SSN Islamic Art and Culture - Specialist Support Scheme

SSN Islamic Art and Material Culture  has just launched the third and final year of its Specialist Support Scheme. This is open to any museum in the UK that has an Islamic Art and Material Culture collection. The specialist support scheme aims to provide regional museums with a toolkit to help them unlock the potential of their collections of Islamic Art & Material Culture (IAMC) and use them to engage with new and diverse audiences.

Museums can apply for up to £5075 of support. The closing date for all applications is 7th August 2017. For information on Year 1 and 2 of the Support Scheme please see:

Year 1 Overview

Year 2 Overview

This is the final year of this scheme under current funding and so we would encourage all interested parties to apply, including those who have not been successful in previous rounds.

Curatorial Development Opportunity from the Art Fund

The Art Fund are pleased to be partnering once again with Whitechapel Gallery to offer a series of professional development courses for curators and museum professionals this autumn.

This series is targeted at both early-career and more experienced curators, whether new to the topic or wishing to refresh and expand their existing knowledge. These hands-on courses will draw on the expertise of staff from across Whitechapel Gallery, as well as other industry leaders. Each course will focus on practical training and use current projects as case studies, allowing attendees to gain valuable guidance and insight from behind the scenes.

Taking place in October and November 2017, the courses will cover the following topics:

·         How to curate talks and events, Friday 13 October

·         How to write about art, Friday 20 October 

·         How to curate the moving image , Friday 27 October

·         How to fundraise: individual giving, Friday 3 November 

·         How to handle and install art, Friday 10 November

·         How to fundraise: writing grant applications, Friday 17 November

Places normally cost £195, but curators and museum professionals are invited to apply for one of 34 funded places offered by the Art Fund. 

Museums Association Conference & Exhibition 2017

16-18 November, Manchester

The Museums Association Conference & Exhibition is the largest event of its kind in Europe for museums and heritage professionals.  Over 1,500 senior staff discuss the latest issues, discover new practice and meet the world’s leading suppliers and consultants.

This year's event is packed with content - including three fantastic themes on Audiences, Collections and Workforce. Delegates will have the opportunity to debate and discuss big ideas with colleagues from around the UK and internationally. Keynote speakers include Lemn Sissay, writer and broadcaster, Francesca Martinez, comedian and writer, Jeremy Deller, TurnerPrize-winning artist and Jenny Waldman, director, 14-18 NOW.

There are a host of other sessions, practical workshops and training - all developed to facilitate fresh thinking. The social events give you the opportunity to see The Whitworth Art Gallery, Museum of Science andIndustry and network at People's History Museum.

Look out for the Festival of Change, which offers a playful, creative physical presence throughout this year’s event, embodying the mission of Transformers, our workforce initiative to encourage radical change in museums.

The third day to conference this year is a chance to visit a range of museums and galleries in Manchester with a programme of special events, exhibition tours, expert talks and behind-the-scenes visits to museums, galleries and cultural venues in the area, all included in the price.

Conference is a vital forum for debate, exchange and networking – join us for the biggest event of its kind in Europe and help shape the future of museums.

Early bird booking ends on 16 August 2017.

Job Opportunity: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Curating and Museology SOAS

Salary Range: £42,551 - £59,225 per annum inclusive of London Allowance

Full time (35 hours per week - 1.0 FTE) 

This post is fixed-term until January 2019

For full particulars and to apply 

 

The role and its responsibilities

The Department of the History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS, University of London, invites applications for a Temporary Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Curating and Museology, following the award of a major research grant to Dr Louise Tythacott. 

The post is intended for a dynamic scholar at Lecturer or Senior Lecturer level. The post is tenable for 12 months from January 2018 to January 2019. Applications are invited from those working on the histories and theories of the collection and representation of non-Western art and material culture. Those with curatorial experience are particularly invited to apply. 

The successful candidate will be a member of the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, School of Arts, and will be expected to teach courses to both undergraduates and taught Masters students, and collaborate productively with colleagues. The specific courses to be taught in term 2 2017/18 are Curating Cultures (MA) and Museums, Heritage and Material Culture Studies (MA), as well as two modules in term 1 (2018/19). The successful candidate will also be expected to convene the Museums, Heritage and Material Culture Studies MA programme, supervise both BA and MA dissertations, and assume administrative tasks in the School of Arts. 

Skills and experience

The successful candidate will have the ability to lecture and supervise students at all levels. A PhD in History of Art, Material Culture, Museum Studies or related subject is essential, as is experience of museum/curatorial work. The successful candidate should also have a solid track record of publications and research activity.
 

Further information

For an informal discussion regarding the role, please contact Professor Anna Contadini, Head of the School of Arts or Dr Louise Tythacott, Senior Lecturer in Curating and Museology of Asian Art

 

Competitive benefits package

As an employer of choice SOAS offers an extensive benefits package including:
• 30 days holiday plus bank holidays and additional School closure days (pro rata for part time staff)
• Pension scheme with generous employer contribution
• Various loan schemes including season ticket and IT equipment 
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity and Adoption Pay provisions, childcare voucher scheme, financial support for childcare

 

Department of the History of Art and Archaeology in the School of Arts 

The Department of the History of Art and Archaeology is unique in its coverage of the arts, archaeology, architecture and material culture of Asia, Africa and the Middle East from ancient times to the present day. No other university in the world offers such a range of teaching or such a concentration of research specialists in these areas. The Department is renowned as an alternative voice to Eurocentric art history, challenging the categories often taken for granted in the study of other cultures. In the 2014 REF more than 80% of the Department’s research was judged either world-leading or internationally excellent, the third highest proportion of any institution researching the history, practice and theory of art in the UK. The department offers a uniquely broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the history of art, archaeology, architecture and material culture of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It also includes a renowned Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art. 

The School of Arts (SoA) was inaugurated in September 2012, bringing together three existing departments and centres in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, namely, the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, the Department of Music, and the Centre for Media Studies. SoA offers programmes that encompass historical and contemporary perspectives on the arts of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, including ethnographic and practice-based approaches. 

A major asset is the Brunei Gallery, dedicated to the display of Asian, African and Middle Eastern Art. A well established art gallery in the heart of London, the Brunei Gallery offers temporary exhibitions as well as a permanent, rotating display of the SOAS collections within the Foyle Gallery.

 

Completed applications must be received by 23:59 on the closing date to be considered.

Interviews will provisionally be held in the week commencing or on: 11th September 2017
 
If you have any questions or require any assistance with regard to the application process, please contact hr-recruitment@soas.ac.uk.

We are working to achieve a diverse and representative workforce at all levels within SOAS University of London. Women and Black and Minority Ethnic groups are actively encouraged to apply for this vacancy as they are currently under-represented at this level. 

SACKLER RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP ON THE HISTORY OF CONSERVATION AT THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM

WORCESTER COLLEGE AND THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 

Salary £28,413 p.a. plus £5,000 housing allowance p.a. 

Applications are invited for a three year Sackler Research Fellowship on the history of Conservation at the Ashmolean Museum, in association with Worcester College, Oxford. Based in the Ashmolean's Conservation Department in Oxford, the postholder will research the preservation history of the museum. 

As the country’s oldest public museum, founded in 1683, the Ashmolean is in an exceptional position to follow the history of conservation and restoration. The department holds formal conservation records from cards and notebooks that date back to the middle of the last century along with other sources. The research will concentrate on a history of conservation and restoration through the records and practices, collections and staff, building on existing work carried out in the department and on display in the Restoring the Past Gallery. 

The successful candidate will have a proven ability to carry out research in an area related to the history of collections or conservation, a relevant post-graduate degree, either completed or due to be completed by October 2017, and a genuine interest in learning about conservation ethics and preservation methodologies. There may be opportunities for candidates with a suitable qualification in conservation to maintain practical skills during their tenure if they wish, so long as this enhances the research focus of the Sackler Research Fellowship. 

This award is tenable for three years, at a salary of £28,413 plus a housing allowance of £5,000, commencing on 1 October 2017 or as soon as possible thereafter. For full details of the post and the application process, please visit www.worc.ox.ac.uk/jobs. Closing date for applications is 10am on Thursday 31 August 2017 

Worcester College has recently adopted a diversity strategy and is actively seeking to increase the proportion of Fellows on Governing Body who are women and/or of BME origin 

Call for papers: Symposium – Curating the Global Film Archive

Venue: Moving Image Archive, Kelvin Hall, Glasgow

Date: 28 October 2017

In 2017 Africa in Motion Film Festival collaborates with the Universities of Glasgow and Stirling on a year-long AHRC-funded project entitled Africa’s Lost Classics. This project aims to bring to UK screens some of the greatest African film classics, works that have been neglected or forgotten. Through this project, contact with archivists around the world have led to discoveries of films that were deemed lost, and collaborations with restorers have brought old and decaying film reels back to life. As such, we became newly aware that curators can re(dis)cover old films and transform films’ material deterioration into the cinematic experience the film was made for. By organising, as part of this project, a one-day symposium on curating the global archive, we aim to place African cinema at the centre of the global film archive, while providing a context of worldwide archival curation and research. During the Africa in Motion annual film festival and Black History Month in the UK in October 2017, we are also curating a large exhibition entitled African Film: Looking Back Through the Lens at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. Curated in conjunction with the Africa in Motion film festival and the symposium, this exhibition is motivated by the desire to revive lost histories, spaces and times, and it includes 15 key classic films accompanied by posters, contextual information and film clips. We invite scholars to submit abstracts on topics related to practical and theoretical uses of worldwide film archives, and the relationship between archives and curation. We are interested in the archives of the world: from the Balkans to the Far East, Beirut to Seattle, Cape to Cairo. Without wanting to limit the scope of the symposium or proposed papers, some of the central questions we wish to explore are:

• What is the role of the curator in bringing the archive to life?
• How do archives and film festivals perform as sites of memory and commemoration?
• Can festivals act as archives?
• How do we best access archives if the materiality of film is under threat?
• What has the digital revolution contributed to the preservation of cinema?
• What is the role of the archivist in curating retrospectives?
• How do history and the present enact the discourse between contemporary films and archival footage?
• How do films, archives and the cinema as a public space interact with the present and the future, and what is the archive’s role in preservation and access?

Please send 250-word abstracts and 100-word biographies (including relevant publications) to the conference organisers Dr. Lizelle Bisschoff at and Dr. Stefanie Van de Peer by 31 August 2017. Delegates will be notified of their acceptance by 15 September. We regret we have no funding available for travel or accommodation but delegates will have the opportunity to attend film screenings of restored African Classics at the Africa in Motion film festival (27/10 – 5/11) in Glasgow and/or Edinburgh, and visit the accompanying exhibition.

About the venue:

The Moving Image Archive is Scotland's national collection of moving image located at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. More than 2,000 digitised films are online in the Moving Image Archive catalogue, and a further archive of over 60,000 films about Scotland is being preserved at Kelvin Hall. These archives are accessible by booking an appointment with the manager of the Archive, please see online for more details.

The Evolution of the Museum

Science Museum, 
London, 14th July 2017

This workshop is part of the AHRC/Labex funded Project, Universal Histories and Universal Museums: a transnational comparison. 

Museums are emergent entities – and the evolution of a museum is dependent on a number of factors, including: changes in collecting and disposal practices, redisplays and the legacy of temporary exhibitions. New pedagogical perspectives relating to new questions or ideological trends, either in museology or in the disciplines represented in the collections, are also influential.

The workshop will focus on selected case studies to analyse methodological issues relating to universal histories and universal museums. The evolution of the museum will be discussed in relation to the impact of temporary exhibitions and the circulation of knowledge in the public sphere, including the 1876 Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington Museum and the creation of the Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro.

The 1876 Loan Exhibition is a temporary exhibition which took place in 1876 at the South Kensington Museum and was one of the founding displays which led to the creation of the Science Museum. This exhibition offers a case study for the ways in which temporary displays have a permanent legacy in national and international museum collections, and how far the interpretation and presentation of materials was transformed in this process. 

The Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro opened in 1882 following the 1878 International Exhibition, for which the Trocadéro palace had been built. Though many studies have focused on the successive transformations of this museum in the Musée de l’Homme and, successively, the Musée du Quai Branly and the MUCEM, the first assemblage and display of these ethnographic collections is less well known. Drawing on the place given to the arts, the regions, and different themes in universal exhibitions in Paris, and particularly in the 1878 exhibition, the discussion of the Musée d'Ethnographie will cast new light on the motivations and relationships of collectors, learned societies, politicians, and publics in informing the creation of this museum. 

The workshop will bring together researchers from ethnography, history of science, and museum history, to explore the evolution of museums, mainly – but not only – in France and the UK. The workshop will also reflect on object agencies through a session with the objects studied in the Universal Histories and Universal Museums project. 

Papers will focus on themes including

• History and/or  comparison of the science and art collections in the South Kensington Museum, and the foundation of the Science Museum
• History of ethnographic collections in Paris (and direct comparisons with other cities and particularly with London) and of the first Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro
• The impact of temporary exhibitions and universal exhibitions on the creation and development of museum collections.

For the full programme and to registrar.