PhD's and graduate research inside the museum: a great combination

This a fantastic article and video from The New York Times about graduate students in a museum doing research towards receiving a Phd.  I am interested in the phrase:

.... curators in the museum are working on tailor courses to fit student's expectations .....

MACBA - Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona

In the series of entrances this museum is offering a open plan entrance with the reception desk on one side of the room, well signaled, and a huge exhibit area on the other, with an interest glass wall/door opening to the back garden of the museum which gives perspective the area.

The reception desk is clear and easy to access visual and spatial, but maybe information is not that evident and you would need to be very near the desk to find out.

In fact some of the publicity and communication of the exhibits is shown in a way that it may be mistaken with actual artworks!

The entrance path from the main doors looks like to be conceived as another exhibit space either for special temporary shows or as an advance of what public will encounter inside.

New museum in Antwerp: MAS, Museum aan de Stroom

A new museum MAS Museum aan de Stroom opened its doors to the public in the city of Antwerp (BE) last month of May.  The building, located in the northern part of the city is getting all the attention from the media and visitors, and is claiming to serve as a new attraction pole to the area for residential, turism and services.

The webiste explains the museum and its mission as:

"... MAS tells new stories using the traces of these exchanges. About the city, the river and the port. About the world in all its diversity. About Antwerp’s centuries-long connection with the world. This combination is what makes the MAS unique: it is about Antwerp and about the world"

This video is part of a visit to MAS and an invitation to discover it.

Vintage readings

"The museum experience" by John H. Falk, Lynn D. Dierking

"If economic rather than educational priorites dominate the gift shop, its strength as an education al tool can be severely comprimised" (pp.91)

I would say that sentence does not only apply to the gift shop, but to the whole concept of a museum in the XXI century.
There many other "jewels" like this in the book.

A visit to Neues Museum in Berlin

The Neues Museum in Berlin has been awarded with the Eurpean Union Prize for Architecture Mies van der Rohe, more info on European Culture website and David Chiperfield was the architect who restaured the building and officially received the prize at the Mies van der Rohe Pavillion in Barcelona (Spain) on June 20th, 2011.  The prize "acknowledges and rewards quality architecture in Europe"

THe European Commissioner  for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, A. Vassiliou said in the presentation:

‘I hope this prize will encourage more public and private investors to support the immense talent that we have in Europe in the field of contemporary architecture. I'm sure that David Chipperfield will continue to produce many more magnificent projects, and I wish Ramon Bosch and Bet Capdeferro a very successful international career in the future,’ 

This post is a photo-essay of the visit to the museum.

Neues Museum, Berlin / David Chipperfield, Mies van der Rohe Award

Yesterday was announced the Neues Museum in Berlin was awarded with the prestigious architecture prize:

The European Commission announced that the Neues Museum is the winner of the 2011 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Award.   ...... David Chipperfield Architects in collaboration with Julian Harrap received the main prize for the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin.  David Chipperfield, who worked on the project with fellow British architect Julian Harrap, adopted a dynamic approach in his restoration. Rather than attempting to conceal the difference between the old and new elements, the past and present are beautifully combined to create an unforgettable building with multiple layers.

More information about the awards, and press clip from the museums's website, along with some videos from the press release.

In the museum's website there are very interesting tools created to give a sense of the visit but in a virtual way by means of the navigation tool virtual architecture tour.  As a companion there is a second way to review the visit with the virtual navigation tool with a presentation by the architect himself, superimposed to the HDR panoramic views of the interior.

image from the museum's website

Museum of London: entrance

The series of entrances allows to analyse the concept of welcoming in a museum.  The architecture should alays offer a reception area where visitors can find their way to the museum, the start of the visit, but also the area should offer a concentration of all the information about the museum, and the meeting point for public.

The Museum of London reception area is clear right from the entrance and display signals to locate the information, also serves as the meeting point for groups to gather before the start of group visits, opens to a small shop and cafeteria, and has a seating area where you can re-organize yourself before or after the visit!

What is singular to many museums in tee later decades is their impulse in decorate the entrances with contemporary design furniture or even create bespoke pieces for these areas with different functions.  All in all the reception area should always be a representation of the mission statement of the museum.

MET's McQueen exhibit by Bill Cunningham

Since it is the talk of the weeks in NY, I would like to recommend the weekly slideshow by Bill Cunningham in The New York Times.  It is not only interesting for the comments on the show and the work of McQeen, but also for some insights of mediatic exhibitions attracting visitors beyond the average museum public.  I believe that would be a good topic for consideration and reflection.

The excitement of the exhibition “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” has spilled out onto the front steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with visitors dressing to the nines to view it.

"from the steps of MET ..... to be seeing from steps f the MET .... it's not the usual crowd of museumgoers .... is terrific the show itself and the show on the steps .... a magnet for visitors ..... 

And that is my point: Are these exhibits helping to open museums to new audiences, publics that that being "hooked" by the call of well known and trendy names, in the end become recurrent visitors that discover of a whole new world of "entertainment"?  There is always a first step to be taken!

still image from video by B.Cunningham, NYtimes website

(p.s.: the video cannot be embedded)

The personal touch in information

The post should read: Engaging your audience before twitter.

As you can see by the sign/painted label in the wall this an image from some time ago.  But it illustrates very well my reflection for the weekend: there are many ways to spread the word, engage and have the audience participating with/in your museum than using technologies.  Sure, it is true that to read the sign here, the public must already be there walking the museum.  But if museums show their "backstage" while they are re-organising and explain their work, surely audiences would feel more connected to the mission of the museum and the visits can turn into a recurrent ones, which in the end should be one of most important goals of any museum. 

It is not agains technologies, it is working in cooperation with, not forgetting the personal touch!

Some reports on "Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty" exhibit at MET, NYC

It might be a very obvious post, but the display seems to be the "word" these days, with a lot of contribution from Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute MET and factotum of this show.  Here is a good article on the exhibt by a great publication Fashion Projects.

image via www.alexandermcqueen.com

Images from the MET web are here and a good amount of videos from same museum and here from Mcqueen's web.  Lots of materials to watch and conclusions to come up with.

The visit to DOK, a concept library in Delft (The Netetherlands)

In a previous post, I recommended a visit to DOK, a concept library in Delft, (The Netherlands). The idea of a total media library is not new, but it is news if the concept and design does really works in reality.  This is a photo-essay of my visit and through the images you can feel my reactions to the place.  All in all and without being able to use the services, I must say I do like the concept, the design works and the atmosphere was that of a place that is being used, well used.  It is also a meeting place, with catering services, a whole area for childen, with games, and of course the mediotheque, the audiovisual area with furniture-designed to provide a secluded area for video/audio uses.

The reinvention of the library in the age of media, is still possible!

Entrance hall at the NAI, Rotterdam

NAI - Nederlans Architectuurinstituut 

Continuing with posts in the series of "entrances in museums", I would like to point here the attention to an ingenious way to solve space distribution, uses and services to visitors and its uses, making clear what the reception area is for.  Movable modules are installed in the open central area, colors and names on them are to define uses and organize the information ffor visitors.  cristla walls in the building also help in the connection between exterior and interior, which in this specific case is used in a dramatic way to facilitate architectural exhibition.

Ground floor from exhibits floor 

Reception area

Lockers

NAI Bookshop

NYtimes' article "The spirit of sharing" about museums and social media

The Spirit of Sharing, article by Carol Vogel:  Social media technology has created new opportunities for museums to create interactivity inside and outside of their walls. 

.......

While museums have long strived to be welcoming places as well as havens of learning, social media is turning them into virtual community centers. On Facebook or Twitter or almost any museum Web site, everyone has a voice, and a vote. Curators and online visitors can communicate, learning from one another. As visitors bring their hand-held devices to visits, the potential for interactivity only intensifies.

However, there is a caveat. The new technology is “stimulating, and we’re giving a lot of thought to the amount of information we provide,” said Thomas P. Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But “we’ve got to keep people in a heads-up mode, to make sure they are looking at art.”

.....

Complete article by Carol Vogel in NYTimes

"Speaking Digitally About Exhibits", article in NYTimes

To gather lessons from the American Museum of Natural History’s first Tweetup, Ms. Canty said the staff members had decided to also conduct an old-fashioned survey of participants.
......

As museums are seeing budgets cut and fierce competition for people’s time, Ms. Canty said social media helps people stay engaged. “There is a sense that social media tools make people more remote from each other and more remote from reality,” she said. “What people want to engage with is an authentic experience, and we think that is our stock in trade. That is everything that we do here.”

Complete article in NYTimes 

"Moi, VERONIQUE. BRANQUINHO TOuTe NUe" past exhibit at MoMu

It is interesting to go over the archives museum's websites pages for exhibitions.  Sometimes what you may find is a full report, text and visuals with content of show, more often what there is left in the site is no more than a text from the leaflet or brochure edited for the exhibition, with no added content or enhanced information.  Then, for general public or researches the archival materials are yet to be discovered inside the museum.  In the case of the MoMu, I have been documenting most of the exhibits from 2008 and since this blog started later than that date, I have decided to digg into the photo-archives to retrieve some images from an interesting show "Moi, VERONIQUE. BRANQUINHO TOuTe NUe", by Veronique Branquinho, fashion designer based in Antwerp, Belgium.  The show had a "mise-en-scene" with artistic display, and dramatic scenography, in many tones of blacks, dark rooms and dramatic lighting effects.

Text from the visitor's guide:

In 1995, Veronique Branquinho graduated from the fashion department of the Royal Academy in Antwerp. Only two years later, at 24, she presented her first collection (spring-summer 1998) at the Paris Fashion Week. In 1998, only a year after her debut, she went to New York to receive the prestigious VH1 Fashion Award as ‘The Best Newcomer in Fashion’. In 2003, she added her men’s line and opened her flagship store in Antwerp. To mark the 10th anniversary of her label, the Fashion Museum presents the exhibition Moi, VERONIQUE. BRANQUINHO TOuTe NUe.*

Images:

The designer shut her firm down in 2009, and was appointed artistic director to Delvaux later in that year.

More info on Branquinho's works for the exhibition:
VIsitor's guide to show, MoMu exhibit,
A Magazine,  The Early Days #6: Veronique Branquinho (A Blog Curated by Veronique Branquinho)