Final Report Summary - PAC-PRES (Pacific Presences: Oceanic Art and European Museums)
'Pacific Presences' explored the vast but under-researched collections of art and artefacts from Oceania, formed primarily from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, are now dispersed across dozens of European museums. Our investigations have demonstrated that these understudied collections are extraordinarily rich research and cultural resources. In particular, they are of exceptional importance to Islanders across the Pacific. The project enabled diverse re-activations of historic artefacts on the part of Indigenous scholars, curators, artists and community members, who played a prominent role in the project, not just as 'informants' or 'collaborators' but as co-producers of research design and project outcomes, including new works of art and exhibitions.
Over the course of five years the project held 10 workshops based at the University of Cambridge, contributed to by our affiliated scholars, interns and visitors, and colleagues in other museums and universities. Many of the workshops shaped the publications listed below and included topics such as Pacific collections in European Museums, Kiribati armour, the intersection of natural history and ethnography museums, the value of ethnographic museums today, and museum practice.
The project exemplifies new opportunities for internationally-comparative, cross-disciplinary, museum-based research. In addition to curating six small exhibitions- 5 at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and one at Selwyn College which showcased new discoveries and interdisciplinary collaborative work on material culture from West Papua, New Caledonia, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea; the project also co-curated exhibitions at the Powell-Cotton Museum; Ikon Gallery; Museum Rietberg; and Museu de Cultures del Mon, Barcelona. A major exhibition outcome, 'Oceania', to be shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris over 2018-19, gives the project significant public impact.
Significant academic and public impact also comes in the form of the project publications which are spread across community books which give communities in the Pacific greater access to collections cared for by European Museum, exhibition leaflets which accompanied the exhibitions mentioned above, journal articles on specific topics pursued by individual team members reflecting the cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary work undertaken by the project, and scholarly books, edited volumes or monographs. In particular the project has generated a series of 9 books under the name 'Pacific Presences' edited by Sidestone Press, which publishes work arising from, or associated with, the project. It includes studies dedicated to particular genres such as the famous coconut-fibre armour of Kiribati, collections made in the course of particular French, Russian and British expeditions and re-assessment of histories and methods in art and anthropology.
Over the course of five years the project held 10 workshops based at the University of Cambridge, contributed to by our affiliated scholars, interns and visitors, and colleagues in other museums and universities. Many of the workshops shaped the publications listed below and included topics such as Pacific collections in European Museums, Kiribati armour, the intersection of natural history and ethnography museums, the value of ethnographic museums today, and museum practice.
The project exemplifies new opportunities for internationally-comparative, cross-disciplinary, museum-based research. In addition to curating six small exhibitions- 5 at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and one at Selwyn College which showcased new discoveries and interdisciplinary collaborative work on material culture from West Papua, New Caledonia, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea; the project also co-curated exhibitions at the Powell-Cotton Museum; Ikon Gallery; Museum Rietberg; and Museu de Cultures del Mon, Barcelona. A major exhibition outcome, 'Oceania', to be shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris over 2018-19, gives the project significant public impact.
Significant academic and public impact also comes in the form of the project publications which are spread across community books which give communities in the Pacific greater access to collections cared for by European Museum, exhibition leaflets which accompanied the exhibitions mentioned above, journal articles on specific topics pursued by individual team members reflecting the cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary work undertaken by the project, and scholarly books, edited volumes or monographs. In particular the project has generated a series of 9 books under the name 'Pacific Presences' edited by Sidestone Press, which publishes work arising from, or associated with, the project. It includes studies dedicated to particular genres such as the famous coconut-fibre armour of Kiribati, collections made in the course of particular French, Russian and British expeditions and re-assessment of histories and methods in art and anthropology.