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The Narodni muzej Slovenije/National Museum of Slovenia is currently hosting the travelling exhibition “Imagining the Balkans. Identities and Memory in the Long 19th Century”, investigating the formation and development of modern nations in this area during the “long 19th century” (as Hobsbawm described it). The event is part of UNESCO’s global initiative “Culture: A Bridge to Development”, that seeks to enhance cooperation and dialogue among national history museums.
The exhibition focuses on the constitution and evolution of modern nations in South-East Europe during the 19th century, and is structured around eight thematic paths: “Living in the old world”, “Travelling, communicating”, “A new social order: the rise of the middle classes”, “Creating and diffusing knowledge” “Mapping”, “Using history, making heroes”, “Public celebrations” and “Images of the Nation”. In the foreword to the exhibit’s catalogue Irina Bokova writes that “This exhibition traces the history of a vibrant cultural mosaic, revealing the [...]
January 2013 represented an arrival point for the Research Project Eunamus – European National Museums: Identity Politics the Uses of the Past and the European Citizen. During the project’s three years, it has produced nine open access reports and organized twelve conferences and workshops all over Europe. Journal articles and edited volumes will follow.
We report here a quick overview of Eunamus’ outcomes, findings and policy implications – and we invite you to download the documents from the Eunamus website.
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During the Summer, Anna Chiara Cimoli (Politecnico di Milano) visited some Italian migration museums and interviewed their directors.
The most ancient museum in the Italian peninsula is that of the Republic of San Marino, born in 1997. The Centro Studi Permanente sull’emigrazione – Museo dell’Emigrante wants to tell the story of the Sammarinese who left (to Italy, Europe or more frequently the USA) and their cultural and social link to the homeland. It is hosted in an ancient monastery, and despite an exhibition design which is getting a bit old, it is very effective in communicating its contents: the reasons for leaving, the complex multifaceted identities that are born out of migrations, the migratory chains, the importance of the remittances, the role of women, and so on. Director Patrizia Di Luca explained that the Museo dell’Emigrante is at the moment investing on the digitalization of the archival [...]
The European Commission website recently published the Policy Review reporting the main findings ensued from the conference on “European Identity/Identities”, organized by the EC in Brussels in February 2012. The publication, authored by Prof. Robert Miller from Queen’s University, draws on a set of EU-funded research projects under FP6 and FP7 that deal(t) with questions related to identity in Europe. The book can be accessed via the website of the conference.
MeLa RF03 Brainstorming workshop on European heritage, migrations and new media: networks and collaborations across museums, libraries and public cultural institutions was held on 23 April 2012 at the University of Glasgow. During this successful and interactive event, MeLa Consortium members and invited guests from the Research Field 03 expert group discussed topics of collaboration across museums, libraries and public cultural institutions, migration and European cultural and scientific heritage.
The workshop was kicked off by the local hosts Dr John Richards, Head of History of Art at the University of Glasgow and Perla Innocenti, Research Fellow and RF03 Leader, who provided an overview of MeLa and Rf03.
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On March 20, 21 and 23, 2012 the members of the MeLa* Project Research Group of the Royal College of Arts met in Andalusia, Spain with artists, curators and theorists participating in the course entitled Coloniality, Curating, and Contemporary Art. This course was directed by Clare Carolin and Olga Fernández López, and was held at the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (UNIA) at its La Rábida location.
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International Conference as part of the
MeLA* – European Museums in an Age of Migrations European Commission FP7-funded project
Organised by the International Centre for Cultural & Heritage Studies, Newcastle University 3-4 September 2012
Call for Papers
The imperatives surrounding the museum representation of place have shifted from the late eighteenth century to today. This is in part because the political significance of place itself has changed and continues to change at all scales, from local, civic, regional to national and supranational. At the same time, recognition of changes in population flows, migration patterns and demographic movement now underscore both cultural and political practice, be it in the accommodation of ‘diversity’ in cultural and social policy, scholarly explorations of hybridity or in state immigration controls. These issues, taken historically, have particular significance for contemporary understandings of the role [...]
Susannah Eckersley of UNEW attended the EUNAMUS conference ‘Great historical narratives in Europe’s National Museums’ in Paris in November 2011. The conference was grouped into four themed sessions: Constructing narratives in the museum; Traditions of national identity construction; Intersecting territories and narratives; Historical revisions and contested heritage. Each session included a number of very interesting and informative presentations by speakers from both universities and museums exploring topics from across the full breadth of Europe. Presentations were given in English, French and Spanish.
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The research team at UNEW (Chris Whitehead, Rhiannon Mason and Susannah Eckersley) have developed a conceptual framework for their ongoing case study explorations.
This framework has developed out of a wide-ranging literature review on museums, migration, mobilities and their theories and subthemes (including for example: identity; diversity; multiculturalism; gender; politics; memory; trauma; post-colonialism). It is also based on an extensive review of relevant museums throughout Europe (EU member states, associated states, countries with agreements and countries situated within geographic Europe). A database has been created by UNEW which includes museums not only specifically focussed on migration (both immigration and emigration) as a discrete topic, but also national, regional and local museums which cover themes related to migration and mobility. These include such diverse museum ‘types’ as: history museums; Heimat museums; ecomuseums; ethnology, ethnography and folk museums; open air museums; city museums; museums specifically relating to diasporic and/or indigenous communities (such [...]
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