The Global Village

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The global village Is it possible for museums to bring global perspective to local audiences? Joseph O’Reilly reports WE LIVE IN ONE, INTERDEPENDENT world and recognition of that fact has never been greater. From the record numbers that attend anti-war marches, to the unprecedented level of donations made in response to the Asian tsunami, popular awareness of international issues is high. For the first time ever, global poverty appeared among the issues of greatest concern to Britons — along with health, education and crime — in a poll conducted last year.

Campaigns for trade justice and poverty relief, led by international organisations such as Oxfam and exemplified by Make Poverty History and Live Aid, have obviously played a vital role in increasing public awareness. And the international issues are also now central to government policy agendas across a range of areas. In addition to high-profile initiatives such as the prime minister’s Commission for Africa, most government departments and agencies either already have or are in the process of developing international strategies, as is the case for museums at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

According to the Development Education Association (DEA), which represents organisations working to raise awareness and understanding of how international issues affect us, the increasing influence of globalisation on all areas of our lives has contributed to a growing demand for global perspectives in education and the community.

‘There is a real thirst for information on sustainable development, climate

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global museums Left: Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art raising awareness about violence against women with its exhibition, Rule of Thumb. Below left: The exhibition No Name Fever addresses the issue of HIV/Aids at the Museum of World Culture in Sweden change, the changing world economy, human rights, security, and the widening gap between the world’s rich and poor,’ says Doug Bourn, the director, DEA. ‘Our vision is of the UK as a confident, outward-looking, culturally enriched society which has the capacity to play a full part in shaping the response to these issues. The museum and gallery sector can in our view play a critical part in helping develop the skills and understanding of people to contribute to that vision.’

Even a cursory glance suggests that museum projects that incorporate a global dimension are on the increase.

Africa 2005 has obviously made an important contribution to exposing the public to the diversity of Africa’s artistic and cultural life. But how successful have museums been in meeting the thirst for a deeper level of understanding of globalisation?

There is little doubt that the complexity and highly politicised nature of many of these issues combine to form a powerful disincentive for even the bravest and most committed museum curator or director.

However, there are a number of museums that have embraced the challenge of responding to highly complex, political issues of a global nature, and with some success.

Since 2001, Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) has been implementing a multifaceted exhibition, outreach and education program addressing human rights issues with local and global dimensions.

The gallery’s first contemporary art and human rights exhibition and outreach program, Sanctuary, came from Glasgow City Council’s response to the dispersal of some 10,000 asylum seekers to the city. Much debate followed the decision to send so many asylum seekers to Glasgow. The subsequent unrest when the asylum seekers began to arrive, which

‘There is a real thirst for information on climate change, the world economy, human rights, security, and the gap between rich and poor’

included the murder of a young Turkish asylum seeker, Firsat Yildiz, on Glasgow’s Sighthill estate, was well documented in the local, national and international media.

As the impact of what was happening became clear, Glasgow City Council directed its Cultural and Leisure Services Department to consider how it might help deliver services to the city’s latest arrivals and promote integration.

The Sanctuary programme took shape from this. It had two principal features: a high-profile exhibition aimed at raising awareness of the plight of asylum seekers and refugees worldwide, which was attended by more than 210,000 people; and an outreach programme offering local arts services to the city’s asylum seekers in line with the provision of services to existing residents, in which more than 1,000 people took part.

The combination of these two features was critical to its success, according to Victoria Hollows, the director of GoMA. ‘The exhibition brought major international works by artists such as Bill Viola, Louise Bourgeois and Antony Gormley together, to highlight the power and relevance of contemporary art in dealing with global political issues, whilst the outreach work used the arts to explore issues facing the asylum seekers coming to live in Glasgow. Together the exhibition and outreach work were able to combine to form a powerful intervention which spoke to Glasgow’s existing and new residents.’

Another important feature of the project was the museum’s commitment to partnership with existing organisations already working on asylum and refugee issues within the city. Amnesty International and the Refugee Council acted as advisors to the project and used it as a platform to support their education and campaigning activities.

A commitment to working in partnership with locally based organisations was prioritised by GoMA as it set out to develop its second programme on contemporary art and human rights, Rule of Thumb, dedicated to exploring violence against women.

In this case the project advisory board consisted of organisations responding directly to violence against women in and around Glasgow, such as Women’s Aid and the city’s Rape Crisis Centre, together with organisations such as >

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KIT Tropenmuseum Amsterdam

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Amnesty International which campaigns for women’s rights globally.

Launched during the United Nation’s 16 days of Action for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the programme aimed to raise awareness in preparation for a year-long programme of workshops, events and exhibitions this year. At the centre of this was Barbara Kruger’s floor-to-ceiling installation on violence against women.

Kruger’s work has been popular and according to Amnesty International has created a platform for engaging visitors in the nature and extent of violence against women both locally and globally.

In Glasgow’s case the catalyst for its innovative programme of exhibitions and outreach on human rights issues with an international dimension was, at least in part, local controversy.

In the case of the Tropenmuseum (Tropical Museum) in the Netherlands, helping visitors to understand international issues is its core business. Originally conceived as a store house of artefacts and property derived from the Dutch colonies, the museum is now part of the Netherlands’ Tropical Institute; an independent centre of expertise on international cooperation, funded by the ministry for development cooperation to promote sustainable development, combat poverty and preserve cultural diversity.

www.museumsassociation.org

With this mission it isn’t surprising that the museum has a rich history of exhibitions and public programming that has explicitly addressed global concerns.

Urban Islam, which the museum mounted in 2003, set out to explore contemporary Islam in different parts of the world. To do so it presented the personal stories of young Muslims in five world cities, highlighting the complex and dynamic contexts that shape religious ideas and practices in Muslim societies around the world. According to Susan Legene, the head of the museum’s curatorial department, at the time of the exhibition’s development tensions surrounding Islam and Muslim cultures in Dutch society were increasing.

This clearly increased the challenge that the museum faced — trying to curate a meaningful exhibition which made a contribution to a better understanding of Islam as it is practised in Holland and globally.

The museum’s ability to navigate this difficult terrain arises in part because of the clarity of its mission. The museum has a responsibility to interpret global developments, including in this case global shifts in religious practice and belief, and this was a critical factor in its ability to choose the topic and stay the course under difficult circumstances.

Its approach to the redisplay of its

Urban Islam: an exhibition mounted in 2003 by the Tropenmuseum in the Netherlands, which set out to explore contemporary Islam in different parts of the world

permanent galleries also shows singleminded purpose. The recently completed exhibition on Dutch colonialism gives a sophisticated overview of colonial life and its ongoing impact in post-colonial countries and contemporary Holland.

Sweden’s Museum of World Culture, which opened in Gothenburg last year, is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its mission places the museum firmly in the service of promoting global understanding and the development of a sense of responsibility for the planet.

The mission statement says: ‘In dialogue with others, the Museum of World Culture is a forum for emotional and intellectual encounters that help people feel at home wherever they are, trust each other and accept joint responsibility for the planet’s constantly changing future.’

Jette Sandahl, the director, says: ‘We want to be an institution with relevance to our contemporary age, and therefore must show themes that are defined by contemporary problems.’

The museum’s embrace of contemporary global issues together with its desire to speak with relevance about their social and political aspects was reflected in the museum’s opening exhibitions.

Voices from a Global Africa relates a number of historical and contemporary stories about the continent which address issues of survival, hope, oppression and resistance — including slavery and the role of women — which it would be difficult to imagine finding their way into almost any exhibition on Africa in a major UK museum.

This willingness to address contemporary global challenges was reflected in its exhibition on the global Aids pandemic, No Name Fever. The decision to open Sweden’s new ethnographic museum with an exhibition on HIV/Aids took some courage. ‘Aids is a microcosm of our era’s unsolved economic and power relationships, encompassing all the mechanisms, facets and conflicts of globalisation,’ says Sandahl.

It’s those facets and conflicts that people want to know more about and see as important. In an increasingly globalised world, museums and galleries have a responsibility to help us understand the world and our place in it. mj Joseph O’Reilly is a lawyer, consultant and the founding director of the International Human Rights Museum Initiative www.ihrmi.org

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