CfP: Artefacts Consortium meeting
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Artefacts Consortium
The Artefacts Consortium is
an international association of historians in museums and
academic institutions who share the goal of promoting the use of
objects in serious historical studies. Artefacts meetings are
opportunities for professionals to explore the use, care, and
interpretation of objects and collections.
Meeting Theme: Relevance of Collections
The 2018 Artefacts meeting
will explore how museums and related institutions have defined and
maintained the relevance of their collections. This follows up on themes
explored in previous Artefacts meetings and described
in the volume Challenging Collections from the Artefacts XVI meeting. As the editors note in the introduction to this volume, museums today “must
balance a number of functions, not always mutually compatible:
exhibition, preservation, research, and
education. … the nature of museums’ relationships with their public
has shifted from one of unquestioned authority to a partner in
dialogue” (Boyle and Hagmann 2017). At the same time, humanities
scholars have had increased interest in objects, collections,
and museums. For a range of stakeholders, collections provoke
questions of status and purpose that are, organizational, social, and
intellectual.
As context and events
changed how museums operate, how have scholars at museums and other
institutions approached the relevance of collections? In what way have
interpretations changed depending on prevalent historiography
and motivations of the interpreter? What is the impact of changing
techniques available for examining objects? How do institutions
prioritize acquisitions and displays for their collections? How has the
growing importance of digital access affected the role
of collections? More generally, in what ways are history collections
relevant to broader society?
This meeting will allow
scholars within and outside the museum community to explore how the
relevance of museum collections has changed through history. It will
also enable museum professionals to pose challenging
questions about the present and future of relevance of collections.
Call for Papers
The deadline for submitting papers and session proposals is July 20.
We particularly welcome paper and session proposals addressing the following topics:
- Collections and artifacts in the identity and public image of museums and similar institutions
- Shifts in the scope and focus of collecting while balancing scholarly activities and public engagement
- Shifts in object interpretation and display in response to societal changes and pressures
- The place of scholarly inquiry in shaping the maintenance, development, and use of collections
- Challenges in setting priorities for the use and maintenance of collection
- The role of digital collections in museum practice and audience engagement.
Please use the links below for more information.