Who needs objects?

Not the Neues Museum. Forget the 'Museum Without Walls', this is the museum with only walls (for now). As G2 reported on Monday,  35,000 visitors came to see the restored shell of the museum over 3 days. Similar in some ways to what the curator of Temple Newsam (who spoke to us County House Collections lot last week) described in the early years of the building being open to the public, with very little inside after the house sales dispersed the collection. I suppose in this instance, there might be a potent sense of re-occupation and of reclaiming, but it's a poetic image. I suppose the real question is, are you still visiting a museum if there's nothing in it?

 

Manchester...Nothing happened?

Hello All,
we all had a trip to Manchester the other week, (during Reading Week...and lots of undergards and postgrads came along...now that's dedication!) Anyway, we had our usual whistle-stop tour of museums and galleries, including Manchester Art Gallery...with it's 19th century plaster casts of the Elgin-Parthenon metopes...which raised contentious debate about the place/role of such historical 'treasures' in British and Greek culture.....(cultural property...along with taxidermy...seems to be a recurrent theme in the Blog lately...)

.....anyway, we also attended a really interesting seminar with Dr Sam Alberti (of Manchester Museum/University) on 'Displaying the Dead in 19th century Manchester'...a fascinating (and amusing talk)..thanks Sam!
http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/museology/academicstaff/DrSamAlberti/
We also took a little wander round Manchester, mainly to look at, (contemplate?) a significant historical 'site'...The location of the (in)famous 'Peterloo Massacre' of
1819....shown here .....some of us got a little emotional (history can be such an emotive subject...don't you think?).........

(here's the Students pretending to be interested in the 'Peterloo' plaque at the Free Trade Hall in Peter Street, Manchester)

...

...anyway, after returning from Manchester, I mentioned this experience to Mrs M., and she pointed out this amusing photograph (from the Daily Mail...Mrs M tells me she only buys it for the crossword.....!) ....I thought it's a bit clunky, but raises some really important issues in relation to how we 'commemorate' (is that the right word?) historical moments, and the role that these 'plaques' play in constructing and shaping our memory and our identities.....maybe nothing did happen at 'Peterloo' in 1819?

Mark