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Category: Museum Anthropology Blog

Call for Papers: The Power of Museums, 26th International Council of Museums (ICOM) General Conference

Prague Congress Centre, Prague/Czech Republic | 20 – 28 August 2022

Deadline: 31 March 2022

Purpose: Museums and Civil Society

In recent times, many voices have been raised regarding the role cultural institutions should play within their own local communities. The democratic battles fought worldwide in the name of human rights urge museums to take an active stance towards a fair advancement of civil society. Believing that the cultural sector can remain neutral in the face of exclusion and discrimination would endanger museums’ own relevance. This plenary session stimulates a wider debate on projects and ideas capable of enabling museums to take on a key role as agents of social change

Sustainability: Museums and Resilience

Climate change, natural disasters and a wide range of environmental concerns call for the implementation of more effective actions from global institutions. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically underlined the need to develop more sustainable funding models for museums and other cultural institutions. In this context, can museums, through their activities and programmes, actively participate in the creation of sustainable models for contemporary societies? A varied group of panellists will provide an opportunity to share experiences and innovative ways to move towards a sustainable future.

Vision: Museums and Leadership

Disruption is emerging as a key factor for contemporary museum leadership. Museum directors are faced with the difficult tasks of encouraging their colleagues to find new solutions to unprecedented issues, as they seek ways for their organisations to endure and survive. Expert panellists from renowned international institutions will debate on the challenges faced by museum leaders today, including the integration of physical and digital, the need for new business models, a greater engagement with the social role of museums and more.

Delivery: Museums and New Technologies

New technologies for museums are not only precious tools for creating digital exhibitions and improve audience engagement, but also effective resources to protect and store collections, reduce organisational costs and expand accessibility in cultural institutions. The application of digital instruments accelerated due to the recent forced closures of most museums worldwide: several museums have resorted to the use of digital tools to maintain contact and engage with their publics remotely. This plenary session addresses the potential of new technologies to meet the different needs of contemporary museums.

More here.

First Native American to lead National Endowment for the Humanities says the agency can strengthen democracy

Via The Washington Post: 

Almost 30 years later, Lowe, the new chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, still has similar experiences. In late 2019, just months before the coronavirus shut down much of society, Lowe — who was then executive director of the Harvard University Native American Program — was approached by a woman after giving remarks at an event at Harvard’s Peabody Museum.

“She said, ‘I didn’t know there were Native American people in this country,’ ” Lowe, a member of the Navajo Nation, recalled last week. “I get that comment all the time.”

More here.

Curators in Ukraine face deadly obstacles as they protect their country’s treasures

Via NPR

Curators of Ukrainian museums are facing a set of heartwrenching logistical issues all too familiar to the directors of cultural institutions in places like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan: How do you protect the treasures of your country in the midst of horrific bombardment by missile strikes? What decisions do you make to save art when your employees and your loved ones are unsafe?

“At our museum, we should now be preparing for the 11th annual Book Arsenal Festival to be held this May,” wrote the director general of Kyiv’s Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex on Friday in an anguished artnet.com editorial.But instead our team must focus our efforts to ensure the safety of our staff and our families, as well as guard our collection and our museum objects: paintings, graphics, and fine art. “

More here.

Native Americans Urge Scottish Museum to Return Artifacts From Wounded Knee Massacre

Via The Smithsonian Magazine

In 1890, an estimated 300 mostly unarmed Lakota men, women and children were killed by the U.S. Army at Wounded Knee in the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota. Soldiers trying to curb a growing spiritual movement called Ghost Dancedemanded that the Native Americans surrender their weapons, when a disturbance occurred and firing began. Following the massacre, clothing and other objects were removed from the dead.

Now, more than 130 years later, the Wounded Knee Survivors Association, a group of Lakota tribal members who are descendants of those involved or killed in the massacre, is asking a Scottish museum for the return of three items taken from the slain, reports Gabriella Angeleti of the Art Newspaper.

More here.

Fellowship Opportunities: The Asian Cultural Council

The Asian Cultural Council makes fellowships and grants to support cultural exchange in the arts for practicing artists, scholars, and arts professionals.

Priority is given to process-driven activities that enable cultural immersion, relationship-building, collaboration, or the exchange of knowledge among peers. Examples of process-driven activities include research, training, study, and exploration. ACC fellowships and grants are not intended for production-focused activities such as touring, performing, exhibiting, publishing, or making work.

In addition to funding, ACC offers logistical and programmatic support to its fellowship and grant recipients. The level of support varies by fellowship or grant type and by destination country. Support may include recommendations of sites to visit or activities to participate in; personal introductions to relevant contacts; J-1 visa sponsorship for individuals traveling to the U.S.; and access to the global ACC community of alumni and partners. ACC has supported over 6,000 exchanges since 1964. By combining funding with advice, feedback, and personal introductions, ACC’s program builds relationships that strengthen cross-cultural ties beyond the duration of the grant.

More here.

CMA Statement of Solidarity with Ukraine

The Council for Museum Anthropology stands in solidarity with Ukraine, and recognizes its sovereignty as a nation with a vibrant and distinct cultural heritage. We uphold the 1954 Hague Convention, and condemn attacks on a people’s cultural institutions and sites of heritage. We join our voices with the global community in demanding the Russian government cease hostilities against Ukraine. The Council for Museum Anthropology will act to provide reliable information to our members, colleagues, and friends in the heritage community, and we express our willingness to assist our peers in Ukrainian museums and galleries.
–Council for Museum Anthropology Board, March 2, 2022
Other Resources: 
Letter of Appeal from the Maidan Museum, Ukraine, to the Global Community
ICOM’s statement
CIDOC’s statement.

Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico statement.

Museums Association statement.
1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, UNESCO

U.S. Museums See Rise in Unions Even as Labor Movement Slumps

Via The New York Times, February 21, 2022

The carpenters and the security guards at the Philadelphia Museum of Art had long been members of a union when in 2020, workers from departments across the museum — curators, conservators, educators and librarians — voted to create one of the largest museum unions in the country with nearly 250 members.

Workers at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Guggenheim and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, soon formed their own unions, part of a wave of labor organizing efforts at nearly two dozen art institutions where employees have created new collective bargaining units in the last three years.

Many of the workers who have recently joined unions have come from the curatorial, administrative and education staffs — white-collar office workers who often had not previously been represented by collective bargaining units.

The surge in organizing has even spawned a podcast, “Art and Labor,” whose producers say they “advocate for fair labor practices for artists, assistants, fabricators, docents, interns, registrars, janitors, writers, editors, curators, guards, performers, and anyone doing work for art & cultural institutions.”

More here. 

2022 Mother Tongue Film Festival: I Ka Wā Ma Mua, I Ka Wā Ma Hope/Through the Past is the Future

This year, the seventh annual festival returns online, with on-demand film screenings and virtual events from February 17 to March 4, 2022. 

“Archival Legacies of the Yanomamö Series: Preservation, Digital Restoration, and Return” is happening live on Wednesday, February 23 at 11:30 am ET via Facebook, YouTube, and Eventive.


About the panel:  

This two-part roundtable considers the complicated legacies of the Yanomamö Film Series (1969–1976), a groundbreaking ethnographic media project that expanded the boundaries of documentary. Distributed by Documentary Educational Resources (DER) and archived in the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archive, the series emerged from a collaboration between anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon (1938–2019), filmmaker Tim Asch (1932–1994), and Yanomamö communities in southern Venezuela and northern Brazil. 

The collaboration resulted in 110,000 feet of film and 21 film—but this work was not without controversy as Chagnon’s mischaracterizations of theYanomamö as the “Fierce People” has had ongoing impacts on communities, and scholars have called into question his ethics. 

The first roundtable is focused on the technical and aesthetic issues underlying the processes of preservation and digital restoration. The second panel explores the value of these films for the Yanomamö and anthropologists interested in more equitable collaborations. Acknowledging the painful legacies of anthropology, these roundtables will provoke discussions about the value of historical works and the potential for redress and corrected narratives. 

 Part 1: Preservation & Digital Restoration – Panelists 

    • Joshua Bell (Introduction—Recovering Voices, NMNH) 
    • Alice Apley (Moderating—Documentary Educational Resources) 
    • Elías Mendoza Vivas (Documentary Educational Resources) 
    • Frank Aveni (Documentary Educational Resources) 
    • Nic Brynolfson (Documentary Educational Resources) 
    • Pam Wintle (Emeritus, National Anthropological Archives) 

Part 2: Return – Panelists 

    • Joshua Bell (Introduction, Recovering Voices, NMNH) 
    • Alice Apley (Moderating, Documentary Educational Resources) 
    • Javier Carrera Rubio (University of Mayland, College Park and Research Associate, NMNH) 
    • Hortensia Caballero (Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas) 
    • David Good (University of Guelph and The Good Project) 

Call for Papers: 2022 AAA Annual Meeting

The is now open for “Unsettling Landscapes,” the American Anthropology Association’s , November 9-13. This year’s meeting will be hybrid with options for both in-person and virtual attendance. It is our hope that this approach will broaden learning opportunities and also allow members to safely network and reconnect with colleagues from across the country.

“We invite research presentations in a variety of formats, including in-person and online – use our to select your presentation type. All new proposals must be started by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 and completed by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 06, 2022.”