Freelance opportunity: Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery is looking for help to identify ethnographic material and for advice on potential restitutions.  These objects were purchased between 1940 and 1988,  and were subsequently part of the Derbyshire Schools Library Service collections.

They are looking for people who can help identify objects from:

·       South Pacific (around 85 objects)

·       Africa (around 119 objects)

·       North America (around 33 objects)

·       Australia (around 26 objects)

The objects are located in Buxton, Derbyshire. You will need to travel to view the objects in person.

With the support of the Esmee Fairburn Collections Trust funding, they are able to offer a fee of £250 a day plus reasonable travel expenses.

The work needs to be carried out between October and December.

If you are able to help, please send a description of no more than 500 words detailing your relevant experience to Anna Rhodes anna.rhodes@derbyshire.gov.uk by 5pm on Friday 20^th September. 

World Cultures Curating workshop at the 2019 Museums Association conference, Brighton

Claire Wintle (University of Brighton) and Helen Mears (Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove) are hosting a workshop at the forthcoming Museums Association conference and would love for MEG members to join us!

 

The session will focus on “New Skills and Opportunities for World Cultures Curating” (Friday 4 Oct; 12:10-13:10, Brighton Centre Auditorium). Speakers include Rebecca Bridgman (Chair, SSN for Islamic Art and Material Culture), Christo Kefalas (World Cultures Curator, National Trust) and Rachael Minott (Curator of Anthropology (Social Practice), Horniman Museum) and facilitators include Megha Rajguru and Hajra Williams (both University of Brighton) and Rachel Heminway Hurst (Royal Pavilion & Museums). Findings from the session will be shared with the Museums Association, Arts Council England and the Museum Ethnographers Group.

 

For more information please visit the Museums Association conference website.

Job: Curator/Senior Curator Americas or Oceania

Posted: 21/08/2019 11:57 Salary: £29,141 - £37,136 per annum Location: National Museum Of Scotland, Chambers Street Level: Collections Care/Conservation	Deadline: 23/09/2019 23:59 Hours: 37.00 Benefits: Membership of Civil Service pension scheme Job Type: Permanent
Based at the National Museum of Scotland this permanent, full-time post will support the work of the World Cultures Department. Working within the Department’s Oceania, Americas and Africa Section, the post-holder’s duties will include responsibility for collections; acquisitions; exhibitions; research; publications; and answering public enquiries. Building on the major suite of new galleries in the National Museum of Scotland the post-holder will support development of the collection and displays.  Further details can be found on the NMS website.

Job: Curator/Senior Curator, Japan

Posted: 21/08/2019 12:14 Salary: £29,141 - £37,136 per annum Location: National Museum Of Scotland, Chambers Street Level: Collections Care/Conservation	Deadline: 19/09/2019 23:59 Hours: 37.00 Benefits: Membership of Civil Service pension scheme Job Type: Permanent
Based at the National Museum of Scotland this permanent, full-time post will support the work of the World Cultures Department. Working within the Department’s East and Central Asia Section, the post-holder’s duties will include responsibility for collections; acquisitions; exhibitions; research; publications; and answering public enquiries. Building on the major suite of new galleries in the National Museum of Scotland the post-holder will support development of the collection and displays.  Further details can be found on the NMS website.

New exhibition reveals the Pacific craft of barkcloth

GLAHM:E.458/3 - Barkcloth, Fiji, Melanesia, 1700 – 1860.

A new exhibition opening at the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum this August highlights The Hunterian’s world-class collection of barkcloth from the Pacific Ocean.

Barkcloth:Revealing Pacific Craft showcases some of The Hunterian’s outstanding and decorative examples of tapa and reveals the fascinating process of how it is made.

The exhibition features cloths from Fiji, Hawaii and Samoa, some of which are newly restored and on display for the first time. Also on show are items from the voyages of Captain Cook and the world’s earliest example of barkcloth from the small island-nation of Niue, donated to The Hunterian by the Presbyterian missionary Reverend George Turner.

Barkcloth: Revealing Pacific Craft is the result of a major three-year research project, Situating Pacific Barkcloth in Time and Place, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Based at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History, the project connected The Hunterian collection with those of research partners at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Little was known about The Hunterian tapa collection prior to the project but the research, which combined methods of material science, conservation, anthropology and art history, has clarified the provenance of most of the pieces and has revealed new scientific findings about the production, trading and use of barkcloth.

Visitors will learn about the processes of making and decorating barkcloth and its uses, as well as the different plants used in its production and how they have been identified. They will also discover how the artefacts came into The Hunterian collection and the conservation challenges they posed.

Barkcloth: Revealing Pacific Craft is at the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, from 29 August – 29 November 2019. Admission is free.

Barkcloth: Revealing Pacific Craft
29 August – 29 November 2019

Hunterian Museum

Admission free

Job Opportunity: Research Associate at Glasgow University.

Glasgow University are looking for a Resaerch Associate to make a leading contribution to the AHRC project: ‘A living tradition: Expanding engagement with Pacific barkcloth’, working with Professor Frances Lennard (Principal Investigator) and Professor Maria Economou (Co Investigator). Specifically, the job requires expert knowledge in the area/s of Pacific ethnography or museum engagement. The successful candidate will also be expected to contribute to the formulation and submission of research publications and research proposals as well as help manage and direct this project as opportunities allow.

Salary will be on the University’s Research and Teaching Grade, level 7, £35,210 - £39,610 per annum.

This post has funding for 6 months.

Deadline: 12 September 2019

Full details availabe on Jobs.ac.uk

South London Gallery - Researcher in Residence.

The SLG is seeking an engaging and energetic Researcher-in-Residence to work closely with the Art Assassins, the SLG’s youth forum, to explore, unpick and make accessible the archive of materials collected by government anthropologist Northcote W Thomas in Nigeria and Sierra Leone from 1909–1915.

Taking the lead from the Art Assassins, you will explore the relevance of this incredible archive for young people today and help them produce work in response to the material for an exhibition in the SLG’s Fire Station annexe. Working with a number of different artists and SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), this role will bridge the gap between complex ideas and academic information and a group of young people who are keen to interrogate their own histories.

As well as working alongside the Art Assassins, the Researcher-in-Residence produces a written paper. This will form the basis of an accessible resource exploring the archive and its significance for the Art Assassins, as well as for the SLG’s audiences and the wider community.

The Researcher-in-Residence will be an experienced and critical researcher with a specialist interest in colonial era archives, diasporic experience and the decolonisation of education and history. At the core of this position is a desire to engage a non-academic public with research methodologies and critical thinking.

We are particularly interested in applicants from low-income backgrounds and those from black and ethnic minority communities, who are under-represented in museums and galleries.

The Researcher-in-Residence is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

This is a freelance role, the deadline is 19th of August and further details can be found on the SLG website.