from Washington Post -
Smithsonian Will Charge For Butterfly Pavilion
go to article

from The Art Newspaper -
Sweden: Entry fees deter visitors
go to article

from The Guardian Art & Architecture Blog -
Free entry is still just the ticket
go to post

Yet a couple more ripples in the perennial debate on whether museum visitors should be expected to pay for entry.

The issue may be that museums are expected to fulfill several expectations:

1. Success is gauged by headcount;
2. Content is driven by research and mission; and
3. Funding is determined by (socio-political) relevance.

Taken in isolation, these expectations are reasonable and likely to be achievable. But when taken in combination, that's where most museums could potentially fumble, resulting in a confusion of mixed signals of what a museum should do or be about.

Also see previous posts and discussions on this web-log:

Switzerland is a nation of museum lovers

Art for inclusion's sake

The high cost of being 'free'

Down with this access pottiness

Should Art Museums Always Be Free? There's Room for Debate
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from yesterday.sg -
Panel discussion about heritage on Radio Singapore International
go to web-post

A couple of recent radio interviews related to museums in Singapore. It may be the sign of the times that museums are now "officially" a life-style centre. Whose life-style was that again? And are we in danger of confusing the means with the end?
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from National Geographic News -
New Layer of Ancient Greek Writings Detected in Medieval Book
go to article

Another update on yet another manuscript found previously erased from the well-known Archimedes Palimpsest (see earlier posts here and here). This time, Aristotle's text was found, in addition to earlier texts by Archimedes and Hyperides that were found using multi-spectral imaging and image analysis.
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from The Art Newspaper -
Getty sets standards in China
go to article

An update on the long-term project at Mogao, near Dunhuang, where the Getty has been very sensitive not to be seen as imposing a Western approach to site and heritage conservation on the local context. Even if nothing else, the crafting of a set of site conservation guidelines, also known as the "China Principles" would be an advance on the progress made in the thinking of the large-scale preservation of heritage sites. Also see the Getty project web-page.
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from Adbusters
Anabolic Art: Underground Chinese Art Meets Footloose Global Capital
go to article

The hike of globalisation in China, well, isnt quite as well-perceived as its comparative theorem has offered. The regular boost of art flavour in the country is a far cry from the representative works of its local artists. Rather, art is just a commodity to be owned as "ours". Adbusters has recently published an article which speaks the ugly side of globalisation. Although Adbusters isnt a legitimate channel for art news but i think this article carries a valid notion.

from Materials Today -
Managing Change: Preserving History
go to article (PDF format, 7.8MB)

Another article to add to the overview of conservation science as a discipline (also see earlier post). What is interesting is that this is published in an on-line newsletter dedicated to materials science - perhaps indicative of the gradual understanding and acceptance of the work of the conservation scientist.
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from The International Council of Museums -
International Museum Day 2007
go to web-page

The theme for this year's International Museum Day, which falls on 18th May 2007, is "Museums and Universal Heritage". Not entirely sure of the appropriateness of the theme in the light of various complex issues today that various countries and museums are facing over repatriation of artefacts in collections.

That earlier mode of museum collecting was predicated upon that notion of a universal human culture and history, hence the right of the more advanced and developed nations (meaning European and North American) to declare themselves as worthy, hence rightful custodians and students of these ancient artefacts. This would be construed as patronising, to say the least, and offensive in today's terms.
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from The New York Times -
Umbrian Umbrage: Send Back That Etruscan Chariot
go to article

Serendipity has it that 2 earlier posts (here and here) form the context of this article which highlights the claims of a town in central Italy to the ownership of the Etruscan chariot which was painstakingly restored after much research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The underlying irony is that if the chariot had not been taken out of Italy (legally or otherwise) and given pride of place in the museum, its historical significance could in all likelihood be lost, hence avoiding a contest of wills all together. A victim of its own "success", maybe?
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from The New York Times -
Do You Know Where That Art Has Been?
go to article

Yet another article on the sometimes dubious antiquities trade which attracts and support the illicit trade in antiquities. However, whit sets this article apart from others on the same topic is that it is featured in the business section of a prominent newspaper.

Two other earlier audio programmes from NPR which also discussed the complex and entangled web of antiquities trade and the attempts to stamp out illicit activities.

"Getty Villa: Elegance Hides Darker Story"
20th January 2006
(go to web-page)

"A Trove of Stolen Treasure"
17th May 2006
(go to web-page)
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Passing 400 blog posts

The 400th blog post had been posted, that's an average of 1 post every 3 days over the 3 last years since this blog has been up.

With the recent change of Goggle Blogger back end support, I took the opportunity to revamp the look of the blog, as well as tagging all previous posts. Hope this will make searching and browsing easier.

In the migrating process, I think some people with access to post on this blog might have been removed. Please let me know and I'll reinstate access to those who would like to contribute.

Happy reading and posting!
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from The New York Times -
One Picture, 1,000 Tags
go to article

from The Chronicle Daily News Blog -
Metropolitan Museum Will Let Art Historians Use High-Quality Digital Images Free
go to article

from National Public Radio -
Preservation of Digital Art Poses Challenges
go to podcast

PLANETS - Digital Preservation Research and Technology
go to web-page

Museums and the Web 2007
go to conference web-page
go to online conference papers

With the increasing spread of digital technology, museums and archives have also begun to consider the impact and implications of its use - both in preserving digital works created by others and also creating their own digital interfaces in allowing easier access to information.
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from The New York Times -
A More Precise Version of Your Chariot Awaits
go to article

An interesting project, which was recently concluded at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which reconstructs and improves upon earlier attempts in putting together an archaeological artefact. This is a classic manifestation of the primary underlying principle of heritage conservation which is that later generations will have a better method and solution to our present-day problems. Hence, it is to be expected that conservation or restoration treatments be improved upon over time - not that previous restorers or conservators were incompetent, but that we all make do in the best possible way with what we have today.
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from New York Times -
Arsenic and Old Photos
go to article

An interesting article on the work of Dusan Stulik at the Getty Conservation Institute on the identification and compilation of materials used in the making of photographs. Dusan's work is in part driven by the ubiquitous popularity of digital photography resulting in "an impending disaster in photographic conservation and scholarship: the abandonment and loss of many decades’ worth of information about traditional photos as the switch was made to digital." The endpoint is a reference publication:

"[...] sometime in the next few years, a door-stopping Atlas of Analytical Signatures of Photographic Processes, a chemical characterization of every known (and, until now, some previously unknown) means of making pictures."

See also information from GCI's website on the Research Project on the Conservation of Photographs.
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