History & the Country House

Thanks Chris (our Salford friend!) for posting the provocative piece on history and the Country House...(or at least the CH as presented by the National Trust). It seems legitimate, of course, to point out the rather 'Whiggish' history that institutions such as the NT present to us (or at least those that go to NT properties...there's a clue there maybe?)...but it's not always the case that the Country House sanitizes history...and coincidentally, me and BAs were on a visit to Harewood House this week....

...and which in 2007 made some attempt to address what could be considered to be a provocative and problematic part of it's own history by including, albeit quite small, displays that directed attention to the links between the establishment of the House and the Slave Trade...(this was part of a wider project on the bicentenary of the Abolition of Slavery in 1807...in Britain anyway)......The Slavery Exhibit display cases are still part of the Display at Harewood...although they seem to be delicately underplayed...but perhaps that's inevitable?..part of the veracity of 'History' is that it is required to be 'coherent' (at least that's one strand of thought in philosophy of history anyway!)....

But that said, I do think that it's useful to disrupt the still waters of historical understanding sometimes.....but maybe the Country House (and National Trust) is too much of an ocean to be touched by 'other' narratives....(there is, in fact, a drip-drip effect of change in the interpretation of Country Houses, with the opening of 'below-stairs' displays...notice there's no mention of 'white slavery' there though!...I'm quite obviously being deliberately provocative here!).........................................
....Anyway, we enjoyed our visit to Harewood....but it did seem to be FULL of ex-Leeds University graduates!...(Thanks Anna....shown here introducing the BAs to the House in the Steward's Room....and thanks to Ruby for an excellent tour (apart from her rather disparaging remarks about the great Alfred Stevens, who apparently 'ruined' a perfectly good R.Adam ceiling in the house......'History' - ultimately it's all about 'fashion and taste')....
.....

Mark

Who owns our history?

George Monbiot, in Comment and Debate (The Guardian 24.2.09) questions the role of the National Trust in 'editing' the history they present to the public. The Trust aims to act as guardian and trustee for the nation, as proprietor (owner) of many examples of architecture and social history in the country. As a fund raiser, the Trust aims to attract visitors, to increase membership, and to act as conservator of our heritage.

Monbiot questions the sanitisation of history by the Trust, giving examples where the life of the actual users of the buildings are not mentioned; where perhaps not to scare visitors away with too much realism, history is selective. Admitting that "we can never hope to fully understand the past, but we can recognise that history is open to widely different interpretations... The Trust is ready to explore unfamiliar and uncomfortable history in new ways."

As a member of the National Trust, I have visited many sites and buildings. Never have I been exposed to "uncomfortable history" or seen displays or material which truly explores the true nature of life for the inhabitants over the years.

Has the time come, perhaps, to admit the past to the present, and freely discuss how lives were lived, how we view and evaluate them, or are we not ready for such a bold step?

Is part of the 'contract' between the Trust and its members/visitors that they shall not be upset or provoked on their way to the cafe or shop?

For our international friends...

Sex, Death & Ethnography

In relation to the collection management practices we were talking about today, I started to think about the kinds of organisations that disrupt what we think of as 'best practice' and would never qualify for MLA accreditation (nor would they want to). It's particularly interesting to trace problematic objects such as human remains and ethnographic objects of dubious origin when they are presented outside what we might consider a 'legitimate' museum context. I'm thinking particularly of the Ripley's Believe it or Not! franchise, which holds objects like these lovely shrunken heads and trophy skulls, alongside various reproductions of weirdness. Similarly, the objects displayed in the British Museum might be directly equivalent to those displayed at somewhere like the Musee de l'erotisme in Paris, though the meaning is fundamentally different. A perfect excuse to add some cheap titillation to this blog...

'Questions of Collecting' talks resume...and a request for docents!

Good to see such a lively blog for the students in Art Gallery and Museum Studies! Of course, I've been impressed with the engagement of the students and staff on this course for some time.

Our jointly-organised series of talks 'Questions of Collecting' shows this well. After a hiatus over the winter holidays, we're picking up where we left off: Helen Rees Leahy (Director of the Centre for Museology at the University of Manchester) will be giving her talk '"All the Finest": Furnishing the Frick, 1914-15' at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery tomorrow evening, from 6pm. Next month, we welcome our very own Mark Westgarth to the stage! He'll be giving a talk entitled '"A contest between two pairs of eyes": dealers and collectors' on 24 March, from 6pm. The Gallery will remain open until 8pm after the talks, so it's also a great opportunity to see the collection and exhibition of new work by Trevor Bell after hours. I hope to see many of you tomorrow at the Gallery.

Finally, I'd like to drop in a request to any students wishing to get involved in the Gallery as student docents. This would involve researching and delivering short (1/2 hour) gallery talks to our visitors on a Wednesday lunch hour. We currently offer free lunchtime talks on the current exhibition, most Wednesdays from 1-1:30, but we'd like to offer talks on works in the collection as well. If you'd be interested in developing your research and public speaking skills by delivering one of these talks, please feel free to email me directly to express your interest: l.bloom@leeds.ac.uk.

Art Exhibitions & Sociological Space

Hi All,

we were very lucky to have Dr Malgorzata Lisiewicz, from the Art History Department at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan, over this week on an Erasmus Scholar exchange. Malgorzata gave a really fascinating talk on Wednesday on the role that the The Grosvenor Gallery played in evolving Class identities in London in the late 19th century...this was delivered as part of our 'Perspectives on the Art Market' series of lectures...keep an eye out...there's more to come....and she also gave a very thought-provoking seminar paper for the MAs on Thursday, outlining some of the work she had undertaken as a curator for contemporary art exhibitions, and the relationships between her 'academic, theoretical' work and her 'practice' as curator...although, as Malgorzata quite rightly suggested, this is never an 'either/or' dichotomy......
I thought that the seminar was absolutely riveting, as Malgorzata brilliantly highlighted how sociologically 'thick', (and how gendered) the actual viewing 'spaces' of the exhibitions were...this was an implicit 'visitor study' of the highest order....and what was nice, (and we didn't actually plan it, honest!), was that our earlier discussion, in the first part of the seminar (on Cultural Led Urban Regeneration), was also focused on how we can think about space 'sociologically'....so all in all a satisfying session?..........

...what did you think?

Mark

Temple Newsam House Conservation Workshops

Hello All,
It's the Undergrads turn!.........Me and the BAs popped along to Temple Newsam House, in Leeds, for a Conservation workshop, with Jenny Hack (the paintings conservator...thanks Jenny!).....these are always interesting sessions I think....and help us to appreciate the
complex relationships between interpretation of historical objects and the conservation/preservation of them.......

The students, some of them shown here posing (under sufference) on a v.cold morning (well done for getting there at 9.15am).....were very enthusiastic...(at least they appeared to be?)...
and have some presentations to do for next week based on their experiences, when they get back to the University.....

.............We'll be visiting TN again in a few weeks...
Mark