on the way. The effect was huge, the hunger to proceed even bigger…
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> Offshore Experience at Maritime Museum designed by Kossmann and De Jong designers
department. The Verolme Trust provided us with a four year grant to execute a program for secondary education. Schools come to the museum for a tour of the exhibition and have a workshop in our ship ‘Geertruida’. The most impressive part of the program is when small groups of students experience the real world when visiting real companies.
From a Museum of Power, to a Museum Working with Locals
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Museum of Modern art PERMM Perm, Russia ICOM Russia Award 2018
Svetlana Luchnikova Department of Museum Education ≥ www.permm.ru ≥ permmuseum@mail.ru ≥ Museum of Modern art PERMM Bul'var Gagarina 24 Perm, Permskiy kray 614070 Russia
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2009 - 2012. Skeptics will be put to shame: an attempt to create Perm’s Bilbao The Museum "PERMM" was founded in 2009; it was the first museum of contemporary art in Russia outside Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. The creation of the museum was a part of the new cultural policy pursued by the governor Oleg Chirkunov and gallerist Marat Guelman. This policy ("Perm Cultural Revolution") included the transformation of Perm from the industrial city into the cultural capital and placing Perm on the cultural map of Russia and the world. At the center there was an idea that the cultural life improves the quality of life of citizens and people would not want to leave Perm. Museum "PERMM" was a driver of Revolution and showed the audience samples of the world and Russian contemporary art. Thanks to the Revolution, inhabitants of the provincial city began to think about culture and themselves in the global context, people from different places began to come to Perm. The first urban public art program in Russia curated by Nailya Allahverdieva appeared in Perm, and it became the hallmark of the Revolution. The task of the program was to integrate art into daily life. Thanks to public art many people got acquainted with contemporary art for the first time. However, there was a wide discussion around the program which reflected the inhabitants’ skepticism regarding innovation and drawbacks of Revolution. The main slogan of the Revolution "Skeptics will be put to shame" reflects the modernizing, "violent" character of policy, its powerful status and its absence of a social project. The high level of resistance was based on the lack of a regional agenda in events. This Revolution didn’t imply involvement of citizens in the design of urban processes. The initi-
ation of policy by the governor led to strong dependence on governmental resources and high politicization of cultural life.
2012 – 2014. Tension is growing up: crisis In 2012 the situation changed a lot. Oleg Chirkunov resigned as governor. The political power’s opinion about contemporary art had changed. The project of the cultural capital was abandoned. The Director of the Museum, Marat Gelman, was fired. In addition, in 2014 the Museum was forced to move to a new rented building due to the River Station’s accident state. The key work at the last exhibition in the River Station was "Tension is growing up" by artist Timofey Radya. This phrase reflected the common impression about the situation around the Museum – it looked like the situation of deep crisis.
2014 – 2019. Mom, I'm sorry. I will be an artist! Creating a museum with locals The Museum team led by Nailya Allahverdieva decided to reload their strategy and find new sources of support: the city and citizens. The Museum has constructed new strategy that took into account the flaws of the Revolution. The elderly people’s projects "Common Yard" (2017, curator Svetlana Luchnikova) and teens projects "Conversation with the city" (2018, curator Anastasia Shipitsina) and other numerous educational programs present the new strategy of the Museum. Today the Museum uses the ironic slogan: "Mom, I'm sorry. I will be an artist!" It doesn’t mean that children, teens (and elderly people) strive to become professional artists. But it means that museum visitors apply the THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 141
> conversation with the city - process
means of contemporary art to realize their needs and creativity, to transform the urban environment and to influence the city.
Museum team is sure that the activity will be more successful if older people know about the means of contemporary art.
The technology for implementing both projects is the same: participants, with the help of professional curators and artists research the urban environment, invent and create their own public art projects. Why does the Museum team choose to work outside the Museum, in the city? It’s a point at the intersection of the interests of the Museum and the inhabitants of Perm. That's why public art led to the hottest discussions.
As a result of "Common yard" a number of unique elderly people’s public-art projects appeared in Perm. There was an unexpected result of the art-project "House of Memories" - the solution of domestic problems. One of the participants had lived in a large yard with several houses before. But almost all the houses were demolished, only one remained. The management company fenced the back yard from the residents and broke the boiler with hot water heating. The project participant wanted to solve this problem. The idea came up to tell this touching story in the form of memories about this common yard which would never be the same. The participants of the project wrote residents' memories on the walls of the house. The object was shown on several Russian TV shows. Therefore the management company was forced to repair the heating.
Why are elderly people interested in doing street art projects? They demonstrate a proactive position in life, with many useful skills and the Soviet background of street care that now is considered to be irrelevant. What is more, they are very often taken away from social life after retirement. And gardening in the yards near their homes becomes their only way to apply their vital forces and creativity. It’s very useful for the city, which has ‘depressive’ zones and a boring industrial visual background. But unfortunately, their creativity doesn't always look good. And the 142 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
"Conversation with the city" was an art residence which was organized with the artist Timofey Radya. Over eight days of work we
> "Adult" society and teenagers. In recent years, adolescents are increasingly becoming heroes of the news in different contexts: as famous bloggers, civic activists, volunteers and mass crime organizers. News suggest that the modern age order is changing, teens "conquer" their subjectivity step by step. Adults should take a closer look at adolescents, the project creates a channel for a dialogue. > Teenagers and adults. Often they say that "adults do not hear them." Creating art objects is an opportunity to discuss important things on a large scale in a public space with the support of professional artists. > The city and the citizens and vice versa. The “Conversations with the city” is a heartto-heart conversation. Teens tried to return their feelings and sensations to the streets (occupied by advertising) using art.
As a result of "Conversations..…" teens have created five art objects. One of them - "Water between us" (a huge text near the Kama River) - talks about emptiness existing between people. Teen objects do not only cause a great resonance, but transform the city by the forces of its inhabitants. The format of teens residences became very popular in the Perm region. Today we hold more than 10 residences with museums and schools. During 2019 we made a residence with police and young criminals. In conclusion, the described projects present a new museum policy and a new approach in working with citizens. Today the Museum’s projects raise not only global problems but discuss local city agenda too. We still make high-quality projects with the best professional artists but we also offer citizens a chance to become artists too. We involve audiences in a process of creating museum content, meanings and space, sees the art as not only professional activity but as a useful mean to change everyone’s life for something better.
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> common yard- elderly people
created five large-scale art objects. Why is it a conversation and who is talking?
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Three Gorges Museum (Chongqing Museum) Chongqing, China Chinese Museums Association Most Innovative Museums in China Award 2018
Cheng Wuyan Director ≥ www.3gmuseum.cn ≥ 532426263@qq.com ≥ Chongqing Museum 236 Renmin Rd, Da Xi Gou Yuzhong Qu, Chongqing Shi 400015 China
Taking Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum as an Example
≥ the youth using the interactive screen in the museum
Traditional museums focus on collection, research, exhibition and interpretation. With the development of society, especially the progress and innovation of science and technology, audiences have put many new requirements on museums. Therefore, museums must achieve new developments in promoting the most effective cultural communication, sustainable protection and utilization of collections, and sound development of the museum industry, so as to respond to social concerns. "Museum+" represents a wing for museums to soar and become better. It is not only a new development mode of museums, but also a new development concept. It is also a reform of museum cultural services.
Museum+Internet>Smart Museum Our "Three Gorges Digital Museum Project" was completed in July 2018. The project includes the construction of 42 subprojects in 5 major sectors, including standard and normative systems, infrastructure facilities, application systems, exhibition and display in the physical museum, and digital resources. The latest cloud computing, big data, AR/VR and other technologies are utilized to build a cloud computing based digital museum platform. The first is to improve the audience's visiting experience. The VR experience of Baiheliang Underwater Museum, the MR experience of old map and old Chongqing, the digital sand table of Three Gorges Dam, interactive magic wall, AR intelligent navigation, etc. present new experience to our audience. The second is to have a better understanding of the audience's demands. The construction of a big data mining analysis system can effectively assess audience's demands through the analysis of the composi-
tion structure of visitors to the museum, the flow and long-staying information of visitors, so as to match the museum service supply with visitors' demands and make them satisfied. The third is to improve the effectiveness of museum communication. Through the Internet and other mass media, exhibitions and important activities will be promoted to create "phenomena", publicize events and step up museum marketing. The fourth is to improve service management level. Efforts are made to establish an information system and a big data platform covering all business sections of the museum to realize data inter-connectivity.
Museum+Modern Science>Modern Museum • The Underwater Museum of White Crane Ridge. The project started in 2003, lasted THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 145
> people visiting the exhibition of Grand Banquet
7 years, and was completed in 2009. It was built on the original site using the principle of "no pressure vessel". High-tech deep water lighting, underwater protection-body diving, water purification and circulation systems and a high-strength and high-definition aviation glass observation window were all applied to the protection of cultural relics for the first time. The research and practice of the underwater protection project on the original site of Baiheliang (the white crane ridge) inscription won the first prize of the "2009 Cultural Relics Protection Science and Technology Innovation Award" from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. UNESCO called it "the world's first underwater site museum that is not-diving accessible" in 2010 and won the FIDIC 2015 International Engineering Project Award. • Preventive protection of cultural relics. First, a monitoring and evaluation system for the preservation environment of cultural relics has been set up. Pilot renovation has 146 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
been carried out on the micro-environment of some exhibition cabinets, experimental exhibition halls and standardized warehouses, and a preventive protection system for precious cultural relics in the museum has been established. The second is to focus on the study of new technologies and methods for the prevention and control of harmful organisms in organic cultural relics. A specimen bank of harmful organisms of cultural relics (strain bank, diseases and pest bank) has been preliminarily established, various protective and fumigant agents with environment-protective and cultural-relics friendly features have been developed, and the inhibiting effects of 60 natural plant sources on mycete have been studied. There are 19 authorized patents and some of them have been put into production and use.
Museum+Cooperation>Community for Joint Development of Regional Museums • Win-win cooperation among museums of the same type in the municipality. The development model of taking our museum as the general one and other museums as branch ones has driven some museums in Chongqing to develop together. Such cooperative relations have been established with districts, counties and universities to promote joint development of regional museums.
lence Award of Top Ten National Museum Exhibitions", the highest-level award in the exhibition industry in China. The exhibition is itinerant and moving among various alliance members.
• The development practice of cross-regional museum alliance. As the initiator, our museum unites 6 museums in Southwest China and 50 other museums to form the Southwest Museum Alliance with 56 members. Members carry out joint exhibitions, training and other activities. In 2018, "Feast-Witness to the Great Southwest in Records of the Historian" jointly organized by various members of the alliance received the"ExcelTHE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 147
A New Museological Paradigm in Abrantes
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Museu Metalúrgica Duarte Ferreira (Tramagal) Abrantes, Portugal Associaçio Portuguesa de Museologia Museum of the Year 2018
Lígia Marques museologist, Abrantes Municipality
Luís Filipe Correia Dias City councillor, Abrantes municipality ≥ www.cm-abrantes.pt ≥ museumdf@cm-abrantes.pt ≥ Museu Metalúrgica Duarte Ferreira R. Comendador R. Eduardo Duarte Ferreira nº. 116 2205-697 Tramagal Portugal
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Where previously there was industrial activity and now only memories and archaeological heritage, the use of testimonies is reinvented. The reinvention of traditions was a consequence of changes in the balance between the rural and the industrial during the industrial revolution, and today this balance is shifting again in this era of post-industrialization. The Duarte Ferreira Metallurgical (MDF) and Tramagal are examples of this. The once great industry that brought innovation and development to the region and the country has left us a legacy that deserves to be preserved and whose heritage is likely to be reinvented. It is from this premise and with this goal the Duarte Ferreira Metallurgical Museum emerges. This is a project long dreamed of by the people of Tramagal, especially those who, in a more or less direct way, had their lives connected to MDF. In compliance with this desire and aware of the importance of preserving this legacy, in 2011 the municipality of Abrantes in partnership with the parish council of Tramagal and the Diorama group (holder of the building of MDF’s former main office and where the museum is installed), signed a protocol with the aim of creating a museum. The Duarte Ferreira Metallurgical Museum was inaugurated on May 1st, 2017, and is a project that involved the community through the donation of booty, the sharing of stories, the identification of pieces, and in other various forms. The whole museological process took a few years, a lot of research, inventory and study of the collection, the history of the factory and its people.
All this makes it a territorial museum, with national pretensions and based on a form of new museology that aims to preserve the memory and heritage – material and immaterial – that was bequeathed by Duarte Ferreira Metallurgical. It is a museum at the service of the community; of the people, with the people and for the people. It intends to be an instrument of local development with the ambition to fill the emptiness of identity left by the extinction of this company in order to, through the didactics of heritage, stimulate the feeling of belonging. This is certainly not a museum where one hopes to see many pieces crammed and unframed, in the eagerness to show everything. Instead, it is a museum of memory, of stories, of sensory stimuli. In it the visitor is invited to travel in time and to feel every moment of this journey through the visual scenery or the constant sound of a foundry still alive and “working out" iron, through testimonies in the first person or images that are supported by a physical collection and framed in a simple, concrete and effective discourse well illustrating the importance of the legacy. It is a museum that tells the inspiring story of its founder, a humble blacksmith who became a Commander of the Civil Order of Agriculture and Industrial Merit, and who even in his old age, was said to always walk fast because “his road was too long”. Through this museum we are aware of his struggles and achievements with the technological innovation he has brought to agriculture and its development.
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In the MDF museum we tell the stories of opportunities and conquests, such as the acquisition of the Enamel Crockery Factory in Oporto or the Auto Division that built the product that left the largest hallmark in our national history – the mythical military truck Berliet-Tramagal. It tells the story of its centennial brand, one we recognize and discover throughout the country and even beyond our country’s borders - the Butterfly. Through it we learn the story of more than 2600 workers and their families who had access to the country's first welfare system, health, education, culture, sport and housing, and who were free to celebrate the 1st of May since 1901, even during the dictatorial regime. However, we are also aware of the difficulties that their people faced with the end of the Colonial War, the 25th of April Revolution and the intervention of the factory, the wages 150 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
in arrears and the sadness and uncertainty which characterized the situation of the metalworkers of Tramagal. It is, however, a museum that ends with the hope of what has remained, of the companies that still work and that in some way have descended from MDF: companies that are currently leaders in their areas and that continue to remember the name of Tramagal, Abrantes and Portugal. The MDF Museum is therefore envisioned as a metamorphosis of the butterfly, which is neither complete nor concluded. We stand at the assumed first phase of a project of greater ambition and potential that will be built at a pace defined by a strong notion of responsibility and sustainability.
Throughout the process of construction and execution of the MDF Museum there was special care and attention paid to details, respecting as much as possible the principles of quality also inherited in essence from the Duarte Ferreira Metallurgical legacy. Because the Museum has been installed in the building of the former headquarters of the company, there was a particular care to maintain as much as possible the traits of its physical and unsurpassed memory. For this, for example, in the context of museography the same metal used in the metallurgical process was used as raw material. Thinking about the functionality and practicality of maintenance and exhibition rotation, the showcases are automatic, allowing easy access to its interior, with all the security. The same principle of care and rigor was established both in the construction of the mu-
seographic narrative, as in the preservation and restoration of the pieces in the exhibition and in reserve. Conservation and restoration interventions were confined to the ethical concept of minimal intervention, limiting them to those indispensable for maintaining the integrity, durability and stability of the original materials. In the immediate future, the museum intends to affirm itself through its educational services and its programming - it aims to be attractive, creating useful experiences and being of reference - and to establish partnerships of mutual added value between companies and local organizations, with the community and with academic entities in search of knowledge, cultural enrichment, the preservation of heritage and a contribution to local development
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We Connect People. We Connect Stories.
Emigration Museum in Gdynia Gdynia, Poland Živa Award 2018 Best Slavic Museum
Sebastian Tyrakowski Deputy Director ≥ www.polska1.pl www.archiwumemigranta.pl www.zbiory.muzeumemigracji.pl ≥ biuro@muzeumemigracji.pl ≥ Emigration Museum in Gdynia Polska 1 81- 339 Gdynia Poland
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The history of humanity is the story of migration. People have been forever changing location in search of better places and conditions to live. It is a natural process. It happens every day. Let us not forget, that a world frozen in its course exists only as a figment of our imagination. The phenomenon of migration allows us to capture the dynamic nature of human history. We migrate according to our will or against it. The history, both past and present, shows migration as a complex social process, which brings together political, economic and cultural threads. It is a natural human reaction to changes and a way to cope with i.e. hunger, unemployment, overpopulation or war. If not forced, it is intended to increase the quality of life in a number of aspects. Behind every story of migration is a human being. Various circumstances, courage, strong emotions, success, failure, happiness, tragedy; these are all real factors of migration. Irrespective of the reasons, the face of an emigrant concerned about their own fate and that of their nearest and dearest often shows trepidation over future. These incredible stories and experiences have been the driving force for Emigration Museum since its very beginning. The Emigration Museum is seated in the city of Gdynia. The history of this young and modern city has been inextricably linked to the migration phenomenon. When Poland regained its independence in 1918 thousands of Poles, from nearly every part of the reborn Poland, came to build the city, which was granted city rights in 1926. 90% of the then inhabitants of Gdynia were immigrants. The port of Gdynia quickly became a gateway to the world for many Poles. The Marine Station, beautiful modernist edifice, was the focal point of the modern emigration infra-
structure which enveloped the whole city. From the still existing buildings of the Emigration Camp, through the Quarantine Hospital, to marine and land transport routes – all these elements marked out the standards for similar investments across Europe. From 1933 this was the last image of their homeland which thousands of Poles took with them on their long journey. The home of Emigration Museum is by no means coincidental, as the now historic Marine Station, which processed emigration traffic for many years, was one of the most modern facilities of its kind in the world. The building of Marine Station remembers famous Polish ocean liners moored and departed, including the Piłsudski, the Chrobry and most importantly the Batory, all of them Polish ambassadors on several continents. It was this location that marked the beginning of many incredible stories or turning points in the biographies of figures familiar to all Poles. We find among them Zbigniew Brzeziński who departed for Canada in 1938 and Witold Gombrowicz for Argentina in 1939. The Emigration Museum was opened to the public in May 2015. The postal address of the museum is Poland 1 St., and it is very symbolic. It is the first and only museum in Poland which has the enormous privilege to tell and explore the complex history of emigration from Polish lands across the centuries. Over 20 million people of Polish descent from every continent belong to the same community of shared language, tradition and values. Oversees, we are emigrants. At the same time, we are also immigrants in foreign communities. The museum designs and delivers its offer in a global context, taking into account history and current affairs in the migration sphere. It is a platform for both historic and contemporary dialogue and projects. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 153
All the museum’s projects directly correspond to undertaken diagnoses in order to determine the needs and expectations of the audience. We design the offer together, which results in a very important, long term relation with our visitors. This is reflected in everyday activities of the museum, with a particular emphasis on social projects. The museum’s offer is broad and includes permanent and temporary exhibitions, which present the history of emigration and various aspects of Polish diaspora around the world. Innovative and award winning education programme for children, youth, adults and people with disabilities is specifically designed to fit the needs of our visitors. Large scale cultural projects, including audio-visual events, outdoor artistic installations, music, literature and theatre performances, as well as video screenings complement the offer on a daily basis. The museum also delivers research 154 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
and academic activities, such as annual scientific conferences, in house publications and an interdisciplinary scientific journal. It also undertakes quantitative and qualitative research projects in order to deliver and analyse new data and trends on migration. As mentioned before, migration equals human faces and individual stories to explore. Therefore, the museum runs an ongoing oral history archive, where it collects incredible stories of emigrants, both in a written and audio-visual form. The archive is available at www.archiwumemigranta.pl The museum also digitizes its collections and makes them available to researchers and online visitors at www.zbiory.muzeumemigracji.pl. An innovative software is being used for this purpose. It is available to download for other institutions, free of charge, at the museum's website www.polska1.pl
derlines between what is domestic and what is foreign. Past as well as current affairs in the field of migration always share human aspects; thoughts, decisions, experiences, various cultures… life. The Emigration Museum is there to provide the platform to explore it. You are invited to experience an intellectual journey into a shared past and memories, in the museum, where we connect people, and we connect their stories. > all photos by Bogna Kociumbas
The ŽIVA 2018 Award for the Best Slavic Museum is the Emigration Museum’s 15th consecutive award within only 4 years of operation. The museum has been recognized globally for its strong first impression, high quality varied programme offer and what is most important – its staff. The museum has been created and is run by a young, very enthusiastic and passionate team. The permanent exhibition delivers a narration in a comprehensive and accessible way. 200 years of emigration from Poland shape the public’s understanding, consciousness and sensitivity through multifaceted account of countless human faces, stories and unprecedented experiences. The discussion on emigration brings together the basic dilemmas of our modern times - questions about individual, collective identity, as well as multiculturalism and the bor-
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Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago: SPACE (School Partnership for Art and Civic Engagement) chicago, united states American Alliance of Museums EdCom Award for Innovation in Museum Education 2018
Marissa Reyes Director, Learning and Public Programs ≥ www.mcachicago.org ≥ mreyes@mcachicago.org ≥ Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago 220 E. Chicago Ave. Chicago, IL 60611 United States
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This Is What Democracy Looks Like: Youth Civic Engagement Through Contemporary Art
28.
In 2016, we piloted a new initiative called SPACE or School Partnership for Art and Civic Engagement. The program was the outcome of 18 months of research into how the MCA can best impact student learning using contemporary art and the resources of the museum. We wanted to deepen our ability to impact under-resourced schools while addressing an important - and at the time new development in Illinois schools: the subject of civics as a state mandated high school graduation requirement. The legislation calls for a stand-alone civics class — not just a section of a history or government course — and it would involve discussions of current events and controversial issues, community service, and simulations of the democratic process. This overhaul of civics education in Illinois was a particularly exciting opportunity for the MCA to contribute a promising approach to high school level civics education, aimed at helping youth become thoughtful, informed, involved, and responsible citizens. SPACE is a multiyear creative partnership with Chicago public high schools that uses contemporary art to address local civic issues and mobilize youth and community action. With the arts as catalyst and communication tool, students engage with their peers using contemporary artistic strategies to explore and respond to local community issues. The MCA leverages one of its great-
est resources – the living artist – to activate artistic and civic learning. SPACE embeds artists and their studio practice inside the school for a full school year. Unused or under-utilized spaces are transformed into creative hubs for artistic and civic exchange. Artists whose practice address social issues engage the school, co-develop and co-teach art and civic curriculum, while maintaining their individual studio practice inside the school. SPACE is designed as a sustainable partnership that follows a three-year cycle per school. Year 1 focuses on the active embedding of the resident artist and curriculum planning. Years 2 and 3 involves full implementation of an interdisciplinary course-credited curriculum, with the artist as co-instructor in the art and civics classrooms. During full implementation, both the art and civics students research and identify relevant community issues. They analyze different ways people affect change in their community. Using multiple artistic strategies, they develop their own action plans to create change in their community. By way of example, during school year 201718 SPACE established studios to integrate local artists Samantha Hill and Damon Locks in Curie Metropolitan High School and Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, respectively. There, they partnered with teachers and students to develop curricula on contemporary art and civic engagement. Students’ projects responded to the question: How can we make our voices heard and amplify the voices of our community through contemporary art? For one project, titled Curie Postcard Project, students designed and mass-produced thousands of postcards in response to civic issues that they care deeply about—including immigration policy, domestic abuse, gun violence, and gender equality. Some 114 freshman AP Government students collaborated with Hill and Curie teachTHE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 › 157
≥ Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, photo by Peter McCullough, © MCA Chicago
At the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), we are dedicated to supporting young people who are engaged in the social and civic lives of their communities. We encourage them to dream big and get inspired—by artworks on view, by artists they meet, and by their peers. Our youth programs are based on the belief that young people are visionaries who can inspire radical change and on the premise that our various platforms will empower them to tackle the pressing issues of today.
> SPACE artist’s studio exterior at Curie Metro High School. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago
ers Daniel Jimenez and Douglas Mann to engage several hundred peers, teachers, and Chicagoans by hosting postcard-writing parties at local business and community centers. They mailed 1,200 postcards to political leaders after a performative parade to the post office, a mile-long procession that drew media attention from TV and radio outlets. The 250 parade participants, including Curie’s marching band, cheerleaders, students, and adult allies, marched peacefully, carrying handmade banners and decorations to celebrate freedom of expression and raising their voices for a more just future. When asked by a TV news anchor about the impact of the parade, student Victor Gurrola shared, “I feel our goal of just getting people to notice us and hear what we’re saying has been accomplished.” Another student echoed his sentiments: “I think that the parade ... showed that teenagers using art can take action for specific issues. It doesn’t matter 158 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
who you are, taking action is the first step on fixing social and civic issues.” For the project SPACE Sounds at Goode, 100 junior and senior civics and art students worked with Locks and teachers Andrew Breen and Maria Scandariato to create sound pieces that document student, school, and community perspectives on issues such as gun violence, homelessness, and gender inequality. “Where does it start?” by senior Illari Green explores the root causes of racism and its history in America through interviews with family members and friends and clips from Martin Luther King Jr. speeches, all overlaid with contemporary music samples. The project’s thirty-five pieces were then edited into a radio broadcast. SPACE students embody the power of young people to transform their communities. It’s thrilling to witness what today’s youth can achieve when given space to dream and act.
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≥ Curie Metro High School students host a parade to the post office to mail 1,200 student-designed postcards on civic topics of their choosing. Photo: Braxton Black, © MCA Chicago.
presenters
Presenters
.... In order of appearance in the programme
Rob Cawston, Head, Digital Media, National Museums Scotland
ob Cawston is the Head of Digital Media at National Museums Scotland R where he leads digital strategy, content creation and product development. He has over 15 years’ experience of creating digital products and leading digital transformation projects in the cultural sector. His previous work includes heading up digital teams at a range of heritage and arts organisations in the UK, including BAFTA and the Royal Institution.
Gábor Szabó, Head, Productuion, VARyou Digital
Cofounder, co-partner and head of production at VARyou Digital. The Hungary-based company offers disruptive digital and audiovisual solutions that allow a brand new wave of perception. GuideNow is their award-winning extended multimedia guide system developed for exhibitions. VARyou has also created other state-of-the-art solutions such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) apps that are used by users in many different areas. Filipe Marques, CEO, M&A Digital
The passion for communication and technology led Filipe Marques to found his company in 1998. His background in Public Relations and Design fueled his desire to surround himself with a team that creates striking projects. Always contributing with news ideas and challenges, Filipe Marques has been the driving force behind the growth of M&A Digital.
Sarah Ozolins, Head, International and Domestic Engagements, National Museum of Australia
With almost twenty-year experience in the cultural sector Sarah manages a rapidly growing business unit which takes the National Museum of Australia programs and activities to the nation and abroad. Responsible for driving the strategic direction for national and international outreach program and overseeing the international and the domestic touring exhibition program, the Museum’s Memoranda of Understanding with cultural institutions nationally and internationally, and the development of the Museum’s cultural diplomacy activities taking a key role in the articulation of the Museum’s strategic position in respect to soft power and working closely with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
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Veronika is the main producer of the Embroidery Craft project. Since 2004, she has been interested in sewing, embroidery, weaving, and folk costumes production using traditional hand-made techniques. She makes new costumes and also recreates old ones, based on surviving documents and fragments. A leader of the ‘Šibalice’ women’s choir and the ‘Slivečky’ children’s ensemble, she with her husband have raised their three daughters to love folk costumes, folklore, and their family dulcimer band. Martin Ritz, Deputy Head, Competence Center, Cultural Heritage Digitization, Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research
Martin has been deputy head of Competence Center Cultural Heritage Digitization at Fraunhofer IGD since 2012 after being a research fellow in the department of Interactive Engineering Technologies. Next to technical coordination, his research targets the acquisition of 3D geometry and optical material behavior, describing light interaction of objects for arbitrary combinations of light and observer directions. He received his Master of Science degree in Informatics 2009 from the Technische Universität Darmstadt, as well as his Master of Science degree Computer Science 2008 from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Lisa Leigh, Head, Marketing, Royal Museums Greenwich
Lisa is Head of Marketing at Royal Museums Greenwich where she leads an integrated team to drive reach, revenue, reputation and audience engagement for the organisation. She has over 15 years’ experience of marketing within the cultural sector, working across audience insight, segmentation, brand, campaigns, CRM and digital engagement. She has previously worked for a range of organisations including as culture marketing lead for the GLA and Mayor of London and as Head of Marketing for English National Opera.
Laurie Swindull, Web Project Manager, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
Laurie has been a visual problem solver for more than thirty years. She is currently the project manager of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian’s award-winning web team. In 1996, she founded Swim Design, which for sixteen years created online and interactive products for museums, schools, and cultural institutions. Formally trained as a graphic designer, she earned degrees from the Schule für Gestaltung in Basel, Switzerland and American University in Washington, DC.
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presenters
Veronika Provodovská, Conservator and Keeper, Ethnographic Collection, Museum of J. A. Comenius
presenters
Ivor Crotty, Deputy Director, Creative and Innovations, RT
Ivor became head of Social Media for the RT network in 2012, developing growth strategy and leading group relations with the social platforms. He set-up the RT Digital social-media journalism and UGC verification team in 2015. Ivor was part of the creative team that developed the historical social media project #1917LIVE - proud winners of Shortys for Education and Social Good, a Webby and Adweek Arc awards. He is Creative & Innovations Department Director with responsibility for brand storytelling and outreach on #1917LIVE, #Romanovs100 & #FansEyeView, a World Cup storytelling platform. He enjoys digital anthropology and building bridges.
Adam Corsini, Archaeological Archive Manager, Museum of London
Adam has a background in classical and commercial archaeology and moved into collections management. In 2008 he co-created the Volunteer Inclusion Programme; a multi award winning scheme that centres on training an inclusive mix of people in collections care practices, to improve the accessibility of archaeological material. His expertise lies in public engagement, with programmes such as ‘Unearthing Outer London’, (exploring the possibilities of public participation by fusing collections work with public engagement), and #ArchiveLottery, resulting in sector-leading models of best practice for both museum volunteering and visitor involvement.
Shan Shan Tan, Head, Information Center, Shanghai History Museum
Ms. TAN Shan Shan is the Head of the Information Center, Shanghai History Museum/Shanghai Revolution Museum. She used to work as a Chinese language teacher at a high school. Engaged in the museum industry for 11 years, Ms. Tan mainly works on the museum's public relations, education, and the museum’s digital information work.
Pamela D.C. Junior, Director, Two Mississippi Museums
Formerly the manager of Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, Pamela has more than 17 years of experience as a museum professional. Pamela recognizes the importance of telling the absolute truth when interpreting the history of those who fought and died for change in the South. Pamela is a native of Jackson, Mississippi and a graduate of Jackson State University. In her spare time, Pamela enjoys writing, reading, and working with organizations of service.
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Jolein van Kregten, Curator of Education of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, serves a public numbering millions, on site (in the museum) and online (worldwide). She is always on the look-out for new ways to tell stories about art and inspire her audience. Often the combination of the ‘analog’ and digital media provides the best way to explain what we know about Vincent van Gogh and his art. Alexander Lavrov, CEO, Next.space
Alexander and his team created more than 40 interactive projects for museums worldwide. They received 17 international awards in this area and continue to bring innovations to the museum industry. He is also the President at virtual reality association Moscow chapter and member of many computer graphic associations like ACM Siggraph and Eurographics. At ICOM he is independent consulter and helps museums around the world implement modern multimedia technologies. Jasminko Halilović, Founder and Director, War Childhood Museum
Jasminko is the founder and director of the War Childhood Museum. He is also the founder of URBAN Association – one of the leading cultural NGOs in the Balkans region. He is the author / editor of several award-winning books translated into six languages. He has spoken and lectured at leading conferences and universities in more than 15 countries. In 2018, Halilovićbecame the first Bosnian to be selected for the prestigious Forbes "30 under 30" list. He has been a serial entrepreneur since the age of 16 and co-founded several companies.
Herman Kossmann, Teus Eenkhoorn & Martine Barnhard
Herman Kossmann set up an interdisciplinary design office with Mark de Jong: Kossmann.dejong in 1998. It became an international operating design studio specialising in exhibition design and interior architecture, spanning from temporary and permanent exhibitions for museums to visitor centres, historic sites, World Expos, brand experiences and interiors. Previously the general director of the Reinwardt Academy for 8 years, Business director of the Royal Tropical Institute for 9 years and alongside this Advisor for the Counsel of Culture in the Netherlands Teus Eenkhoorn has been the director of Holland Open Air Museum since 2018. Martine Barnhard graduated as an interior designer at the Utrecht School of Arts (1998), then worked for 6 years as Interior Architect at Buro Ex Interiors, and from 2004 worked at the Holland Open Air Museum, first as project leader and deputy head at the Presentation department, and from 2018 as the head of exhibitions..
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presenters
Jolein van Kregten, Curator of Education, Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam)
presenters
Catherine Charlebois, Curator, Exhibitions and Collections, Centre d’histoire de Montréal
Catherine Charlebois has been the Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at the Centre d’histoire de Montréal since 2009. She coordinated several award-winning oral history-based exhibitions such as Lost Neighbourhoods, Scandal! Vice, Crime and Morality in Montréal, 19401960 and Explosion 67. Youth and Their World. These various projects have led her to specialise in the curation of personal accounts in museums.
Valériane Rozé, Associate Researcher, EPICO Programme
After History of Art degree, scientific studies in an engineering school specializing in biotechnology, and two years Master’s degree in Preventive Conservation at the Sorbonne University, Valériane’s first mission was for the Fashion Museum of Paris dedicated to the risk assessment and the rescue of collection in case of fire. The Preventive conservation team of the Palace of Versailles has grown with her collaboration since January 2018 as a researcher for the EPICO Program. The aim of the EPICO method was to devise an assessment method specially designed for collections on display and the specific risks related to historic houses.
Barend Verheijen & Jeroen Luttikhuis, Studio Louter, OPERA Amsterdam
Barend Verheijen is partner at Studio Louter and he is responsible for concept development, storylines and all content production at the Amsterdam based studio. For Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, and all other projects at Studio Louter, he used the 'Emotion Design' method. Jeroen Luttikhuis is partner at OPERA Amsterdam and he designs for a broad range of clients. He's used to working for major exhibition designs and large-scale museum interiors. Together with Studio Louter he and his team worked on the total refurbishment of the 'Rijksmuseum Boerhaave'.
Monisha Ahmed, Executive Director, Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (LAMO)
Monisha Ahmed is co-founder and Executive Director of the Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (LAMO). Her work focuses on art practices and material culture in Ladakh. Her doctoral degree from Oxford University developed into the book Living fabric – Weaving among the Nomads of Ladakh Himalaya (Orchid Press, 2002). She has co-edited Ladakh – Culture at the Crossroads (Marg 2005), collaborated on Pashmina – The Kashmir Shawl and Beyond (Marg 2009). She has also curated exhibitions including ‘Mapping Old Town, Leh’ (2013) and ‘thread by thread’ on textiles from the Siachen Glacier (2015).
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Tracy Smith Irwin is Chief Exhibitions & Enrichment Officer for the Detroit Historical Society. She served as the Project Manager for the Detroit67: Perspectives exhibitions. She worked with the curatorial, collections, and education teams as well as contract staff and exhibition vendors in the development, design and implementation of this dynamic exhibition. Marlowe Stoudamire has 20 years’ experience in business, philanthropy and community. As project director / spokesperson for Detroit67, he was responsible for strategy (funding, marketing, engagement) and external relations with business, community, government and philanthropic stakeholders throughout all aspects of the project.
Tomislav Barhanović, Curator, Sinjska alka Museum
From 2014 Tomislav Barhanović was the Head of the Sikirica Gallery, within the Cultural Centre Sinj. During his work in the gallery, he submitted the "Wedding customs of Sinj and Cetinski kraj" project to the Museums and Galleries Programme of the Ministry of Culture of Croatia, which the Ministry recognized and later financed. From 2017 he works at the Sinjska alka Museum with museum visitors as a guide through the exhibition and provides information about museum collections. He is concerned with the maintenance and preservation of museum collections and cataloguing of museum materials.
Luo Xiangjun, Director, Hebei Museumi
uo Xiangjun is director of Hebei Museum and a researcher in the field L of cultural exhibition. She planned over 20 exhibition projects, and developed many social education platforms such as "Cultural Expo Forum" and "Boxiu Theatre". Mrs Luo has worked on creating innovative derivative products for museums and developing intelligent management and service operation systems.
Arwen Fitch, Press and Communications Manager, Tate St Ives
Arwen has worked for 20+ years in the arts; in institutions such as the National Gallery, the Hayward Gallery, Arts Council England and Royal Festival Hall. Since 2004 Arwen has been at Tate St Ives, involved in an ambitious building project that launched in 2017 and led to the gallery winning Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018. Since winning, she has been asked to speak to organisations on negotiating the sometimes challenging, but always rewarding community relationship. She believes that arts projects succeed if a foundation of trust and communication is built with their community.
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presenters
Tracy Smith Irwin & Marlowe Stoudamire, Detroit Historical Society
presenters
Jens Beutmann, Senior Curator, SMAC
Jens Beutmann studied Prehistoric and Medieval Archaeology and History in Hamburg, Dublin (UCD) and Freiburg. For several years he directed excavations and conducted research on medieval towns in Saxony, writing his PhD thesis on Zwickau. From 2008 onwards he was involved in the conceptual design process for the SMAC and now is head of the Exhibitions and Visitor Service Division of the museum.
Anna Stadinchuk, Deputy Director for Development, Gulag History State Museum
Anna graduated from the Lomonosov Moscow State University’s Faculty of Journalism. Since 2012 she has been working in the Gulag History State Museum. Currently she is the Deputy Director for Development. She supervises the work of the Education Department, the Social and Volunteer Centre and the PR Department, and manages special projects and programs addressed to the public. Kazuyoshi Yamada, Professor, Curatorial Division, Museum of Natural and Environmental History, Shizuoka
Kazuyoshi Yamada is the Professor of the Museum of Natural and Environmental History, Shizuoka (Fujimu). His career started at the Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, in 2002. He was working at the Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University from 2012 to 2014. His research interests are paleo-environmental variability reconstruction using lacustrine annual laminated (varved) sediments in mid- and low latitude areas. He has published more than 80 papers about paleoclimatology and paleolimnology, as well as environmental history.
Pilvi Kalhama Executive Director, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art
The art historian Pilvi Kalhama is an invited professional member of many art juries, committees and boards in Finland and internationally. She was a founding partner and Artistic Director of Helsinki Contemporary, one of the leading private galleries in Finland. Previously she has worked as Senior Research Lecturer at The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and as Head of Department at the Humanities Polytechnic. Currently Kalhama is preparing her doctoral thesis in the field of radical museology and visual studies titled Artists challenging the museum. Changes in the 21st century museum identity.
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Parzinger,
President,
Prussian
Cultural
Heritage
Foundation
Hermann Parzinger is an archaeologist. After his PhD he became Assistant Professor at Munich University. Between 1990 and 2008 he was first Director and later President of the German Archaeological Institute with research projects in Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey, Iran and Central Asia. Since 2008 he has been President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and head of the largest cultural institution in Germany with its outstanding museums, libraries, archives and research institutes. He is Professor for Prehistory at Free University, member of multiple national and international Academies and Societies, holds several merits from different countries, and since 2018 he has been the Executive President of Europa Nostra. Alar Karis, Director, Estonian National Museum
During his career Alar has worked at several universities in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In 1999 Alar Karis became a professor at the University of Tartu. As the Rector of the Estonian University of Life Sciences (2003-2007) and Rector of the University of Tartu (2007-2012), he carried out several reforms in order to internationalize higher education in Estonia and broaden the horizons of both teaching and learning. Since 2018, Alar Karis has been the Director of the Estonian National Museum.
Ira Vihreälehto, Project manager, Culture Leap: Cultural Education Plans
Ira Vihreälehto (MA, history) works as a senior advisor at the Association of Cultural Heritage Education in Finland. She also worked as a Project manager for Culture Leap: Cultural Education Plans. She has 20 years of experience in the field of education as a teacher of history and social sciences, school principal and teacher trainer. She has published textbooks and digital learning materials for schools and written two non-fiction history books. She is a member of “Identify and promote best practices of Finnish intangible cultural heritage 2018-20”, a group set up by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.
Hung-hsi Chao, Program Associate, World Monuments Fund
Hunghsi joined the WMF in 2013. Since then, he has participated in numerous conservation field projects and educational programs in China, Japan, India, Turkey, Bhutan, and East Asia. Previously, Hunghsi worked as a senior planner in the Cultural Affairs Department of Taipei, Taiwan, where he helped establish Taiwan’s first National Trust and was responsible for cultural heritage designation, research, and advocacy. After receiving both his M.S. and Ph.D. in building and planning from National Taiwan University, he earned his M.S. in Historic Preservation from Pratt Institute in New York.
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presenters
Hermann
presenters
Kate Šikić Čubrić, Director, Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding
Kate graduated in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Zadar, Croatia. She has been working on the Betina Museum project from its very infancy in 2014. Her special interests are in museum concept development and her research focuses on storytelling and collected artefacts. She is an acting member on the executive board of the Association of Mediterranean Maritime Museums. With the aim to promote maritime cultural heritage, she cooperates with many organisations and participates in various festivals and cultural events.
Ellen McAdam, Director, Birmingham Museums Trust
Ellen has been Director of the Trust since 2013. Before this she was Head of Glasgow Museums, and held previous roles at the Museum of London, English Heritage and Oxford Archaeology. Previously she worked for 10 years in Near Eastern archaeology, including two years as Research Fellow of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq. She is now a Research Associate at the University of Birmingham and an Honorary Senior Research Associate at UCL. Her professional interests include prehistoric Near Eastern figurines, the use of collections for teaching and research and the role of museums in social inclusion and community engagement.
Paola Marini, Chairwoman, Association of the International Private Committees for the Safeguarding of Venice
Paola Marini started her career at the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio. First a conservator and then the Director of the Civico Museo-Biblioteca-Archivio of Bassano del Grappa. Later she became the Conservator of Medieval and Modern Art collections of the Civici Musei e Gallerie d’Arte in Verona and then the Director of the Musei d’Arte e Monumenti del Comune of Verona. She was then appointed Director of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice until October 2018 and assumed her current role in April 2019. She has been a lecturer of History of Theatre Architecture in Bologna and of Museography and Museology in Udine. Ricardo Piquet, Director, Museum of Tomorrow
Ricardo Piquet is a visionary cultural entrepreneur who consistently pushes the boundaries of what museums can be. Throughout his career, he has worked with public, private, and non-governmental organisations to develop and grow the cultural sector in Brazil. Ricardo founded the Institute for Development and Management (IDG) in 2013 to support the creation and development of new cultural projects around the values of joy, collaboration, creativity, and respect. He is the founding director of The Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro. 168 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
Slavica Vujović, Ph.D. conservation architect, adviser and chief of the Architectural Sector at the Provincial Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments – Petrovaradin. Of special interest is the work on local development projects based upon cultural heritage valorisation. Since 2006, she has been an initiator and a manager of the Development Project of Integrated Protection of the Heritage, “Centuries of Bač”.
Lucie Kuijpers, Development Manager, Maritiem Museum Rotterdam
During her study in museology at Reinwardt Academy she already knew: you can connect people with culture when you touch hearts and just find the way to really hear what they are saying. Working as PR officer and educator at the Noordbrabants Museum, and later as exhibition developer at The Maritime Museum, she told stories in several different ways. Now, as development manager, she focuses on listening to potential partners and finding out how, by combining strengths and needs, you can reach higher potential.
Svetlana Luchnikova, Department of Museum Education, PERMM
Svetlana Graduated from Perm State National Research University in 2014 and started working in the museum of contemporary art PERMM, curating work with the elderly and the disabled. She is the winner of Perm Krai Ministry of Culture’s ‘Modernizing Museum Work’ competition (2016 and 2017), and in 2018 was the winner of “Creating possibilities” Fund “KAF” competition, the Sergey Kuryokhin Award winner in the category of “Art in public space”, the ICOM Russia Prize for the best local community projec, and the “Museum landing” competition held by the Vladimir Potanin Charity Foundation.
Cheng Wuyan, Director, Chongqing Museum
Professor of relics and museology with a master degree, he is currently party secretary and also the vice chairman of the Chinese Museums Association. He served in several administrative departments of higher education institutions, presided over the building and compilation of the The Master Plan of Chongqing Anti-Japanese War Site Protection and Utilization, The 12th Five-Year Development Plan of Chongqing Cultural Relics and Museum Undertaking, The Special Plan on Three Gorges Reservoir Area Natural and Historical Cultural Heritage Protection, etc., promoted Chongqing city's third immovable cultural heritage survey work and Dazu Rock Carved Avalokitesvara, and has worked with Tongnan’s Great Buddha and other major cultural relics protection projects.
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presenters
Slavica Vujović, Chief, Architectural Sector, Provincial Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments, Petrovaradin
presenters
Lígia Marques & Luís Filipe Correia Dias, Abrantes Municipallity
The museologist of the Abrantes Municipallity Lígia Marques graduated in Tourism and Heritage from the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria and has a Masters degree in Cultural Tourism Product Development from the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar. Her Masters dissertation was a proposal to musealize the Metalúrgica Duarte Ferreira legacy. Luís Filipe Correia Dias graduated in History and specialized in Documentary Sciences (libraries and archives). Luis is formerly a teacher and a librarian and from 2013 the City councillor of Abrantes municipality with areas of responsibility in Culture, Sports, Heritage and Museums, Tourism, Associativism, Youth and Communication.
Sebastian Tyrakowski, Deputy Director, Emigration Museum in Gdynia
Sebastian is a senior manager with over 15 years of experience in culture and the public sector. He worked on the development and delivery of many high-profile projects, i.e. Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008. He has extensive knowledge of local and regional government structures. He worked for the local authority sector coordinator for Merseyside (UK), where he was involved in drafting and implementing strategic policies and programmes. He was Chief Consultant in the City of Gdansk European Capital of Culture 2016 bid office. Since 2012, he has been working at the Emigration Museum. Marissa Reyes, Director, Learning and Public Programs, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Marissa Reyes is the Director of Learning and Public Programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where she is responsible for the strategic and creative leadership of the museum’s full range of programs, including school partnerships, lectures, tours, family days, late night events, teen programs, and community engagement. Over the past twelve years at the MCA, Reyes has spearheaded important initiatives, such as the award-winning SPACE (School Partnership for Art and Civic Engagement) and Teen Creative Agency (TCA) programs that continue to garner accolades for innovation.
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In order of appearance in the programme
Tim Powell, Head of R&D Studio, Historic Royal Palaces
im works at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity which T looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Banqueting House, Kew Palace and Hillsborough Castle. His focus is on how digital technology can be used by heritage sites to augment the on-site offer or create new types of visitor experiences – often working in collaboration with artists. His challenge is to do this without detracting from what makes palaces unique – the promise of travelling back in time and escaping the modern world. In 2018 his presentation won the Best in Heritage IMAGINES "Project of Infuence" award for "The Lost Palace"
Errol van de Werdt, General Director, TextielMuseum Tilburg
Errol is lecturing and publishing internationally about the Textiel museum Tilburg concept. He is educated in museology (Leiden) art history and archeology (Amsterdam) and Peoples management (Zwolle). In 2014 Errol was member of the international jury of the Bologna Children’s Book fair. In 2017 he was international juror of the ADD Awards for Design and Architecture in Russia St Petersburg. In 2018 the TextielMuseum won the Best in Heritage "Project of Infuence" award.
Programme Moderators and Members of the Jury In order of appearance in the programme
David Haskiya, Team Manager, Digital Dissemination, Swedish National Heritage Board
David works at the Swedish National Heritage Board. There, he leads a digital team in support of the digital transformation of Swedish museums. The team develops best digital practices, hosts a cultural heritage incubator, and aggregates and distributes museum collections to Europeana and other platforms. Formerly, as the Director of Products and Services at Europeana, David coordinated and supported the teams that aggregate content from 3500+ GLAMs and made it available for use and re-use via our websites (Collections, Pro, Labs, Research) and APIs. You can find him on Twitter as @DavidHaskiya.
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keynote speakers
Keynote Speakers and Members of the Jury
moderators
Taja Vovk van Gaal, Creative Director, House of European History
In her career Taja has worked as a curator for contemporary history, a museum director, but also as a manager in the cultural field. She has written numerous articles, has been curator of many exhibitions, and author/manager of tens of cultural projects. She was involved as a judge of the European Museum Forum (EMF) where she was also a board member. From 2011 till 2017 she held the position of Academic Project Leader, who was responsible for the content and the management of the House of European History, a new history museum in Brussels, which was and still is the biggest challenge in her career. Darko Babić, Chair, Croatian National Committee of ICOM
PhD in Museology/Heritage studies. Chair of Museology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Chair of Croatian NC of ICOM and IC for the Training of Personnel (ICTOP) and Supervisory Committee of the Interpret Europe. Member of editorial boards of Her & Mus journal (Ediciones Trea, Spain), Museologica Brunensia (Masaryk University, Brno) and Museum - Monument - Heritage (Sankt - Petersburg State University, Russia). Has significant experience in implementation of the EU-funded heritage projects, occasional author and regular adviser of museum and heritage projects.
Madeline Ritter, Managing Partner, Diehl+Ritter
Madeline is a lawyer, arts manager and internationally renowned dance curator. Since 2004 she has been initiating and directing large scale and state funded strategic projects for dance in Germany with a long term impact (Tanzplan Deutschland, Tanzfonds, Dance On, Tanzpakt). For Dance Fund Heritage - an innovative program fostering a diverse and lively cultural memory of dance - she received the prestigious EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2016. She is a certified coach and facilitator of processes of change and teaches cultural management at various universities. Amongst other roles, she is Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Pina Bausch Foundation. Suay Aksoy, President, ICOM
Previously Suay served as Chair of ICOM Advisory Council and Chair of CAMOC. She taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Museum Management and Cultural Heritage. She headed museum projects at the History Foundation of Turkey where she later served as Board member and Vice-President. As Director of Cultural Heritage and Museums at the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency she developed and led major projects on rehabilitation of museums in Turkey. Suay has a BA in Economics, an MA in Political Science and a Post Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies.
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In paraphrasing the famous formula that changed the world, we wish to emphasize that public quality is decisive for the excellence in heritage sector. The “m” may stand also for monuments and (public) memory in general. Proposed in 2005 as our contribution to Einstein’s year, it still attracts attention, so we continue using it as reminder how communication of heritage matters.
E=m•c2 E = excellence m = memory c = communication
Einstein at his office, University of Berlin, 1920. unknown photographer
european heritage association ©
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the excellence club
Excellence Club and Our Partnership With EXPONATEC
To be invited for the presentation in Dubrovnik the featured projects must have received an award for the outstanding quality of their achievements in the previous year. To be proclaimed a “Project of Influence” for the current year by the jury they are supposed to be inspiring and convincing in their quality of professional performance. Namely, every year two projects, one from IMAGINES and the other from the core-programme, earn this recognition from the jury (moderators, last year winners, auditorium) This accumulation of best practices from all over the world, as archived annually, deserved to be named the Excellence Club. The collection is now some 400 projects strong.
It is turning into an indispensable search engine for best practices for all those who wish to explore the changing ideas of what constitutes excellence in museums, heritage and conservation. Every other year we present the Club and show four Projects of Influence (the award winners of two conference editions) at the EXPONATEC, Koelnmesse, Cologne, Germany. This is probably the most important international fair for museums, conservation and heritage in the world. We appreciate Exponatec as an opportunity of communication and sharing. The suppliers can be well informed about our profession, but they still learn from us and are also inspired by our ambitions. On the other hand, good equipment and technical solutions are important for our professional success. At our spacious stand we present our “Projects of Influence” and the conference itself. Our partners and supporters regularly join us at the occasion. < searchable online archive of the former presentations, including videos, is freely accessible at: www.presentations.thebestinheritage.com ≥ ever since the "Project of Influence" Award was launched in 2015 many laureates have been featured at our programme in Cologne, including Westfries Museum, William Morris Gallery, Museum aan de Stroom, DOM Under, Micropia, Limburg 1914-1918, Nuragic Sculptures of Monte Prama...
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the excellence club THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 â&#x20AC;º 175
EXPONATEC cologne
EXPONATEC COLOGNE 20.-22. November 2019
Thinking into the Future, Preserving the Past: Information and Knowledge Transfer for Creative Artists and Preservation Experts EXPONATEC COLOGNE - International trade fair for museums, preservation and cultural heritage will take place from 20 to 22 November 2019 in Cologne. Relevant companies from all disciplines will present new products, solutions and concepts.
The European Heritage Association/ Best in Heritage will once again present exceptional concepts from museums around the world, as well as the latest developments of international preservation and restoration projects.
The offering of EXPONATEC COLOGNE covers all current questions revolving around presentation, restoration and documentation. Questions of museum and information management, safety, transport and logistics, as well as multimedia or augmented reality concepts are once again important themes of the trade fair. The exhibiting companies show concepts for the optimisation of existing systems, processes or solutions for current and future questions. In the process, the companies demonstrate their competence with the most varied applications and their flexibility as partners of cultural institutions, collections, monuments, donors and research.
"Woe betide the heirs. Passing on responsibility, creating identity" â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this is the title of a conference being organised by Europa Nostra. Other partners of the conference are the association for homeland and environment in Germany (BHU), the European castles institute (EBI), the Rhine association for monument preservation and landscape conservation and Koelnmesse. The central question is how monuments can endow a sense of identity. The examples range from medieval castles through garden monuments of postwar modernity to the architecture of the GDR.
Event programme In terms of content, the exhibition programme is once again flanked by a top quality event and congress programme. For example, the 1. Deutscher Museumskongress is taking place on 20 November, parallel with the trade fair.
In addition the German museum association (DMB), the association of restorers (VDR), the Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO) and the Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences (CICS) of the Technical University of Cologne will also participate. With its successful combination of trade fair and event programme, EXPONATEC COLOGNE provides ideal conditions for networking and knowledge transfer.
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at exponatec cologne 2019
the PROGRAMME
20 November 2019 hall 3.2 booth a-90
Moderator: Ms Goranka Horjan
10.00 Gathering of the partners, presenters, organizers and the members of the press 10.30 - 10.50 Introductory speeches By representatives of Koelnmesse GmbH, City of Cologne, ICOM Germany and Deutscher Museumsbund 10.50 - 11.00 Professor Tomislav Šola: On 18 years of The Best in Heritage and Excellence Club 11.00 - 11.10 International Council of Museums presentation 11.10 - 11.20 Europa Nostra / EU Award schemes presentation 11.20 - 11.40 TextielMuseum, Tilburg, The Netherlands Voted as the "Project of Influence" at The Best in Heritage 2018 11.40 - 11.45 Moderated Q&A session with Mr Errol van de Werdt, Director, TextielMuseum 11.45 - 12.05 Historic Royal Palaces "The Lost Palace", London, United Kingdom Voted as the "Project of Influence" at The Best in Heritage IMAGINES 2018 12.05 - 12.10 Moderated Q&A session with Mr Tim Powell, Creative Producer, Historic Royal Palaces 12.10 - 12.30 Presentation of the "Project of Influence" winner from The Best in Heritage 2019 12.30 - 12.35 Moderated Q&A session with representative of the laureate 12.35 - 12.55 Presentation of the "Project of Influence" winner from The Best in Heritage IMAGINES 2019 12.55 - 13.00 Moderated Q&A session with representative of the laureate 13.00 - 14.00 Welcome drink JOIN US on 21st AND 22nd NOVEMBER AS WELL! THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2018› 177
EXPONATEC cologne
the best in heritage excellence club
ICOM Kyoto 2019: A Global Hub for the International Museum Community
icom.museum @icomofficiel
However, ICOM Kyoto 2019 aimed at being much more than just a big conference. This year, under the theme of Museums as Cultural Hubs: The Future of Tradition, ICOM decided to tackle some of the most pressing challenges museums, and the world, are facing today: climate change, local development, disaster management and preparedness, cultural diversity, decolonisation, restitution, and many more.
With thought-provoking keynote speeches, stimulating sessions, study visits, and some 130 parallel conferences organised by ICOMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Committees, participants had the opportunity to exchange on best practices and innovative ideas. The International Museum Fair and Expo Forum, where state-of-the-art technology for museums was showcased for participants, hosted more than 200 exhibitors from around the world, and received more than 1,200 visitors.
ICOM
Between September 1 and 7, the international museum community gathered in Kyoto, Japan, for the 25th General Conference of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). With a record participation of 4,500 museum and heritage professionals from all around the globe, this triennial event has consolidated itself as the biggest conference in the museum field in the world.
During the 34th General Assembly held on the last day, ICOM further solidified its commitment with sustainability, the protection of heritage and the integration of Asia in the ICOM community through five resolutions that will guide the actions of the organisation in the next years. Behind the walls of the Kyoto International Conference Centre, where the Protocol of Kyoto was adopted in 1997, the millenary city of Kyoto and its surroundings warmly welcomed participants. The ancient capital of Japan organised parallel events and exhibition in its museums, temples and World Heritage sites for the occasion, involving the locals in the celebration of culture that ICOM Kyoto 2019 was. On the last day, a symbolic ceremony for our organisation marked the end of this General Conference: the traditional passing of the ICOM flag from the organising committee of ICOM Kyoto 2019 to that of the next host city, Prague, which in three years will host the 26th ICOM General Conference.
See you in ICOM Prague 2022!
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a word from our partner
EUROPA NOSTRA
The Voice of Cultural Heritage in Europe Founded in 1963, Europa Nostra has grown to be the largest and the most representative network of heritage organisations in Europe. Our network, comprised of over 330 member and associate organisations, is supported by public bodies, private companies and over 1,000 individual members. Europa Nostra celebrates, safeguards and lobbies for cultural heritage as a strategic resource to shape a more creative, inclusive and climate-friendly Europe. Following the large mobilisation generated by the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, Europa Nostra continues to advocate for a stronger recognition of the potential of cultural heritage to be a driver of economic, social, cultural and democratic advancement worldwide. Lobby: Europa Nostra applauds the inclusion of cultural heritage as a priority area within the EU Strategic Agenda for 2019-2024, adopted by the European Council in June 2019. It also welcomes the new European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage adopted by the European Commission in December 2018. This ambitious document roadmaps over 60 actions that will be rolled out over 2019 and 2020, ensuring the lasting legacy of the European Year of Cultural Heritage. This Framework for Action calls for the mobilisation of stakeholders from civil society, 180 › THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
high-quality initiatives and increased interdisciplinary cooperation. The Framework explicitly refers to the European Heritage Alliance 3.3, of which Europa Nostra is coordinator, and to the Berlin Call to Action: ‘Cultural Heritage for the Future of Europe’ as a key example of mobilisation. The Berlin Call was launched by Europa Nostra and its partners, the German Cultural Heritage Committee and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in June 2018 at the European Cultural Heritage Summit in Berlin. Celebrate: Last May, the winners of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards 2019 were announced. The 27 winners from 18 countries have been celebrating with their Local Award Ceremonies since June and the celebrations will continue at the European Heritage Awards Ceremony during the annual European Cultural Heritage Summit. The Summit will take place from 27-31 October in Paris, under the High-Patronage of Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic. It will be organised in partnership with Europa Nostra’s member organisation, the Fondation du Patrimoine together with the Mission Bern and the Fondation des Bernardins. The Summit could not take place in a more symbolic city this year, following the tragic fire which engulfed the Notre-Dame cathe-
a word from our partner
In 2020 and 2021, two new ILUCIDARE Special Prizes will be awarded. ILUCIDARE is a project funded by the Horizon 2020 programme to establish an international network promoting heritage as a resource for innovation and international cooperation. The ILUCIDARE Prizes will celebrate cultural heritage-led innovation and diplomacy by identifying, promoting and facilitating the upscaling of best practices. Safeguard: Heritage experts from across Europe will meet to select the 7 Most Endangered sites in Europe in November. This campaigning programme, in partnership with the European Investment Bank Institute, draws attention to threatened heritage in Europe. The new list will be published in March 2020.
Find out more and Join us as a member: www.europanostra.org
CREATIVE EUROPE Creative Europe is the EU programme to support the cultural and creative sectors. With a budget of 1.46 billion Euro for 20142020, it supports organisations in the fields of heritage, performing arts, fine arts, interdisciplinary arts, publishing, film, TV, music and video games as well as tens of thousands of artists, cultural and audiovisual professionals. The European Cultural Heritage Summit, the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards, the Best in Heritage Conference and Europa Nostra’s network project “Sharing Heritage - Sharing Values” have all received the support of Creative Europe.. find out more ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative-europe
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≥ 2019 winners of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards, © Europa Nostra
dral on 15 April. In recognition of their courageous actions that night, a special European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award will be presented to the Paris Fire Brigade during the Awards Ceremony, to be held on 29 October at the Chatelet Theatre.
EUROPEAN HERITAGE ASSOCIATION Based in Zagreb and established in 2001, European Heritage Association is now a tiny non-governmental, non-profit organisation, dedicated to promoting professional excellence in heritage sector by publishing books & articles autuhored by the Association's founder and director, Professor Tomislav S. Ĺ ola. Professor Ĺ ola posts one-slide lectures on the blog / web-site www.mnemosophy.com ...on which his printed books and articles are made available freely.
books published by the One-slide lectures page at www.mnemosophy.com
association
make your own contribution on The Global Love Museum site: www.globallovemuseum.net
glm website
glm exhibitions
exponatec cologne
The Global Love Museum is an experiment that the Association persists to propose as travelling exhibitions or outposts and an attractive web-sitte: www.globallovemuseum.net The Association supportis students and events and by other ways of sharing professional experience (www.academia.edu, lectures, consultancies etc.) In 2002 European Heritage Association founded The Best in Heritage conference, nowadays only presenting its laureates at Exponatec, Cologne. THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019 â&#x20AC;ş 183
conference exhibition
As a part of the programme in Dubrovnik, the conference exhibition is organised and displayed in the Cultural History Museum throughout September. It features posters of projects that are being presented at the conference this year. The venue is the Rector's Palace, a highly visited location, with approximately 22.000 international visitors expected during September of 2019. Thus we share the conference contents with the motivated visitors to Dubrovnik. The informational texts are bilingual: in this case English and Croatian. All posters have QR codes leading to the web-page with articles and images of featured laureates. Those pages are equipped with website, contact and social media hyperlinks. The same exhibition, in an appropriate combination of English and any other language, is offered at a production price to all interested institutions and organizations that join the Dubrovnik conference. 184 â&#x20AC;ş THE BEST IN HERITAGE 2019
Museums and Galleries of Konavle is a public institution dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the natural and cultural heritage of the Konavle region. Positioned on the historical border of the East and the West, and spiritually considered a part of the Republic of Dubrovnik, Konavle possesses rich and diverse heritage. In partnership with the local community and various scientific and educational societies we produce programs and engage enthusiasts on local issues. Throughout our museums and sites we try to develop understandings of local history and how its diverse elements are involved in the contemporary life of Konavle people.
www.migk.hr/en
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King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture - Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
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Museum of Cultural History - Oslo, Norway
These specific references show our ability to create very different bespoke showcases. Working closely with the project team, we develop solutions that achieve the functionality and the aspired presentation of an object or a story. Each time, we carefully design a solution that makes your artefacts stand out. The project in Saudi Arabia with its tesselated glass and corian set works shows how we make your unique concept reality. The award winning House of European History demonstrates our ability to provide complete fit out. The Museum of Cultural History in Oslo presents amazing Viking treasures in a minimalist light filled gallery. We are passionate about what we do. Working with us, you get the best solution to present, preserve and protect your collections, and this from a company with nearly 200 years of manufacturing history. To explore the possibilities for your project and to understand what you can achieve, please do get in touch.
WWW.MEYVAERTMUSEUM.COM â&#x20AC;˘ MUSEUM@MEYVAERT.BE â&#x20AC;˘ +32 9 274 01 77
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The Best in Heritage Annual, global conference featuring award-winning museum, heritage and conservation projects
partners
sponsors
local partner
local partnership
patrons and supporters imagines support
supported by:
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Advisory Board:
THE BEST IN HERITAGE © European Heritage Association
based in Zagreb is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation, member of Europa Nostra, dedicated to promoting every aspect of professional excellence in heritage professions and doing it “by power of example”. The Association is tiny and will grow only through its own programme and those who assist it. "The Best in Heritage -Excellence Club" (Exponatec), "Global Love Museum" and the website www.mnemosophy.com being our foremost activities.
Mr John Sell, United Kingdom, Chairman Ms Goranka Horjan, Croatia, Member Dr An Laishun, China, Member Dr Viv Golding, United Kingdom, Member, Dr David Fleming, United Kingdom, Member Mr Claude Faubert, Canada, Member Dr Willem De Vos, Belgium, Member Mr Janos Tari, Hungary, Member Mr Trevor White, Ireland, Member Ms Antonia Rusković Radonić, Croatia, Member Dr Roberto Nardi, Italy, Member Mr Alex Palin, Russia, Member Mr Hartmut Prasch, Honorary Member Mr Vladimir Ilych Tolstoy, Honorary Member Mr Stephen Harrison, Honorary member
Secretariat:
org.secretary@thebestinheritage.com European Heritage Association / The Best In Heritage Trg kralja Petra Krešimira IV, No.7 HR - 10000 Zagreb, Croatia M +385 91 525 04 77
Published by
Director:
Editor
Professor Tomislav Šola director@thebestinheritage.com
European Heritage Association / The Best In Heritage Zagreb, Croatia Editor-in-chief
Professor Tomislav S. Šola Luka Cipek Language editing
Jenny Walklate
Project manager:
Mr Luka Cipek pm@thebestinheritage.com
Front cover
www.thebestinheritage.com
Layout
@BestInHeritage /TheBestInHeritage /the_best_in_heritage /The-Best-In-Heritage
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Miho Skvrce / All rights reserved Kunazlatica, www.kunazlatica.com PREPRESS
ergofunk
ISSN 1849-5222 Zagreb, 2019.
issn 1849-5222
THis work Has BEEn puBlisHED wiTH THE financial supporT By THE inTErnaTional council of musEums