UNEARTHING HISTORY: ALUMNI CHECK-IN WITH KRISTEN MCLAUGHLIN

 Alumni Check-In | Elizabeth Cytko

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Kristen McLaughlin poses with a newly unveiled sign.
Photo courtesy of Kristen McLaughlin

Kristen McLaughlin is the plaques co-ordinator at Heritage Toronto. She graduated the Museum Studies program in 2018, was a former editor of Musings and was the Vice-President of MUSSA. Kristen has a passion for archeology and continues to incorporate it into her work.

What is your favourite memory from your time in the Museum program?

I think one of my favourite memories was when I was Vice-President of MUSSA and we put together the first panel hosted by the MMSt program on Women and Leadership in the Museum/Cultural sector. We invited four brilliant women leaders and our Musings Editor, Serena Ypelaar, asked them questions compiled by students. It was a full house and really addressed what, we felt, was an important issue in the field, such as how women deal with the barriers facing them in the sector, stories of success, advice, etc. I felt so proud to have contributed to the discussion of an important topic, felt empowered by all the powerful women around me, and my feminist heart was very happy.

What did you like about writing for Musings?

I loved being able to research the things I was passionate about and then writing it in an accessible, digestible format. My very first article was an interactive PDF flowchart on quick conservation methods for smaller institutions. My last column on Museums Abroad let me go a bit more in depth into what interested me about museums around the world and how they are different than our standard North American concept of museums and memorialization. I believe traveling, learning, and realizing the bubble of your world is not the world of everyone. I find in academic streams the mindset can sometimes get a little too narrow, and it was a great reminder to be aware of all the heritage issues that are happening around the globe!

What does a typical day entail at your job?

My job is Plaques Coordinator for Heritage Toronto, so I work on all aspects of the heritage plaques you see around the city, from working with applicants, budgets, and funding for the plaques, intensive research, writing, logistics, installation, and more! For me specifically, there is a lot of research involved.

If I am working on a current heritage plaque project, I can spend several days to a week+ researching the content. It's really fun, actually, because I get to use amazing resources like the City of Toronto digitized directories through the Toronto Public Library, or visit the City of Toronto Archives and scroll through tax assessment forms from the 1920s on microfiche. Other days it can be lots of emails, as plaques don't just mean research! I am frequently going back and redesigning and researching. If it's one of our larger enamel plaques, my day can also include finding appropriate images and requesting or ordering high resolution versions.

There is also a lot of logistics works: how do we actually install the plaque? Whose permission do we need? How do you make sure the plaque won't hit a pipe? So it's a great mix of creativity, due diligence, and organization and planning, all things I enjoy! We also have public plaque unveiling events throughout the year, and those are fun too because you get to meet and interact with the groups who are super passionate about the topics of the plaque. It's a great reminder that the goal of our plaques department is creating an accessible platform for various facets of Toronto's heritage.

Kristen (left) poses with Herman Custodio (centre) and Emily MacRae (right.)
Photo courtesy of Kristen McLaughlin

How does your archeological fieldwork and your work as a historian inform your museum work for Heritage Toronto?

What we are trying to do in the plaques program is to make stories accessible and diverse. I have worked with various Indigenous communities over the years in different kinds of jobs and it is important to me to make sure that we fight to get Indigenous stories about Toronto told. Archaeological fieldwork has taught me the importance of being humble and respectful, which are key in many situations when plaques can focus on histories and stories that are not necessarily my background or experience. I have learned that is important to learn from and listen to those who know better. I also came onto the job with a general knowledge of Toronto's pre-settler history, which I think could be a valuable point of view to have in a program that, historically, has focused on settler stories but is now working diligently to change that!

How do you see the role of museums evolving in Canada?

Museums seem to be at a crux of existence right now. On one hand you have them as stalwart knowledge keepers of bygone eras, there to educate the masses, etc. On the other hand, they are starting to work towards becoming more community spaces; having community events, opening up to ideas of community consultation and exhibition creation, etc. How do you market to people so they still see museums as something different but worth going to? How do you do this and still exist as an educational institution? Their backgrounds are so complex, as is the future. My thesis work focused on small museums in Alberta and their place in the community. It's quite different than bigger institutions, like the ROM or RAM, for example, and not necessarily one that can (or should) be copied by institutions of bigger sizes. I see them working towards becoming more community-focused, but I see that being quite difficult to pull off, especially for the larger ones.

What advice would you give to museum professionals entering the sector today?


If you can't find a job that suits you where you live now, apply countrywide! I've done plenty of Skype interviews. Go on a trip and forget about school for a while! The job field is not all there is to life. Be sure to explore and enjoy life in other ways, too. Which I know is hard when we have loans, debts, etc. But we have to try and figure out a good balance! I'm such a big fan of getting out of the comfort zone. Go do it! If you're scared of speaking in front of crowds, apply for a job where you'll have to public speak a lot—I did that, and it was terrifying, but now public speaking is no problem at all. Skill learned!

WHY WE SHOULD BOTHER WITH EXPANDING OUR GLOBAL MUSEUM EXPERIENCES

MUSINGS ABROAD

BY: KRISTEN MCLAUGHLIN

There is one thing that writing this column over the last year has made me realize: that in this field, people have the tendency to get comfortable. Comfortable in our knowledges, comfortable in our practices, and comfortable in our circles, whether it is Southern Ontario, West Coast, or East Coast. Whether it is America, Canada, the UK, or Australia.

Source.

In writing this column and wanting to have varied topics for each new post, I learned about so many stories going on around the world that are pertinent, useful, and humbling, to our experiences working in Canada. I have written about how nations deal with memorializing traumatic pasts in Eastern Europe and had friends bring forth recent and touching related family stories. I have discovered the powerful stories of women at work in museums in Australia and the intriguing trends of new museums around the world that we should be paying attention to.

I am passionate about the idea of museums as political players on a global scale, as sites of international relations, and got to write and research about that. I've learned so much more about the current tensions in the Philippines and how corrupt governments lead to interesting (and often incorrect) museum creations and the severe obstacles that museums in India face that can be easily related to small museums in our own country and continent. I learned about what it means to keep or erase memory through the lens of the horrific history of comfort women in Japan and the exciting local community heritage preservation work being done in Peru.

For example, go visit a heritage site or museum in a different country! Here's 19-year-old me, 

taking a bad selfie at Angkor in Cambodia. 

This alone is so much, and yet, barely anything at all. Museums, heritage practitioners, legislators, and visitors all across this world are doing interesting and amazing things in this field. There is also a lot of trauma, erasure, frustration, and obstacles that are valuable to learn about and appreciate, and can put your own experiences into perspective.

I like to learn. I think many people do--human curiosity is a trait we all possess. It is this curiosity that leads to exciting new steps in fields, to new discoveries, to paving the way and making a better world for all of us. The optimistic part of me has to believe that. So to sit back and get comfortable in our museum desk chairs, concerned only with what is happening in our vicinity, may not always be in our best interest. Local focus has its purpose and its need; this I will not deny.

However, by taking two steps out of our worlds and into someone else's--reading their stories, understanding their government museum structure, or hearing about what amazing work is being done by them--can inspire us, reinvigorate us, and give us new goals, directions, and ideas. I am a firm believer in this concept. Nothing beautiful or new or world-changing happens in isolation.

Our big/little world. Source.

So as I graduate this program and leave this column behind, I ask my readers to do this: take a step out of your world. Go apply for a job or an internship abroad. Volunteer at an international heritage or art organization. Go read a different country's heritage laws, just for kicks. Learn. Grow. And take what you learn and apply it to all your future endeavours. After all, we are not so far apart from each other in today's world.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY ACROSS (SOME OF) THE GLOBE

MUSINGS ABROAD

BY: KRISTEN MCLAUGHLIN

We call March 8th International Women's Day, a day set aside to appreciate, discuss, and learn more about women's lives, careers, and aspirations across the globe, as well as to focus on gender diversity and equality. I wanted to look at some examples of how museums across the globe celebrated/mentioned/focused on women on this very important international day. Interestingly, the more searching I did, only particular countries mentioned specifically museums doing something for International Women's Day--North America, Australia, the United Kingdom, and some Western European countries. This tells me that International Women's Day still has a long way to go until it becomes truly international.


1. The UK

According to the Museums Association, #PressforProgress became the hashtag for International Women's Day in the UK heritage world. Many venues linked activities to the year's 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act, which gave some UK women the right to vote for the first time. National Museums Liverpool had a range of events such as talks and exhibitions. London's Southbank Centre hosted WOW -- Women of the World festival from the 7-11 of March, which included artists, writers, politicians, comedians, and activities to discuss issues of gender equality, and the Scarborough Museums Trust staged Glass Ceilings: The Unseen Barriers to Women's Success, an event that featured a panel of women who have made an impact in the museum world. Speakers included: Jane Glaister, Jane Sellars, and Barabara Woroncow.

I looked up the #pressforprogress hashtag and was pleasantly surprised to see a collection of tweets that were open, honest, and focused on many important global political situations. 

2. Italy

Through Italy's Ministry of Culture, women entered museums and cultural sites for free on International Women's Day. There was also a large social media movement, particularly on Instagram, where visitors were encouraged to take photos and share their favourite women in paintings, sculptures, and the arts using the hashtag #8marzoalmuseo

There were also special events and exhibitions focused on the contributes of women in art and culture at national sites and museums. On another note, they also held a series of rallies for equal rights that same day.

Pompeii was one of the sites open for free to women all day. Source.

3. Australia

The Western Australian Museum got personal this year, with a blog post on their website that has the personal stories from four employees about their achievements, struggles, and goals in their work. This is a great way to recognize that there is still a need to educate and hear about women's experiences in the world, particularly in a career such as the museum field. These stories are empowering, truthful, and an intriguing way for a museum to open up its doors to the public about necessary issues.

The four women from the Western Australian Museum and the links to their stories. Source.

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On a day that was filled with marches across the globe demanding women's rights in countries such as Australia, India, and Indonesia, some countries also focused on women's contributions to arts or to a national story. However, there were still countries where there the struggle for rights acknowledgement was evident, such as in China, where a prominent feminist social media account was shut down by the government the day of.

As International Women's Day becomes more recognized across the globe, even when we feel a sense of complacency seeing governments utilize museums and galleries to commemorate women's contributions, it is important to remember that we are still struggling in so many ways and places across this globe, and we need to keep fighting.

NEW MUSEUMS IN THE LAST YEAR: A GLOBAL LOOK

MUSINGS ABROAD

BY: KRISTEN MCLAUGHLIN

We may hear a lot about new museums opening in Toronto (like the old city hall turning into a museum, anyone?), yet I find that perhaps we are a bit out of the loop as museum professionals in Canada--especially Eastern Canada, where we tend to focus on the more local--when it comes to museums around the world. As was discussed at length in the Museum Studies Student Association's Women in Leadership panel earlier this month, getting global experience can be vital to our growth as professionals but also as globally aware human beings!

So I decided to make a small article this week listing some of the museums that have opened across this world of ours in 2017 and one to look out for in 2018; be sure to look out for some that will be opening over the coming years!

1. Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa

An image of the ceiling dome of the new contemporary arts museum. Source.

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa is not just a landmark for South Africa but for the world. It will be the biggest museum to open on the continent in over a century. The art inside has only been created since the year 2000 from Africa and its diaspora. This is a new cutting edge museum with over nine floors of work; if anyone is headed for Cape Town this will be a must see! 

2. 2017 World Expo, Astana, Kazakhstan

The 2017 World Expo at night. Source.

The world at large is generally familiar with the idea of the world expo: a large gathering of exhibits from around the world demonstrating a variety of cultures, scientific innovations, art, and more that began in 1851. The act is still going strong, with last year's debuting in Kazakhstan in modern buildings. This expo took place between June and September 2017, focused on the question "how do we ensure safe and sustainable access to energy for all while reducing CO2 emissions?". The question of sustainability has been very popular in museum groups in the last year or two, so it is important to look at this world expo to see what was shown. We also know that World Expo buildings frequently outlive the expo itself and take on second or third lives as other types of museums. Let's keep our eye on Kazakhstan to see what they do with these grounds!

PS: Canada did not participate in this world expo.... despite all of my Googling I couldn't find a reason, so any info is appreciated!


3. Louvre Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

It's finally open! Source.

Despite the difficulties this museum has run into--it was originally meant to open in 2012--it finally opened in November of last year. The UAE are well known for eye-catching gimmicks to catch the world's attention, such as the World Islands initiative in Dubai, and this latest iteration of the Louvre may be along a similar vein. However, it may be worth the visit just to see the architecture, meant to imitate sunshine through palm leaves and its collection; it showcases art from the Louvre, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Musee d'Orsay, and the Palace of Versailles, as well as a new photography collection. The museum, created through an agreement between the French and UAE governments, is important for future considerations of new international museum creations. 

4. Beit Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

A new urban cultural centre focused on the civil war. Source.

Beit Beirut (or "the house of Beirut") is a museum and an urban cultural centre focused on the history of Beirut and specifically, the civil war. The original building, also known as the "Barakat building" or the yellow house, is a historic landmark from 1924. The civil war took its toll on the building when Christian militants moved in and took it over. It was sentenced for demolition in 1997 but saved by heritage activitists. The new museum traces the 7000-year history of the city. It has run into some problems: it was supposed to open in 2013 but didn't open until 2016, and then closed again with temporary re-opening in 2017. The significance of this building and its bullet-peppered walls is a symbol of the civil war in Lebanon and what that means for a nation still in turmoil. The museum contains documents, records, and the municipality's archives, all accessible to the public. 

5. 2018 to Look For: Grand Egyptian Museum (Giza Museum), Giza, Egypt

The facade of the new museum. Source.

This coming year has many exciting museum openings, but one that should be at the heart of the global interest is the Grand Egyptian/Giza Museum in Giza, Egypt. Described as the world's largest archaeological museum, it should exhibit the full Tutanhkamun collection with many pieces displayed for the first time. The museum is within 2 km of the Giza pyramids, making for a great day trip where one can see the pyramids through the glass walls of the museum. It should display over 100,000 artifacts and open in late 2018. Objects on display will be from all over Egypt and will be a place of national pride for Egypt, which has undergone heavy political upheaval in the last several years. It will be interesting to see how this museum, poised between the pyramids and the city of Cairo, will act as a balancing act between the history and the future.

Museums around the world are on an exciting precipice: one of intriguing architecture, global collection sharing, and national importance. As museum professionals it is necessary that we look outside of our own bubble to take note--and visit!--what is happening outside of our country and around the world. 

POST COMMUNISM IN THE EASTERN BLOC: GERMANY, HUNGARY, AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC

MUSINGS ABROAD

BY: KRISTEN MCLAUGHLIN

A brief search through Google or a Europe travel guide will show what the majority of post-communist Eastern European museums focus on: World War II, Jewish heritage, and memorialization of atrocities, particularly during the communist era. Portrayals of communism in particular are fascinating, as the Cold War is fairly recent in the memory of the world, with many people who lived through it still around. It can tell us plenty about how a country views heritage preservation, history, storytelling, and what they deem important aspects of their country's identity.

There is a fascination in North America with the Cold War and all it entailed, and what it has meant for politics and society still today. However, I am interested in how some of the smaller museums in post-communist nations decide to tell certain parts of the larger story.

A map showing the Eastern Bloc, or Communist European countries, in red. Source.

To be sure, the aftereffects of communism--or any type of government regime--can last decades or even centuries. The Cold War ended only in 1989, when museological discourse was going through large shifts throughout Europe. Where and when different countries picked up and began working on institutions like museums again varies. I will be looking at three countries and three museums that tell us different ways countries memorialize communism (or not).

Germany -- Stasi Museum, East Berlin

Germany is well-known for recognizing and telling the stories of the atrocities that occurred both within and outside of their borders. Examples like Berlin's Jewish Museum and Holocaust Museum are well known, but there are other museums that hold fascinating stories about the recent past.

Last year I read a book titled Stasiland by Anna Funder, that covered the work of the female journalist as she went to East Berlin to find stories about the Stasi, the secret police (or Ministry of State Security) of East Berlin, created in 1950. It was an insightful look into a world I hadn't known about. The level of surveillance, espionage, and manipulation of everyday people by the Stasi is heart-breaking. There was virtually no part of life that was not monitored by the Stasi in East Berlin. So when the author went to a little museum in the original Stasi office buildings, I knew it was a place I'd want to visit someday (and still do). The museum is run by the Antistalinistische Aktion Berlin-Normannenstrasse (ASTAK), which was founded by civil rights activists in Berlin in 1990. The building was taken over by activists, who wanted all the information in the building kept secure and safe for the future. They wanted it to be kept a memorial and research centre on GDR Stalinism.

Since 1990, ASTAK has used these original Stasi offices as a museum to showcase different exhibitions and provide information, not only on the Stasi itself, but also for citizens, so they could know what and how the government had been keeping track of people or--in some instances--how they disposed of loved ones.

The story of the Stasi is a lesser known one in life behind the Iron Curtain. This museum uses a combination of artifacts and archival records from these very buildings to demonstrate the dangerous level of power and control the Stasi possessed. This museum is where 68 miles of shelved records were saved, as well as 41 million file cards, 1.7 million photos and negatives, and 15,000 bags of shredded remnants, which are now being slowly pieced back together.

Espionage technology on display at the Stasi Museum, which was used by the secret police everyday to monitor the citizens of East Berlin. 

Hungary -- Memento Park, Budapest 

Memento Park, or Szoborpark, is an open-air museum in Budapest, dedicated to the monumental communist era statues of Hungary. There are statues of Lenin, Marx, Engels, and several well-known Hungarian communist leaders. A quote by the architect of the park, Akos Eleod:

"This park is about dictatorship. And at the same time, because it can be talked about, described, built, this park is about democracy. After all, only democracy is able to give the opportunity to let us think freely about dictatorship."

After the fall of the communist regime in Hungary in 1989, many of the communist statues were immediately removed. These form the basis of the current collection in the park. The park was not created as a symbol of heroism for the individuals on display, but rather, as a critique of the ideology that used these statues as symbols of authority. It walks a fine line of memorializing, critiquing, and showcasing, without giving too much power to these statued figures of history.

Welcome to Memento Park. Source.

Czech Republic -- Museum of Communism, Prague 

In the Czech Republic, reminders of communism outside of museums are hard to find, with nothing like Memento Park on display in the nation. Czech people were quick to get rid of anything that reminded them of communism. A memorial for Jan Palach, who set himself on fire to protest the Soviet invasion of the Prague Spring in 1968, sits outside of the National Museum in Prague. This is one of the few public reminders of this time. It lacks the concrete architecture of other communist cities; its grand cathedrals and spires are of a medieval era preceding that of the mid-1900s.

The one thing they do have is the Museum of Communism, which is dedicated to presenting an account of the post World War II communist regime in, what was at the time, Czechoslovakia. However, this is an example of a museum that does not tell an objective story: it tells an emotive one, one with a point of view, where labels are never simply "the regime" but "the oppressive regime".

Diorama set-ups in the Museum of Communism in Prague. Source.

Museums about a topic like this--so life-altering, so dangerous, so dark--can be difficult to keep unbiased, difficult to keep objective. The question becomes: do museums about this type of history need to be objective? Can they have emotion, points of view? Or must they do a better job to convey a neutral point of view on a painful topic so as to not bias visitors?

In fact, the Museum of Communism is a private collection created by US businessman Glenn Spicker in 2001. According to one disgruntled visitor, "As far as I'm concerned, Prague doesn't have a Museum of Communism as of yet . . . for now, at least its streets continue to serve that purpose."


These three museums/memorial are three different examples of how some post-communist countries are choosing to remember the roughly 50 year period of their history. If anyone has visited the old Eastern Bloc and can recommend good/interesting/difficult museums to visit, leave a comment with your suggestions!

MUSEUMS AS SITES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

MUSINGS ABROAD

BY: KRISTEN MCLAUGHLIN

Over the last six months or so of me writing the Musings Abroad column, I often think about how the museums I write about work together on an international level. In an increasingly globalized world, what do museums do, both actively and passively, to change, develop, enhance or decrease relationships between different countries, their governments, and their heritage/art institutions?

A Japanese McDonald's sign from 1975 from the National Museum of American History. Source.

What do I mean by international relations between museums? 

Museums are not the neutral and objective spaces many people have liked to believe over the past half a century; museums are political and contribute to social change on a local and wider scale. Museums have the ability to become symbols of cities or nations. Museums contribute to international relations by exhibiting collections from different nations and loaning objects across borders. Museum professionals are working more and more abroad, training in one country and working in another, bringing different policies and methods to different countries. Some museums work directly with different governments to ensure artifacts or remains are repatriated or exhibited, such as museums around the globe working with the Haida in repatriating their ancestral remains with communities and the Canadian/BC government.

Should Museums Care About International Relations?

So far I have made it sound as if international relations are secondary to a museum's purpose as a heritage preservation institution. Rather, I believe international relations are integral to those museums that have international collections. In a world that is becoming more and more globalized, our museums can no longer isolate themselves from their sister institutions across the world. By being proactive in building relationships abroad, museums can be at the forefront of active engagement and participation in issues wider than themselves.

Examples

International Entities - ICOM and UNESCO

ICOM, or the International Council of Museums, is a network of over 37,000 members who are a part of the global museum community. They are a leading entity in museum ethics. There is a specific ICOM Canada website for Canadian entities or individuals interested.

UNESCO or United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, is perhaps one of the more well-known global heritage entities, focused on heritage protection on both a tangible and intangible scale and on world heritage sites. Recently they've been working with museums in war-torn areas to attempt to provide protection and planning for collections.

Individual Museums - The Art Gallery of Ontario

Last month I attended the Ontario Museum Association (OMA) conference, where I sat in on the talk "Ontario Museums and Cultural Diplomacy". An interesting case study was the exhibition Small Wonders, on the Boxwood Miniatures exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario. I had seen the exhibit myself and was completely blown away by some of the work they had done in breaking down the layers of these objects and comparing them to worldwide collections. At the conference, Dr. Alexandra Suda from the AGO talked about how it was truly an international collaboration between different museums, not only in researching different collections for their exhibition but in sending the exhibition to two other museums: The Met Cloisters in the USA and The Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands. This demonstrated all the work that goes on behind-the-scenes of an exhibition.

Sample object from the exhibit Small Wonders at the AGO. Source.

Individual Museums - The British Museum

One example stands out as to how cultural exchange can greatly affect political relationships, both negatively and positively. The exhibit in 2005-2006 Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia, was a global exhibition put on by the British Museum that was planned to travel worldwide as well. Some of the objects in the exhibit were loaned by two Iranian museums, the National Museum in Tehran and the Persepolis Museum. This exhibition occurred during a time of strained political relations with Iran because of its increased nuclear armament. The British Museum had agreed to loan the Cyrus Cylinder in return for their loans; however, with increased political tensions the British Museum released statements declaring they would wait to make sure they were loaning the object into a safe environment. This caused great strife with the Iranian government, which threatened to sever all cultural relations and accusing the Director of wasting time and making excuses.

When the cylinder was finally loaned in 2010, it provided a chance for other discussions to slowly start up again. This entire situation is demonstrative of the fact that museums and other cultural institution do in fact have great political power.

The Cyrus Cylinder. Source.

The Future

I am interested in seeing what the future of international relationships are through museums. We are well aware of presidents and prime ministers traveling the globe on trade missions, discussing topics such as job creation, trade deals, and resources. These talks frequently take place in a cultural context; being shown different dances, cultural practices, important locations, and more. Despite this, the topics of cultural exchange do not seem to make the headlines.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau write messages on traditional Ema wooden plaques at Tokyo's Meiji Jingsu Shrine, one example of many that incorporates a country's cultural values into political visits. Source.

Perhaps this is because the work is being done in the background by different cultural institutions within these nations: partnerships are made, exchanges happen, and citizens from different countries learn about others around the globe by visiting. Is it up to our individual museums and art galleries to create those transnational relationships? Are museums meant to be global or local? Can they be both? These are the questions I want to leave you with as you visit your next museum. Think about the exhibits. Who have they worked in partnership with? Are objects from the local area or from abroad? Where do their staff, visiting interns, and visitors come from? Should museums be doing more or less to contribute to international relations?

WHERE DO THEY STAND?: FILIPINO MUSEUMS IN THE LAST CENTURY

MUSINGS ABROAD

BY: KRISTEN MCLAUGHLIN

Introduction

The Philippines has been a country of recent international interest. From Cold War-esque standoffs with China over land claims to President Rodrigo Duterte's contested war on drugs consisting of the murders of thousands, the Philippines is currently undergoing a major shift in policy, mentality, and government.

Whenever a country gets a new, questionable leader, something that I always wonder about first is the status of culture: museums, heritage sites, archaeology, art, and so on. What happens to it? Where does it sit on a list for someone like Duterte and his government? Today, I will be writing a brief overview of the situation.

The Philippines

A map of the Philippines and surround nations. Source.

The Philippines is a collection of 7,107 islands located in the junction of three seas: The South China Sea, the Philippine Sea, and the Celebes Sea. The Philippines was not always one nation, and in fact has a long and complex history of trade between islands as well as with China and Japan, as far back as the 3rd century, with Muslim Arabic settlements landing in the southern islands in the 1300s and retaining control until the 1600s.

In the 1500s Magellan, a Portuguese explorer who worked for the Spanish crown, landed in the southern region. Despite his death soon after, Spain continued to send explorers to the islands and retained control for roughly 356 years.

In the l898, the Spanish-American war changed the face of the Philippines, when the US attacked a Spanish base in Manila. Spain conceded defeat and gave control of the islands to the USA. One month later the Philippines declared independence under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo. The USA was strongly opposed, which led to guerrilla war until 1901. Under the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934, the Philippines was granted independence in 1946 and became the Republic of the Philippines. We can tell from this basic summary that the Philippines has centuries of colonial history, which still affects it today.


Making Museums in the Philippines: 1901-1998


What has been the trend in Philippine museum development in the last century? The first government museum was created under American colonial policy as the National Museum of the Philippines. In the first quarter of the 20th century, places that were rapidly urbanizing, such as Manila, became gathering places for Filipino artists. It was a time of museum creation. During WWII, much heritage was lost with the invasion of opposing forces. Under 3 years of Japanese occupation, the museum division was dismantled and approximately 95% of the museum's collection holdings was destroyed. This demonstrates war's destructive toll on a nation's cultural heritage and patrimony.

The National Museum of the Philippines in Manila. Source.

The Marcos era of the 70s was seen as the time of "high art", with many art galleries and cultural centres - as well as military museums - being opened. With the 80s and 90s and a new democratic government, these systems were reorganized to be more educational, local, and scientific; for example, this is when the Archaeology Division of the government came into being to help promote pre-Spanish Philippines history. More recently, ecomuseums have become a popular trend to showcase traditional craftwork.

Around 2011 and 2012, the government came under fire from journalists for not supporting museums and heritage conservation or protection enough, with national museums operating on budgets so small air conditioning had to be shut down on weekends and important collections left to grow moldy and rot.

Cultural Policies Under Duterte

But what does all of this history mean for the present? What are the museums in the Philippines today? One place to start is by looking at how the current president, Duterte, sees culture and heritage and if it has a place on his list (above or below murder?).

Man of the People or Human Rights Violator? Rodrigo Duterte. Source.

As of yet, all that I can find are policies on economic growth, the decentralization of power, and of course, his war on drugs. Based on his typical dictator-style leadership, it is possible to assume that he may promote certain aspects of culture if only to support the continued promotion of Philippines history and self-identity, similar to the Marcos era of the 1970s.


Museums and Repatriation

So far, it is interesting to see how museums are functioning under Durterte's leadership. Earlier this year, he made the Presidential Museum virtually accessible to everyone in the Philippines for free. The Presidential Museum houses artifacts and documents pertaining to the leadership of the Republic of the Philippines.

He has also been a strong supporter of repatriation of Filipino artifacts, particularly those that tell a story of Filipino independence. For example, as recently as July 2017, he has been vocal about the USA returning the Balangiga Bells from a 1901 Filipino uprising and particularly brutal US backlash. The bells have not yet been returned.

The Balangiga Bells are currently displayed in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Source.

Memorializing Duterte Regime: Now and in the Future

Interestingly, two museums have been created in Duterte's honour: one in his childhood home and one in the high school he attended. Both museums focus on Duterte himself and his assent to power.

This may tell us more than we realize about the focus of museums and culture under Duterte, and how he wants to be remembered into the future. The idea of Duterte and his current regime is a hot button topic, both in the Philippines and around the world. Despite not a lot of information on cultural policies and museums being out there, it will be interesting to see what happens over the next several years in this regard.

Do you have any thoughts on the current leader of the Philippines and what it may mean for cultural patrimony on the islands?

PORTRAYING MEMORY: SOUTHEAST ASIA

MUSINGS ABROAD

BY: KRISTEN MCLAUGHLIN

How do we deal with painful topics in museums? Is it the duty of a museum to memorialize atrocities? What do we validate? Who is the victor and who is the victim, and how do we make those choices to present these issues?

This is not just an issue in North America. We have our own dark histories on this continent to face and come to terms with, such as the residential school system, the Chinese head tax, Japanese internment camps, and more. However, in thinking about how we should tell these stories in Canada or the United States of America, I believe looking abroad can be helpful. Too often institutions turn in on themselves to try and figure out the best way to present a painful story without realizing that help with difficult topics or problems can be found with the aid of other institutions.

After all, it is sad to say, but dark and painful histories reside in almost all corners of this world.

Remembering

The concept of museums and remembering is an interesting and important topic. The idea of collective/national memory is not a real thing, and yet museums often simplify their stories to sound this way in order to get a point across, even with good intentions. "Collective" implies that that dominant narrative concerning memory is the only narrative, particularly with regard to traumatic times. It is a fine line that a museum must walk when displaying atrocities, taking particular care that stories that might not otherwise be told are brought to light. 

In Southeast Asia there are many museums dedicated to memory, contentious or not. With histories of colonialism, war, occupation, and genocide, there are a variety of museums that try to tackle these topics in different ways. I am looking at only 3 examples, but there are many more.


1. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

Having visited these sites myself, I can say that I've never experienced anything like what I did here. Tuol Sleng is a school-turned-prison during the Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge Regime in the 1970s. After Pol Pot was overthrown, some sites were kept in their state, which was often abysmal. Tuol Sleng, for example, has cells that had been built for prisoners and objects like torture tools are left in the rooms they were used in. There are photographs of all of the Cambodians still missing as you walk the space.

.Cells built in the old classrooms. Photo courtesy of Kristen McLaughlin

Tuol Sleng. Photo courtesy of Kristen McLaughlin

The Killing Fields at Choeung Ek are approximately a half an hour away from Tuol Sleng. It is a memorial that was built around the mass graves of thousands of Cambodians. There are informative signs and tributes throughout the park.

The Killing Fields Memorial and mass graves. Source.

These two are not quite museums but rather monuments of memory with information for visitors unfamiliar with the history. They stand to remind visitors and younger generations of the genocide and that it can never be forgotten or repeated. The subject matter is incredibly difficult and sometimes nearly impossible to imagine. However, the impact of the Khmer Rouge is still being felt throughout Cambodia and the country feels such reminders are necessary.

2. Tokyo, Japan: Women's Active Museum on War and Peace

This is a private museum focusing on the tense subject of comfort women. Comfort women, as they are euphemistically called, were girls and women captured by the Japanese army (in South Korea, Manchuria, and the Philippines, mainly) who were then forced into militarized sexual slavery in World War II. For many years, the Japanese government ignored these events and still argue against the facts. This lack of acknowledgement for years of abuse against women is intricately tied into the idea of nationalist pride in Japan and how the nation commemorates memory. For example, the Yasukuni Shrine--a museum-type shrine dedicated to the memory of Japanese veterans--is also the burial site of war criminals; Japanese leaders continue to visit the site, which has become a source of debate. They acknowledge the controversial figures as heroes and ignore more difficult topics.

WAM Museum in Tokyo, Japan. Source.

This museum is a strong statement against the government memory. The exhibits are stories told by survivors, many of whom have struggled their entire lives to get over the trauma. It is the only museum in Japan that collects, saves, and exhibits evidence and materials concerning comfort women. It holds special exhibitions once a year. It is also a socially active museum against sexual violence. This is an example of a museum that must take a political stand to get the point across and to make sure that certain events in history are not forgotten. After all, silencing and forgetting can be just as politically charged as remembering.

Recently, the Japanese government has agreed to pay surviving comfort women for their pain. However, this is not enough for the women and they want Japan to admit it committed crimes, which the government continues to refuse to do. Read more here.

Different women who suffered, during occupation and today.

Photo 1 source and photo 2 source.

3. Seoul, South Korea: Architecture, the Seoul Museum of History, and The National Museum

South Korea was officially occupied by Japan from 1910-1945. Although South Koreans were theoretically Japanese citizens, they were more frequently treated as a conquered nation. From the 1930s until 1945, a process of assimilation was implemented by Japan, forcing them to speak Japanese and attempting to erase many aspects of South Korean culture. This also led to much South Korean art and artifacts to be taken by Japan and subsequently placed into their museums. Today there is still a fight to regain ownership of these by South Korea.

So how does South Korea attempt to tell this story of colonialism through their museums?

Despite the horrors and repression under Japanese colonialism, South Korean museums do not focus heavily on this time period, focused more on obtaining their artifacts. Still, unlike Japan, the painful occupation period is noted in museums, such as in the Seoul Museum of History permanent exhibitions. Korea's National Museum has also held exhibitions on Japanese colonialism, such as "Collecting Asian Objects in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945" that ran in 2014. However, even then the museum director adamantly denied the exhibition was political.

Architecture

Buildings can also be places of memory, whether they are kept as reminders or demolished. The South Korean government demolished the Governor-General's Building in 1995, a building that was created under Japanese occupation. It was decided this demolition would create a new "national spirit and energy"; another way of looking at how countries choose to remember (or not remember) events. This also led to the creation of the new National Museum, which was at one point housed in the GGB.

 The GGB before it was demolished in 1996. Source.

Summary

Through the examples of Cambodia, Japan, and South Korea, we can see how museums, memorials, and buildings are used to remember (or not remember) past trauma. These examples are not meant to show a better or worse way of memorializing such histories, but rather, simply to demonstrate the different ways in which they are told. In some cases, the government is the big push behind remembering, such as in South Korea; in other cases, they are the very obstacle to overcome, such as in Japan.

It is nearly impossible to lump a nation and its people all into one mentality; where some people may want to remember, others may not. Where some want to be political, others may not. It is a fine line that museum professionals must walk when dealing with sensitive and painful issues and memories. What I find important to remember is that heritage institutions all over the world must deal with such issues and that museums should keep up international dialogue to better understand how to (or not to) exhibit such issues. 

FINDING DIRECTION IN INDIA'S MUSEUMS

MUSINGS ABROAD

BY: KRISTEN MCLAUGHLIN

India is a nation bursting with rich history, archaeology, monuments, and intangible heritage like dance, song, costumes, and more. It is a country bustling with life and vibrancy and fast-paced change. However, many of India's museums do not match the quality of sites and collections. On the cusp of an economic shift, attention has turned to just how India is displaying this heritage and history and the possible benefits of creating more popular, engaging, and organized museums.

There is a need to identify opportunity through museum planning and management in India's museums. Currently there is much lamentation within the country regarding a lack of audience, disorganization, government control, and skilled labour. This article will look at some past discussions about India's museums and possible directions for the future. Despite current obstacles, there is growing movement within India, particularly with youth, to increase the strength and message of India's museums. It is an exciting time!

Brief History

Indian museology dates back to the late 18th and 19th centuries, when the Asiatic Society was formed in Kolkata (Calcutta) in 1784 by British colonizers creating documentation records on the cultural heritage that existed in India. Their first museum, the Imperial Museum, is now the Indian Museum and one of the largest in the country.

The Indian Museum in Kolkata. Source.

Even before this, though, the rulers of India and lesser nobles often collected stone and bronze sculpture, textiles, paintings, and other artifacts, similar to neighboring countries and ancient Southeast Asia.

Because of this history, one may expect India to have some of the most advanced museums in the world. This is not the case. There are many contributing factors to the lack of strong museum presences in the country, but it frequently comes down to a lack of physical and economic resources; museums are not the priority of most countries, particularly when there are larger, more life and death issues to deal with. There is also a perception among citizens that museums are mainly for tourists, so improving museums has not been on the social and economic development calendar. According to Barry Lord of Lord Cultural Resources, most museums in India lack basic requirements for professional operation.

The Numbers

India's government-run museums recorded less than 100,000 visitors for tickets priced at 30 cents, as compared to the Louvre's 8.6 million visitors with full-priced tickets. However, this is not a new occurrence. In 2009 India's Ministry of Culture released an impressive 14-point agenda promising reform for museums, such as more interactive displays, outreach and educational programs, and more. In 2011 however, a UNESCO report revealed that the country's major museums still suffered from a lack of maintenance and sometimes basic lighting and signage. 

"But at the core are deep-rooted issues of archaic policies, lack of autonomy, and no skilled manpower. Our excellent collections are proof of a rich socio-cultural history, but when museums act as mere closed-door guardians of treasures instead of disseminating them, attractively and intelligently, to a wide audience, they lose their purpose."  -- Madhumitha Srinivasan, The Hindu

Much of this is the result of art and culture being consistently marginalized in the country's budgeting, as all museums rely on the government for staffing, day-to-day operations, and basic supplies. However, the government is not willing to pay the fees necessary for training, staff, and preservation that would entice the experienced people needed. In India's 2017-2018 budget, less than 1% (about 0.13%) has been given to the Ministry of Culture, which manages libraries, cultural institutions, archives, as well as museums.

The Big Concerns

According to Vinod Daniel from the Australian conservation network AusHeritage, there are six major problems facing Indian museums today.

1. Director: appointing a permanent director to allow for time to transform a vision into reality.
2. Autonomy: All museums in India report to the government, which can be challenging. Implementing a system such as a board would allow for more freedom.
3. Staffing: Most staff in museums in India do not have any form of training, whether that be collections, curation, interpretation, programming, etc. A proper selection process should become the norm. Organization is a serious problem.
4. Audience Engagement: Currently, citizens of India are not particularly attached to their museums. Last year, a fire burned up 70% of the collection in a national museum in New Delhi, and most people did not know it had happened. A problem is a way to make audiences want to come and to make them feel connected, citizens as well as tourists.
5. Collections: Museums need to rethink how they manage their collections. There are no collection development strategies in Indian museums, which would help with organization, streamlining accessioning processes, and more.
6. Intangible Heritage: India is particularly unique because of its strong intangible culture in song, dance, art, textiles, etc. A way to bring these aspects into the museum fold may help with development strategies, tourism, and more.

Source.

Solutions?

• -Allow for more museum autonomy; implementing boards, trusts, and other operating structures rather than government
• Create a museum that is important and topical to gain attention from civilians: as suggested by Indian MP Shashi Tharoor, a museum on British colonialism in India and the detrimential aftershocks would be a strong starting point in gaining the attention of citizens and the importance of museums in preserving relevant history
• -Consult with museums around the world and create global ties: for example, this year the ICOM (International Council of Museums) International Committee on Museum Management conference is taking place in the Vishakhapatnam and Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh!
• -Bring in employees and interns from across the globe for different perspectives and experiences
• -Look for unique strategies that use little money and resources (such as looking to small museums in other countries)
• -Pick the strategies that work best for your specific institution. Start small, such as writing policies.
• -Fight to get the community interested and invested in your museum in order to create social capital.

India is a country with a large and diverse history and endless possibilities for the future when it comes to promoting these aspects. When it comes to museums, though, it seems the country is stuck in a rut. India may have to break away from the traditional government-run only museum model and find the policies, practices, and goals that work for their museum's specific needs. However, at present there seems to be no positive shift in museum management in the country. With a growing interest from India's youth in working in museums and the importance of audience engagement, perhaps they will be the ones to create new solutions to old problems.

THE ECONOMUSEUM: TRANSLATING PERU'S PAST INTO A VIABLE ECONOMIC FUTURE

MUSINGS ABROAD

BY: KRISTEN MCLAUGHLIN

Hello! You may recognize my name from the Conservation Tips & Tricks column. However, I am taking the summer to explore another passion of mine: museums around the world!

Source.

So come along for the ride over the next few months as I delve into different issues, trends, successes, opportunities, and more across the globe!

This article concerns a big interest of mine, one that I've talked about in classes, in my free time, bored friends/family with, etc. That interest is the economuseum. An economuseum is a specific network of traditional craft museums throughout Europe and North America (For Canada, 2 in BC, 1 in Saskatchewan, and 33 in Quebec!). They utilize traditional crafts for tourism and local economic benefit; by sharing traditions with visitors, communities can boost their economy and feel ownership over their local heritage. It usually involves visitors walking through a space and watching traditional crafts, asking questions, buying wares, etc.

One country where I have seen the success of the economuseum (of sorts) is Peru. 

 

Source.

Now, before I delve into the current economuseum situation in Peru, I have to give a brief overview as to why they started to appear in the first place. There are two main reasons:

1) The Ministry of Culture

2) Looting problems

Ministry of Culture

The Ministry of Culture was created in 2010. It has had several different iterations in the past hundred years with different managerial and policy styles, many based on strict European values as opposed to Peruvian. The government has always used a top-down enforcement method when it comes to heritage protection. This is how it has always dealt with its cultural heritage issues, particularly the antiquities black market. There is a high level of mistrust between rural communities and the government because of this ownership issue. 

Looting

Looting of archaeological sites is a rampant problem. The exact numbers are not certain but it has been reported that over half of the country's known sites have been looted. The government rarely gets to the root of the problem, which is often poverty and job crises in rural areas leading to looting for survival. Looting is a solution to the problem of feeding and supporting your family. There needs to be different solutions from within the communities themselves to limit looting. One way to do that is to bring economic sustainability through the heritage, rather than selling the heritage.

 Bird's eye view of looter holes at the Pakatnamu site.

Source.

Movable Culture and the Economy

The Peruvian government has always had a strong focus on protecting archaeological and monumental history: Machu Picchu, Huaca del Sol, etc.: big eye-catching sites that tourists visit. However, there is also such a thing as movable culture, which is often traditional craftwork such as ceramics and textiles, and intangibles like dance and song. 

 

Photo courtesy of Kristen McLaughlin.

Why I bring this up is because movable culture is not a focus of the government, when in reality this could be an answer to the looting and economic crises that are occurring in Peru. Some groups have already thought of this idea: using traditional crafts to promote and protect regional heritage. This is done through:

Citizen Collaboration

Or the idea of working with a community to bring benefit to them. Oftentimes this is done by NGOs, heritage groups, archaeologists, researchers, and others. Some examples are local museums, community history projects, educational planning with schools, craft workshops, and more.

HOWEVER: there are some problems with this concept, such as that you cannot simply pop in and do what you want. Collaboration is a long process and even though outside groups may have ideas they think can benefit the community, they must work with community values, ideas, and goals. It is their vision that must be brought to the forefront. Otherwise, passion disappears, funding runs out, the project is not economically sustainable, and looting and economic depressions continue.

Finally... The Economuseum Concept in Peru

In the last 10 years or so, this has become a method of working with communities in Peru. The goal is to create something that is economically sustainable, practical, and positive for a community. It is becoming more and more common, at least among heritage workers in Peru, that work cannot be done without involving the community in a beneficial way. This has taken a myriad of forms such as archaeological field schools, local museums, tours, local festivals and fairs, craft workshops, youth education, and more.

Example: San Jose de Moro

To prove my point I will talk about the community of San Jose de Moro in Northern Peru. 

 

Aside from being a small town of about 5000 people, it is also an ancient Moche burial site from around 400-1000 AD, with some of the best preserved Priestess burials in the country and some of the most beautiful fine line Moche ceramic pottery.

 

Examples of Moche fine line pottery (remakes). Source.

 

The ceramics workshop and visitor centre on site. Source. 

I attended an archaeological field school here in 2012, and my aim today is to focus on an NGO that has made a huge difference in the community through the Economuseum concept: Sustainable Preservation Initiative. 

Sustainable Preservation Initiative

SPI's website states that “many of humanity's most important heritage sites co-exist with some of the world's poorest people.  Their combined futures are in danger. SPI creates economic stability by giving communities the tools to be self-reliant, leveraging their historic sites responsibly and freeing them to thrive.”

How it started was a goal to create an economically sustainable future for residents of San Jose de Moro without having to resort to looting such an important site. SPI knew it would have to include the promotion and connection to their heritage. They created a ceramics shop and visitor centre on the site; Julio creates fine line replicas and sells them as such to tourists, field school students, etc. (Having seen them in person, they are truly beautiful!) He has local students who learn the craft from him. This has led to the women in San Jose de Moro taking initiative and creating their own textile business and tourism industry, where they provide home cooked lunches for visitors, and a local blacksmith now makes archaeological tools. Looting at the site has been dramatically reduced.  

 

 Local students from the ceramics workshop show off their wares. Source. 

Visitors often come to see the site, which now conveniently allows them to stop and see the ceramics and textiles being made. They will often buy them. To date, direct revenues to the local community have reached and most likely surpassed $50,000 (USD), with the project representing a return on investment within four years! This is significant because the people of SJM make $10/on average; this return means 5000 work days. 

Because of the success of SPI projects in Peru, the Ministry of Culture recently signed an agreement with SPI in 2015 that they would use this bottom-up economic method of cultural protection in rural communities. This is a HUGE step for what has so frequently been a dominating government with central control from Lima. In this way, cultural heritage will stand a better chance of being protected in the long-term.  

If you have any questions, thoughts, or examples of other successful growing economuseums, let me know in the comments!