Happy Birthday MUA Blog

Happy birthday to the MUA blog, which recently crossed the one year mark.

Web Projects Update Part 1: The Museum Anthropology Blog

Museum anthropologists (and friends) in, and beyond, the Council for Museum Anthropology (CMA) may be wondering about the state of Museum Anthropology (MUA) and the story behind its spinoff projects, the Museum Anthropology weblog (which you are reading right now) and the seemingly out-of-the-blue emergence of Museum Anthropology Review (MAR). I will report on all of these projects in full at the fall CMA/AAA meetings, but I can note a few highlights and contexts here. To keep these postings relatively brief, I will divide them up, covering the blog, MAR and MUA separately. Today I will touch briefly on the blog, saving the others for forthcoming posts.

The blog is pretty easy to explain. It is coming up on its one year anniversary, which will fall on July 27. Last summer, while I was waiting to finalize the fall 2006 issue of Museum Anthropology (it was then being typeset, I think), I decided to experiment with setting up a blog on which news and views related to the journal could be shared, as could news from the field. Under this later heading could come such things as exhibition notices, calls for papers, etc. Like all weblogs, this one has ebbed and flowed with the availability of content and time to spare. Besides my time and that of the journal editorial assistants who have helped with it, the effort has cost nothing and been reasonably well recieved. This reception is measured in direct feedback to the editorial office as well as visitation statistics and internet chatter, as when posts to the site are linked to or discussed on other blogs. Thankfully, various agregators, such as MuseumBlogs.org have helped people find the site, as have friends such as The Attic and Kim Christen. With one year under its belt, I anticipate keeping going with the blog in something like the current form during the next year. Please keep the blog in mind as a way to spread news of your exhibition (editorial, conference, etc.) projects. We are happy to recieve press releases (etc.) and will do all that we can to note relevant news items.

PS: While enjoying the Museum Anthropology blog, also consider checking out the CMA's own redesigned website. It still needs some fine tuning, but it is up and running and can be found here.

Congratulations to Philbrook, Fred Jones Museums

Congratulations to everyone involved in the news, announced yesterday, that the renowned Adkins collection would be shared by Tulsa, Oklahoma's Philbrook Museum and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. I am especially pleased for my friend Christina Burke, a museum anthropologist who serves as Philbrook's Curator of Native American and Non-Western Art. Here are are the opening paragraphs of the Philbrook's press release.

TULSA - Ted M. Riseling, Chairman of the Adkins foundation Board, announced today that the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma have been jointly selected to receive the Eugene B. Adkins collection of art. The joint partnership by Philbrook and OU was among many proposals submitted by leading museums across the country.

The Adkins Collection, valued at approximately $50 million, is among the most important private collections in the nation of works by the Taos artists as well as Native American works of art. It includes more than 3,300 objects in a number of categories, including 1,100 two-dimensional works, 370 pieces of pottery, over 1,600 examples of jewelry and silverwork, and nearly 250 pieces of other Native arts.

The selection of the Philbrook-OU partnership was announced at a press conference in Tulsa at the Philbrook Museum of Art today, which included Riseling, Randall Suffolk, Executive Director of the Philbrook Museum of Art, and David Boren, President of the University of Oklahoma.

Fine the full release here and the OU release here.

Who Owns the Past? (Reviewed)

I continue to be distracted by worthy obligations in Oklahoma where I am working for the summer, but I managed to see another valuable review published on Museum Anthropology Review today. Building on earlier MUA and MAR contributions on heritage and cultural property policy is this review by former Museum Anthropology editor Christina Kreps. Christina offers a detailed and engaged assessment of the edited collection Who Owns the Past? Cultural Policy, Cultural Property and the Law. Given the high level of interest in these topics generally and the contention surrounding this book specifically, I anticipate that Christina's review will find a significant readership. Speaking personally, I am especially appreciative of Christina's continued support for the broader Museum Anthropology effort. Find her review here.

News from The Logan Museum of Anthropology

Logan Museum Accreditation

The American Association of Museums has awarded accreditation to the Logan Museum of Anthropology at Beloit College. See the press release here.

Logan Museum Collections Accessibility Project

The Logan Museum is engaged in a multi-stage collections accessibility project, funded in 2006-08 by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a private bequest. The project is improving preservation of and access to the Logan's extensive archaeological and ethnographic collections. Please check our regular project updates here. With the current stage of the project nearly at the halfway point, we have examined and rehoused 33,568 North American archaeological objects, representing 4,974 separate catalogue numbers, in 14 newly acquired archival storage cabinets. These collections include material from 44 states. We have also packed and moved nearly 8,000 ethnology collection objects into a temporary on-site storage area, and we are now preparing the permanent storage area for new archival compact-storage equipment. Over the past year we have trained 15 students in collections handling and inventory control.

Exhibitions @ Mathers Museum

From a Mathers Museum e-release:

MATHERS MUSEUM OF WORLD CULTURES EXHIBITS

Images of Native Americans: The Wanamaker Collection
<http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/wanamaker/>
Presents selections from one of the largest and most important
collections of images of Native Americans, and features an overview of
the collection's history and its holdings.

Laughter on a Stick: Turkish Shadow Theater
<http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/exhibits/laughter.html>
Traces the history and development of Turkish shadow puppetry.

Liberian Collections Project: Preserving the Past, Building the Future
<http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/exhibits/liberia.html>
Provides an overview of the Liberian Collections Project, including its
mission, history, associated scholars, collections, and archives

Lost and Found: Art through Recycled Objects
<http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/exhibits/lost.html>
Reveals how cultures reuse everyday trash for art and fun.

Thoughts, Things, and Theories....What Is Culture?
<http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/exhibits/thoughts.html>
Explores cultural traditions from around the world.

To Have and To Hold: African Containers
<http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/exhibits/have.html>
Presents over 60 containers from throughout Africa and examines their
origins and uses.