Tag Archives: Museum

Call for Papers on Co-Creative Public Archaeology

Reblogged from Archaeology, Museums & Outreach:

I will appreciate any feedback of interest or forwarding this call to others you think might be interested:

Call for Papers for the 79th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology Meetings, April 24 - 27 Austin

Co-Creation, the Public and the Archaeological Record

Robert Connolly (University of Memphis) and Elizabeth Bollwerk (University of Virginia)

Co-creation in public archaeology is a means to engage and empower citizens to become stakeholders of the archaeological record.  

Read more… 247 more words

Great opportunity for my friends that work in Museums.
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Google Art Project

I’ve played with Google Art Project since its inception, but recent renovations make me very excited! If you’re unfamiliar with Google Art Project, it is an online “museum,” a repository of high resolution images and 3D gallery views of art collections from more than 40 countries and 151 collections. Here’s a brief video outlining how it works:

If you teach Art, Art History, or want to incorporate artworks into your classroom, it is a great free resource to explore collections from around the world. Students can even collect and curate their own works. They have several lesson plans and ideas in their education section.

Best Online and Interactive International Museums

Very few educators can take their class, hope on an airplane, skirt through customs, and visit the Hague. Here is a brief list of great museums that have wonderful online exhibits that can help to bring the museum and its contents to your students. This list is hardly all inclusive, please add your own!!

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum - The purpose of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial is to record the events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to educate the populace about the horrors of nuclear warfare. The powerful museum has numerous online exhibits, videos, images, lesson plans, and more.

National Museum of Australia - One of the largest and most expansive museums in the world, the National Museum of Australia highlights the Natural Sciences, the Indigenous Peoples of Australia, and Art from around the world. Selected exhibits have interactive online components.

Anne Frank Museum - the online Anne Frank Museum includes documents in high resolution (including images), video, and a 3D tour of the apartment that housed the Frank house in Amsterdam.

The Uffizi Museum - The Digital Archives of the Uffizi museum are hosted online (not all works have been digitized, new pieces added regularly). This is an excellent tool to help students and educators explore the amazing art housed at this museum.

Rijksmuseum - The art from this Dutch museum has been catalogued, digitized, and put online. Each is accompanied with detailed history and, in some cases, external links and information. A wonderful site to explore.

British Museum - The British Museum is one of the largest and most expansive in the world. Selected exhibits are online.

The Hermitage Museum - The museum has a virtual tour of the museum online! You can now walk through the galleries (with 3D imagery) and examine individual works in their selected spaces.

The Louvre - The louvre also has virtual tours of the museum galleries. Walk through the halls and enjoy the art individually or as a collective whole.

AP Art History Students Enjoy their Thanks from Google

A couple months ago, I took my AP Art History students on a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center. I decided to employ a bit of an experiment with them using Google Goggles - just to play around with the program and explore its potential for application in the classroom. I posted it in a blog post: “Field Trip Experiment – Kids Using Google Goggles at the Museum.”

That post was picked up by Google and I was contacted by their development team who was interested in how we applied this and where we saw it going. It was a great experience to talk with them. As a thank you, Google sent us some shwag to enjoy.

 

 

Vatican Goes High-Tech in an Attempt to Preserve its Library

The Vatican has one of the most extensive collections of scholarly, religious, and literary collections in its tomes. However, the cost of its maintenance and the realities that even the best resources will not preserve them forever, has had the Holy See looking for a more permanent and high tech solution. Many see the use of technology as not only serving a conservation need, but also allowing greater access to its collection.

To learn more about the Vatican library and its endeavors to preserve its collection, see the article at MSNBC.

Field Trip Experiment – Kids Using Google Goggles at the Museum

Recently, my AP Art History kids and I took a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center. I decided that it would be a great opportunity for the students to play with Google Goggles - we could see how it works in practice and I could bug my students for input on the best ways to employ this tool for school. If you’re not familiar with Google Goggles, check out this video below:

I gave them the opportunity to earn extra credit and encouraged those without Smart Phones to share. I gave them the assignment to use Google Goggles on a minimum of two (2) pieces (they could do more if they wanted) and to answer the following questions:

Were the results quick? 

Were the results accurate? 

Does the information appear thorough?

What type of resources does Google locate? 

Does it solely return secondary resources or primary as well? 

Any other observations of note?

I also encouraged them to include pieces that did *not* pull up on on Google Goggles, as we want to see its breadth. The students were eager to use the tools on the trip – borrowing each other’s and even my own phone to try it out. We noticed some stark differences between sculpture and paintings, as well as Modern Art and “Classical.” Sculpture would often not pull up, unless you took the photo from a very specific angle (and even then, you had to take two or three pictures). Paintings were more readily able to be found via Google Image search – the exception being Modern Art with more saturated colors (such as a Rothko). As per usual, I was thoroughly impress with what my students produced.

Here are a few examples of their findings (some with pictures):

Overall, the students found Google Goggles easy (and even fun) to use. However, it does need some further development. Still, they almost universally told me that they would be using it on all future museum visits to learn more about the art around them. One also mentioned that she would be going to Europe with her family during Spring Break and that she planned on giving it a whirl in Italy with the monuments.

“Treasure of Benghazi” Stolen From Tumultuous Libya

After the death of Muammar Gaddafi  has provided a brief respite for Libyans. As the civilization begins to take a catalogue, one of the greatest heists in history has been publicized. The so called “Treasure of Benghazi,” the world’s largest collection of gold and silver coins (many dating to the time of Alexander the Great) have gone missing from a bank vault in Libya.

Antiquities dealers believe this could be the largest archaeological heist in history. Some have speculated the the looted coins are now in Egypt. To learn more about this, see the article in the BBC or the Sydney Morning Herald.

Da Vinci Forgery is Authentic – Worth Millions

Art Historian and Oxford Professor Martin Kemp has officially declared his belief that “La Belle Principessa,” once believed to be a stunning da Vinci forgery, is in fact an original piece by the famed artist. The piece purchased in auction for a little over $20,000 may in fact be worth millions.

To learn more about the piece Kemp’s research, see the article on BBC News.

The Fall of Zahi Hawass (via Smithsonian)

On the wake of the recent Zahi Hawass story, Smithsonian Magazine has done an in-depth analysis of the man, the politics, and the state of Egypt.

The Fall of Zahi Hawass – The Smithsonian Magazine

It is not as dramatic as the collapse of an ancient Egyptian dynasty, but the abrupt fall of Zahi Hawass is sending ripples around the planet. The archaeologist who has been in charge of Egypt’s antiquities for nearly a decade has been abruptly sacked in an overhaul of the country’s cabinet.

The antipathy toward Hawass in Egypt may be difficult to grasp in the West, where he is typically found on American television, fearlessly tracking down desert tombs, unearthing mummies and bringing new life to Egypt’s dusty past. But in Egypt he has been a target of anger among young protesters who helped depose President Hosni Mubarak in February. Hawass had been accused of corruption, shoddy science and having uncomfortably close connections with the deposed president and first lady⎯all of which he has vociferously denied. Many young archaeologists also are demanding more jobs and better pay⎯and they complain Hawass has failed to deliver. “He was the Mubarak of antiquities,” said Nora Shalaby, a young Egyptian archaeologist who has been active in the revolution.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Fall-of-Zahi-Hawass.html#ixzz1SUm4yKHA

 

Smithsonian Postpones Belitung Exhibit in the Midst of Controversy

The Smithsonian Museum’s Sackler Gallery has formally postponed its exhibit of the Belitung shipwreck in order to address the controversy surrounding the artifacts origins from a looted shipwreck site. I have posted earlier about the controversy (see this earlier article for context) – the American Institute of Archaeology issued a formal statement condemning the exhibition.

The Washington Post reports that the museum’s curator, Julian Raby, has formally put the exhibit on hold to further consult with professional archaeologists and organizations. The concern for displaying artifacts procured via looting is that it continues to support the illegal trade and furthers the demand for materials regardless of the legality in how the objects are obtained. To read more about the decision, check out the Washington Post article.