Watch the video trailer

“Shared Heritage: As We See It” is an exhibition on ideas, stories, and images relating to cultural heritage. Borne out of a workshop that comprised students from both Asia and Europe, the theme of cultural heritage is explored and presented through visuals, interspersed with textual elements drawn from their discussions on the theme.

In presenting on the theme of cultural heritage, we encounter its varying elements through ideas, stories, images, and the sensorial, invented in unique ways across the multi-varied cultural and historical landscapes. The result is an exhibition that invites the viewer to engage with shared heritage as seen by the participants themselves.

Forty-one (41) students and young professionals from 31 countries of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) worked together on this showcase of photographs and videos as their main output for the 17th ASEF University (AU17) in Penang, Malaysia (July 2011). The exhibition focuses on the perspectives of AU17 participants on “Cultural Heritage” and is a direct response to the priorities identified by ASEM Ministers during the 4th Culture Ministers Meeting (CMM) in Poznan, Poland (2010), where “The need to foster awareness of common cultural heritage as a part of youth education” was given special emphasis.

This exhibition is organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation and NUS Museum, Singapore.

Admission is free!

One of the most significant global committees that you never heard of summoned a couple of hundred experts to the island of Menorca, Spain last April. The meeting involved politics, the remnants of great civilizations, human catastrophes, architectural triumphs, religious works of art and architecture, use of tourism, the rise and fall of empires, and did we say politics?

The International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management, or ICAHM, held its first conference on how to manage the world’s myriad archaeological World Heritage sites. This wildly varied array of places encompasses many of the most celebrated sites of human cultural accomplishment and catastrophe—everything from the pyramids and Roman fortifications to Mongol-era tombs and prehistoric rock art. ICAHM’s key job is to advise the World Heritage Committee about new sites proposed for the famous list.

Right at the outset, ICAHM co-president Dr. Willem J.H. Willems of Leiden, Netherlands, put the core issue on the table. “Archaeology is the study of the past,” he said in his April 9 keynote, but “the past doesn’t exist anymore. Heritage is about the use of the past in the present.” And that’s where it gets interesting. And risky.

Too many countries are rushing to use the past—their heritage sites—for present purposes. Willems sharply criticized the way that sites are proposed and awarded World Heritage inscription. According to the World Heritage Convention, an international treaty, sites should be awarded a place on the list based on solid scientific and academic reasoning. Not happening, said Willems. The World Heritage Committee has been approving too many applications based on economic and “radically political” expediency.

For most countries, World Heritage status is a hotly desired prize. Most countries, especially impoverished developing nations, are eager to put their greatest natural and cultural places on the list. Why? Prestige in part, national pride in part, yes, but also that modern vein of gold: tourism! An inscription puts you on the travel map….

Read the full report on the National Geographic Traveler.
 [Source] Jonathan Tourtellot of National Geographic Traveler: Archaeologists Blast Hasty World Heritage Listings

The 9th European Museum Advisors Conference will be organised by Mapa das Ideias and Câmara Municipal de Loures (Municipality of Loures) in Loures, Mafra, Cascais and Lisbon, Portugal from 29 May to 2 June 2012.

Theme:　The crisis as a challenge (To do more and better)

“How does one measure the success of a museum?” Paul Getty

The European Museum Advisors Conference 2012 is a biannual meeting organized by and for museum advisors and professionals.

Its aim is to reinvent professional boundaries and create a larger, yet informal, network across the whole of Europe as a creative process to analyse the crisis and its impact.

This conference is organised according to carbon zero and fair trade standards.

On display at the Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art (Museo d’Arte Orientale Edoardo Chiossone) in Genoa are 120 ceramics which testifies to the wide variety of Chinese and Japanese ceramics produced during the 16th to the 19th centuries. Visitors to this exhibition are able to reflect on the artistic and cultural background to these creations in porcelain.

The impact of the Chinese and Japanese porcelain on European taste which eventually led to the production of European ceramics will also be explored in this exhibition. The porcelain on display come from the collection of the Musei Civici Genoese. This exhibition was conceived and curated by Donatella Failla, director of the Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art.

41 contemporary Japanese calligraphers are showcased at the Musée Guimet in Paris in an exhibition made possible by the support of the Mainichi Shodo Kai Foundation, organiser of an annual calligraphy competition in Japan.

This exhibition aims to reflect seven types of calligraphy styles that developed through contemporary practices and promote the inherent history and far-eastern aesthetics that are embedded in the art of calligraphy. The art form first appeared in Japan in the 6th century. Strongly influenced by its Chinese heritage, it later evolved into a stronger Japanese form in the course of the 10th century. Today, many avant-garde forms have taken shape including some that were strongly influenced by Western abstract paintings.

Workshops in presence of masters are scheduled on 12 and 14 May 2012. For more information and tickets please contact: resa@guimet.fr

A bilingual catalogue of the exhibition is available (165 pages – ISBN : 978 27056 8290 3)

[Source] culture360.org: Sho 1 -41 | Contemporary Japanese calligraphy | Musée Guimet

nationalgeographic.com

The head of a Buddha statue peeks above the dirt in Handan, China, where archaeologists have reportedly unearthed nearly 3,000 Buddha statues, which could be up to 1,500 years old.

The discovery is believed to be the largest of its kind since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, an archaeologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told reporters in late March, according to the Associated Press.

The Buddha statues—most of which are made of white marble and limestone and many of which are broken—could date back to the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties (A.D. 534 to 577), experts say.

“It may have been that some of the ruins and broken sculptures from the past were gathered from old temple sites and buried in a pit,” said Katherine Tsiang, director of the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago.

Read and see more at nationalgeographic.com

Fernando C. Amorsolo (1892-1972) was a famous artist who dominated the Philippines art scene for four decades, known for his mastery in the use of light. Educated first in the Liceo de Manila, he then attended the fine-arts school at the University of the Philippines, graduating in 1914. His works covered a wide range of subjects, from rural picturesque scenes to large historical paintings. Amorsolo was however, most known as a portraitist. His works are collected by various museums and collectors.

Portraits made up a large proportion of his works. They were mostly commissioned works depicting leaders in society and industry and their loved ones, as well as Americans residing in Manila during the American colonial period. The exhibition at the Ayala Museum focuses on portraits by Amorsolo.

Catch the exhibition titled Postura: Portraits by Amorsolo at the Ayala Museum, Makati City, Philippines before it closes on the 20th May.

 

The history of the Museum of Cultures/National Museum of Finland, begins with the Coin, Medals and Art Cabinet established at the Imperial Alexander University of Helsinki in 1828. This collection of objects were used as aids for teaching. The collection included primarily natural history specimens, but also ethnographic and archaeological materials. The first collection item of the Cabinet, which is also the oldest object of the Museum of Cultures was catalogued in 1828 with the designation VK 1 as “an overcoat worn by Indians from California”. 150 years later it was identified as a Salish Indian cloak.

In 1849, the ethnographic collections were transferred from the Coin, Medals and Art Cabinet to the recently established Ethnographic Museum of the Imperial Alexander University of Helsinki. In the 1800s, the collections of the University’s Ethnographic Museum mostly grew through donations or small purchases from private individuals. The donors and vendors were mainly sea-farers, military officers, merchants and academics who had the opportunity to travel.There were also many individuals who were in Russian service.

The majority of the museum’s foreign collections came from North America, particularly from Alaska, which was a Russian colony at the time. China represented the second-largest group. Four major collections were combined in 1893 to form the State Historical Museum. In 1916 it was renamed the National Museum of Finland and opened to the public in a new building.

The Finno-Ugrian collections was increased through field expeditions, the purpose of which was to find out the origin of the Finnish language and the Finns. Some of the individuals who had contributed to the Asian collections included: professor U. T. Sirelius (mostly Khanty; Western Siberia), linguist, professor Artturi Kannisto (mostly Mansi, Western Siberia), linguist Toivo Lehtisalo (Tundra and Forest Nenets, Siberia), Salvation Army officer, missionary Edvard Rosenlund (Central Sulawesi, Indonesia), professor G. J. Ramstedt (Mongolia), missionaries Siiri Uusitalo (Japan) and Toivo Koskikallio (China), and baron, President of Finland C. G. E. Mannerheim (Central Asia).

More recently, the India and Siberia collections have greatly increased due to collecting during field trips undertaken by the museum’s own curators. In 1996, a major collection of South and Southeast Asia objects was bequeathed to the museum. In 1999,  the Finno-Ugrian and ethnographic collections of the National Museum of Finland were combined and named Museum of Cultures. This new museum opened in Tennispalatsi (Tennis Palace) building at the center of Helsinki.

Turkey, standing at the crossroads of Eastern and Western civilisations, is the focus for a special exhibition held at the National Museum of Korea, Seoul. Titled ‘The Civilizations of Turkey: Emperors in Istanbul‘ – the exhibition explores the various legacies of the Hittites, Greek and Roman empires, the Byzantine and Ottoman empires.

Visitors to this exhibition will be delighted to see 184 artefacts, shown for the first time in Korea. The lenders for this exhibition includes important Turkish institutions like the Topkapi Palace Museum, the Museum of ANatolian Civilizations, the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, and the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts.

The exhibition is divided into four sections below:

• Hittites and Ancient Civilizations,
• Alexandros and the Hellenistic World, 
• Constantinus I and Eastern Roman Empire,
• Sultan, the Ottoman Emperor

Thus providing the visitors opportunities to experience the rich and splendid diversity of culture and civilizations found in Turkey.

ASEMUS would like to congratulate the following members:

National Museum of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea, and

Traditional Art and Ethnology Centre, Lao Prabang, Laos

for being selected by the Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF) to be featured in their case studies on Museums and Public, Private partnerships in Heritage Cities for the ASEM Culture Ministers’ Meeting (CMM) which will take place in September 2012.

The National Museum of Korea has put up a case study of their collaboration with NHN Corporation that operates the world’s 5th largest search portal, Naver. Together with the National Museum of Korea as a key partner, NHN has provided ‘on-line museums and heritage sites’ to web users, digitised 150,000 masterpieces in Korean collections and has also sponsored cultural projects.

The Traditional Art and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) shared on their experience with working with the Luang Prabang Department of Information and Culture on producing a community cultural festival. This festival promoted the cultural diversity and heritage of the province through various programming like children’s acitivites, performances and sale of handicraft. TAEC and the Laotian Department collaborated on the project, leveraging on each other’s strengths.   

The above two case studies will be presented at the Expert’s meeting organised by ASEF on the topic of Sustainable Management of Heritage cities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in July 2012. They will also be featured in a publication which will be distributed during the ASEM CMM meeting later in September.