This collection of interesting links is sorted by the following topics:
- Museums / Art Insitutions/ Exhibitions
- Initiatives / Projects
- Magazines
- Cultural Heritage / Provenance Research
- Research Material for Teachers and Students
- Africa
- Europe
- Middle East
- Policy (UNESCO)
MUSEUMS / ART INSTITUTIONS / EXHIBITIONS
smarthistory
Recently discovered. Exciting. Could be a blueprint for EVC's LAB-section. (EW)
Smarthistory’s free digital content (essays and videos) unlocks the expertise of scholars mainly from the USA, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people.
"Travessia" at the Bienal Fotografia do Porto
"Is it possible to traverse—across time, space and various technologies— to develop meaningful personal relationships during our current global pandemic?"
"Travessia" is an interdisciplinary project developed by Lydia Matthews, Susan Meiselas, Lígia Sofia Alves Passos Ferro and others. In collaboration with the Black community of Porto, it shows not only a different side of the city, but also how collective and individual perception and everyday life might diverge - and how to overcome such differences. It is part of the newly established Bienal Fotografia do Porto.
Recommended by Lígia Sofia Alves Passos Ferro
www.bienalfotografiaporto.pt/en/exhibitions/travessia-muxima/travessia/
100 Histories of 100 Worlds in 1 Object
This initiative, located at the British Museum, aims to question the role of the museum as an institution in regards to decolonization and representation. "[This] project turns to the formerly subaltern stories museums in ‘the West’ have left out. How can previously excluded voices be empowered to tell their own histories about these objects?"
https://100histories100worlds.org/
documenta fifteen
"documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH is a non-profit organization supported and funded by the City of Kassel and the State of Hesse, as well as by the German Federal Cultural Foundation."
documenta is one of the most important exhibition series for contemporary art worldwide. documenta fifteen is curated by the Indonesian collective ruangrupa.
www.documenta.de/en/documenta-fifteen/#news
INITIATIVES / PROJECTS
Creatures - Creative Practices for Transformational Futures
"The CreaTures project (Creative Practices for Transformational Futures) demonstrates the power of existing – yet often hidden – creative practices to move the world towards socio-ecological sustainability."
The EU-funded project initiates talks and laboratories and gives a platform to alternative ways of research and collaboration aimed towards a better future. Under the category "egangement", there is a highliy recommendable series of seminars with varying, engaging speakers. There is also a mailing list that you may wish to subscribe to for further news: https://atnc.persona.co/
Recommended by Nevelina Pachova
TRAFO - Blog for Transregional Research
"Trafo serves as a discussion and information platform for researchers interested in transregional research." Topics are, among others, migration, war, education and politics, all with focus on transregional perspectives. Researchers are invited to join in and contribute to the platform.
MAGAZINES
Contemporary And (C&)
"Contemporary And (C&) is a dynamic platform for reflecting and connecting ideas and discourses on contemporary visual arts. Contemporary And (C&) features and links important and multilayered work by cultural producers from the most various perspectives and contexts."
Contemporary And (C&) works beyond the idea of center vs periphery as well as singular narratives and individuals. Started in 2013, it is a growing network, showcasing producers of art and culture from Aftrica and the global diaspora.
Africa e Mediterraneo
"Africa e Mediterraneo is a non-profit organisation created to promote intercultural awareness and cultural cooperation, mainly between Europe and Africa."
reativity, integration, arts and culture: Those are the main topics of Africa e Mediterraneo. I manifests itself in the form of a biannual journal as well as many artistic projects with social benefits.
Recommended by Bea Lundt
www.africaemediterraneo.it/en/
CULTURAL HERITAGE / PROVENANCE RESEARCH
German Contact Point for Collections from Colonial Contexts
Far too often, the origin of collections, artifacts or works of art from the so-called Third World is not clear, and some of them are looted art. The German government-funded Contact Point for Collections from Colonial Contexts aims to help establish contact an exchange between cultural institutions and especially people from the respective countries of origin, to provide information and to contribute to the appropriate handling of such collections.
https://www.cp3c.org/index.html
Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage
"CARMAH aims to deepen understanding of the dynamics and potentials of museums and heritage in the contemporary world. It looks globally to identify and analyze the significant social, cultural and political developments facing museums and heritage today. Its in-depth research tackles how these play out and are reconfigured in specific national and institutional contexts. In this way, CARMAH provides new insights into what is going on now and innovative ideas for good karma in the future."
https://www.carmah.berlin/our-centre/
RESEARCH MATERIAL FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
Indigenous Epistemologies and Pedagogies
"While there is much diversity among Indigenous Peoples, and therefore among Indigenous way of knowing, teaching, or learning, many Indigenous education scholars have argued there are also some notable commonalities among Indigenous societies worldwide [...]." This text, released by BCcampus Open Publishing, is a helpful guideline for teachers and scholars on how indigenous methods and customs of teaching might be applied to school lessons.
Link to the book "Pulling Together: A Guide for Curriculum Developers":
https://opentextbc.ca/indigenizationcurriculumdevelopers/
Open Educational Resources (OER) by Discipline Guide: University of Ottawa
An up-to-date listing of open source research material for every discipline (e.g. visual arts), following the guidelines of equity, diversity, decolonization and inclusion.
Anti-Racist Art Education Action Group
The ARAEA Group was founded as a reaction to the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Its aim is to ensure that the National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD) actively works against all forms of racism. It offers helpful checklists with criteria for anti-racist art education.
The Icon Lab
What does an image show, what does it represent, what did it mean at the time it was produced and what does it mean today? The Icon Lab is not only a physical space at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, but also a method of research that can help to interpret images of revolution.
AFRICA
African Digital Heritage
"African Digital Heritage" is a Nairobi based, non profit organization working to encourage a more critical, holistic and knowledge-based approach to digital solutions within African heritage. Through this, the organization hopes "to cement the place of African culture in an era of rapidly changing technologies and endless frontiers."
https://africandigitalheritage.org/
Kenyan cultural heritage
Over the past two years, more than 32,000 historical Kenyan cultural objects from thirty institutions in seven countries have been digitally recorded within the International Inventories Programme and some of them have been provided with detailed object biographies.
Performing Sustainability - Cultures and Development in West-Africa
"The interdisciplinary Graduate School ‘Performing Sustainability’ is a collaborative training network for graduate students by the University of Hildesheim (Germany), the University of Maiduguri (Nigeria) and the University of Cape Coast (Ghana). The initiative focuses on innovative research that brings together approaches from performance, arts and culture to bear on sustainable development as defined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A specific focus lies on issues of peace and conflict resolution."
https://www.uni-hildesheim.de/sustainability/
In cooperation with the Institute for Cultural Policy at the University of Hildesheim, the knowledge platform kubi-online (www.kubi-online.de) makes results of the Research Training Group "Performing Sustainability. Cultures and Development in West-Africa" available. Here are two interesting publications:
- Dr. Shadrach Ukuma: Managing Collective Trauma amoungst displaced persons in Daudu Community of Benue State, Nigeria: A Cultural Performances Approach
https://www.kubi-online.de/artikel/managing-collective-trauma-amongst-displaced-persons-daudu-community-of-benue-state-nigeria - Dr. Alasambom Nyingchuo: Applied Cinema and Social Cohesion: Promoting Gender Equity through Film for Development among the Kom of North West Cameroon
https://www.kubi-online.de/artikel/applied-cinema-and-social-cohesion-promoting-gender-equity-through-film-for-development
Africalia - Creativity is Life
"We believe that culture and creativity are the future economies for the African continent. Culture is what makes us human. We believe that creativity and imagination allow for emancipation and liberation. Culture is a human right. We believe that African cultures and arts are assets for Africans and for the entire world."
Africalia is an organization based in Brussels, Belgium, supporting and promoting African creatives and African culture.
Cluster of Excellence "Africa Multiple"
Reorienting African Studies together with African partner institutions - this is what the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at Bayreuth University is all about, and it can look back on a long tradition of academic engagement with Africa in the focus area of African Studies. The focus is on the continental and transcontinental interconnections of cultural, linguistic, social, religious, political, economic, and ecological processes.
EUROPE
Black Central Europe
"There are over 1 million Black people in Central Europe today. Most Europeans still don’t know of the long history of the Black Diaspora in their countries. As a result, there is a general assumption that Black people are a relatively new presence on the continent and thus are historical and national outsiders. Through historical investigation, Black Central Europe challenges these assumptions."
The initiative Black Central Europe is a platform for historical documents, a source of knowledge and inspiration for artists, researchers and teachers alike. It aims to challenge and change our perspective of the Black Diaspora in the German-speaking countries. The information provided by the website by Black Central Europe is very informative and enlightening. Black Central Europe aims to document (with texts and pictures) more than 1000 years of Black history in the German-speaking countries, well before the time when Africans became objects of the extensive colonial slave market.
Recommended by Heidi Jörg
https://blackcentraleurope.com/
ENCATC - European Network on Cultural Management and Policy
"ENCATC represents, advocates, and promotes cultural management and cultural policy education, professionalizes the cultural sector to make it sustainable, and creates a platform for discussion and exchange at European and international level."
The NGO is official partner of UNESCO and provides an international platform for professional exchange in the fiel of cultural management.
New European Bauhaus
"The New European Bauhaus is a creative and interdisciplinary initiative, convening a space of encounter to design future ways of living, situated at the crossroads between art, culture, social inclusion, science and technology. It brings the Green Deal to our living places and calls for a collective effort to imagine and build a future that is sustainable, inclusive and beautiful for our minds and for our souls."
New European Bauhaus collects and presents interesting projects, visionary ideas and new buildings and cities that may hint at what an inclusive and sustainable future might look like.
https://europa.eu/new-european-bauhaus/index_en
MIDDLE EAST
Qantara
"The Arabic word "qantara" means "bridge". The project Qantara.de is run by Deutsche Welle and involves the Goethe-Institut and the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) as members of the project advisory committee. The project seeks to promote dialogue with the Islamic world and is funded by the German Foreign Office."
Qantara is a news outlet focusing on the Middle East's relationship with Western countries, especially Germany. The topics are partly of a general nature, such as the role of Islam in Germany or cultural relations between the Middle east and the Western world, but also of a topical nature, such as the federal election in Germany and its possible implications for diplomatic relations with the Islamic world.
POLICY
UNESCO
https://www.unesco.org/en/culture-education?hub=71580
To learn more about EVC's commitment to UNESCO's goals see our Mission Statement: https://explore-vc.org/en/info/mission-statement.html
UNESCO Chair in “Cultural Policy for the Arts in Development” at the University of Hildesheim