REIMAGINING MUSEUMS: PRACTICE IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA

Edited by Pamela Erskine-Loftus

List members may be interested in contributing to this forthcoming book, which will be published by MuseumsEtc in Autumn 2012. Please also feel free to forward to colleagues who may be particularly interested. 

Full details are set out below and may also be found (and downloaded) at: http://bit.ly/reimaginemuseums 

Graeme Farnell

MuseumsEtc 

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CALL FOR PAPERS

REIMAGINING MUSEUMS: PRACTICE IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA

Edited by Pamela Erskine-Loftus

We invite international submissions to be included in this forthcoming book, being published by MuseumsEtc [www.museumsetc.com] in Autumn 2012.

Although often thought of internationally as a new phenomenon, museums in the Arabian Peninsula have a history dating back to at least the 1950s. Since the emergence of national museums in the early-mid 1970s their numbers have continued to increase, and the last five years have seen a huge growth in the regeneration of existing museums, the founding of new museums and museum organizations, and the creation of international satellites in the region.

However, there is currently a lack of professional, accurate, accessible, up-to-date information on museum practice, issues and developments in the Peninsula for professionals in the region, as well as museum studies students, academics and researchers, and the wide range of consultants, organizations and companies around the world who work with museums in the region.

The purpose of Reimagining Museums is to present and discuss current museum practice in the countries of the Arabian Peninsula – Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. This will be the first book to study and examine the emerging museum practice and profession in the region and its implications for museums, national and international. The book aims to be both an introduction to the museum field in the Peninsula as well as an active tool and reference for museum professionals in the

region. Ultimately, the contents should inspire museum practice in both the Peninsula and around the world.

This book will be edited by Dr Pamela Erskine-Loftus, who has worked in museums for fifteen years, in the United States (including MoMA, New York), the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Pamela holds a doctorate in museology specific to the Peninsula, and a Masters in Museum Studies with a dissertation on the effects of the 1991 Gulf War on art museums in Kuwait and Iraq, and has written and presented on aspects of Peninsula museology.

SUBMISSIONS

Submissions are welcome in one of two formats – essay or précis. Essays of 2,000–6,000 words addressing aspects of emerging museum practice; shorter précis of 1,000–2,000 words, which may take a more detailed form to discuss very specific aspects or examples of practice.

Reimagining Museums will focus on current museum practice and professionalism in four areas. Specific aspects of interest include, but are not limited to:

** Understandings of place and museum **

* The relationship of museums with other cultural institutions in the region

* Connections between museums and a sense of place, and national and community identity

* Understandings of museum in the region and their possible implications

* The new role(s) museums may play in the region

* Museums as components of a knowledge society

* The creation and use of mission, ethics, and strategic planning

* The reimagining of existing museums

* Globalized workforces, volunteers and interns

* The emergence of privately funded and operated museums

* The implications for museums as components of larger cultural organizations

** Audiences and visitors ** 

* Outcomes and aspects of current audience research being undertaken in the Peninsula

* Culturally-specific audience outreach methodology, practices and strategies

* Cultural and social considerations to cultivate active and repeat visitorship

* Staff as audience

* Engaging Peninsula citizens, and the creation of an understanding of museum value

* Opportunities for visitorship by families and multi-generational groups

* Making connections with hard-to-reach audiences

* Expatriate communities and visitorship

* The implications of tourists as primary audience

* Practices and strategies used by international museums to reach Peninsula audiences in their international communities

* The use, place and possibilities of social media and mobile devices in audience outreach and visitor engagement

** Education and Exhibitions ** 

* Education and exhibition/curatorial department collaborations

* Applications and possibilities of appropriate museology

* Programme, resources and exhibition evaluation

* Education and exhibitions policy and strategic planning

* Case studies of creative programming to reach non-visiting or new audiences

* Cultivation of school-museum relationships and collaborations

* Cultural considerations for exhibition practices and display

* Analysis of the themes and messages of international visiting exhibitions and their relevance to local audiences

* Use of learning and developmental theory in programming and exhibitions

* Organization of exhibitions and the use of dual languages

* Provision for, and inclusion of, visitors with special/additional needs

** Collaborations, exchange and reciprocity **

* Ideas, understandings and aspirations of reciprocity within cultural exchanges

* Creation of policy and strategy for national and international collaborations and exchanges

* What international museums have gained from collaborations in the Peninsula

* What museums in the Peninsula would like international museums to gain

* Cultivating object, collection and exhibition exchanges

* Inter-country and inter-Peninsula collaborations and exchanges

* Managing multiple-part collaborations, or collaborations with multiple partners

* Collaborations with national and international non-museum organizations, such as those related to health, education and child welfare, and cultural relations

* Challenges and benefits of the use of consultants, and their interaction with staff

* Staff training, internships and placements as reciprocal programmes

* Opportunities for international museums’ staff training in the Peninsula

* Museum-university (national and international) programmes as sites for furthering understandings of museology in the Peninsula

Contributions from staff working in museums in the Peninsula are particularly encouraged. In addition, collaborative submissions between staff, and between Peninsula and international museums are sought.

Please note – Reimagining Museums will discuss museums and practice in the Peninsula; contributions about museums in the broader Middle East will not be included. This book will be published in English, therefore all contributions must be submitted in English; translation services will not be provided.

If you are interested in being considered as a contributor, please send an abstract (up to 250 words), stating whether you wish to contribute an essay or précis, and a short biography or résumé to both the editor [log in to unmask] and the publishers [log in to unmask] by 7 April 2012. Enquiries should also be sent to these addresses. Contributors will receive a complimentary copy of the publication and a discount on more.

The book will be published in both print and digital formats by MuseumsEtc in Autumn 2012.

DEADLINES

ABSTRACTS: due 7 April

CONTRIBUTORS NOTIFIED: by 16 April

COMPLETED PAPERS: due 18 June

A complete copy of the Call for Papers may be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/reimaginemuseums