A conference
organised by the National Army Museum, London in collaboration with
the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester.
The National Army
Museum, London, has submitted a successful Stage
One Heritage Lottery
Bid which proposes a complete redisplay of its collections and a remodelling of
its interior at a cost of £22 million.
As part of the Stage
Two submission process it invites practitioners and academics to submit
papers which will stimulate debate about the particular challenges of
displaying military stories, memories and objects. In collaboration with the
School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester there will be a one day
conference at the Museum on Friday 13 September 2013. Ideas generated and
discussed at the conference have the possibility of influencing how the Museum
presents its displays. This conference therefore offers an unusual opportunity
for academic ideas to influence a key national museum project in the capital in
a direct and immediate way. Plans are in hand to publish a selection of papers
on the web in an edited volume.
Papers are invited
that investigate one or more of the following themes which are broad and
intended to offer scope for debate and intellectual experimentation:
1. Difficult
histories relating to the theme of warfare. How do the historical narratives
and the material collections of military museums contribute to division and
contestation? How do they, or might they, build bridges between nations and
communities? How can military museums interpret objects whose meanings depend
on national narratives that have been rethought or revised in a multicultural
nation? What is the role of military museums in reflecting on the nature of
war, death and suffering not only in the past but in the present?
2. Popular culture,
memories, forgetting and warfare. What is the role of warfare in national
identity and to what extent should national museums tell a national story? War
and remembrance - how have popular cultural practices shaped cultural memories?
How and why does forgetting shape the military story? How do military
museums affect popular attitudes to the nation, warfare and the military in
general? How do national military museums contribute to the values, perceptions
and identities of citizens in a global era?
3. The role of
affect in the military museum. How do iconic objects affect visitors? To what
extent is it appropriate to encourage emotional responses of pride, sorrow,
admiration or shame in military museums? How can this be done in a
non-confrontational and unthreatening way?
4. The role of the
personal narrative in the military museum. In a postmodern world old narratives
are challenged and a multiplicity of voices is encouraged. What is the role of
the personal story in themilitary museum? Do military museums have a role in
telling the stories of ex-soldiers?
5. How does a museum
use space effectively in exhibition design?
How can a deeper and
broader understanding of military history and its potential be
incorporated into the design of the Museum's physical structure? How can the
architecture and range of spaces that comprise the Museum, be designed to
enable dialogue as well as generate meaningful and engaging experiences for a
range of users? What do we understand about the relations between architecture
and identity and how can this be harnessed by museums such as the National Army
Museum?
Central to this
conference is a dialogue between museum professionals and university
researchers. While academics can operate outside the professional and
institutional constraints that shape practice, the role of the museum
professional in developing greater and better museums, in tune with the
demands of early twenty first century society, is the key to museum
development success. This conference provides a forum for debate between these
two, one that will help to shape the redevelopment of the National Army
Museum London.
The deadline for submission for proposals for
papers is Friday 3 May 2013. These should be brief (no more than 500 words) along with the name of the proposer(s) and the
institutions to which they are affiliated (ifappropriate) and
their current position (e.g. curator, lecturer, PhD student). Proposals should
be emailed to Alastair Massie, at the National Army Museum, London,
(amassie@nam.ac.uk). Please put 'Making Military History in Museums' in the
title of the email and indicate to which of the five subthemes the proposal is
related.
Information about
registration for the conference for those interested in attending without
presenting a paper will be available on the websites of both the Army Museum
and the School of Museum Studies in the spring of 2013.
