Call for papers--Colloquium on 19th century museums

Call for papers

Colloquium

"Collecting, exhibiting and preserving in museums of applied arts in
    the nineteenth century"

Department of Art History
University of Bern
Bern
April 7-8, 2016

CFP: October 31, 2015

Conference languages: German, English

Target group: Young scholars and graduates of all disciplines in the
humanities, above all art history as well as
conservation-restoration and museum studies.

In recent times research concerning the history of collections and
of collecting, and, more specifically, collecting strategies of
nineteenth-century institutions has enjoyed widespread popularity.
Research projects are conducted by universities as well as museums
and focus on different types of institutions.  Museums of applied
arts, certainly the most innovative kind of museum in the nineteenth
century, have, however, been largely neglected so far.  'Die
deutschen Kunstgewerbemuseen im 19. Jahrhundert', published by
Barbara Mundt in 1974, has been the last comprehensive study on the
history of museums of applied arts.  She presented a detailed
overview of the founding period and specified the collecting
profiles of these institutions.  Questions concerning practices of
object handling and long-term developments in collecting,
exhibiting and preserving strategies were, however, hardly
discussed.

Important as it may be to consider the foundation programmes of
collecting institutions in a more general view, one must keep in
mind that museum practices developed gradually and individually--the
institutions are, consequently, heterogeneous (Crimp 1996).  This,
in turn, requires an approach to museum history that does not
confine itself to locally defined phenomena, but rather aims at a
transnational perspective (Meyer/Savoy 2014).  This approach seems
particularly appropriate in the case of museums of applied arts, as
their dissemination in the second half of the nineteenth century may
be described as a transnational process.  The colloquium
"Collecting, Exhibiting and Preserving in Museums for the Applied
Arts in the Nineteenth Century" aims at bringing together young
scholars from various disciplines and at stimulating an
international exchange regarding questions and methods of museum
research.  In particular, we would like to focus on the strategies
and practices of handling, collecting, presenting and preserving
objects in museums of applied arts in the nineteenth century.  As we
are interested in contextualizing museums of applied arts,
participants concentrating on other types of museums are also
welcome.  We invite young researchers to submit paper proposal of no
more of 300 words (duration: no more than 25 minutes) and a short cv
in German or English.  Proposals should be submitted before October
31, 2015 to: nora.rudolf<-at->ikg<.>unibe<.>ch Travel and accommodation costs
of the speakers will be reimbursed.  We would like to thank the
Nachwuchsforderungs-Projektpool/Universitat Bern for their financial
support.

Concept and organisation:

    Daniela C. Maier, M.A.
    Doctoral candidate
    Institute of Art History,
    University of Bern
    and
    Fellow of the doctoral program Interdisciplinary
    Cultural Studies
    Walter Benjamin Kolleg
    University of Bern

    Nora Rudolf, M.A.
    Doctoral candidate
    and

    Fellow
    Graduate School of the Arts
    University of Bern


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