Can museums change lives?
Seminar
Bio: David Fleming, OBE MA PhD AMA, became director of National Museums Liverpool (NML) in 2001. Since then he has led a major modernisation of NML, which has resulted in its becoming a leading example of an inclusive museum service with a large and diverse audience. Since he became Director, NML…
Legacies of Lawlessness: When does Illegality become Heritage?
Seminar
Robin Hood, Jesse James, Bonnie and Clyde…. There is an infinite list of people whose defiance of state law made them popular heroes, and whose memory is now enshrined as heritage. The same process perpetuates the image of popular rebellions that become emblematic of national pride.…
Anthropology and Museums in the Age of Engagement
Seminar
The late Michael Ames in his influential book Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes: The Anthropology of Museums (1992) proclaimed that the museum profession and the discipline of anthropology were in “jeopardy,” and needed to be reformed if they were to play any “useful roles in contemporary democratic…
Crossing boundaries: The value of museums in dementia care
Seminar
House of Memories is a multi-award winning dementia awareness training programme created by National Museums Liverpool (NML) in the UK. The Institute of Cultural Capital – led by Kerry Wilson – has been researching the impact of House of Memories since 2013. Research has been designed to…
Villagizing the city: turning rural ethnic heritage into urban modernity in southwest China
Seminar
This talk examines the rural ethnic heritage-inspired transformation of the built environment of a relatively small county town in China. The paper explores the ways village-based ethnic heritage is being repositioned by local leaders as a resource for tourism-oriented revenue generation and for ‘…
Heritage and spatial knowledge in the Second World War: How the ‘Monuments Men’ documented cultural property.
Seminar
The Anglo-US Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Sub-Commission (the ‘Monuments Men’ organisation) was set up within the military government structures of the Allied armed forces in 1943. Part of its remit was ‘to preserve historic buildings, works of art and historical records…. by [furnishing] the…
Affective experiences: the embodied performances of heritage making
Seminar
This seminar will summarise some of the findings of a recently completed project to explore the memory and identity work visitors do at heritage sites and museums in Australia, the United States, and England. Over 4,500 qualitative interviews were undertaken at 45 museums, exhibitions and…