'The Location of Value' - Antwerp Workshop

Hello All,

I attended a fantastic 'Workshop' in Antwerp last week, (24th-25th September) entitled, 'The Location of Value' - (trust me, this was directly related to Museum and Art Galleries!...for what is a museum but a material manifestation of series of Values!) - There were just 14 of us, 'hot-housed' I suppose...and it was such a great experience...very effectively, efficiently, (and socially) organised by Bert De Munck and Ilja Van Damme of the University of Antwerp...

.....It was a great collegiate event.  Bert & Ilja had drawn together a seemingly disparate group...Economic Historians, Social Historians, Art Historians to both challenge disciplinary boundaries and approaches and (I think) to share knowledge and open opportunities....I think everyone who attended valued the experience!  As you can see here (picture, above) there were some animated discussions (but no fights!).
The Workshop was framed around overlapping Themes; 'Value of Art', 'Value of the Past', 'Pricing Mechanisms' and 'Negotiating Quality' - with stimulating papers by Ilja and Bert, Tomas Macsotay; Dries Lyna, Anne Wegener Sleeswijk, Phillippe Minard and Christof Jeggle (and me, of course).  There were also papers submitted by Barbara Bettoni and Giorgio Riello (unable to attend).  This was much more than a 'conference' and the dialogue between presentations and responses was illuminating, providing much food for thought.  As catalysts for debate Bert & Ilja had invited some very eminent 'Discussants', including Filip Vermeylen, Beverly Lemire, Patrick Wallis, and Bruno Blonde...and there were some insightful (and amusing) concluding remarks delivered by Victor Ginsburg!...editor of the Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture. Also present within the group was Annelies de Bie, a PhD student at the University of Antwerp......this was a really stimulating project, there should be more of these kinds of things I think, they are much more productive than conferences - (which are more like 'performances' and can tend to 'fllatten' out the issues)...here, by contrast, I felt that there was real dialogue, both across and within disciplines.......I hope that Bert and Ilja organise another one sometime!
Mark