Imagine that the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum decide to loan their most valuable pieces to some museums in the USA. Its sounds crazy but apparently this things happen. Countries like Turkey, Mexico and Indonesia are so desperate for better connections within the USA, that they are willing to send their finest pieces, along […]
Author: Public History Student
The Tropenmuseum: Coming to Terms with the Colonial Past?
Last week, the exhibition ‘Heden van het slavernijverleden’ (‘Afterlives of Slavery’) opened in the Tropenmuseum. On the website it says that: ‘The exhibition places the enslaved and their descendants on center stage. To initiate a sometimes difficult but productive dialogue, the Tropenmuseum has sought out personal stories from past and present that bring the history […]
Humanity studies in History and Art need more student diversity
In the book Museums, Migration and Identity in Europe. Peoples, Places and Identities (edited by Christopher Whitehead et al., 2015) curator Annemarie de Wildt writes about multiculturalism and diversity issues in the Amsterdam Museum. She takes the reader through the history of the museum which has its roots in the twenties of the last century. […]
Body for Sale: Normalizing prostitution.
In her article ‘Red lights in the Museum’ Annemarie de Wildt (curator of the Amsterdam Museum) describes the exhibition ‘Love for Sale’, which ran in the Amsterdam Museum in 2002.[1] This unconventional subject seemed like an inevitable choice for the Amsterdam Museum, since Amsterdam has a long history with prostitution and is now well known […]
Happy History! Erasure of the uncomfortable past
Recently, there has been discussion in the United States about the vast amount of confederate statues. Some of those have been torn down, which caused great resistance from people who consider it a part of American history that should not be taken away from them. This week John Oliver dedicated an entire episode of his […]
Who is the author of history? The white master as the author of black history.
By, Natalia Martínez Alcalde As museologists, historians, people who dedicate their life to the representation, edification, instruction of human past and, therefore, the construction of contemporary individual and social identities, there is a fundamental question we need to keep in mind: Who is the author of history? “History does not have an author.” You might […]
Crossing boundaries; the difference between ‘mainstreaming’ and ‘appropriating’ Black History
In Maintaining Boundaries, Eric Gable researches how the United States’ largest living-history museum Colonial Williamsburg talks about black history. As a case-study, Gable asks the numerous museum guides how they treat the concept of antebellum America’s miscegenation; the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, or, in this case, sexual relations. In Colonial Williamsburg, […]
The voice of slaves in museums
In the Netherlands there has never been more attention for slave heritage and never been more debate about it, writes Toine Heijmans in the Volkskrant last week on the occasion of the new exhibitions about slavery in the Tropenmusuem. The Dutch slave heritage has become a subject of discussion especially in the ongoing debate around Zwarte […]
Combining Object and Space
Since museums are often seen as educational venues, consideration should be given to how problematic subjects are represented. Objects get meaning through the context in which they are placed, and through the combination of objects with which they are exhibited within the same space. The conservators who are responsible for the exhibitions have a major […]
Black Achievement Month; celebration or segregation?
This month the Black Achievement Month will take place in the Netherlands for the second time. Its purpose is to commemorate talented black people and to acknowledge black heroes. Black Achievement Month is based on the successful Black History Month in the United States and United Kingdom. However, the name of the Netherlands’ edition […]