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Centre and Periphery: Renewing Perspectives (roundtable)

Recent developments in the artistic and museum worlds, analysing them in the light of the familiar centre-periphery model.

Sunday November 11, 2018

Over the last twenty years or so, many museums around the world have, through the splendour of their collections, enriched the panorama of the great museums that were formerly centred on Western art. It is this very model of the centre/periphery that is being overturned in the new geography of museums of both regional and international influence.

Anne-Marie Maïla-Afeiche
Director, The National Museum of Beirut, Lebanon

 On the importance of heritage sites outside the city taking the example of Lebanon

Abstract

State Museums in Lebanon: promoting Periphery to balance out the Centre

Museums play a significant role in showcasing national identity. The National Museum of Beirut, as a State museum, has largely contributed to building pride in national belongings since its creation in 1942. Exhibiting archaeological objects exclusively of Lebanese origin is a means not only to display national treasures, but to also witness national history. Because it was partially destroyed during the war between 1975 and 1991, it is our responsibility to present the reconstruction process as a case of survival in a time of crisis and an example of reviving a museum.

In addition, the Ministry of Culture has adopted a policy of culture proliferation. Several museum sites outside Beirut have been created, each having its own specificity, such as the ones in Tripoli and Beiteddine, or others in archaeological sites as Byblos and Baalbeck. For example, the Tripoli museum is located in the city’s ancient castle and therefore was established to highlight a monument as well as a collection. Moreover, the collection covers the entire northern Lebanon region. Besides this policy of promoting periphery to balance out the centre, one of the challenges is to rehabilitate museums and modernise them, while another is to set up new ones.

Thus, in April 2018, the Council of Museums, an independent organism within the Ministry of Culture was created. This young administration has the mission to establish museums, develop the existing ones, promote and preserve their collections. Currently, new projects concern the cities of Beirut, Tyre and Saida. Finally, museums have the duty to respond to the needs of the populations of the territory by supporting the local economy and by respecting their disparities and rich cultural heritage.

About Anne-Marie Maïla-Afeiche

A graduate of the École du Louvre, Anne-Marie Maïla-Afeiche has a Master’s degree in the History of Art and Archaeology from the Université d’Aix-en-Provence, after graduating in the same subject from the Université Paris IV-Sorbonne.

Her involvement at the Direction Générale des Antiquités (Museums Section) began on her return to Lebanon in 1993, having spent several years abroad. At that time, she worked in a small team on the rehabilitation of the National Museum of Beirut, which had been seriously damaged during the war. She has supervised the management of the archaeological collections and participated in the restoration of the museum and its re-opening in 1999.

In 2009, she became Curator of the National Museum of Beirut while also carrying out her duties as the Head of Studies and Publications, a position she had held since 2001. As editor of the journal BAAL (Bullétin d’Archéologie et d’Architecture Libanaises) published by the Ministry of Culture, Antiquities Department, she publishes the annual results of archaeological excavation and research in Lebanon.

In charge of the documentation and search for archaeological objects and of the reorganisation of the reserves of the National Museum, Afeiche is also responsible for the dossiers compiled on the illicit market in antiquities. Her extensive experience in the museum world allows her to run the course ‘Museology and Heritage’ at the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut. In April 2018 she was appointed General Director and President of the Board of Governors of the National Council of Museums of Lebanon.

Sunday November 11, 2018

Over the last twenty years or so, many museums around the world have, through the splendour of their collections, enriched the panorama of the great museums that were formerly centred on Western art. It is this very model of the centre/periphery that is being overturned in the new geography of museums of both regional and international influence.

Kennie Ting
Director, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore

On pan-Asian cultures presentation in Singapore

Abstract

Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore – A Pan-Asian, Transnational, Cross-cultural Museological Approach

The Asian Civilisations Museum is Singapore’s Museum of Asian Art and Antiquities. In 2012, it embarked on a major revamp of its curatorial narrative, shifting from a geographical organisation of its collection and permanent galleries to a thematic, transnational, cross-cultural approach spotlighting two grand themes – Trade and Faith. These two themes draw on Singapore’s nature as a multi-cultural, multi-faith port and trading city in Asia. Trade and Faith are also two major driving forces in history, having fueled the flow of peoples, cultures and ideas across Asia and between Asia and the world. This presentation provides more details on the museum’s present-day curatorial approach, as well as the opportunities, challenges and learning points involved in the museum’s curatorial transition.

About Kennie Ting

Kennie Ting is the Director of the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum, and concurrently Group Director, Museums at the National Heritage Board (NHB) Singapore, overseeing national museums and festivals managed by the NHB. As Director of the Asian Civilisations Museum, he has overseen the shift in the museum’s curatorial approach from a geographical focus to a thematic, cross-cultural focus, and has helmed recent exhibitions on the Arts of Myanmar, Angkor and Korea, on Buddhist and Hindu Art across Asia, and on the material culture of cosmopolitan Asian Port Cities. He is presently the Chairperson of the Asia- Europe Museum Network (ASEMUS), which aims to promote mutual understanding between the peoples of Asia and Europe through collaborative museum-based cultural activity.


Before NHB, he worked in the former Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, where he was involved in developing strategies for heritage and the arts, including the Renaissance City Plan III and the recent Arts and Culture Strategic Review. He is interested in the history of travel and the heritage of Asian port cities and is the author of the books, The Romance of the Grand Tour – 100 Years of Travel in South East Asia and Singapore 1819 – A Living Legacy.

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