Monday 14 December 2009

Identities, Roles, Changes

How are external parties involved in the creation of exhibitions and installations? This question is addressed by Sue Davies from the Open University, whose presentation entitled 'The World has Changed' questions the shifting and subtle roles of those individuals. Across different museums and different times, personal roles and professional attitudes have shifted and changed, and these have a direct effect upon practice and the methods through which museums are built. Ambiguity and change often go hand in hand with what is termed here as 'co-production'. This cannot fail to be the case with any event which permits multiple voices. How much of the work of co-production is based upon perceived obligations and the current 'zeitgeist'?

Who is involved and presented in the museum space is, of course, deeply political. As Richard spoke about previously, while BME communities are frequently considered as a community which must be involved in exhibition interpretation, the part played by the LGBT community is distinctly more controversial.

In your experience, how have external parties made their prescence felt in the museum space? How are these issues of control and authority, which were also deeply enmeshed with Richard's keynote, represented throughout the museological community?

Sue left us with a very interesting question -

Should greater levels of co-production be the aim of all museums?

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