Call for Papers
Canadian Museums Association National Conference 2010
Evolving Boundaries: Linking People, Place & Meaning
St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador
May 10-15, 2010
As we grapple with the impact of the global economic crisis, it is even more critical that museums deliver meaningful visitor experiences.
Traditionally museums focused on collecting and presenting the “tangible”, whether these were works of art, natural history specimens or cultural artifacts. Increasingly, we have included an understanding of the “intangibles” of traditional knowledge and cultural practice as essential to a full spectrum of content and experience. This conference will feature exemplary work in human and natural history museums and art galleries that fulfill our traditional mandates.
There will also be a community museums stream of sessions. As a highlight of the 2010 conference, we will be placing a special focus on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), providing a forum for discussion of practical approaches by which museums can creatively link people and place to collections in order to inspire meaning.
Key themes/topics:
The conference will be built around the following themes:
1) ICH: Incorporating ICH into the core museum functions — collecting, research, programming & exhibition. Exemplary projects and their impact on museum audiences.
2) Best practices: New technologies, new partners, new approaches to programming, new organizational models. Innovations that improve the effectiveness of our work.
3) Sustainability: New strategies to help museums to do more with less. New paradigms for securing new resources.
Session formats:
The 2010 Conference Committee will accept proposals for the following session formats:
• Panel: Consists of three or four speakers, who present for up to 20 minutes each, relative to the session theme;
facilitated by a moderator.
• Case study: Consists of one or two persons, usually from the same organization, and focuses on one actual situation,
program or project, the decision-making process involved, implementation, outcome(s), and lessons learned.
• Or something completely different? The 2010 welcomes original session formats! Please include a brief explanation
of your proposed format with your session proposal.
• Cross-disciplinary panels or presentations are particularly welcome.
Selection criteria:
Priority will be given to proposals that are relevant to the key themes (above), are clear and well developed, and confirm a commitment from the presenters to delivery of a high-quality, thought-provoking session.
Proposals will not be accepted if they appear to be a show and tell session or product/service endorsements.
Please note: The CMA is unable to provide speakers with travel funds, honorariums or allowances.
Submit your proposal, NO LATER than JUNE 1, 2009
Email: sramsden@museums.ca
Fax: 416-236-5557
Questions? Sue Ann Ramsden, 416-231-1251
Download the Call for Papers application form in pdf at:
http://www.heritagefoundation.ca/media/2708/callforpaperscma2010.pdf
Showing posts with label folklore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label folklore. Show all posts
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
An afternoon with hookers
On Wednesday, March 11th, I spent the afternoon with 47 hookers.
“Tea… With Hookers!” was an event sponsored by the Intangible Cultural Heritage program of the Heritage Foundation of NL, which saw a room full of rug and matt hookers come together to listen to three of their own discuss the history, craft, art and changing tradition of rug hooking.
The event was held at the Red Mantle Lodge in Shoal Brook, Gros Morne National Park, and was organized by Corner Brook-based folklorist Sandra Wheeler. A seasonal Parks Canada employee in the region, Sandra is a board member of HFNL, and is currently working on a documentary film about rug hooking.
The event took the form of a staged interview, where Sandra introduced everyone, and I gave a brief overview of the province’s ICH strategy. Following that, I interviewed three women: Molly White, Rose Dewhirst and Florence Crocker. Of the three women, Florence was the one who had been involved in the tradition the longest, having grown up at a time when hooking mats was still a functional craft. Both Molly and Rose learned the art more recently, and shared their experiences about what they saw as a tradition that has undergone a fundamental change from craft that produced functional pieces of furnishing for the floor, to an art that produces objects to be viewed on the wall.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Clarenville Place Name Project
On the evening of Wednesday, March 4th, I was invited to give an address on intangible cultural heritage for the Clarenville Heritage Society’s annual general meeting. I started off with a folktale about names and naming that I had learned from a past resident of the area, and spoke on the folklore of naming and some of the possible origins of the name “Clarenville” itself.
The Society also used the AGM to inform the public about a place name mapping project they are working on. The group has hired on Carol Diamond as a researcher for the project, utilizing funding through the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation’s Cultural Economic Development Program. Carol, a Clarenville native, is a Master’s student in Ethnomusicology at Memorial, studying Takudh hymnody of the Gwich’in (an Athapaskan First Nation), focusing specifically on communities in the Yukon.
After the meeting, the group moved from the lecture hall to another room, where we had unfurled maps showing Clarenville and the surrounding area. While some people chatted and shared stories amongst themselves, Carol gathered others around the maps. They pointed out areas they knew, rhymed off names of others, and suggested other residents who might be good sources of local information.
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