from The Guardian
Unesco's 'blue berets' to rescue cultural treasures
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The new UNESCO set-up of "cultural protectors" would be a welcomed enhancement of the work of the International Committee of the Blue Shield, which was set up in 1996 - also considered as the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross - and has as its mission : "to work for the protection of the world's cultural heritage by co-ordinating preparations to meet and respond to emergency situations."

from The Guardian
Museums losing to sport, says Tate head
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Artists rally to Tate's cause by donating major works
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go to Tate's press release

Donations gratefully received
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When faced with the daunting possibility of a prolonged funding deficit, one can draw inspiration from the example of the Tate Gallery in how not to wallow in self-pity. Instead, get cracking, get creative, and ride on a strong relationship with the artist community to rally together to help. This can only be good as the ever diminishing pool of museum funds can be used for other areas, such as exhibition, programming, and conservation.

from Archive Awareness Campaign, UK
“Britain’s most-wanted” reveals secret hiding place!
go to press-release (PDF format)

This year's Archive Awareness Campaign follows from a successful run in 2003. Extending from a 1-month programme to a full 3-month programme in 2004, this looks like a massive and well-coordinated programme aimed at making public and private archives in the UK accessible to the general public.

from KCRW
Politics of Culture
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The recent resignation of the director of the Getty Museum has caught the attention of the museum profession, especially in America. Observers ponder and speculate on the reasons behind the sudden announcement of departure (see links to related stories below). However, one common thread which cuts across these stories is the struggle over the vision of what a museum should be. Although, the context is specific to the Getty, it has very real implications for museums in general.

At the risk of being simplistic, it would appear that at the core of the dispute is a gap between the necessary vision of a museum which focuses on collections and scholarship as its primary function; and the equally compelling vision of a larger social organisation which encompasses other non-traditional functions of a museum, such as education, preservation, and in the unique case of the Getty, grant-making.

It is also a search for a basic and essential identity - "What is it that a museum must absolutely do?" - in the present climate of even rising pressures on resources. Although the Getty might be immune somewhat to such financial uncertainty (due to the sheer size of its endowment), it must nevertheless face the issue of prioroitisation of programmes, just as every other museum must. And when a museum pays lesser attention to its collection and museological functions, can it still be a "museum" even if its other programmes are producing tremendous social good?


Related news items:

"Will Barry Munitz find the courage to listen to his critics?"
KCRW, Art Talk (26 October)

"Director of Getty Museum Steps Down"
Los Angeles Times (19 October)

"Citing Conflicts, Getty Museum Director Quits"
New York Times (20 October)

"Getty's Director Is Latest to Leave"
NPR, All Things Considered (21 October)

from The New York Times
It's Just Daylight, but It Has Endless Shades
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Very often in the present-day context of museums, we tend to think of acceptable lighting as primarily artificial ones. However, there is a recent trend in museum design which looks back to the original way the interior of museums are illuminated - using daylight. It was also found that users react more favourbly to day-light in buildings, museums being no exception. And if it is the business of museums to reach as wide an audience as possible, could then the use of appropriate natural day-light in museum galleries be an important (human) consideration in "inducing" repeated visits, conservation concerns notwithstanding?

This to That
go to web-site

An interesting web-site which helps in the selection of the appropriate glue to use in sticking one type of material to another. Although the choice of adhesives are not entirely "preservation-friendly" in some instances, it still contains a wealth of information about commercially available glues out there. There is also a "Glue-of-the-Month" page (although not updated since August 2003) and news page on stories related to the adhesive in general, amongst other online resources available on the site.

from The Straits Times
Sentosa bid to buy ... sunken Tang treasures
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This latest story of how Singapore's foremost tourist resort island sees the uses of heritage is a sobering counter-point to the idealism of heritage preservation and presentation as we know it. Increasingly, the larger issue (and very real problem) of sustainability of heritage preservation outside a mass-market paradigm cannot be simply ignored. It also points to the utter bankruptcy of ideas for funding heritage efforts, if not for the mass-market option.

Also, if anyone else had noticed that the story involves a Chinese cargo bound for the Near East, shipwrecked off the coast of present-day Indonesia, salvaged and sold by a German company, to be purchased by Sentosa Development Corporation of Singapore, which has an American as its CEO. Perhaps, the global underpinning of such a story is inevitable (or is it deliberate?) given the core (tourism) business of the potential buyer of the sunken cargo.

from Conservation : The GCI Newsletter
Heritage Charters and Conventions
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The latest issue of Getty Conservation Institute's Newsletter, providing an overview and discussion of the various international charters that are in place to protect cultural heritage around the world. There is a particular article looking at the specific challenges in Asia.

from Singapore Heritage Mailing List
Fort Tanjong Katong Dig Call For Volunteers
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A call for volunteers for a new archaeological dig at Katong Park (see map), which is seeking evidence of Tanjong Katong Fort. Some early pictures (here and here) of the park found on the National Archives of Singapore PICAS database.

This dig follows on from the earlier dig at St. Andrew's Cathedral. A (PDF format) report of that earlier dig can be found on NUS Asian Research Institute web-site.

Please pass the word around!

from Discover
Bring Back the Buddha
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Following the wanton destruction of a unique heritage site by the Taliban, international efforts and proposals to restore the over-sized standing Buddhas of Bamiyan have not been in short supply. After such a drastic turn of events, would any restoration effort do justice to the violent past of the site? Or would an empty niche be the more "authentic" and evocative approach?

from The New York Times
An Unmoveable Feast of Hemingway History Struggles to Survive
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A stark reminder that petty political squabbles can often derail the best of international efforts in heritage preservation. What more that the perpetrator of such narrow-mindedness is supposedly the greatest freedom-fighting nation of all times.

from The Guardian
Britain's 'worst building' to be demolished on TV
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A cheeky adaptation of BBC's earlier successful series Restoration. The BBC series, which is in its second run this year, would feature various architectural conservation project plans over several weeks and allows television viewers to vote (aka Big Brother House) in the finale for that one "deserving" project to bring home the prize-money. In the process, viewers get to know more about the architectural heritage of Britain as a whole and be inspired to preserve it.

Turning the idea of preservation on its head, the rival television station Channel 4 aims to do its civic duty by targeting a building that is such an eye-sore that it will be demolished live on TV at the end of the series.

URA 2004 Architectural Heritage Awards
go to press release and speech
Straits Times articles here and here (PDF format)
Business Times article here (PDF format)
Streats articles here and here (PDF format)
ZaoBao article here (PDF format)

In conjunction with this year's Singapore Architectural Heritage Awards, featuring 5 winning projects, it was also announced that a slate of post-war buildings (built in the 1950s and 60s) will be earmarked for conservation. This marks a significant shift of what is considered an appropriate cut-off date for a building to be considered part of the nation's heritage.

There is also a book launch of past conservation projects undertaken by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and an exhibition featuring this year's Award winners at the URA Gallery.

Singapore Stuff
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A new weblog which has posts that link to various online resources about the history and culture of Singapore and the region. Well worth a browse! A link to the weblog has also been added to the sidebar of this weblog.

from The Guardian
Nauman's rehashed sounds reverberate around the Tate's emptiness
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Coming after an earlier attempt to (re)create the sunset in the large Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern, this latest sound work by Bruce Nauman has been described by an art critic as an "invisible sculpture". Now, how does one preserve something that one cannot see? Or would this count as intangible heritage?

from The Art Newspaper
UK museums face controversial Ethiopian legacy
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Yet another reminder of the murky legacy resulting from the plunder of heritage materials belonging to other cultures - under the guise of colonial expansion and conquest. This recalls an earlier post.

from The Guardian
Unknown Goya painting discovered
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A clear case of how proper painting restoration can increase the value of a painting many times over - not in the usual sense of improving the appearance or stabilising physical materials, but in uncovering the evidence of a more famous hand having painted the picture.

from Wired News
Oral History on the Go
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An interesting project which captures oral histories using limited resources in a highly effective and engaging way. Using digital recording technologies in a mobile setting, the intangible aspects of a community's shared history are recorded, archived and selections shared via local public radio broadcasts. There is also less of a top-down approach but relies on the active involvement of the local community in deciding what is significant.

from National Geographic News
Dictators "Defacing" Famed Burma Temples, Editor Says
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How historic sites of a country are treated can often be taken as a proxy barometer for measuring the social "well-being" of a society. The political upheaval and subsequent curtailment of political freedom which happened in Burma is obviously having a negative impact on significant heritage sites in that country.

from The Rolex Awards 2004
An ancient art as a modern model
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go to PDF article (21.5 Mb)

An inspiring example of how the revival of a traditional craft - which could also be understood as a form of restoring an intangible heritage - becomes a social and economic good. In this particular case, it is putting the traditional art of silk textiles in Cambodia back into production again.

from The Toronto Star
Culture club dreams of an un-museum
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It is always encouraging to see efforts in re-vitalising the functions of the museum. However, when the label of a museum conjures up the image of "some stuffy old-fashioned place dealing with artefacts from the past" - to the extent that a new museum-like institution will not be called that because of the negative image - then it must signal a larger problem, both in the larger political administration and in the community.

from Slate
The National Museum of Ben Nighthorse Campbell
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When a new museum doesn't resonate with the larger community, there is a lesson to be had, even if it happened half-way round the globe.