BY TRAVIS WALTERS
SCAD will present Art History Symposium 2008 “New Museum, New Museology,” which “explores the concepts of the new museum such as exhibition, education, technology, environment, conservation and cultural heritage.” The biennial three-day event begins April 3, with open registration from 2-6 p.m. at the River Club. Five one-and-a-half hour sessions start at 8:30 a.m. the following day. The sessions end with the keynote “The Silent Message of the Museum” by New York City artist Fred Wilson at 7 p.m. in the Trustees Theater. Walking tours of the historic district and a closing reception will be held on the third day, April 5.
Wilson, whose work is on display in New York at the Museum of Modern Art, in Maryland at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and several others, is from New York City.
He creates site-specific installations in conjunction with cultural centers throughout the world. Wilson created a show in 1992 entitled “Mining the Museum,” where he took objects that had been forgotten and placed them alongside contemporary objects in the museums. This change of context also changed the meaning of the pieces.
“Fred Wilson, Objects and Installations 1979-2000,” started a three-year tour in 2001. Wilson has a B.F.A from the State University of New York, Purchase, and he won the Larry Aldrich Foundation Award in 2003. In 1992 he represented the United States at the Biennial Cairo, as well as at the Venice Biennial in 2003. “He is highly regarded internationally,” said Dr. Jim Janson, of the Art History Department, which started the Museum Studies minor in 1998.
Janson, who is the co-chair of the event with Andrew Nedd said that there would be staff from 30 museums of the surrounding area that will be in attendance. In addition, there will be over 20 scholars from all over the world, including; Turkey, Germany, Australia and Canada, among others. Students will be “getting first hand experience from the mouths of the professionals,” said Janson, adding “the connection to all the majors is very, very relevant.”
Museum studies, or museology is an ever-changing field. This symposium will “explain more recent trends in museum studies and the new direction museums will take in the 21st century,” Janson said. Each of the five sessions will be showcasing these changes.
SCAD Radio will present “Heima,” a documentary film by the Icelandic group Sigur Rós. Heima, which means both “home” and “homeland,” shows the numerous and varied locales the band played over the summer of 2006; from an abandoned herring factory, to a now submerged protest camp. The concerts were free and were largely unadvertised. Interest was spread by word-of-mouth. As a result, the audience varied in age and interest, with some people attending who might not have otherwise.
The film, directed by Dean DeBlois, has received many good reviews and has become a sensation in Iceland. Songs from each of their four albums, as well as unreleased material is in the film. It will be shown April 7, at 8 p.m. in the Trustees Theater on Broughton St. Admission is free and open to the public.
