Methods@Manchester ’s Post

🆕 from our blogsite, The Loop 🔲 In many political and cultural debates, 🧠 memory is a buzzword with multiple uses. It can help build a shared identity, but can also legitimise right-wing populism. Andreea Tănasie explores the 🏛️ institutionalisation of memory through museums across Europe, revealing how curatorial choices hide broader dynamics of legitimacy and exclusion. 📖👉 Read the article here: https://bit.ly/3ZyyZHL #Memory #Museums

🎨 Exploring Provenance and Restitution with Lucian Simmons 🎨 I am having the privilege of attending Ars Auro Prior – Restitution of Lost and Stolen Art Works today, featuring a keynote by Lucian Simmons from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. His talk, “Provenance and Cultural Patrimony: A Museum Perspective,” was nothing short of eye-opening. This discussion reveals how the past informs today’s ethical decisions in the art world and beyond. A huge thanks to the University of Gdańsk for organising such a thought-provoking seminar! What are your thoughts on the role of museums in addressing historical injustices? #Restitution #Provenance #CulturalHeritage #MuseumEthics #TransitionalJustice

🦐 Curious to see how we can harness the real power of the sea? Make your way to ARTIS | Natura Artis Magistra Groote Museum and explore ways that we can cultivate land, sea, and the lab to provide for our ever growing population. Here's a little snippet of the sea video, told by Reinier (R.W.) Nauta, produced by BIND and animated by me at YIPP!

https://lnkd.in/ey9iJ7tK **Event**European symposium: Challenging narratives, fostering empowerment and collaborative practice Museum of Liverpool, Pier Head, Liverpool, L3 1DG Date and Time: Thursday 20 June 2024, 10am - 17.30pm RSVP by clicking on the link We are delighted to invite you to join us for a European symposium on 20 June 2024 in Liverpool, a port city that holds vital memory of emigration and transatlantic enslavement. The symposium is hosted by the Transatlantic Slavery and Legacies in Museums Forum in collaboration with the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience-Europe and National Museums Liverpool. The symposium offers Forum members the opportunity to engage in a geographically broader dialogue about challenging inherently discriminatory narratives and building empowering and equitable community partnerships. It continues the crucial work of heritage sites as agents of social transformation and active human rights advocates. In Europe, museums, heritage sites and cultural institutions are embracing this role by challenging a range of exclusive narratives related to the legacies of colonialism, patriarchy, enslavement and historical discriminations of all types and serving as spaces for dialogue and civic engagement.

🦉 Dead animals, but make it educational. This summer, I explored the big questions around taxidermy in museums in a series of posts—and now, they’re all in one place, just in case you missed it! In my blog, I unpack: 🧠 The ethical debates behind these displays. 📖 How taxidermy shapes the stories we tell in museums. ⚖️ The balance between preservation and exploitation. Curious? See the comments for the link! Taxidermy may seem like a relic of the past, but since I don’t know a single museum in the UK that doesn’t have SOME form of taxidermy on display, the questions it raises are more relevant than ever to modern museum practices. #Museums #Taxidermy #Heritage #MuseumEthics

⭐ New Report available on our website! “Challenging Narratives, Fostering Empowerment and Collaborative Practice.” How do we acknowledge the wrongs of the past and its legacies, and collectively identify ways to correct those wrongs, especially in profoundly polarized societies? How do we dismantle the entrenched systemic inequities and biases that have historically shaped museums, heritage sites, and cultural institutions worldwide? These are some of the questions discussed during the European Symposium hosted last June by The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience-Europe (ICSC-Europe), National Museums Liverpool (NML) and the Transatlantic Slavery and Legacies in Museums Forum (TSLMF). Our recently published report summarizes  the conversations held during the Symposium, and provides key insights for museums and heritage sites to challenge exclusionary narratives, foster inclusivity, and serve as spaces for dialogue and understanding. 🔎 Access the report in our Resource Center and learn more about the Symposium on our website! #SitesofConscience #Decolonization #Museums #Narratives

🔁Turning dialogue into action! Our member, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, has released a new report: "Challenging Narratives, Fostering Empowerment and Collaborative Practice" It is based on the conversations and collaborative spirit of their European Symposium. Discover how organizations can challenge narratives, foster empowerment and promote inclusivity ⬇️

Dear Siblings in The Struggle against The System, We now know that the next decade, 2025 to 2034, will be a decade of challenges—of a magnitude greater than any, perhaps, than the present generation has ever faced. Rising to these challenges will mean—at the very least—reimagining the stories our society has, up until this point, untruthfully told us about how we got free—if indeed we got free... This is why I have agreed to share conversation with the curator of the International Slavery Museum, about how museums, specifically, and in fact all members of our society, co-productively, might reimagine histories and reconstruct solidarities that, strategically, equip us for the challenges of the daunting decade ahead—a decade during which the very freedom our forebears fought for is very likely to be at stake. Please join us, therefore, as we ask “How can museums take an active role in preparing for the bicentenary of the Abolition of Slavery?” https://lnkd.in/dFKuKPMt

The CVAR Museum in #Cyprus is trying to unite the island of #Cyprus through art, history, and a shared cultural identity. 🇨🇾👫 Learn more in this edition of #OurStories:

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (or "#AfricaMuseum") in #Belgium reopened its doors in 2018 after closing its doors for a 5-year extensive "#decolonisation" process. Part of this initial incarnation involved an introductory exhibition called "Sidelined", in which a number of objects from its former displays now considered to be "problematic" were placed in a room for public scrutiny and reflection. Unfortunately, the exhibition did not have the intended transformative impact on its audience, and ultimately the entire concept was abandoned. The colonial-era sculptures were instead moved to a separate space, where they can only be visited with a guide. I originally made this presentation in 2022 when "Sidelined" was still on display. In it I critique the delivery of the original exhibition and offer suggestions for how the intended #decolonial impact might have been better conveyed on an audience unfamiliar to reflecting critically on colonial structures. I steadfastly do not believe that the way to decolonise the mind is to tell it explicitly what to think, and I do not believe that hiding these historically popular problematic objects away outside of a carefully monitored gaze is going to facilitate decolonial unlearning. Systemic #racism and racialised #injustice will only ever be confronted out in the open, and I truly believe that through these "problematic objects" the Royal Museum for Central Africa has in its possession the tools to be able to lay the colonial imagination bare and rid it of its power, in the hands of the African diaspora.