In July 2013 I was contracted by the National Maritime Museum Cornwall to provide maternity cover for their exhibitions development role, and in particular to develop new shows for their small but multi-layered Quarterdeck gallery. The first exhibition I was charged with installing From the Loft Floor (Sep 2013-Jan 2014). This show of reportage drawings by Anna Cattermole… Continue reading Exhibitions development at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall
Category: Old Curatorial Archive
Archive of Tehmina Goskar’s curatorial posts, including on museum studies, ethics, and some of my PhD research (2005-9).
Top ten for heritage digitisation projects
Originally written and published in 2010 on Past Thinking. Republished here for archival purposes. Digitisation usually refers to making collections data, including images and other media, available online. But it may also refer to making any quantitative (e.g. historical datasets) or qualitative information (exhibition and learning resources) available and discoverable via the web. A digital… Continue reading Top ten for heritage digitisation projects
A bad curator blames their tools
I have been a member of the Social History Curators Group (SHCG) for a few years now. Of all the professional groups and societies dedicated to museum and collections work I have found SHCG to be the most useful. Most degrees and qualifications in museum studies (or indeed heritage management) lack opportunities for sustained subject-specialist… Continue reading A bad curator blames their tools
Hidden Treasures of the Elizabeth Treffry Collection
This week I am leading tours of the Elizabeth Treffry Collection on Women in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly at Hypatia Trust HQ at Trevelyan House, Penzance. Hidden Treasures is a national campaign organised by the Collections Trust in association with the Independent newspaper who featured the campaign in the 2 June edition. About… Continue reading Hidden Treasures of the Elizabeth Treffry Collection
Stop trashing our collections!
Over the last four or five years, even before the austerity thing, British cultural collections and internationally-important training and teaching in cultural heritage, have been seen by many institutions as an expensive inconvenience when neither of these has been the case. I just want to list here, so I get it straight in my head,… Continue reading Stop trashing our collections!
Curating the Elizabeth Treffry Collection on Women in Cornwall and Scilly
My first commission since relocating to Penzance, Cornwall was an audit of the little-known Elizabeth Treffry collection held by the Hypatia Trust that serves to document the lives and works of women in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Meeting Hypatia Having heard much about the Hypatia Trust and its founder, Dr. Melissa Hardie, publisher, author… Continue reading Curating the Elizabeth Treffry Collection on Women in Cornwall and Scilly
Leach Pottery: An essay for radio
I wrote this short essay for a hypothetical radio programme when I applied to the BBC Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinkers competition in December 2010. I was fortunate enough to be chosen as a finalist out of over 1000 applicants and attend a thought-provoking workshop. Although I did not make the final ten I wanted… Continue reading Leach Pottery: An essay for radio
Ethics: Is it acceptable to use illicit material for academic research?
This ethics question was originally posed by Caitlin Griffiths of the Museums Association in September 2006. I was undertaking continuing professional development for my AMA (Associateship of the Museums Association) at the time and felt, with my role in both academic research and heritage, that I had strong views on the subject. My response was… Continue reading Ethics: Is it acceptable to use illicit material for academic research?
Material worlds of the Mediterranean coming soon
I recently received the happy news that my article, ‘Material Worlds: The Shared Cultures of Southern Italy and its Mediterranean Neighbours in the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries’, will be published in the peer-reviewed journal Al-Masaq. Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, published by Routledge. It will appear in the third issue of volume 23 later this… Continue reading Material worlds of the Mediterranean coming soon
Condensed Reality. A Study of Material Culture book review
In Autumn 2008 I reviewed Pieter ter Keurs’s book Condensed Reality. A Study of Material Culture (Leiden: CNWS Publications, 2006) for the Journal of Museum Ethnography. Unfortunately due to problems with at the journal’s end the issue which was meant to hold the review has still not appeared. As it is now so long since… Continue reading Condensed Reality. A Study of Material Culture book review