Dear All,

Birzeit University has established an online website under the title of “Palestine Archive Project” the project is dedicated to documenting the life of Palestinians (persons, families and organizations) over the past century. Documents collected include the most diverse types of written and audiovisual materials (texts, photographs, videos, recordings).

The website constitutes an excellent resource for all interested persons and a primary source for researchers around the world, with its easy access and its Arabic and English language materials

 

The Website is : http://awraq.birzeit.edu/

Thank you very much !! and enjoy the website

 

Regards,

Haytham Dieck

Welcome back from the holidays!  The new year at the British Museum is underway, and this morning started with the first staff breakfast of 2012.

Curators Tim Clark, Head of Japanese Collections, and Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, Project Curator of Japanese Decorative Arts, discussed the development of Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure from conception to finished work.

Professor Munakata poses in front of the British Museum © Hoshino Yukinobu, Hokkaido Shimbun

Professor Munakata is a character created by renowned manga artist Hoshino Yukinobu.  Manga is a Japanese comic book art form which in recent years has become very popular internationally.

The artist Hoshino Yukinobu was invited to the British Museum in 2009 to take part in a small Room 3 exhibition of his original drawings.  His experiences in the Museum, the people he met and the objects he saw inspired

him to create a manga series in which one of his most popular characters, Professor Munakata, visits the British Museum.

The series of ten episodes was published in the fortnightly magazine, Big Comic. And they have now been translated and published in English by the British Museum Press.

The current exhibition at the Museum shows some of Hoshino Yukinobu’s original drawings next to the printed version in the original Japanese magazine, as well as the English version published by the Museum.

The story begins when Professor Munakata Tadakusa, a famous Japanese professor of folklore, travels to the UK to give a lecture – although what he really wants is to visit Stonehenge.  While his hosts are making arrangements for a trip to Stonehenge, the stones are stolen, secretly taken away in the middle of the night.  And Professor Munakata investigates…

Professor Munakata's British Museum Adventure by Hoshino Yukinobu

 

 

 

And if you’d like to find out the rest of Professor Munakata’s adventure, you’ll have to read the book!

 

The book is available to purchase from the British Museum shop online (which does ship abroad too).

Shezza Edris

Happy New Year 2012

Hope it will be a year full of Peace, Love, Prosperity AND Happiness to u all my dear friends …

Enjoy !!!
Haytham Dieck

Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!

Miyagawa Chōshun, Pastimes of the new year and flower viewing, a pair of handscroll paintings. Japan Edo Period, about AD 1724-44

From Neal, Claire and Shezza

The British Museum has an extensive programme of touring exhibitions which highlight the collection at international venues. This week’s staff breakfast talk was delivered by Curator Alexandra Villing and Project Manager Clare Eardley. They presented one of the British Museum’s international touring exhibitions – ‘Fantastic Creatures’.

Under the theme of ‘Fantastic Creatures,’ a variety of fascinating creatures that existed in myths and legends from the 1st to 19th century are on display. This exhibition is divided into nine sections which present the role of mythical creatures and beasts throughout different civilisations and time. Their function and character are very varied and they occupy a fundamental place in human culture.

 

Pan, marble figure, about AD 150-200, from Rome, Italy.

 

To find out more information about ‘Fantastic Creatures’ please check this link.

This unique exhibition was started in Ulsan Museum, Korea (June – October 2011) and will be on display in Hong Kong Museum of Art from January to April 2012. In addition, approximately 130 items will be on display under six sub-themes including ‘Good and Evil’ and ‘Fact and Fiction’.

Alicja Sliwinska

Three months has passed now since my involvement with the Indian Museum and I am really enjoying my new challenges.

My present job responsibilities include the duties of the Education officer and also work as a member of the Project Implementation Team for forthcoming Bicentenary Celebrations of Indian Museum in 2014. I feel that I am really lucky to have the privilege to work in Indian Museum during its forthcoming Celebrations.

I have been immensely benefited from the ITP training and trying to incorporate ideas in my present job. Thank you very much for trusting me and allowing me to join ITP-2009.  Presently I am concentrating on organizing workshops, training programmes, school children programmes, academic lectures and also cultural events for the visitors.

Museum shops and websites are two major projects which I am looking to give some meaningful shapes. I am also engaged to make ‘Friends of Indian Museum’ and the exciting news is that we are having great response in all the sectors. Academic seminars, exhibitions are in full swing. Since September 2011 we have organized quite a few exhibitions, Cultural events, workshops, training courses and also planning for the future. I am attaching few pictures for you.  Hope to meet you soon.

 

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Sayan Bhattacharya

Officer on Special Duty, Indian Museum, Ministry of Culture, Government of India

Last week’s staff breakfast talk was delivered by Curator Jody Joy and Conservators Alexandra Baldwin and Jamie Hood. They presented the British Museum’s investigations and conservation of an Iron Age cauldron from Chiseldon.

In 2004, a fragment of sheet bronze was found in a field near the village of Chiseldon in Wiltshire. Six months later, the British Museum in collaboration with Wessex Archaeology, excavated the site. They found 12 large cauldrons buried in a pit. In 2007, the British Museum has acquired them in our collection and is now in the process of conserving and studying to shed new light onto this little know type of object. 

 

Andrew Armstrong of Wessex Archaeology sketching a plan of the burial pit

To find out more information about the Chiseldon cauldrons, please check this link.

The exploration of this hoard is very important. Previously, many cauldrons were discovered in rivers so the investigations were based only on the artefacts. Because the Chiseldon cauldrons were so well-excavated, archaeologists’ ambition is try to reveal how they were made, the context of manufacture, how long they were used for, what they were used for and how, why and when they were deposited.

Following a few years of investigation, we now know more about their origin and utility. The Chiseldon cauldrons are dated between 200 – 50 BC and because of their unique decoration, they are very different from vessels examined so far. As well as, the objects were used not for everyday purposes, but especially for the Feasts.

Battersea cauldron, Bronze Age / Iron Age, 800-700 BC. From the River Thames at Battersea, London, England.

To read more about the excavation and conservation of these cauldrons, please check this link.

Alicja Sliwinska

This morning’s staff breakfast talk was leaded by Curator Catherine Eagleton, Interpretation Officer Anna Bright and Project Manager Jonathan Lubikowski. They discussed a new renovation project of the Money Gallery in the British Museum.

The Money Gallery has existed in the British Museum since 1997. At that time, it was a coins and medals gallery and presented a new way of thinking about how to expand the knowledge, the exchange of money, its history, significance and function and thus to promote the individual and social understanding of economic connections.

HSBC Money Gallery (Room 68), The British Museum

To find out more about the HSBC Money Gallery, please check this link.

As the history of money is constantly growing, the way we want to present the collection has changed. Today, a new 6-year partnership between Citi Bank and the British Museum allows us the opportunity to redisplay the gallery. The changes will include new design; modern cases; new lighting; new themes and bright decoration, as well as assessing the original content of the displays. This renovation allows us to take advantage of new knowledge and new ideas in both museology and monetary history.

Because of this renovation project, the Money Gallery will be closed from December 2011 for approximately 6 months.

Alicja Sliwinska

 The British Museum’s Africa Programme has just begun a newsletter!

Below is the first issue, which includes two ITP participants: Omar Abdallah (ITP 2010) and Sahara Dahir Ibrahim (ITP 2011).

View this document on Scribd

 

This morning’s staff breakfast introduced the new Room 3 exhibition of Hokusai’s Great Wave.

Timothy Clark, Curator of Japanese Collections, spoke about the production of the print and the political and social context of Japan in the 1830’s.  Japan was just opening its borders to the rest of the world, and the increasing cultural exchanges were making a mark on Japanese art.  Influences from Western art can be seen in the style and technology used by Hokusai in the Great Wave. 

Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), Under the Wave off Kanagawa (detail). Colour woodblock print. Japan, Edo period, c. 1831. Acquired with the assistance of The Art Fund.

Find out more about the print, and read the curator’s comments, on the British Museum’s online collection database.

The Great Wave was also recently featured in the British Museum and BBC series A History of the World in 100 Objects.  You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript on the AHTW website.

Shezza Edris