Browsing by Subject "Museum studies"
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Item A provenance research study of archaeological curation(2016-08) Buchanan, Sarah Alix; Galloway, Patricia Kay; Bailey, Diane E; Rabinowitz, Adam T; Trace, Ciaran BArchaeological curation is the process of managing objects and their documentation after their discovery in an excavation. It is an activity that occurs in the context of particular regulatory frameworks for archaeological conservation and historic preservation. Yet field archaeologists assert the continued presence of a “curation crisis” and collecting institutions are responding to ongoing dialogues for transparency in information about museum collections of antiquities, as upheld by the 1970 UNESCO Convention against looting and the sale of unprovenanced artifacts. Curators face an overwhelming volume of materials that demand curatorial attention in the form of provenance research, a pursuit which uses records and research generated during archaeological excavation fieldwork to construct a narrative of the object’s history from creation to display. Such provenance information supports the curation and public presentation of archaeological collections in museums, settings that currently bound our empirical understanding of curation. This dissertation finds that curation occurs in multiple settings but that curation activities are not well-coordinated. It examines the curation contributions of archaeologists and conservators, among other participants, that culminate in museum exhibition of objects. Fieldwork for this study occurred at four research sites including archaeological excavations (classical as well as contract and archival), a conservation lab, a curatorial facility or repository, and a state museum. The core findings of the study articulate archaeological curation as a discontinuum of distributed work, and the formation of the discontinuum through problematic data handoffs which arise from gaps in data interoperability and use purposes between four professional communities of practice. Handoffs between excavation, conservation, collections care, and exhibition activities impact the research potential of artifact collections – especially significant for museum archaeology practice and the public storytelling role. This provenance research study of work practices builds on archaeological, archival, and museum scholarship to articulate where, at these handoffs, separate communities of practice might collaboratively address archaeological curation issues. In positioning archaeological curation as a set of recordkeeping actions, this dissertation identifies opportunities for future research on coordination of data practices between multiple participants.Item Historic preservation education initiatives at historic sites(2014-05) Hereford, Margaret F.; Holleran, MichaelWhile historic sites have been used and operated as educational tools in the form of museums and public spaces since the emergence of the field of preservation, educational outreach frequently fails to include preservation concepts within these efforts. This thesis attempts to answer the question of “Why is preservation education lacking or absent at historic sites, and how can it be an integral part of a historic site’s programming, presentation, and interpretation?” To investigate this question, scholarly research was combined with first hand experiences of sites and interviews with stewarding organization staff members. Through this investigation, emerged a contextualization of historic sites within the fields of preservation and museum studies, a relation of the current state of preservation education to the opportunities available by means of physical sites, and a connection of preservation concepts to museum education theory. Multiple means of educational implementation and execution were explored, as were target audiences and organizational management structure. The result is a collection of examples in practice, explanations of missed opportunities, and recommendation for effective implementation. Collectively, these results reinforce the importance of using physical sites available to the public for educational purposes not limited to historic significance, but including preservation in all facets, as a means of introducing the field along with its impact and importance to the general public as a means of generating an interest that will be redirected into their communities.Item Museums and Material Culture: Regionalism versus Nationalism in the Archaeological Museums of Greece(2013-05) Dickenson, Amy; Witmore, Christopher; Larmour, DavidScholars such as Margarita Díaz-Andreu and Yannis Hamilakis have thoroughly explored the way in which nationalism and national narratives have worked with and against archaeology throughout the last few centuries in Europe. The concept of nationalism is often spoke of in a nebulous way and said to have direct influences on the material culture and its record. In this paper I will argue that the correlation runs strongly in the opposite direction: that the material culture is being used in the museums to shape national narratives and promote nationalism. This is not the full story, however. With the introduction of New Museum Theory in the 1980’s and its spread to the Greece in the following decades, regional and local museums are implementing practices that interact with and even contradict these national narratives. In focusing on four archaeological museums which deal with the Bronze Age Argolid (the National Archaeological Museum, the Archaeological Museum of Nauplion, the Archaeological Museum of Argos, and the Archaeological Museum of Mycenae), I hope to show just how these regional museums are adopting New Museum Theory and providing a more nuance picture of the historical narrative in the face of nationalism.Item Pan-American dreams : art, politics, and museum-making at the OAS, 1948-1976(2012-12) Wellen, Michael Gordon; Giunta, Andrea; Barnitz, Jacqueline; Guridy, Frank; Reynolds, Ann; Smith, CheriseIn the 1950s and 1960s, the Organization of American States (OAS), a multinational political organization headquartered in Washington, DC, attempted to mediate U.S.-Latin American political and cultural relations. This dissertation traces how, in the United States, Latin American art emerged as a field of art historical study and exhibition via the activities of the OAS. I center my analysis on José Gómez Sicre and Rafael Squirru, two prominent curators who influenced the circulation of Latin American art during the Cold War. Part I focuses on Gómez Sicre, who served as head curator at the OAS from 1946 to 1981 and who founded the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in 1976. I offer an analysis of Gómez Sicre’s aesthetic tastes, contextualizing them in relation to his contemporaries Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Marta Traba, and Jorge Romero Brest. I also discuss his efforts to build a network of art centers across the Americas, indicating how his activities fed into a Cold War struggle around notions of the “intellectual.” Part II examines the activities of poet and art critic Rafael Squirru, who served as Director of Cultural Affairs of the OAS from 1963 to 1970 and who theorized Latin American art in terms of the “new man.” I reconstruct how the phrase “new man” became a point of ideological conflict in the 1960s in a battle between Squirru and his political rival, Ernesto Ché Guevara. Throughout this dissertation, I indicate how Gómez Sicre and Squirru framed modern art within different Pan-American dreams of future world prosperity, equality, and cooperation. By examining the socio-political implications behind those dreams, I reveal the structures and limits of power shaping their influence during the Cold War. My study concentrates on the period from the founding of the OAS in 1948 to the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in 1976, and I contend that the legacies of Pan-Americanism continue to affect the field of Latin American art today.